Hello everyone!
So on September 15, we had a class discussion/lecture on how memory can influence our learning and vice versa. I found it very interesting, because everyone has a memory of some sort. Even now there might be some of you that just remembered that the laundry has been in the washing machine for the past two hours. My point, though, is that I never really thought how the facts and events that I remember, could have been somehow related on what society decided was worth remembering.
Take dreams, for example, some people say that they never dream, but this is not true because everyone does. The only thing that differs is that some of us remember them and some of us do not, especially if it is a dream that repeats itself every night. This is not the main focus of society, though, because dreams usually do not become part of history, since they can be pretty irrelevant to everyone else. On the other hand, literature uses them to interpret the causes of events, so that it is easier for the reader to remember a certain capture. An example could be “Richard the III” by Shakespeare. In this poem he uses Richard’s dream, of himself dying, as connection and as an alarm to remind us that this character is going to die soon in the battle.
(http://lowres.cartoonstock.com/none-richard_iii-king_richard-royal-king-reburial-mtun1370_low.jpg)
What fascinates me about memory is also how we are influenced by others. For example when we are in a crowd, our thoughts become one with other people surrounding us. A case relevant to this example could be a soccer game. It is very popular in Italy to hear that the supporters of the losing team destroyed half of the city after the match. When the reporters, though, try to ask the people involved in the action, why they did that, the answer is usually “I don’t know” and most of them can not remember what happened or they have only a blurry image of the event. My question, then, is how is that possible? How does our brain know what is worth to be remembered and what is not?
