– 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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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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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