UNFORGETTABLE

EMOTIONS PLAY A BIG ROLE IN WHAT WE REMEMBER

- R. Douglas Fields

I listened in amazement as the tanned, muscular climber in the Yosemite Valley area of California proceeded to describe his entire climb up the sheer granite face of El Capitan. He managed to relate every inch of the six-day climb he'd accomplished a year before. I couldn't believe what an amazing memory he had. How could I ever hope to achieve this feat of recall? Later, I learned that I too could relate every inch of my scariest climbs. That's because the emotional fear factor made them unforgettable.

Emotion has a very strong effect on memory. Scientists have learned that emotional memories are handled differently in the brain. Most events in our life are held in our memory for only a few minutes—then they're gone. It takes endless repetition and effort to learn your times tables, but "flash-bulb" memories of emotional events are burned instantly into your mind after a single experience.

What Is Memory?

Memory is connecting experiences together so that they can be recalled at a later time. In our brains, nerve cells called neurons process all our mental experiences. Memory is simply the process of connecting certain neurons together to make a mental association. We have long-term and short-term memories, and each is stored differently in our brains.

Why do we have two types of memories? Just imagine how cluttered your mind would become if you remembered I every single thing that you experienced! A small number of people actually do. It's a condition called hyperthymesia, or highly superior autobiographical memory, and it can be bothersome. Most of the stuff that's stored is useless information.