Imagine that you have a two-year-old daughter. She’s happily playing with toy construction equipment in a sandbox. Then, out of left field, she says, “When I was a grownup I used to drive a forklift like this one. Except mine was orange and had the number five on it. Once…
Hoarding is driven by a strong emotional connection with an object. A new study from the University of Bath finds this connection is rooted in vivid positive memories. Researchers interviewed 27 people with hoarding problems and 28 without. Each was asked to remember the last time they discarded or tried…
There are two main categories of memory: short and long-term memory, which differ in what information is stored and how. Short-term memory is essentially responsible for storing temporary information and deciding what to do with it: throw it away or pass it to our long-term memory. Long-term memory, on the…
A cardinal feature of depression, like other mental health conditions such as anxiety or trauma, is difficulty with memory: remembering, recalling, and—sometimes in severe cases—recognizing people, things, tasks, memories, events, and to-dos. Often, people with depression will have great difficulty remembering where things in the house or at work may…
Alzheimer’s diminishes one’s memory, ability to think, and everyday functioning; currently, an estimated 5.8 million Americans suffer from the disease. That said, memory loss doesn’t always signify Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia—instead, we might experience a simple lapse in our memory. It’s important to distinguish the difference and understand…
Many worry about memory loss as they get older, which is a reasonable concern, considering a large percentage of adults lose their memory as they age. Fortunately, though, we can take preventative measures: first, it’s important we maintain a strong social network and prioritize time with other people. Additionally, we…
A recent study says emotional or traumatic events can create false memories, despite the widespread belief that traumatic events are more vivid and, therefore, reliable. The latter belief is called flashbulb memory, which says that emotional events cause us to completely capture the context of the event and our reaction…
Rarely do we second guess the validity of our memory, but the truth is that our minds do sometimes deceive us by creating false or distorted memories. A recent study demonstrated this phenomenon, as participants claimed to remember viewing footage of United 93 crashing in Pennsylvania on September 11—but this…
Implicit memory is easily recalled without much effort, helping us with tasks like walking, talking, and driving a car on a regular basis, all without much effort. An Implicit Association Test was created to test our associations with particular individuals; it urges subjects to make quick judgments and often indicates…
Persons with untreated sleep apnea are prone to forget important details about their pasts. Researchers at RMIT University compared 44 adults with untreated sleep apnea to 44 healthy individuals. They assessed each participant’s recall of memories from different stages of life. Results showed that those with sleep apnea remembered significantly…
People remember more while still intoxicated than they do a week later. A University of Gothenburg study recruited 136 participants and divided them into twogroups. One group drank vodka, while the other drank juice. Participants then watched ashort film that depicted a verbal and physical altercation. Half of the participants…
Losing a loved one is always difficult, but there is a more severe form of grief—called complicated grief—which makes it hard for an individual to ever move forward with life. Complicated grief is marked by debilitating feelings that don’t resolve or improve with time; instead, they can haunt an individual…
