Why We Forget, Essay Example

Lost memories exist within the human brain because of many factors that cause misremembering and even repression of difficult events.  For instance, many memories are forgotten due to a large amount of duress and painful truth about actual events.  Depression, stress, and other psychological problems can cause the human brain to intentionally protect the body from further damage by repressing the painful memories.  As this takes place throughout the body and brain, people begin to fill in the blanks of the misremembered events with information that would make sense logically.  Repression is a highly studied topic within cognitive science, especially in the phenomena of coping with stressful or painful situations that can occur in everyday life.

Repression is a highly scientific term that often varies upon complexity based on the theories and philosophies surrounding its explanation.  However, current research appears to be united in the purpose of repression as a coping tool and that it is often utilized by most people at one time or another.  “There is increasing evidence that in everyday life individuals may use inhibitory processing strategies to regulate their awareness of memories and thoughts they find threatening or painful” (Barnier, Levin & Maher, 2004).  Due to the unknown nature of threatening or painful memories and thoughts, it is difficult for researchers to quantify specific characteristics that define memories that would be repressed.  However, other researchers have described memory repression as “a suppression-type process directed at the to-be-inhibited information for some adaptive purpose, which results in the loss of retrieval access to, but not availability of, certain memory material” (Barnier, Levin & Maher, 2004).  By using this definition, the extremity of repressed thoughts and memories is not quantified, but rather it acknowledges that individuals must suppress information for adaptive purposes.  This can vary within each individual.

Furthermore, repression is often interwoven with misremembering and a term commonly known as false memory.  “The term false memory can describe a wide variety of memory errors ranging from misremembered word lists to erroneous reports of details in stories to false memories of dramatic life events” (Newman & Lindsay, 2009).  Due to the highly sensitive and emotional damage that can be caused through the different events of one’s life, it is clear that the brain must undergo a process to help protect the person and the body from the negative effects that can be caused by painful memory.  Sir Frederick Bartlett proposed in 1932 that remembering was based on reconstructing past events based on what he termed “schemata,” or structures that described expected elements of memories.  In other words, he stated that “we tend to remember past events in ways that conform to our general beliefs and expectations” (Newman & Lindsay, 2009).  Therefore, it is clear that a highly traumatic event, where the individual may have become victimized at one time or another, would likely force false memory caused by the inhibiting act of repression as a coping mechanism within the human body.

Much evidence exists that suggests that influences could lead individuals to report false memories, or even complete repression of details, especially during self-functions where repression can act as a method for individuals to cope with highly traumatic events (Barnier, Levin & Maher, 2004).  Researchers have usually attributed repression to acts of sexual victimization such as child rape, incest, or other sexually violating events.  Other traumatic events could also include the death of a family member, a recent shooting, or a terrible car accident.  The pain of reconstructing a memory of such an invasive magnitude can cause much more damage than good.  Therefore, individuals utilize repression to help cope with these traumatic events, and inhibit their own abilities to recall complete information, which leads to false memories or forgotten memories.

References

Barnier, A., Levin, K., & Maher, A. (2004). Suppressing thoughts of past events: Are repressive copers good suppressors?. Cognition & Emotion, 18(4), 513-531. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Drivdahl, S., Zaragoza, M., & Learned, D. (2009). The role of emotional elaboration in the creation of false memories. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23(1), 13-35. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Emmerson, K. (2006). Bad memory? sharpen your ability to remember with these techniques. Associated Content, Retrieved from Web site: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/21485/bad_memory_sharpen_your_ability_to.html?cat=5

Newman, E., & Lindsay, S. (2009). False memories: What the hell are they for?. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23(8), 1105-1121. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.