Unused Memories

I have long been fascinated with memory and concept of memories. If you go back through this blog you will probably find several references to memory, memory studies, the meanings of memories. Recently I received an e-newsletter from Harvard outlining the 7 types of "normal memory problems."

I want to talk about one of them (besides that gives me 6 more reasons to post in the future....)

The first type listed was "transcience" the notion that we forget things over time. The article points out that information used frequently is less likely to be forgotten. I'm sure we can all relate to that. We remember more easily the phone numbers of people we call all the time, for instance. But, it is interesting to think of the things we DO remember, that we hardly ever call up. Why is that? What makes a memory stick?

I was really struck by this line in the story, though, "Although transience might seem like a sign of memory weakness, brain scientists regard it as beneficial because it clears the brain of unused memories, making way for newer, more useful ones." Is an unused memory useless? It seems to imply that only the things we remember every day are useful memories. I'd like to think that some events that I only call up once a decade are still an important part of my life and being. And, if you lose a memory is it completely gone? Maybe its content has become integrated somehow into your very being and so lives on in an indirect way.

I don't know, it makes me want to start using my old memories before they consider themselves useless and are displaced by some new information, like another computer password...