Trivia Junction

A Compendium of trivia I find interesting
...for the curious

How we remember and why we forget

You never know when you are making a memory
– Ricki Lee Jones, singer

You never know when you are making a memory.
– Ricki Lee Jones, singer

In fact, there's almost never a time – or at least a waking moment – when you're not.

“Even if you try to clear your mind, say by listening to a song, you're making memories about that song,” said John Wixted, chairman of UCSD's psychology department and a memory researcher.

To be sure, the memory may be fleeting, the song soon forgotten. But that, too, is part of the marvel of memory. Why do we remember what we do? Why do some memories stick, but others do not? Why can't we recall the first few years of life, when our brains were like sponges, yet we retain other recollections for as long as we live?

Such questions have long been the province of philosophy, but science is increasingly offering definitive, empirical answers. Equipped with new imaging technologies and an ever-fuller understanding of brain biology, researchers are peeling back and parsing memory's mysteries.

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