Memory game
A RUSH OF MEMORIES CAN OVERWHELM YOU, BUT YOU HAVE MORE CONTROL OVER HOW AND WHAT YOU REMEMBER THAN YOU MIGHT THINK, DISCOVERS JESSICA FURSETH
Memories are a mysterious thing. Sometimes it’s as if they exist outside of our minds, waiting for us to stumble upon them. A little thing can trigger a memory, causing it – and all the associated feelings – to come flooding back. For example, the smell of tar instantly brings to mind my late grandfather, clear as day in his blue overalls. Play a song you loved at 17 and wait for the flood of teen feelings – it’s as if all those memories were stored in that one track.
Other memories will be forever associated with a time of year, which is how every autumn, years after leaving school, you might get an urge to buy new stationery and shoes. Chris Bird, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University of Sussex, says this is because reminders, like the leaves turning, cue us to remember everything else associated with that memory. “When we’re forming a memory, we’re incorporating where we are, who we’re with and how we’re feeling,” he says.
Memories are often tied to places and people. There’s a specific bench on the canal in east London where I’m forever breaking up with someone I loved – one of a million moments that seem to live out there in the city. “We think of memories as an event made up of lots of different parts. Any one of those parts can trigger the reconstruction of that whole memory,” explains Jack Mellor, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Bristol. “The brain is wonderfully flexible, and it allows you to adapt your memories to changing environments,” says Mellor – so passing a restaurant may remind you of the last meal you had there, or on a different day, you could recall the fight you had afterwards.
MAKING A MEMORY
A memory is stored in nerve cells in the brain, or in the connections between several nerve cells – these cells are then linked to thousands of others. “The way those connections occur, and strengthen and weaken, will determine how you [ link] a particular group of experiences together into a memory,” says Mellor. It’s a flexible process. “The brain can change the connections between these components of our memories.”
This process of forming a memory isn’t as random as it might seem; you can actually make a decision to remember things by paying close attention. “One way to do this is to rehearse the memory by going back over what happened,” says Bird. But laying down the memory is only half the job – you have to get it out again. “Often, unless something happens to trigger a memory, we won’t remember it.”
We will never remember everything.
The brain really likes variety and tends to gloss over monotony – this is why you don’t remember yesterday’s breakfast, last year’s commute, or most of lockdown. “If nothing much is happening, at the time it feels like time is moving incredibly slowly,” says Bird. “But looking back, it seems like it went very quickly because there was nothing really to hang on to.” This is also why we might remember a week of holiday better than an entire year: it was full of novelty. So next time you have a slow Sunday, go and do something new because it’s more likely to leave an impression for later.
The brain really likes variety and tends to gloss over monotony
MEMORY TRICKS
We’re more likely to remember what’s important to us, “but often, we don’t realise what exactly is important to us,” says Mellor. The chances are you have a strong memory associated with a childhood snack, toy or holiday destination, because it was a big deal at the time. “We may have repressed a memory for many years, and [we might come across] a little trail that brings us back to that memory. This tells us that it actually is important to us after all.” This little revelation can be a nice cue to start exploring some of those memories and feelings, as it might help us understand our past and shed light on why we are the way we are.
If you think of your memories as a beautiful archive of your life, forever there to relive in »