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Why do we remember some life moments but not others?

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Re: Why do we remember some life moments but not others?

#11
Honestly, I’m glad my memory isn’t better.

The other day my wife said “remember when [our daughter] screamed for the whole morning on vacation?”

But I didn’t until she reminded me in detail. Having a fuller memory seems likely to contain more stressful moments.

Re: Why do we remember some life moments but not others?

#12
post #8

There's an arbitrariness, a mundaneness to some indelible memories that defies this explanation. Or any explanation like this. It feels partly true. But there's got to be more, in my experience.

When I was six, I was standing in the middle of my bedroom, nothing particularly interesting was happening, and I said to myself " I'm going to remember this moment for the rest of my life". And I did.

Re: Why do we remember some life moments but not others?

#14
post #8

There's an arbitrariness, a mundaneness to some indelible memories that defies this explanation. Or any explanation like this. It feels partly true. But there's got to be more, in my experience.

When I was six, I was standing in the middle of my bedroom, nothing particularly interesting was happening, and I said to myself " I'm going to remember this moment for the rest of my life". And I did.

I would say being 6, standing in your bedroom and thinking "I'm going to remember this moment for the rest of my life" would fall under "particular interesting event".

Re: Why do we remember some life moments but not others?

#15
post #3

> Memory isn’t just a passive recording device: our brains decide what matters, and emotional events can reach back in time to stabilize fragile memories So they are saying … attention is all you need? :-) If it’s surprising or shocking enough you’ll pay very close attention to it and remember it. Also smells have a very strong recall factor. You smell the same unique smell and it immediately takes you back to the ti…

I have a pet theory that the reason that smell-based memory is so strong has something to do with the fact it’s the only sense that bypasses the thalamus. Smell is wired up to the brain… differently

Re: Why do we remember some life moments but not others?

#16
post #5

I remember the dumbest things from eons ago… In a drivers ed meeting.. teacher talking about stop lights, he mentions the cross walk signs and said “Well get to those soon..”. But he never did. I think about this way too much.

If you’re still waiting: you should stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk

Re: Why do we remember some life moments but not others?

#17
post #3

> Memory isn’t just a passive recording device: our brains decide what matters, and emotional events can reach back in time to stabilize fragile memories So they are saying … attention is all you need? :-) If it’s surprising or shocking enough you’ll pay very close attention to it and remember it. Also smells have a very strong recall factor. You smell the same unique smell and it immediately takes you back to the ti…

I think it's a bit opposite. If you are really paying attention you probably don't need to remember the event since you already processed it properly at that time.

You tend to generally remember stuff that you didn't process properly or generated a ton of emotions that are more than the baseline.

Re: Why do we remember some life moments but not others?

#19
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was six, I was standing in the middle of my bedroom, nothing particularly interesting was happening, and I said to myself " I'm going to remember this moment for the rest of my life". And I did.

I would say being 6, standing in your bedroom and thinking "I'm going to remember this moment for the rest of my life" would fall under "particular interesting event".

I think it's also an old greentext. (A quick search doesn't turn up exactly that, though I'm sure I remember it with slightly different wording, but there is https://www.reddit.com/r/greentext/comments/a6ucsc/anon_reme....)
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