The 4 Types Of Memory Failures: This Is How Memories Betray Us
As the reader may remember from what was seen in the article “What are false memories and why do we suffer from them?” There is the possibility of partially remembering an event, conversation or situation, not remembering it or remembering it without having experienced it.
Going deeper, there are numerous types of mistakes that can be made and it is important to share this information since these mistakes have broken friendships, ignored arguments, created major conflicts and other problems that, without a doubt, anyone will recognize looking back..
Below we will see several phenomena that make our memory not as reliable as it may seem.
Stress
One of the factors that conditions our memory is stress understanding this, beyond a work overload or a worry, as an activation in the alert level that can be given by as many different situations in which we find ourselves involved on a daily basis.
Stress generates a release of corticosteroids due to the excitation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HHs) axis. (Gómez-González, 2002) that can improve or worsen the memory depending on the processing phase influenced by stress hormones, and the nature or valence (positive or negative) of the encoded information.
Thus, there is numerous research that has shown that when stress levels are very high (e.g., a heated family or couple argument: a debate on a very controversial topic on social networks; etc.), emotional memory is preserved or it even improves, while memory for non-emotional information is affected.
What relevance does this have? In a stressful situation such as those discussed in the previous paragraph, it is very likely that not only will logic be put aside, but due to this increase in emotional activation, attention (and therefore memory) will focus on the aspects of the discussion, debate or event witnessed that has most aroused negative feelings
This not only leads to a resolution that is often irrational (understood as lacking a well-structured logic) and premature, but also contributes to forming negative stereotypes about other people, forgetting aspects such as the coherence of their argument despite their lack of respect, the logic of an idea despite spelling mistakes, the intention of the communicator despite his error in expressing it, etc. Thus, accessing that memory later, these details remain practically inaccessible.
We often believe that the fact of having experienced a situation more times or having had a discussion more times on a certain topic or with a certain person makes us more “knowledgeable” about it or gives more reliability to our opinion. However, is that true?
Studies in behavioral sciences have shown that people who have repeatedly experienced similar situations (e.g. event, discussion) with emotional charge, tend to be less reliable than testimonies of events that have occurred only once giving worse results in accuracy, integrity and consistency of the story (Smeets, Candel and Merckelbach, 2004).
So why do you feel so much safer?
The phenomenon of confirmation bias
In psychology there is extensive study and Experiments on Confirmation Bias This bias is also known as selective information gathering. It is considered an effect of information processing that makes people seek to confirm their hypotheses, confirm their expectations, reaffirm their stereotypes or even justify their decisions or lifestyles. Stereotype is understood as a pattern of thought, without necessarily being negative (eg: The world is a beautiful place).
This search for confirmation is pre-conscious or non-conscious (although it can be voluntarily attempted to be avoided if this effect is known) and occurs regardless of the truth or falsity of the information collected.
At the same time, This bias allows the “repetition” of information which was already considered true, making it more stable in one’s own scheme of knowledge of the world, of others or of oneself. Information that is not intended to be falsified and that is stored as more true than the previous time it was processed.
Various explanations have been offered for the emergence of the confirmation bias that every human being shares by default (although I insist, it can be modulated or overcome). These explanations revolve around different factors, one of them is the so-called “cognitive economy” by which the brain tends to seek balance and patterns to use the minimum amount of energy when solving a problem or situation, an issue that also partly explains , the formation of stereotypes and knowledge schemes.
The role of emotions in memories
Other explanations have focused more on emotional factors. It is not difficult to think that it is preferable (usually) to be right than to be wrong, thus, the confirmation bias would allow us to avoid the cost or damage that the error entails and, instead of investigating the fact, argument or event in a neutral or scientific way The parts that fit the assumption are selected are often magnified and the rest is disregarded or diminished.
A good example of this can be found in books on deductive reasoning or in manuals on the psychology of thought. Where different types of Fallacies are exposed that serve to discredit arguments, to bias towards their own and to protect themselves from an unwanted change or damage to self-esteem.
The role of fallacies
Ad hominem fallacy: consists of assuming the falsehood of a statement taking as an argument who has stated it. Trying to discredit the person who defends said idea pointing out a negative characteristic or action of the person, independent of the idea. It should be noted that it is one of the most used fallacies today in the debates that are held warmly on social networks regarding current issues.
Tu quoque fallacy: It consists of rejecting an argument or considering it false, alleging the inconsistency of the person proposing it. (e.g.: How can you talk about corruption if when you governed, there were also cases?). We know that an idea can actually be good or bad, regardless of whether the person transmitting it is leading by example or not. However, if the idea is not liked, this fallacy is usually used to avoid it.
Thus, confirmation bias distorts and selects information that is installed in our schemes These schemes, which have been referred to throughout the article, in cognitive science are understood as patterns of thought, structured sets of ideas, structure of representation of the world, structure of specific knowledge, mental frameworks of social knowledge, etc.
It is not the purpose of this article to describe them in detail; it will suffice to comment that they are mainly responsible for our expectations.
The cognitive schemes
Weren’t we talking about memory? Yes, and we continue at it. As a summary, the emotional situation biases attention and memory, the confirmation bias selects parts of the information that benefit one’s own ideas, and These ideas are installed in our memory again in the form of schemes
These schemes contain stable and variable parts, the more the parts are repeated (confirmed), the more stable they are and, in addition, they are the cause of our expectations, being our framework of knowledge.
Thus, with what has been seen in this article where it was explained that memory and imagination and projection of oneself and others in the future (expectations) share a neural network, it is clear that if these factors are not taken into account, they feed back until creating a loop that hardly responds to any logic other than personal logic.
