– 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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Just a speculation and I would welcome others’ insight.
It’s a difference of long term and short term memory. We are often taught mnemonic devices to move things to our long term memory: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally for order of operations (go America!) and singing the letters to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to learn the Alphabet.
It’s easier to remember lyrics to that song from 10 years ago because the instruments and rhythm are mnemonic devices. If I stomp my feet twice then clap ( boom boom clap ) that can trigger We Will Rock You.
Edit to add:
In theory, you could make mnemonic device to remove your tea bag. Maybe play We Will Rock You every time you brew tea.
You do remember taking the bag out of the cup. You just don’t remember which day you did that.
I strongly believe that passing oral traditions through the generations with song was a critical survival factor for our hominid ancestors, such that we store songs separately and redundantly.
Songs = emotions.
Teabag = not so much.
People remember emotions much better, also stimulating multiple senses helps (hearing a song when watching a movie or meeting someone, hugging someone during a song etc.)
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.
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.
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.
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
For one, you aren’t hearing about removing the tea bag from the cup repeatedly every day for a few months.
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