The limits and failures of human memory

Our memory is far from perfect. These are the main memory errors.

Not remembering whether we have locked the car, going to get our keys or cell phone and holding it in our hand, not remembering where we parked, and, of course, forgetting what we were going to say. These are everyday and somewhat funny situations in which the memory reveals itself against us..

All these events make the person who experiences them wonder if he or she has a bad memory or if he or she is not very intelligent. Even the most hypochondriac will consider going to the doctor to seek a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.

But there are reasons to remain calm; these experiences do not show intellectual deficits or signs of neurodegenerative diseases. rather a common psychological phenomenon due to the limits of our short-term memory..

Recommended article: "Types of memory: how does our brain store memories?"

Did I lock the car? Short-term memory and its failures

Recall that short-term memory is the one that allows us to interact with the present environment.Thanks to it, a small amount of information is kept actively in the mind, so that it is immediately available, at least for a short period of time.

When we hold a conversation, perform mathematical calculations or talk to ourselves, we are making direct use of this memory. However, this memory is not perfect, this memory is not perfect, but quite the opposite..

The magic number seven

Psychologist George A. Miller was the first to investigate these phenomena, and published an essay called "The magic number seven, plus or minus two" in which he reflects the limits of our ability to process information that we find within the short-term memory (STM) ranges. According to Miller, short-term memory has a limited storage capacity, which is between 5 and 9, that is, 7 plus or minus two. This is a Biological limitation posed by our nervous system..

This means that when we retain 7 units of information at the present moment, we are not able to perceive what is beyond these "data packets" because all external stimuli do not have space to enter our memory at that particular moment.

The role of attention

Attention is the psychological process that goes hand in hand with short-term memory, this also being highly limited. Miller clarified that it is possible to increase the number of elements that a person processes if what he or she perceives is a matter of importance and value to the individual. of importance and value to the individual. However, if it is not of interest to him, and is already occupying space, it will not be stored in his memory.

This explains that even if we are occupying all the capacity of our short-term memory, if we perceive (even if unconsciously) a spider in front of us, all our attentional resources will be directed to the spider and not to our thought.. This is the reason why this memory is limited, at times when man was fighting for his survival with other species, those threatening stimuli could not do without this scarce space in memory.

Conclusions and reflections

You may now understand why you often do not listen to someone who has been talking to you for three minutes. Surely, whatever you had in your head while this person was talking to you, occupied those 7 plus or minus two packets of information that you are able to retain and, evidently, it was much more important to you your own business than what that person was telling you.

We can also raise the situation that we initially discussed about the doubt of whether the car is locked or not. When we get out of the car, we usually do it in a hurry and thinking about everything we have to do after parking. That is why at the moment of closing the car our short-term memory is completely full of information and although we have closed the car unconsciously and automatically (since it is a very routine action), as our consciousness is occupied, for us it is as if we had not lived it.

Something similar happens in all those situations in which the number 7 puts on the table, once again, that human beings are not perfect, but prey to their limited psychological processes..