How trustworthy are memories?

Memories.

A word often defined as a faculty of the brain by

which data/information is stored, encoded, and retrieved

when wanted or needed.

I guess, perhaps one could say that it is a bit like a

''virtual time machine'' that allows us to re-visit moments

and experiences from our past.

(Where this takes place and exactly how our brains do

this marvelous bit of ''magic'', I leave up to you

to Google.)

Recently I have been pondering what happens to a memory

once we have stored it away. Does it stay intact like a photo,

or is it malleable?

Whatever emotions we may have been experiencing at the

moment when the memory was made, do they stay attached

to that memory or do they change?

So, here is what I discovered when I started to do a bit

of research into memories: They always change.

Daniella Schiller of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine says that

memories are malleable constructs that are reconstructed each

time we recall a memory.

Our memories are not like ''files'' that remain the same

every time we pull one out.

According to Schiller each time a memory is revisited

we do a bit of editing.

Although unwittingly, our now edited memory becomes the

''real'' memory.

So instead of our memory being like a file,

a memory is more like a story and with each re-telling

of that story whatever emotions that were originally

attached to it, change.

Schiller says that:''My conclusion is that memory is

what you are now. Not in pictures, not in recordings.

Your memory is how you are now.''

In other words, memories aren't written once, rather,

they are re-written each time we remember them.

You: Hey, do you remember that old, fat, matron

who used to yell at the top of her lungs at us every day?

Old school friend: Old? She wasn't old, nor was she fat. She 

was only in her thirties and I remember her as nice.

Perplexed you start to protest: nah, nah, she was old.

Old school friend: Nah, you're not remembering right.

Who is right?

Does the term ''right'' even apply?

My first visit back to my childhood home years after

I had moved out was very intriguing.

My room, our house, our garden, was so much smaller

than I remembered it. Actually, everything seemed smaller.

In an instant many of my memories were edited.

Research is showing that emotionally charged events

are remembered more and in greater detail than

events less emotionally charged.

Although, that does not necessarily mean more accurate.

Strong emotions can skew the way we view an event,

which in turn will affect how we remember it.

Those in the know suggest that emotions acts at all

points of the memory cycle- that is at encoding,

consolidation, and retrieval.

(as in learning/remembering the info, making sense out 

of the info, accessing memories/info)

So, can memories be trusted? How true are they?

Well, that depends on one's definition of ''true''.

They are definitely malleable it seems.

But, that's a good thing methinks.

Hindsight can be very useful.

We can ask ourselves questions for instance.

What kind of mood was I in when xyz took place?

Was I present in mind?

Could I have misunderstood some aspects?

Was I distracted?

Have I embellished the memory? Etc.etc....

According to Daniel Kahneman: we are

always searching for causality, re-framing events

to fit into a context and we are ready to

believe things as long as they fit fluidly

into that context.

There comes a time in your life when you

have to choose to turn the page,

write another book or simply close it.

(Shannon L. Alder)

About the image: Acrylic on canvas, a memory of walking

through a spring forest