Making Sense Of Memory

People Remember Some Things Perfectly And Are Hazy On Others: Why?

(CBS) 
"We were here in the '60s before any of us knew what was going to happen or not happen," Hotchner said. "And it was formative, I think, for all of us that we would be here regularly and discuss our woes and our wanna-bes and almost-was."

"At that point, none of our lives were very smooth," Talese said. "And we had a tolerance for whatever problems anybody else had. We understood and dealt with them."

In fact, from a less-modest perspective, in the early '60s, all three were about to break through. Hotchner’s classic memoir, "Papa Hemingway," was released to glowing reviews in 1965. Talese, who was already a prominent newspaper reporter, published his first book in 1961 and a few years after was hailed for creating what would be dubbed the new-journalism with his profiles of Frank Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio. In 1964, Halberstam received the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Vietnam.

They most remember the camaraderie that got them through both the turbulence and the triumphs.

"I remember in '64 in the city room of The New York Times whenever they announce the Pulitzer Prizes," Talese recalled. "And I believe, David will have to correct me, but as I recall, the information came by ticker, you know, just you’re waiting. I’m like here next to Halberstam and we read, we're leaning over and then we see 'David Halberstam.'"

After decades of friendship, some memories are not so sweet. Among the worst is a feud in the 1970s between Talese and Hotchner over a tennis game.

"We were playing tennis in Chicago and we had a fight while playing. We were partners, playing doubles. It would be interesting sometime to compare notes, wouldn't it?" Talese said to Hotchner.

"He would have one version of it, and I'd have a completely different version," Hotchner said.

Indeed — experts say, like fingerprints, no two memories are identical. From the lighthearted musical, "Gigi," to the bleak novel, "Remembrances Of Things Past" by Marcel Proust, the elasticity of memory is a universal theme.

Phelps said that it's very unlikely that two people will remember the same event exactly the same way because each person comes to a situation with a different set of expectations and biases.

"When we have a memory it is a combination of what's actually out there in the world and what's going on inside of us," she said.

What's going on inside of us has a lot to do with this area in the middle of the brain, the hippocampus and the amygdala. The hippocampus and regions around it record two basic components of memories — episodic, or life memories, and semantic, factual memories.

"There was probably a day when you came home from school and could tell your mom, 'Guess what, today I learned that George Washington was the first President of the United States,'" Phelps said, "but you've lost those details. What you have now is the knowledge."

A bump at the end of the hippocampus, the amygdala, comes in during highly emotional events. The stronger the emotion, the more lasting the memory will be.

"You get a little bit more stressed and your memory starts increasing. You start noticing things more. You start remembering things more," McHugh said. "If you have too much stress, that starts interfering with your memory. And then you stop being able to make memories as powerfully or as accurately as you were before."

Most of us believe we have vivid recollections of the events of 9/11, the Kennedy assassination and the Challenger explosion. But researchers say those memories aren't as accurate as we think. Consider what happened after test subjects saw filmmaker Michael Moore's movie "Fahrenheit 9/11." Phelps said just seeing that movie changed how people remembered the actual event.

Hotchner, Talese and Halberstam have all navigated that murky area between history and memory.

"Nobody's memory is as exact as anybody else's about one event," Hotchner said. "It's always selective."

"All history, I think, though, is also selectivity and flawed memory blended with statistics. I mean, how accurate can the history of the Civil War be? Or WWI?" Talese said. "But then you think, one thing leads to the other, memory triggers more memory and large as a picture, it might be selective, it might be idealized or whatever it is, it's as close as we can get to the truth of ourselves."

Mitchell claimed his first memory was the day President John Kennedy was shot. He was three years old. Phelps said he probably doesn't really remember that day.

"At three years old, we actually don't remember those memories later," she said. "So probably, your memory of that is a combination of what you heard and what you saw afterwards. And you know, it was important and other people cared about it, so you formed a memory and you have that expectation that you should have that strong a memory. And that probably influences that as well."

[eaphelps]

The term for our lack of memories early in life is called "infantile amnesia." It is very difficult to study the accuracy of memories for early in life since usually no one is recording the event (and viewing any recording, or hearing others' accounts, might influence later memory). Research suggests that 3-5 years is about the time that a memory recalled later in life can first be verified as at least somewhat accurate (with boys developing later than girls). Having said that, one cannot know for certain if any given memory from 3 years old is accurate or not. Some will likely be accurate, others not. However, in the case of public events, such as the Kennedy assassination, there is so much public display and discussion of this event, it is likely any memory, especially an very early one, has been replayed and modified. In science the best you can do is describe what most people would do given the existing data.

[aurora17-2009]

I found this article quite interesting; however, I don't agree that we change our memories as we age. I recently published a book titled, A Soul in Peril. It is based on 52 years of memories and those memories have not changed. Many are actually reported verbatim and have not changed over the years. When comparing my memories with those of my sister's, very few shared events differed when recounted, especially those that were somewhat traumatic to the both of us as we were growing up. My memories begin at age three. I have one son who remembers my pulling his diaper back to reveal a hernia surgery scar to someone when he was only 15 months old (he is 19 years old now.) I had never told him that I did that and was shocked myself when one day we discussed this surgery and he told me that he remembered my doing that and asked me who I had shown it to. I believe traumatic events can be remembered at an earlier age unless they are so traumatic that we block them from our memories. While I do believe that we may occasionally (knowingly) embellish some memories, I do not believe that they change as we age. At least, I do not believe that mine have.

[lprutzman]

I was reminded of the counted cross-stich my mother did years ago. It hung in our foyer:
God gave us our Memories so we have Roses in December. They are powerful!

[connita2]

I had very vivid memories when I was three and two, my very little garden, my brothers shouting to my mother I was out of the house, my mother playing spanish record so my brother and I dance around. When We moved , how she took all my dresses and put them on the back of the car. And many, many details.
My father had very good memory and my older brother has it too.

[stargel12]

Please tell me the name of the song played during the "Memory Story" on Jan. 7th, 2007 and the singer. I thought it might be Frank Sinatra???????? Thanks.

[wyomissing66]

What is the correct title, author, and original performer of song Remember the Times of Our Lives, or whatever it's called? Thanks

[kmill03]

What is the name of that song that was playing during the memory piece??

[patteetoo]

I can't believe Elizabeth Phelps claims we have no memory at three years old. I can vividly remember when we moved when I was three, little details like seeing beads on the ground in the back yard, my grandmother securing my hand on the handrail and the crank windows in the kitchen. I can remember eating peanut butter and crackers at the edge of the dining room table which had boxes stacked on it. No one else was in on these thoughts to remind me. I also remember my father putting up a little windmill in the back yard of our old house before I was three. That was a pretty generalized statement.