📘 Part 3: Memory

This episode's vocabulary

Preschool (adj.) - of or relating to children who are between about three and five years old and have not yet gone to school, and their activities.

To bring someone up (phrasal verb) - to care for a child until they are an adult, often giving them particular beliefs.

Stretch (noun) - a continuous period of time.

Traumatic (adj.) - causing severe and lasting emotional shock and pain.

In this/that regard - in this particular way.

To stand out (phrasal verb) - to be very noticeable.

To be prone to something/do something - likely to show a particular characteristic, usually a negative one, or to be affected by something bad, such as damage or an illness.

Organizer (noun) - a book or small computer in which you keep a record of what you have to do, your meetings, etc.

To aid (verb) - to help.

Retention (noun) - the ability to keep or continue having something.

Prompt (noun) - anything that serves to remind.

Cue (noun) - a signal for someone to do something.

Distortion (noun) - a change to the intended or true meaning of something.

Irrelevant (adj.) - not related to what is being discussed or considered and therefore not important.

Defective (adj.) - something that is defective has a fault in it and does not work correctly.

Collective memory (noun) - shared experiences and knowledge passed on within a social group or society.

Questions and Answers

M: What early childhood memories do people usually have?

R: It's not something I know much about. But from what I remember, there are usually some preschool memories like playing with toys and family members, learning how to do things like tying your shoes. Oh, and of course you recall spending time with the people who brought you up.

M: Why do some people remember more of their childhood than others?

R: I suppose some people have better memories overall, just because of simple biology, really. Other people might not have had very memorable childhoods, it was just one long, boring stretch for them. In a minority of cases, maybe some people had some kind of traumatic experience which prevented their memories of that time from forming properly.

M: And why do some people have better memories than others?

R: Well, we already talked about the role that biology plays. So some people might just have better genetics in this regard. Others may have had more experiences that stood out for them. I mean, you're more likely to remember trips to different places around the world than you are just another day in your home town, for example.

M: What kinds of things do people have to remember?

R: Oh, in an ideal world, names, times of different events like birthdays. Things that tend to carry a lot of meaning to most people and those closest to them. I mean, you'd be rather annoyed if your partner forgot your name or your birthday, right?

M: What kinds of people are forgetful?

R: I don't know if there's a specific kind of person, but maybe people who are quite busy or disorganized in terms of information they keep to hand or more prone to forgetting things, since there's usually a lot for their brains to cope with. Maybe too much if they're forgetting things.

M: What are some techniques people can use to help them remember important information?

R: Well, definitely a diary or some sort of organizer... Or, well, keeping a diary or some sort of organizer, I should say. That way everything is held into one place, and you have to write or type it, which I think aids memory retention. They can also use prompts like visual cues and alarms to help remind them of things.

M: Do you think people can trust their memories?

R: Most of the time, I would say so, yes. They're never 100% perfect, of course, there's always some distraction or distortion that reflects that and you forget things that aren't particularly meaningful or irrelevant. I think they're effective at capturing the big things. I mean, if they weren't, then we'd have gone extinct from having defective memories a while back.

M: How do you think technology has affected our ability to remember things?

R: I'm not sure it's possible, really. I mean, on an evolutionary scale, we've only had advanced technology for a really short time. And changes in human abilities don't usually take place over such periods. They might have given us things to add to it, but to change the fundamental nature would be very unlikely. You could argue that we have greater access to collective memory. But that's just a question of scale. There's just more information to draw on.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your memorable answers!

R: Ooh, memorable.