The Seven Sins of Memory
The Seven Sins of Memory
Jasey Masoner
Oklahoma State University
The human brain is a very complex and intricate part of the human body. It is filled with hundreds of functions, one of these tasks being memory. Memory is the ability to retrieve and store information over time. There are many ways to use the memory, and many ways the memory works. Memory is a great operation of the brain, but it also has its disadvantages. A good example of these drawbacks is the famous seven sins of memory. The seven sins of memory are seven ways the memory works out of our favor. Transience, absent-mindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence are the sins. Transience is the first sin of the seven. Transience is the speed of the brain forgetting things. A more scientific definition of transience is the tendency to lose access to information, whether we lose it due to disremembering, retrieval failure, or interference. (Schacter 2013) An everyday example of transience is meeting a friend’s boyfriend, and months later seeing him again and not remembering him. It is found in both long-term and short-term memory. Short-term memories are things that are occupying the mind in the here and now moment. Long-term memories are the things that are stored in the brain to later be recaptured and recalled. An example of the short-term transience is a classic experiment of fast forgetting. This study was carried out by Peterson and Peterson in 1959. In the exercise participants were told to memorize three letters in a certain order, then asked to count backwards in sets of three for different lengths of time. After each sequence they were asked to recall the original grouping. The psychologists were surprised with the inadequate results from the participants. The first trial they counted only six seconds backwards, on average half of the subjects forgot the three letters. The second trial was counting backwards
Jasey Masoner
Oklahoma State University
The human brain is a very complex and intricate part of the human body. It is filled with hundreds of functions, one of these tasks being memory. Memory is the ability to retrieve and store information over time. There are many ways to use the memory, and many ways the memory works. Memory is a great operation of the brain, but it also has its disadvantages. A good example of these drawbacks is the famous seven sins of memory. The seven sins of memory are seven ways the memory works out of our favor. Transience, absent-mindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence are the sins. Transience is the first sin of the seven. Transience is the speed of the brain forgetting things. A more scientific definition of transience is the tendency to lose access to information, whether we lose it due to disremembering, retrieval failure, or interference. (Schacter 2013) An everyday example of transience is meeting a friend’s boyfriend, and months later seeing him again and not remembering him. It is found in both long-term and short-term memory. Short-term memories are things that are occupying the mind in the here and now moment. Long-term memories are the things that are stored in the brain to later be recaptured and recalled. An example of the short-term transience is a classic experiment of fast forgetting. This study was carried out by Peterson and Peterson in 1959. In the exercise participants were told to memorize three letters in a certain order, then asked to count backwards in sets of three for different lengths of time. After each sequence they were asked to recall the original grouping. The psychologists were surprised with the inadequate results from the participants. The first trial they counted only six seconds backwards, on average half of the subjects forgot the three letters. The second trial was counting backwards