Hampl, [2002]. “Memory and Imagination. In The Fourth Genre by R. L. Root and M. Steinberg,Eds. New York, NY: Longman.
Fiction writers must master the art of creating a vivid picture, but the challenge for memoirists is to determine how and what to remember. Very often, storytelling, whether verbal or written, is a cross between fiction and nonfiction. For example, when people write memoirs, they typically convey the truth—to the best of their knowledge. However, memory plays tricks on us, and sometimes details get blurred. Typically, what we remember is based on how we felt (positive or negative) in response to an experience.
At times, when we tell stories, we might consciously or unconsciously fill in the gaps as a way to make the narrative hang together; thus, we are merging our memories with our imagination. This can also be called embellishment. A well-known example is the drama surrounding James Frey’s memoir, A Million Little Pieces. Back in 2002, SmokingGun published an article claiming that Frey had fabricated part of his book. This inspired many people to read it, and, as a result, sales skyrocketed. When he was interviewed about what happened, Frey said that all memoirists alter minor details to increase the literary effect of their stories. His comment ignited a nationwide discussion about truth in memoir, something I had been discussing in my writing workshops for years.
Memoryis fallible. Memory is fragile. Memory ends at the present moment. It is everything you have lived, experienced, seen, and felt up until this instant. Everyone holds their own set of memories. Sometimes it might feel unnecessary to stick to the exact or literal truth of what happened, as long as the message or the meaning of the experience is portrayed.
3. Baddeley’s model of Working memory: With the glaringly obvious role of attention in manipulating information in working memory, Baddely created a model that better accounts for manipulation in working memory. There is an addition of 3 important features to the vague idea of short-term memory and working memory.
Short-term memory: A temporary storage of information (one time passwords, phone numbers) Long-term memory: The long-term storage of memory (life events, personal details, unique skills). This may not be genuinely unlimited/infinite but can keep growing.
It gets the dual-store title because the researchers consider short-term and long-term memory as disparate units of storage. This assumption has evidence from memory studies done on patients with amnesia (memory loss). The most famous one is the case of Henry Molaison, popularly known as HM in psychology textbooks.
As per the model, information needs to be attended to and then encoded (changing its form) to go into long-term storage. Information can be forgotten from any of the 3 registers. Once information is in the STM, it can be recalled. For it to move to long-term memory, STM contents need to be rehearsed and thereby strengthened. To recall information that has transferred to LTM, retrieval is necessary to bring it back into STM and then recalled. A key strength of this model is that it laid a structured foundation for studying memory. Their distinction between STM and LTM is still functional today.
Implicit memory (non-declarative memory): Internalized aspects of memory that are largely unconscious. Such as swimming or singing the lyrics of a song you haven’t deliberately learned. It also includes information that affects your actions without your awareness such as obeying game rules or driving maneuvers.
Working memory: A reconceptualization of Short-term memory where information is not just temporarily stored but is also manipulated (active thinking, logic, mental math, mentally updating a grocery list). Implicit memory (non-declarative memory): Internalized aspects of memory that are largely unconscious.
Although dozens of models are created by different research times every now and then, this model improves the scale at which it is useful – explain memory diseases , evidence without explanations , complexities of working memory , etc.
The episodic memory stores your sensory-perceptual-affective experiences. They are normally stored as visual gestalts (sequenced images), from a particular point of view (yours), and are usually stored based on their affective valence (the stronger the emotional association with the experience, the greater the likelihood you will recall—you almost certainly don’t remember the third time you rode your bike around the neighborhood without falling). Episodic-affective memories are the kind that are inhibited when people are trying to force themselves to forget some distressing experience (e.g., PTSDvets avoiding flashbacks).
The semantic system stores your factual knowledge about rules, norms, math or logic, and historical events. If you know answers to such questions as, “Who was Jimmy Carter’s vice president?”, “How many protons are in a Helium atom?”, “What is 6 cubed?”, and “What is the legal drinking age in Canada?”, they are all stored in your semantic knowledge system. Think of the semantic system as your stored encyclopedia of definitional and conceptual knowledge.
Episodic-affective memories are the kind that are inhibited when people are trying to force themselves to forget some distressing experience (e. g ., PTSD vets avoiding flashbacks). Although stored in different systems, both semantic and episodic memories are called “declarative” memory systems.
Two Psychologies: Objective Science and Subjective Folk
It seems pretty well-known that short-term memory operates over a period of seconds to minutes and has limited operating space (i.e., the famous 7 +/- 2 items), whereas long-term memory has a potentially infinite storage capacity and the material placed in long term memory is much more stable. In my experience, people are much less cognizant of the fact that knowledge is stored in three different kinds of long-term memory systems. Yet this is crucial because it speaks volumes about how our minds are organized.
Procedural memories are largely nonconscious, as is evident by the fact that you can’t introspect and see them. The fact that procedural learning can take place completely independently of the more conscious, declarative memory systems was brought into very clear relief by one of the most famous patients in psychology, HM. HM had bad seizures, and was operated on in a way that knocked out his ability to lay down new conscious memories. Thus, if you came in and saw HM, asked him a few questions, left for an hour and came back, he would not recall you at all. However, researchers found they could teach HM procedures, such as drawing in a mirror or playing a game. He would deny he had any recollection of doing such activities, yet he was able to learn them as almost effectively as someone who had full conscious recall abilities, hence the clear separation of procedural from declarative memory systems.
The fact that procedural learning can take place completely independently of the more conscious, declarative memory systems was brought into very clear relief by one of the most famous patients in psychology, HM.
Hampl, [2002]. “Memory and Imagination. In The Fourth Genre by R. L. Root and M. Steinberg,Eds. New York, NY: Longman.
Fiction writers must master the art of creating a vivid picture, but the challenge for memoirists is to determine how and what to remember. Very often, storytelling, whether verbal or written, is a cross between fiction and nonfiction. For example, when people write memoirs, they typically convey the truth—to the best of their knowledge. However, memory plays tricks on us, and sometimes details get blurred. Typically, what we remember is based on how we felt (positive or negative) in response to an experience.
At times, when we tell stories, we might consciously or unconsciously fill in the gaps as a way to make the narrative hang together; thus, we are merging our memories with our imagination. This can also be called embellishment. A well-known example is the drama surrounding James Frey’s memoir, A Million Little Pieces. Back in 2002, SmokingGun published an article claiming that Frey had fabricated part of his book. This inspired many people to read it, and, as a result, sales skyrocketed. When he was interviewed about what happened, Frey said that all memoirists alter minor details to increase the literary effect of their stories. His comment ignited a nationwide discussion about truth in memoir, something I had been discussing in my writing workshops for years.
Memoryis fallible. Memory is fragile. Memory ends at the present moment. It is everything you have lived, experienced, seen, and felt up until this instant. Everyone holds their own set of memories. Sometimes it might feel unnecessary to stick to the exact or literal truth of what happened, as long as the message or the meaning of the experience is portrayed.