Making Sense Of Memory

(CBS)  As we embark on a new year, we almost can't help reflecting on the one we've left behind. But why do some moments stand out and others fade away? And even if your memory is good, is it ever accurate?

Memories make up our life stories. But experts say that as the years go by and we change and develop, our recollections adjust with us, whether we know it or not.

"I think if you're trying to understand the human psyche, you have to understand first and foremost, memory," Elizabeth Phelps, a research psychologist at New York University's Center For Neural Science told Sunday Morning correspondent Russ Mitchell. "I mean, it really is telling you everything about who we are … we are our memories, absolutely."

The children's game called telephone, played by first-graders at an elementary school in New York, is commonly used by researchers to explain how memories evolve. The children were observed by Dr. Pauline McHugh of NYU School Of Medicine's Brain Health Center.

"What happens is there is a process of rehearsal," she said. "You have a very significant memory. You tend to play it over and over in your head. And every time, it can be changed and altered subtly depending on what you're feelings were about, what your past experiences were and it can end up often times with the basic elements intact but the color or the tenor of it be very, very different. What happened when, who was wearing what, who said what to whom at what time. That can be very different."

Although memories are constantly changing, Phelps said they are not always completely inaccurate. She said that memory plays an important role in guiding people through their lives.

"And what challenges you encounter at different points in your life are gonna change, right?" she said. "So you don't want the same interpretation of a memory when you're 15 you know and when your 50."

Writers David Halberstam, Gay Talese and A.E. Hotchner have been very lucky. They have spent many good times at Elaine's, a legendary Manhattan hangout. Now that they are considered among the best writers of their generation, even the struggle and self-doubt of their early years are tinged with the color rose.

"You adjust memory as you get older to make life bearable," Halberstam said. "I think what memory does is it releases you, if you're lucky, and you tend to remember the better times."

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[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.