– how come we can remember lyrics of songs heard 10, maybe 20 years ago but we forget to remove the tea bag from the cup ?
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Also do you really remember the full lyrics without the song playing? I would guess that is not true at all for 99%+ of the populace.
Just take three old pop songs and try to write down the full lyrics
I get frustrated about forgetting the names of people and things from the past, but I wonder if it might be largely due to the overwhelming amount of incoming information our minds are crammed with nowadays. My life is absolutely awash with computer-based interests, plus the distractions of a multitude of TV channels and streaming services. Then there’s all the books I like to read, on top of striving to keep fit, and a smattering of social activities (though I’m a bit of a loner). All this means there is now a lot less time to ruminate and recall events from the past, so old memories are seldom refreshed and the connections get rusty. I can still remember events, places, faces etc. quite clearly, but not necessarily their names. My short-term memory still seems to be holding up okay.
It’s like your computer. Files you have on a computer could last for years. But if you’re writing a school report in a Word document and the power goes off, you lose all the work. Files are stored in long term memory (hard disk) just like the lyrics of songs from decades ago.. and the current document is stored in short term memory (RAM), just like tea bag in the cup. You get distracted for a bit and you just forget about it.
There are different types of memories. Songs are remembered because they have emotional value. Tasks are more procedural and are kept in a separate memory space. The memories tied to emotional values are more memorable because emotions keep you alive in tricky situations.
Encoding,
you remember how you felt and the music because your mind remembers the connection between the two being somewhat important.
you didn’t remember the tea bag because there’s probably nothing important about that one vs all the other ones you have dealt with at least until it hits your lips.
For one, you aren’t hearing about removing the tea bag from the cup repeatedly every day for a few months.
If you want to learn a lot about this in a painless way, read Remember by Lisa Genova. Great book and addresses this in depth. Mostly, you don’t pay attention to small tasks like this long enough to create a memory, so it disappears from your working memory in about 30 seconds
There’s a clue in each line about what comes next.
A thousand years ago, Vikings wrote their history as rhyming poems so that if you messed up it would immediately be obvious.
Your brain has 2 boxes.Short Term Memory and Long Term Memory
And it takes subjective amount of time. based on the person, the experience, and their state of mind at the time, anywhere from several minutes to several hours for a memory to move from the “Short” box to the “Long” box. And if anything interrupts that process it can extend the amount of time it takes, or stop the process all together.
If memories you put in the short box can be tied to an emotion or a feeling, tend to get into the long box faster and more vividly, because you remember the feeling it gave you, and other the other parts of the memory more vividly.
All this is greatly helped by how much you enjoy the thing, and how often you remember the thing.
My best guess:
You can remember a song lyric because of the song and the feeling it gave you, and you’ve probably listened to it hundreds of times.
You forget to remove the tea bag because despite doing it hundreds or thousands of times, the best part about it is drinking it, not making it.
Edit:
This is why people with alzheimers, and brain damage resulting in Anterograde (going forwards from) amnesia. Means you’re unable to form new long term memories. Their ability to move memories from the “Short” box to the “Long” box is disrupted.
And in severe cases the ability to get memories back from the “Long” box can be disrupted, or completely interrupted.
I’m not completely up to date on the science, this is from my psychology studies from years ago. The theory might have changed since then.
I don’t know the answer, but it’s incredible that ordinary people, with ordinary brains can remember the entire Koran by making it essentially a song.
And people who went to better schools than me, can remember all the English monarchs and certain bits of chemistry or history decades later because they were turned into fun songs.
I remember pretty much all the lyrics to hit songs I hated and still hate. Because I had to go to school discos or be somewhere where a radio was on. It got imprinted on my stupid brain.
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