The 4 types of memory failures: how memories betray us

Even if we think we remember something well, that piece of memory may be a false memory.

As the reader may recall from the article "What are false memories and why do we suffer from them?", there is the possibility of partially remembering an event, conversation or situation, not remembering it at all, or remembering it without having experienced it.

Going deeper into this, there are numerous types of mistakes that can be made and it is important to share this information since these mistakes have caused friendships to be broken, arguments to be ignored, major conflicts to be created and other problems that, without a doubt, anyone will recognize looking back.

The failures of memory

Below we will look at several phenomena that make our memory not as reliable as it may seem.

Stress

One of the factors that condition our memory is stress.Stress is understood, beyond an overload of work or a worry, as an activation in the level of alertness that can be given by countless and different situations in which we are involved every day.

Stress generates a discharge of corticoids by the excitation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HHs) axis. (Gómez-González, 2002) that can improve or worsen memorydepending on the phase of processing influenced by stress hormones, and the nature or valence (positive or negative) of the encoded information.

Thus, there are numerous studies that have shown that when stress levels are very high (e.g., a heated family or couple argument, a debate on a very controversial topic on social networks, etc.), emotional memory is preserved or even improved, while the memory of non-emotional information is affected.

What is the relevance of this? In a stressful situation such as those discussed in the previous paragraph, it is very likely that not only logic is set aside, but because of this increased emotional arousal, attention (and therefore memory) is focused on the aspects of the discussion, debate or witnessed event that most aroused negative feelings.

This not only leads to an often irrational (understood as lacking a well-structured logic) and premature resolution, but also contributes to form negative stereotypes about other people, forgetting aspects such as the coherence of their argument despite their lack of respect, the logic of an idea despite their spelling mistakes, the intention of the communicator despite their error in expressing it, etc. Thus, accessing this memory later, these details remain practically inaccessible.

More experience with it, more reliable opinion?

We often believe that having experienced a situation more times or having had more times a discussion on a certain topic or with a certain person, makes us more "knowledgeable" about it or gives our opinion more reliability. However, is this true?

Studies in the behavioral sciences have shown that people who have experienced repeated, emotionally charged situations (e.g., events, arguments) are less reliable than those who have experienced them only once, tend to be less reliable than testimonies of events that have occurred only once, giving poorer results in terms of accuracy, completeness and consistency of the account (Smeets, Candel and Merleton, 2005).The results are worse in terms of accuracy, completeness and consistency of the account (Smeets, Candel and Merckelbach, 2004).

So why does one have the feeling of being so much more certain?

The phenomenon of confirmation bias

In psychology, there is extensive research and experiments on Confirmation Bias. This bias is also known as selective information gathering. It is considered as an effect of information processing that makes people seek to confirm their hypotheses, confirm their expectations, reaffirm their stereotypes or even justify their decisions or lifestyles. Stereotype is understood as a thought pattern, without necessarily being negative (e.g.: The world is a beautiful place).

This confirmation search is pre-conscious or non-conscious (although it may be voluntarily avoided if this effect is known) and occurs regardless of the veracity or falsity of the information gathered.

In turn, this bias allows for the "repetition" of information that was already considered truemaking it more stable in one's own scheme of knowledge of the world, of others or of oneself. Information that does not seek to be falsified and is stored as more true than the previous time it was processed.

Various explanations have been offered for the emergence of the confirmation bias that every human being shares by default (although, I insist, it can be modulated or overcome). These explanations revolve around different factors, one of which is the so-called "cognitive economy" by which the brain tends to seek balance and patterns to use the minimum of energy when solving a problem or situation, which also explains in part the formation of stereotypes and knowledge schemas.

The role of emotions in memories

Other explanations have focused more on emotional factors. It is not difficult to think that it is (usually) preferable to be right rather than wrong, thus, confirmation bias would allow avoiding the cost or damage of error and, instead of investigating the fact, argument or event in a neutral or scientific manner the parts that fit the assumption are selected, often magnified and magnified.often are magnified and the rest are disregarded or diminished.

A good example of this can be found in books on deductive reasoning or in psychology of thought manuals. Where different types of Fallacies are exposed, which serve both to discredit arguments, to bias towards one's own and to protect oneself from an undesired change or a damage in self-esteem.

The role of fallacies

Ad hominem fallacy: it consists of taking for granted the falsehood of an assertion by taking as an argument who has asserted it. Attempting to discredit the person who defends such an idea by pointing out a negative characteristic or action of the person, independent of the idea.independent of the idea. It should be noted that it is one of the most used fallacies today in the debates that are hotly maintained by social networks on current issues.

Tu quoque fallacy: It consists of rejecting an argument or considering it false, alleging the inconsistency of the proponent (e.g.: How can you talk about corruption if when you governed, there were also cases). We know that an idea can actually be good or bad, regardless of whether or not the person transmitting it is leading by example; however, if the idea is not liked, this fallacy is often used to avoid it.

Thus, confirmation bias distorts and selects information that is installed in our schemas.. These schemas, which have been alluded to throughout the article, are understood in cognitive science as patterns of thought, structured sets of ideas, structure of representation of the world, structure of specific knowledge, mental frameworks of social knowledge, etc.

It is not the purpose of this article to describe them in detail, it will suffice to comment that they are mainly responsible for our expectations.

Cognitive schemas

Weren't we talking about memory? Yes, and we are still at it. As a compilation, the emotional situation biases attention and memory, the confirmation bias selects parts of the information that benefit one's own ideas, and these ideas are installed in our memory again in the form of schemas. these ideas are installed in our memory again in the form of schemas..

These schemas, containing stable and variable parts, the more the parts are repeated (confirmed), the more stable they are and, moreover, they are the cause of our expectations, being our frame of knowledge.

Thus, with what we have seen in this article where it was explained that memory and imagination and projection of oneself and others in the future (expectations) share a neural network, it is clear that if these factors are not taken into account, they feed back to create a loop that hardly responds to any logic other than the personal one.