How good is your memory?

[21C]

I'm watching a TV show with my wife. There's a couple of actors on there I recognize. I pause the show and ask her if she knows them. She responds with "The Wire" only because that was the common answer whenever I did this.

One of them was from Murphy Brown which was from a while ago but it was a show we watched regularly when it was on. The other actor was from Dexter which we had only watched the day before. She couldn't recognize/remember either which surprised me a bit. She has similar problems with other times I play "What show are they from?"

Just recently I ran in to a guy that I worked with around twenty years ago. I started reeling off stories about the two of us that he forgot about. He expressed surprise that I remembered some of that stuff.

My question is: What's your memory like?

Can you remember stuff from your childhood but can't remember last week so well? Can you remember names but have trouble with faces (or vice versa)? Do you walk into rooms and forget why you going there in the first place?

[BrianD]

I remember actors and shows they have been in quite well. I also remember numbers and childhood memories. Short-term memory items and names of people I meet don't stick at all. I think I mostly filled up my brain 10 years ago and very little new stuff sticks.

[Warhammer]

I can tell you that I don't remember the last time I had any issues with ED.

[SackAttack]

My memory is very verbal. I can remember trivial things that were said to me, and things I've read, not quite perfectly but close enough that the only books I ever read twice are the ones I love. Something that's merely a 'fun' read ends up getting read once and given away or donated, because there's no newness to it anymore after the first time.

[Danny]

My short term memory is... wait what are we talking about?

[Raiders Army]

I recently upgraded to 8 GB.

[Lorena]

Originally Posted by 21C

I'm watching a TV show with my wife. There's a couple of actors on there I recognize. I pause the show and ask her if she knows them. She responds with "The Wire" only because that was the common answer whenever I did this.

One of them was from Murphy Brown which was from a while ago but it was a show we watched regularly when it was on. The other actor was from Dexter which we had only watched the day before. She couldn't recognize/remember either which surprised me a bit. She has similar problems with other times I play "What show are they from?"

Just recently I ran in to a guy that I worked with around twenty years ago. I started reeling off stories about the two of us that he forgot about. He expressed surprise that I remembered some of that stuff.

My question is: What's your memory like?

Can you remember stuff from your childhood but can't remember last week so well? Can you remember names but have trouble with faces (or vice versa)? Do you walk into rooms and forget why you going there in the first place?

Ahh, you do this too eh? Ant does it all the time and I remember about a quarter of the time, usually it's "Okay, I give up." My memory is real bad, both short and long term. When meeting someone for the first time, I forget their name within 5 minutes unless I associate their name with a celebrity, someone I know, or some kind of a song/movie character.. something.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

My memory is very verbal. I can remember trivial things that were said to me, and things I've read, not quite perfectly but close enough that the only books I ever read twice are the ones I love. Something that's merely a 'fun' read ends up getting read once and given away or donated, because there's no newness to it anymore after the first time.

I'm the exact opposite- I'm a completely visual learner. If I write it down (and had previously organized it in my mind)- I remember it quite well. If I see it in writing, I'll remember it decently, but only if I'm consciously looking to remember it. For instance, I just finished skimming through the NCAA thread stuff from last night- I know there were big posts about the UNC/Md game, some thoughts about NC State, Jeeber saying profane things about UTEP and Memphis, and UCLA back and forth. I'm pretty sure I missed some posts in there and tomorrow that will mostly be gone. But I was reading some stuff about a quest in Fallout yesterday and I remember it pretty much step for step because I wanted to at least put it in the "mid-term" memory and I'll still probably remember all of it a week from now.

Lastly, if someone is just telling it to me, there's a good chance I forget it or it falls into the chasm of knowledge that starts with "I heard from/read/saw somewhere...". I suspect this has to do with the fact that I'm having to process thoughts at the same speed that I'm hearing them so I don't have time to properly index them.

They were talking to a guy on NPR a while back who remembered everything from when he was a kid- like a perfect photographic memory. He didn't understand why all people didn't have a memory like that. Doesn't that make a lot more sense? Why do we remember some things and not others for longer or shorter terms? And I'm not talking about forgetting a traumatic event or maybe deleting the entry in our brain for "Grocery list 2.14.09" and replacing it with "Grocery list 2.21.09". But it would make more sense that we remember everything and choose to eliminate memories or to not file them rather than the haphazard way things work in the human mind.

SI

[AgustusM]

Google has replaced my need to remember anything, which is good because at my age I rarely can anyway.

[sterlingice]

Wikipedia, too

SI

[3ric]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I'm the exact opposite- I'm a completely visual learner. If I write it down (and had previously organized it in my mind)- I remember it quite well.

Yeah, me too. I usually tell my wife to write me a note instead of telling me what to buy or get. Otherwise, if I'm not doing it right away, I've forgotten it in a minute.

[JonInMiddleGA]

imdb.com is my friend

My short term memory borders on non-existent, has since my early 20's. Funny thing is that things I don't remember about six months ago that you ask me today will come back to me later, sort of like a perpetually rolling memory loss.

[Maple Leafs]

My short-term memory is terrible. If I'm not really engaged with something, it's gone. I'm like the guy from Memento.

It's not uncommon for me to be watching TV, have it go to commercial, and have no idea what I'm watching. I'm talking about being 20 minutes into a show, and I'm sitting there with a commercial on wondering what I'm watching. I actually try to piece it together before the commercials end -- "I feel kind of happy, maybe it's a comedy... I think it might have something to do with a cat..."

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

My short-term memory is terrible. If I'm not really engaged with something, it's gone. I'm like the guy from Memento.

It's not uncommon for me to be watching TV, have it go to commercial, and have no idea what I'm watching. I'm talking about being 20 minutes into a show, and I'm sitting there with a commercial on wondering what I'm watching. I actually try to piece it together before the commercials end -- "I feel kind of happy, maybe it's a comedy... I think it might have something to do with a cat..."

So are you watching Sabrina reruns for Melissa Joan Hart, or Caroline Rhea?

[RendeR]

I can give you stats and play by play from football games in the 1980's but don't ask me what I had for lunch last Friday. My short term memory is shot to hell.

Anyone know of drugs/suppliments that help this condition?

[21C]

The thing that scares me the most about memory loss is watching my 82 year old mother just lose it. She doesn't have dementia but she has little to no short term memory and almost no long term memory. It is a living Groundhog Day every time I visit or talk to her on the phone. Getting old scares the crap out of me but this part I dread the most.

[Fonzie]

Originally Posted by Lorena

When meeting someone for the first time, I forget their name within 5 minutes unless I associate their name with a celebrity, someone I know, or some kind of a song/movie character.. something.

For what it's worth, forgetting the name of someone you just met is not typically a memory problem but rather an attentional problem. What tends to happen is that those kinds of situations force our attention away from what is being discussed and onto other things: assessment of the new person's physical characteristics, their style of dress, their mannerisms/accent, assessment of how we're presenting ourselves to the new person, wondering what they're like in bed, and so on. Because our attention is allocated elsewhere, we don't attend much to the verbally presented name, and thus it never even gets a chance to become encoded into memory, much less forgotten.

So, your technique for remembering names is a good one. I do something similar, but the key is to force your attention to the person's name. What I do is immediately repeat their name out loud: "Oh, Steve, is it? Nice to meet you Steve. Say, Steve, have you met my friend Neal over here? Neal, come over here and meet Steve."

It works. I'm terrible about encoding new names myself, but this tactic really does help. In fact, when I was a grad student I served as a TA in a Human Memory course in which the instructor, on the first day of class, went around the room and used this technique to immediately memorize the names of all 70 students in about 10 minutes.

[Buccaneer]

Like my friend SI, I am all visual. I can remember nearly every single trip I had taken since I was 8 (years later I would trace all the routes on a large map). I can remember photographs and maps very well (which was probably why those are my two main things in life). But I don't remember conversations, dialogues or other things that require hearing. Also part of it includes reading too fast or being selective in what I pick up in conversations, reading or listening. The same goes for my work in IT. I have trouble remembering technical stuff that I read but show me a picture (diagram, flow chart or code) and I'll remember.

By the way, SI. The term for visualizers such as you and I is: graphicacy. One of my favorite words.

[Poli]

I can remember the names of the three kids that I sat with in kindergarten. I even remember where one of them lived based off our bus route.

I remember the car accident I was in when I was 4. I can remember my trip to the ER at the same age. I still haven't forgiven my brother for kicking me into that coffee table.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Like my friend SI, I am all visual. I can remember nearly every single trip I had taken since I was 8 (years later I would trace all the routes on a large map). I can remember photographs and maps very well (which was probably why those are my two main things in life). But I don't remember conversations, dialogues or other things that require hearing. Also part of it includes reading too fast or being selective in what I pick up in conversations, reading or listening. The same goes for my work in IT. I have trouble remembering technical stuff that I read but show me a picture (diagram, flow chart or code) and I'll remember.

By the way, SI. The term for visualizers such as you and I is: graphicacy. One of my favorite words.

Wacky- graphicacy isn't in dictionary.com (it is on merriam-webster) but has an entire wikipedia entry. Now I have a ten dollar word for the day (or is it a five dollar word?- I've heard both).

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Fonzie

So, your technique for remembering names is a good one. I do something similar, but the key is to force your attention to the person's name. What I do is immediately repeat their name out loud: "Oh, Steve, is it? Nice to meet you Steve. Say, Steve, have you met my friend Neal over here? Neal, come over here and meet Steve."

It works. I'm terrible about encoding new names myself, but this tactic really does help. In fact, when I was a grad student I served as a TA in a Human Memory course in which the instructor, on the first day of class, went around the room and used this technique to immediately memorize the names of all 70 students in about 10 minutes.

That's an interesting idea- I may have to try it. If it were my room- I'd have to come up with the seating chart with names where people were sitting and then start ascribing characteristics to those people.

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by RendeR

I can give you stats and play by play from football games in the 1980's but don't ask me what I had for lunch last Friday. My short term memory is shot to hell.

I honestly think this is only going to get worse

I think the habits we use to look up information and how we process it on the internet destroys short term memory. Or maybe that's not a fair assessment, but that it doesn't force us to develop a short term memory. We get this instant gratification so we don't have to work to process the information. I think a good way of thinking about this would be that if you had to go look up something in an encyclopedia- had to put out some effort like finding the encyclopedia, finding what particular entry you had to look up, flipping to it, and then reading a whole article just to get one factoid- you process that more long term as you also have that work imprinted on your memory. Not only that, but we know that information now is always at our fingertips if we ever want it again so we don't really process it into our brains.

SI

[Kodos]

I have a great memory when it comes to 80s music. I know lyrics to god knows how many songs. But I am terrible with short term memory. My mother, brother and I cannot remember new people's names to save our lives. Must be a genetic thing. Also, if I run into somebody I know, but out of their usual context, there is a good chance I won't be able to come up with their name or perhaps even recognize them. I am notorious for running into people in public and forgetting their name, which can be pretty embarrassing. Plus, I am pretty oblivious. My best friend was calling my name across a parking lot once, but I was ignoring it, because surely that idiot who is yelling couldn't be yelling to me. I pretty much ignore anything that doesn't directly involve me. I'd be a terrible witness.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I have a great memory when it comes to 80s music. I know lyrics to god knows how many songs. But I am terrible with short term memory. My mother, brother and I cannot remember new people's names to save our lives. Must be a genetic thing. Also, if I run into somebody I know, but out of their usual context, there is a good chance I won't be able to come up with their name or perhaps even recognize them. I am notorious for running into people in public and forgetting their name, which can be pretty embarrassing. Plus, I am pretty oblivious. My best friend was calling my name across a parking lot once, but I was ignoring it, because surely that idiot who is yelling couldn't be yelling to me. I pretty much ignore anything that doesn't directly involve me. I'd be a terrible witness.

I have that exact same problem- if I see someone out of context, I cannot recognize them to save my life. For instance, back in Lawrence, if I saw a friend of mine at the store (Lawrence not being so large of a place), it would take me a few seconds to recognize who it was since I didn't expect to see them there but it wouldn't be unheard of. But if, say, Bill Self had been walking around the same store- I would never have figured it out since even tho it would have made sense to see him in Lawrence, he's not courtside at a basketball game so I wouldn't recognize him. Or if I were walking around the Plaza in KC and had seen George Brett or Mike Sweeney or Trent Green or some other big figure (at the time) in KC- would have never recognized them. Hell, I could bump into Bill Clinton sneaking out at night to make a Taco Bell run the night before a speech at KU and might not recognize him. It's just really hard for me to figure out people out of context, as well.

SI

[Cringer]

I am horrible with names, of many things not just people. Although town/city names I can remember simply because I have been to so many over and over. I can tell you my favorite bands, but I probably couldn't give you the correct name for even 12 of their songs. I most likely won't remember the band member's names. I have been coaching soccer the last month with several kids I didn't know before since I am coaching the whole age group together before teams are set. Some of those kids have been there 4 weeks and I don't know their names.

To give an example of how bad I can be. I had to ask my wife the other day what the name was of my 1 year old nephew. I had it right, but I wasn't really sure if I was right.

[kingnebwsu]

I don't watch that many movies...but I can tell you exactly what the movie was about, where I saw it, who I saw it with, and probably even a quote or two from it.

I also remember weird little things that my friends don't remember. This married couple I hang out with...the first time we hung out was when I invited them to a Wright State basketball game with me, my then-girlfriend, and my roommate. We played Miami (OH) and we lost a heartbreaker and I was really bummed at the end of the game. It really threw them because they're not sports fans & they don't get how "we" are But anyway, we all went to Friday's afterward and my roommate & I were talking about how awesome XBox Live was. My buddy bought an XBox on the way home.

I recounted this whole story to them a few months ago and he & his wife both gave me a blank stare. They couldn't recall any of it.

Another funny thing was when I cleaned out my coat like a week after I told them that story...I still had my ticket stub from that game in my pocket. Ahhhh, memories

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

So are you watching Sabrina reruns for Melissa Joan Hart, or Caroline Rhea?

I've definitely thought about having sex with every chick in that cast when watching that show.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I cannot remember new people's names to save our lives.

I am BRUTALLY bad with this as well. In a social setting i'll have to ask 1 or2 other people on the sly to give me the name of someone i just met, and times someone iv'e met 3-4 times already in similar group social settings.

[21C]

I'm really bad with remembering people's names when I first meet them. The worst time for me is parent-teacher interviews. I'll meet 40-50 people in one evening and not remember a single name (unless the mother was hot).

I think it's because I'm concentrating on the niceties of introducing myself after they've told me their names. As soon as I say my name, their name has vanished from my memory. I've considered doing the "Hi, Steve. My name is Richard. Nice to meet you, Steve" but I always thought it sounded a bit weird.

I'm really good with learning/remembering students' names at the start of a school year but only because I force myself. I start off with a seating plan/chart based on alphabetical order for each class and memorize the crap out of it. I usually have five classes with about 30 per class and I usually learn them all within the first week. I feel embarrassed to see other teachers struggling with names after teaching them for a whole year.

[Sgran]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

My short-term memory is terrible. If I'm not really engaged with something, it's gone. I'm like the guy from Memento.

Are you kidding me! You steal my joke and you can't even come up with "My name is Leonard Shelby. I'm from San Francisco"???????

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by 3ric

Yeah, me too. I usually tell my wife to write me a note instead of telling me what to buy or get. Otherwise, if I'm not doing it right away, I've forgotten it in a minute.

See, to me, 'being told' is different than 'said to.'

I think it's an engagement thing. "Josh, go to Subway and get this sandwich with all of these very particular topping directions, this sandwich like so, and this sandwich like so" is quite different from things that come out over the normal course of conversation.

The former, if it ain't written down, shit ain't happening.

The latter...I'll remember that. I still remember things my first girlfriend said in conversation when we were dating 12 1/2 years ago.

I couldn't tell you my mom's preferred Subway sandwich if I tried.