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Aging brains blend memories together instead of just forgetting them

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Re: Aging brains blend memories together instead of just forgetting them

#101

Post by xpct »

Kinrany wrote: post #29
rhdunn wrote: post #28

My theory behind this is that when you encounter something new/novel it is distinct enough to remember -- where you were when you learned of 9/11; the days around the start of covid/lockdowns; being in a car accident; getting married; etc.. However, when you experience the same thing repetitively -- having breakfast; getting ready for school/work/etc. -- it doesn't make sense for your brain to remember each of these…

We do know that memories get rewritten every time they are remembered

By 'rewritten' do you mean refreshed, like learning material with spaced repetition, or some different/deeper concept? Do we 'move' that information to a different cluster of neurons?

Re: Aging brains blend memories together instead of just forgetting them

#102

Post by tempo123456 »

Gonna chuck a thought for you all. In social situations there is someone who talks alot and I think they are able to do so because they have lots of stories they can recall in good detail (maybe not perfect) but 20 year old event they are describing better than I can describe last week. Now I assume they don't have that rare calendar level memory but they do have a huge storage of stories and events. I am pretty jealous tbh!

Also that skill is probably excellent for interviews which is the ultimate memory test. I.e. Tell me a time when you turned water to wine, plus 5 deeper questions, any hesitation will be chalked ip as suspicious AI use.

For me I either do or I remember which makes performance management and interviews hard for me (as someone vouching for someone as evidence is rare now).

Re: Aging brains blend memories together instead of just forgetting them

#103

Post by m463 »

MarkusWandel wrote: post #50

Being an "aging brain" myself I can totally relate to this. I've been a relatively obsessive photographer (i.e. visual diary) since digital cameras were practical, i.e. over 25 years now. 238K photos in the collection so far, and I can actually find things in it. And I've more than once found that an anecdote I've been telling has been incorrect, precisely in a "melded memories" kind of way. It happened at this sort…

But did you see the gorilla?

EDIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inattentional_blindness#Invisi...

Re: Aging brains blend memories together instead of just forgetting them

#104

Post by hattmall »

tempo123456 wrote: post #102

Gonna chuck a thought for you all. In social situations there is someone who talks alot and I think they are able to do so because they have lots of stories they can recall in good detail (maybe not perfect) but 20 year old event they are describing better than I can describe last week. Now I assume they don't have that rare calendar level memory but they do have a huge storage of stories and events. I am pretty jeal…

I have a few friends and family members like that and for the stories which I was present, they always hit the broad strokes, but the finer details get switched around and sometimes the whole story has a major perspective shift.

Re: Aging brains blend memories together instead of just forgetting them

#105

Post by drfloyd51 »

MarkusWandel wrote: post #86
MarkusWandel wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's because memories really are highly compressed, with the average complex memory (of a grand day out, for example) being compressed into at most a paragraph of text's worth of information. Everything else is made up of context. For example, having no photographic memory, I can remember the general "feel" of the innards of an antique shortwave receiver I used to have as a kid. But almost all of that is co…

This of course applies to my (sarcastic) description of women's memory too. A given conversation is compressed to a small amount of memory, a significant part of which is the "feel" of the conversation rather than the actual words. So of course the memory is not word-for-word exact. But, let's just say, a subset of persons, a majority of which may or may not be female, does not acknowledge this and insists that the (…

I went under for 2 different surgeries. One of them I had post surgery complications. Years later, we needed to know the year I had the complications. I remembered the surgery, simply look it up and ta-da I got the date.

Except, my wife thought it was the other surgery. And insisted. I was incredulous and angry. I literally nearly died during the complications. I think I would remember the surgery it was from. And it definitely wasn’t from my vasectomy. I decided to make a stand.

I found the oxygen sensor we purchased for the event. Found to manufacture date. It was after her event. So it was physically impossible have the o2 sensor before her event. Wasn’t good enough. Maybe the date was wrong.

I finally went to the hospital and got the records. I was right. My wife simply could not or would not acknowledge it.

I spent the majority of my marriage being “the forgetful one”. And here was a single case where I was right and she had memory issues. And she could not simply say “oops, I got it wrong”. I began to doubt her memory and thought maybe I was being gaslit sometimes.

It was a very influential event in the course of our marriage. I lost a lot of respect for her and began to wonder what our future would be like.

We were divorced within a year.

Not only this, but other things too. But this was a big part of it.

Re: Aging brains blend memories together instead of just forgetting them

#106

Post by annzabelle »

xpct wrote: post #100
annzabelle wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if you are in this demographic, but a lot of people I know born in 1999-2003 or so in the US used snapchat as a primary method of communication for many years, and a large part of it was keeping up "snap streaks" of sharing one photo a day with many different friends. This is one thing for all of the pairs of genuine friends doing this, but I also have two friends who I introduced to each other exactly o…

That is interesting. For a streak to count, do you have to both send out your own, and open incoming images? I wonder how much you could tell about someone if you had a 6 year snap streak with them. Would they be more like a friend, or an awkward relative with whom you seldom meet and have little in common?

Both of you have to send them to the other person as a specific recipient (so not just putting it on your story). I'm not sure about opening them.

For the two friends I'm thinking of, my impression is that they don't know each other any better through snapchat than they do from me knowing both of them and mentioning them to each other (they live 1000 miles apart and only met once). I guess the best I can say is that I would be comfortable seating them at the same table at my hypothetical wedding. Same vibe as my cousin I have on Facebook but have only really met twice in the last decade.

Re: Aging brains blend memories together instead of just forgetting them

#107

Post by alchemism »

thataccount wrote: post #17
snarfy wrote: post #14

My dreams imprint stronger than reality. This has the unfortunate effect of sometimes recalling memories as real, when in fact it was all a dream.

Unless the dreams are the reality and the reality is the fake!

That’s also what happens at around ~1200 micrograms

Re: Aging brains blend memories together instead of just forgetting them

#108

Post by annzabelle »

tempo123456 wrote: post #102

Gonna chuck a thought for you all. In social situations there is someone who talks alot and I think they are able to do so because they have lots of stories they can recall in good detail (maybe not perfect) but 20 year old event they are describing better than I can describe last week. Now I assume they don't have that rare calendar level memory but they do have a huge storage of stories and events. I am pretty jeal…

It's interesting for interviews. I assume that people who have somewhat inaccurate memories but with a (possibly subconscious) egotistical filter do much better in interviews than those of us who have more accurate memories of exactly what our contributions to a project were. There are a lot of ways of stretching the truth in your favor, and they all seem much more natural if you really believe them.

My friend recently told me about seeing that an old coworker of hers from 20 years ago described her role as HR manager rather than HR assistant on her LinkedIn. I can easily see how someone with a fallible memory can retroactively exaggerate their title or responsibilities, especially when it's been 20 years.

Re: Aging brains blend memories together instead of just forgetting them

#109

Post by MaxfordAndSons »

I can't wait to tell my dad about this study. We recently got into a heated debate when he insisted that I was a toddler on a family vacation we were reminiscing about, when in fact I was a teenager on that particular vacation, and he was mashing it together with memories of a different vacation. He is 75 but is in pretty good cognitive health, no signs of dementia besides this unreliable long term memory.

Re: Aging brains blend memories together instead of just forgetting them

#110

Post by saintfire »

xpct wrote: post #100
annzabelle wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if you are in this demographic, but a lot of people I know born in 1999-2003 or so in the US used snapchat as a primary method of communication for many years, and a large part of it was keeping up "snap streaks" of sharing one photo a day with many different friends. This is one thing for all of the pairs of genuine friends doing this, but I also have two friends who I introduced to each other exactly o…

That is interesting. For a streak to count, do you have to both send out your own, and open incoming images? I wonder how much you could tell about someone if you had a 6 year snap streak with them. Would they be more like a friend, or an awkward relative with whom you seldom meet and have little in common?

Well I knew someone who did this ritual and they would send black photos of their leg so close to the camera. So I'd imagine nothing and its classic number go up social media.
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