Episodic & Semantic Memory
Everything was a memory of a memory each recollection fires neurons that rewrite the file, suggesting that the more you remember something, the more you degrade it memory is a copy of a copy of a copy increasingly blurry, susceptible to distortions. The first time I fully realized -- a copy of a copy -- was when I kept re-telling the story of my first memory in life: I am four, standing behind my father at the entrance to an apartment. Uncle Chiel, my father's brother, was inside eager to welcome us. I was afraid, hiding behind my father. Do I "remember" that? No. No. The first time I told it I think I must have felt it: I am afraid of that man inside.... But was it my recollection or a story told to me? Do I "remember" No. It has become a story, and recollections of any actual physical experiences are "increasingly blurry, susceptible to distortions." We fail to remember much of what happens to us even things we remember are often wrong neural circuits associated with imagination are active during the act of remembering. Of course. We can't help ourselves -- we imagine while remembering. retrieved information fleshed out with preëxisting knowledge to compose a story that feels coherent to us. That has to be. We need to make sense of our lives, of what happened to us. So we make a story: First this happened, then.... First "this" happened? Where does one begin? By constructing a story with a beginning middle and end -- that we can tell people -- tell ourselves really. The article in the New Yorker" (5/20/24) "Can Forgetting Help You remember," made a distinction new to me. There are two Kinds of Memory: Episodic and Semantic. Episodic memory happens when we recall experiences. a form of “mental time travel,” where we enter a state of consciousness similar to the one we were in when the memories were stored. A friend introduced me to the words "Episodic Memory." Yep, that's me and isn't a lovely word -- Episodic -- to hide the fact I can't remember jackshit. Do you remember the time we...? Nope. Do you remember the restaurant on the water.... Nope. Do you rember. F...No. I loved saying I have no "episodic" Memory Semantic memory is the retrieval of discrete facts knowledge not reliant on summoning experiential context in which the information was learned. That's it: Semantic memory. I remember the words I need to talk fluently and persuasively (Rhetorical skill). I remember the argument presented in a book I read.... Sometimes I even remember "where" it was: almost at the bottom of the left hand page of the book -- about a third of the way into the book. Semantic Memory. “literal recall is extraordinarily unimportant” “Forgetting isn’t a failure of memory; it’s a consequence of processes that allow our brains to prioritize information that helps us navigate and make sense of the world,” It is astonishing how much of my life I have forgotten -- wiped from my mind. Recently I've begun to believe in reincarnation: I remember so little of this life, why would I remember any part of any other life?