In class lately, we have generally been talking about how our memory works. What I found to be most interesting was when Professor Wede mentioned how the ability to forget is an evolutionary part of thinking. The concept I would like to discuss is about how memory is a constructive process in which missing pieces of information are filled in or filtered in order to make getting information out more comprehensible. In my perspective, this essentially means that we have the ability to build upon or create new memories based off of old, possibly false ones. In contrast, we also have the ability to reflect and give attention to specific parts of old memories. Whenever I catch up with one of my good friends, Katie, I have noticed that we fill in each other’s gaps about things we have done together. We could have both been in the same situation or have been together at the same place at the same time, but I almost always notice things that she has no recollection of and vice versa when reflected upon at a later time. I feel that this is a true example of importance of perspective – more specifically, perspective can also change a memory.

Once again, memory is a constructive process. Because of this, it causes things like the misinformation effect and hindsight bias. Misinformation effect is when the incorporation of misleading information into one’s memory of an event. From the examples in class, a major cause of this appears to be wording. Specific wording implies different things to different people. For me, I had frustrated with what words implied what meanings with my parents, who often speak in Chinese with me. Some meaning gets lost in translation, so when I was growing up, I would unintentionally take things the wrong way because I would remember how the Chinese word was used in one situation and apply it to another, more incorrect situation. The other problem caused by constructive processes of the memory is hindsight bias: a false belief that one could or should have predicted the outcome of an event. This happens often in everyday situation like, “Oh I knew this was going to happen…” or “I was sure she was going to get it!” This past week at my tournament for Ultimate Frisbee, I was sure that there would be multiple complete catches that ended up being drops and then a turnover.

To conclude, memories are powerful in the sense that they are not essentially always true or false. At the end of Lecture 11, I actually wondered whether I would rather have the inability to create any new memories or have the ability to never forget anything (a superautobiographical memory) as mentioned in class. So, even though our working memories are not necessarily always reliable, I have concluded that this more normal option is better than the other two extremes which make it impossible to function in daily life.