{"id":33,"date":"2012-06-18T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2012-06-18T08:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/?p=42"},"modified":"2022-01-04T19:50:56","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T19:50:56","slug":"memories-always-a-work-in-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/2012\/06\/18\/memories-always-a-work-in-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories: Always a Work in Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-267\" title=\"faux-souvenirs\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/faux-souvenirs.jpg\" alt=\"faux-souvenirs\" width=\"110\" height=\"110\" \/>People tend to think that their memories are reliable and bear no resemblance to the false ones invented by people who suffer from confabulatory hypermnesia (severe false memory syndrome). But experiments using morally complex scenarios, such as those developed by psychologist Jonathan Haidt, have shown that normal subjects are surprisingly quick to invent explanations to justify intuitive moral stances, such as accepting the taboo against incest.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Such explanations are somewhat reminiscent of those offered by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/a\/a_12\/a_12_cr\/a_12_cr_con\/a_12_cr_con.html#gazzaniga\"><span style=\"color: #cc3300;\">split-brain patients whose left-hemisphere provides language-based justifications for their behaviour<\/span><\/a> to make it seem to make sense.<\/p>\n<p>A related but more generalizd phenomenon is memory reconsolidation: the process whereby, every time you remember something, the neural substrate of this memory is \u201crecalibrated\u201d on the basis of the current situation and thus, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/i\/i_07\/i_07_p\/i_07_p_tra\/i_07_p_tra.html\"><span style=\"color: #009999;\">from one reconstruction to the next<\/span><\/a>, can become fairly different from the actual stimulus that originally created it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/neurophilosophy.wordpress.com\/2009\/05\/26\/confabulatory_hypermnesia_or_severe_false_memory_syndrome\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #009999;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0pt none;\" title=\"i_link\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_lien.gif\" alt=\"i_lien\" width=\"15\" height=\"15\" \/> Confabulatory hypermnesia, or severe false memory syndrome<br \/>\n<\/span><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/people.virginia.edu\/~jdh6n\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #009999;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0pt none;\" title=\"i_rec\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_rec.gif\" alt=\"i_rec\" width=\"15\" height=\"15\" \/> Jonathan Haidt&#8217;s Home Page<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cognitionandculture.net\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=541:i-read-playboy-for-the-articles&amp;catid=31:hugo&amp;Itemid=34\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #009999;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0pt none;\" title=\"i_rec\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_rec.gif\" alt=\"i_rec\" width=\"15\" height=\"15\" \/> \u201cI read Playboy for the articles\u201d<br \/>\n<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People tend to think that their memories are reliable and bear no resemblance to the false ones invented by people who suffer from confabulatory hypermnesia (severe false memory syndrome). But experiments using morally complex scenarios, such as those developed by psychologist Jonathan Haidt, have shown that normal subjects are surprisingly quick to invent explanations to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,14],"tags":[20,28,29,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1045,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/1045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}