Writing and Memory
Has writing weakened memory? This might be a difficult assess as Ong (2015) has noted, “how stable the verbalization is over any period of time apparently remains to be investigated (p 62).” That being said, however, studies performed on oral cultures noted an inconsistency the way in which poems, songs or chants are recited by different people, over time. This can be attributed to the large number of variables that effect the memorization of oral communication. Ong (2015) uses an example of Japanese students chanting The Tale of the Heike. He examines how oral masters drill their young apprentices to recite the chant over a number of years. Although these students are very successful the masters make changes during their recitals of which they are unaware (pg 62). Other studies performed on illiterate Yugoslavian singers showed that their songs were never sung the same way twice. Instead they were affected by such factors as the audience reaction and the mood of the poet (Ong 2015, pg. 59).
When assessing how writing has effected memory one must remember why writing was created in the first place. There are many examples that display how written languages developed to preserve knowledge and culture. The Runic alphabet of Ancient Scandinavia was developed with the intent of preserving the poetry and fables of the Ancient Nordic societies (Seijas 2014, p. 3). Without written texts non-written forms of communication will suffer from transformation and even reformulation (Seijas 2014 p. 4). All one needs to do is observe Homer’s Illiad. Here is an Ancient Greek text, written thousands of years ago, that is preserved forever simply because of the development of a written language. Ong (2015) makes the observation that the political information provided by the Iliad could only be found in verbalized form through a narrative or a genealogy (p. 42). Most likely, without the Iliad in a written form the political information within it would most likely suffer from different elucidations depending on who is doing the interpretation.
To return to the original question “Does writing weaken memory?” From studies examining oral communication and the variables that affect them to the study of early written texts there is not enough evidence that shows our memories have been weakened. Even if they had this would not truly matter. I just came back from grocery shopping. Before I left the house I scribbled down a list of food items that I needed to purchase. Much like Homer did when he compiled the names of the ancient Greek leaders and the regions they ruled (Ong 2015, p. 42). Would I have forgotten some items if it had not created that list? There is a distinct possibility I would have. If I was illiterate and coming from a society where oral communication was dominate would my memory have been capable of remembering all 20 items? Again there is not enough evidence to make that conclusion. What I can conclude, however, is because of the writing on my paper I now have milk and eggs in my fridge right now.
Ong, W. (2015). Orality and literacy: 30th anniversary edition. New York, New York: Routledge.
Seijas, Elena. Literacy In Scandinavia: A Passage From Orality Influenced By Runes. 1st ed. Hugvísindasvið: N.p., 2014.
“To return to the original question “Does writing weaken memory?” From studies examining oral communication and the variables that affect them to the study of early written texts there is not enough evidence that shows our memories have been weakened.”
Thank you for you post Adam! Let me contribute to your remarks here. I found this article from the NYT reporting on a study from Nature. In the article, one of the many conclusions is that memories fade without reinforcing (which makes a lot of sense). Repetition is of course a way of reinforcing, but such is the act of writing, right? (whether you use what you have written as a record or not). Anyways, if you the time and the interest, you can take a look at the article and let me know what you think.
Your post made me think about a commercial that I saw for Lumosity. Through simple daily exercise, everyone can develop their memory and recall! When I read your post, it made me wonder if our growing dependence on written texts or easily accessible information on the internet has affected our ability to exercise our memory on our own. For example, you commented on creating a list for your groceries. In this new age of technology, I simply tell Siri to add something to my grocery list on my Apple phone which I can refer to when I arrive at the store. At one time, I remember making mnemonic lists or simple rhymes to remember items to buy at the grocery list. This trait of oral cultures that I used to exercise on a regular basis has fallen victim to the convenience afforded by technology. Although you write that, “From studies examining oral communication and the variables that affect them to the study of early written texts there is not enough evidence that shows our memories have been weakened.” Even though there is not enough empirical evidence to support the effect of print on memory, I know from my own experience that if I don’t need to stretch my memory, I often won’t because I don’t want to rely on my own, sometimes falliable memory.
In fact, memory can mean any number of things to various people. When I think about memory, I also think about how transactive memory might be used in a primary oral culture. The various memories of a group of people are leveraged so that everyone is responsible for the collective memory. For example, in a community, a certain person or people may be responsible for remembering methods for medical treatment, another remembers rituals and another for hunting grounds. The collective group is responsible for the overall history and knowledge of the group so the onus of memory does not fall on only one person.
However, in today’s world where there are various data bases, knowing how to access and assess information is becoming more important than simple fact recall. Knowing where one has stored information and how to utilize the information is becoming more relevant than simply knowing the information. This shift in focus is definitely having an effect in education, as evidenced by the new BC curriculum which is focusing less on content and more on skills and concepts.
Going back to Neil Postman’s “Technopoly” on the topic of memory addressed within the Thamus quotation:
“Those who acquire it will cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful; they will rely on writing to bring things to their remembrance by external signs instead of by their own internal resources” (Neil Postman, 1992, Chap 1 para 2).
The topic of memory is closely tied with the act of moving from one technology to the next (here, from oral to literary communication). Whether we shift from speech to the written word, or as others have mentioned, from oral memorization (of lists etc.) to written or typed memorization into our phones/devices, we are changing the very functioning or active areas of our brains (neuroplasticity).
Such actions as changing brain functions/activities (whether intentionally or subconsciously) such as the one addressed in the study by Wimber et al. (2015) discussed in the NYT article linked above by Ernesto, point in the direction of a need for further research in the area of memory. I found this aspect of the study as one that would be of particular interest to those people suffering from phobias, as well as to those who are paid to treat them:
“Kenneth Norman, a Princeton neuroscientist who was also not involved in the study, said he believed it showed a memory-weakening effect, but that “forgetting is multiply determined, and the two main explanations, they’re not mutually exclusive.”
He said therapeutic applications of memory weakening could include extinguishing fears of something like snakes.
“If you show someone a cartoon image of a snake, cute, funny,” he said, “in the moment you’ve caused liking the snake to overcome not liking the snake. If you want to actually weaken a memory, what you need to do is flush it out. It’s the process of the memory coming to mind as a competitor, but losing the competition.”” (Belluck, 2015)
Such aspects of memory and technology (advancement of both literacy and neuroscience) will continue to change and develop as humans become increasingly dependent on external memory technologies and communication technologies.
Belluck, Pam. (2015). Memories Weaken Without Reinforcement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/17/science/memories-become-weaker-without-reinforcement-study-finds.html?_r=1
Postman, Neil. (1992). Technopoly: the surrender of culture to technology. Retrieved from:
link: https://books.google.ca/books?id=gYrIVidSiLIC&printsec=frontcover&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
The King is dead, long live The King
Using your analogy, the Internet is the ultimate grocery list. It contains all the information we wished we could remember. The Internet is essentially evolving into becoming our working collective memory. With a vast and practically limitless accessible memory bank, what is the purpose of exercising our own? When I get to the store, why trust my potentially flawed memory when I can access the grocery list at any time.
From a physiological perspective, it would be interesting to determine whether ‘writing weakens memory’. That would be useful information to have as part of the collective memory. Oral cultures evolved into literate ones, and in turn literate cultures are evolving into a technoliterate one. Moving from one end of the spectrum to the other, the value of memory is what changes. In the oral culture, the elder with decades of knowledge is highly praised. In the technoliterate culture, the young creative mind is valued.
As an educator in this new world order, I need to predict what our students will be asked to accomplish. Being entirely pragmatic about the challenges facing our students; how does the ability to repeat Grandpa’s stories help them in any way? What I hope they can do with Grandpa’s stories, or any piece of information for that matter, is: identifying the salient details, incorporate them with other ideas, and apply them in new contexts to solve complex problems. I would also hope they listen to Grandpa with a critical ‘ear’ and verify the authenticity of questionable content.
Memory is dead, long live The Internet
Thanks for exploring the question on memory and writing. It is certainly an interesting concept, it also very tricky to investigate as we are not an oral culture and it is hard to compare two different cultures that for the most part also come from two different times.
I was particularly happy to see your posts since I was part of a very similar themed discussion at my last department meeting, about provincial exam scores. Our school has a digital focus and all of our students have their own personal device. Since we have made this change and gone almost paperless, our exam scores have dropped a bit. There has been some concern that because students are not hand writing notes (or any of their work for that matter) that it is affecting their recall. Just as it was suggested the the repetitive nature of oral cultures helped with memory, maybe the process of writing things down also helps students to process information and therefore remember it better. There are also thoughts that the students do not engage with the information the same way they use to because they know that it can be accessed again at another time. Which is sort of a new level of memory laziness. “Mare13” makes a similar observation about how having easy access to just about anything on the internet means that we do not have to remember things. In real life you do not have to remember your grocery list, or even when people’s birthdays are, your phone will remind you. Bringing it back to tests – maybe tests need to change (instead of having the kids change) to reflect the new access to information that we now have. As was suggested knowing how to access and assess information is arguably more important than simply remembering. I am not a big fan of tests (especially our provincial exams) but if we are going to test maybe accessing and assessing are more appropriate skills to evaluate.