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I am reading a book, “In Search of Now-The Science of the Present Moment” by Jo Marchant. It is all about ‘Now’, as you’d expect.

Initially, I thought it was about being present, being in the moment. Being mindful is another term, but I was so wrong. Fortunately, my curiosity got the better of me when the author, during her radio interview, mentioned a group of people who don’t have a concept for before and after.

I couldn’t resist this rabbit hole.

The book is about 275 pages, and every page seems to upend my understanding of how we remember. So I picked an idea from a couple of pages I am reading now, explored it out of my own interest, and then realized I could try to capture it in the Blog. 

I have long accepted that memory works like hard drive storage. Everything gets written out in some kind of code. Computers do this by storing 1s and 0s, so my magical thinking carried the analogy to my brain.

As an aside, the idea I’m presenting here is by no means fully accepted by the scientists who study memory. This is typical of science, so I just wanted to give this disclaimer. I am totally unequipped to determine how close to reality this new concept is. However, let’s proceed for the purposes of this Blog, assuming that the ideas hold sufficient merit to let us play with them a bit.

Human memory is not stored but created anew every time we ‘recall’ something.

My layman’s explanation will use an example. I recall that last week I went to the Edmonton Elks football game, which we won.

But I’m not actually recalling it as a complete storage image or video, as I would a file on my hard drive. While watching videos of the storm (30 ml in 1 hour with winds gusting to 80 km/hr) that recently passed over the stadium during an outdoor music concert, I observed the seats in their green-and-gold pattern. This triggered the recollection of me sitting in those seats, not watching a concert but watching football. That triggered me eating a bag of popcorn.

No, wait. I was looking forward to the bag of popcorn, but they only sold it in bags and buckets. I never ate popcorn at this football game, but I have at many previous games.

I’m piecing together the storyline or memory from various sources. The bag of popcorn is associated with sporting events, particularly at the local stadium. I even took a clip to reseal the bag during the game.

Ten years from now, how likely am I to remember the experience accurately, especially the popcorn? I think I would tell the story with the popcorn bag and be able to pass a lie detector test.

Also, they tossed pee-wee footballs into the stands, and I managed to snag it off the empty seat next to me. I have arthritis in both thumbs and when I picked it up it hurt. Given the rarity of such a prize I’ll probable recall it every time, but I may recall it being a bigger football because of the occasional pain in my hands when I stretch to grasp a large item.

This is how I understand the new approach to memory storage and recall.

Please give this a bit of a think. Why is witness recall so unreliable? Why do family reunions often end in storytelling, with everyone seeing it differently, including some relatives who were in another city from where the recalled event took place?

Please comment: Send me an email with your bit of a think. I am curious about your thoughts.

Photo by ian dooley on Unsplash

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