For those speaking french, a french specialist Lionel Naccache speak about 'episodic memories'
Pour ceux qui parlent le francais, une emission recente sur France Inter Γ propos de la memoire humaine.
https://www.franceinter.fr/emissions/sous-le-soleil-de-platon/notre-inconscient-nous-domine-t-il
I lack episodic memories. I can't go back in time in my mind, and the very idea sounds incredible. I can't fantasize about a future that isn't real. My mind is empty most of the time. I found out about my lack of imagination and my lack of episodic memories about 3 years ago. I know this only from doing research on my posting habits. I don't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, not really. I can guess.
How does not having a past that you can experience change a person? What other things could be going on in a mind that is silent and blind to it's inner environment?
I am immune to trauma, I think. I know all the details of the events, the who what where when why, maybe, but there is never a re-living. I can't feel anything about anything from the past ever and it has always been this way. The future also has very little hold on me, which is not good for planning or getting excited about things.
I have only had to deal with the present moment. My boredom and my focus on the present have made for some strange thoughts over the years. I have never been able to shake the feeling that reality is a construction of the mind and not as accurate as we wish it would be, and open to a lot of interpretation. I have obsessed with what goes on in other people's minds so much I feel that I understand their thought processes better than they do. This can never be a reality though, as having a mental image, mental sound, or moving around in some mental place and doing things is a super power to me, forever out of my reach.
So I am trapped in time, the present. All I do is think about how to deal with the present as best I can. I made up Symbolinism so that I could remember what my rules are. I had to write them down like this for myself. If you like the ideas then I am happy to share them with you, they came from a mind that is probably very alien to yours, unless you also have Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory. One mind.
The movie montage of repeated exercise or practice captures the forgettability of repeated behaviors. The remembrance of time spent with a specific person or in a specific place will present highlighted specific recollections supported by the emotional content involved in that memory.
Perhaps this was intentional at some point, in some film, at this point it seems a convenient narrative device and familiar trope to span otherwise comparatively narratively devoid segments of story.
Any film buffs, story writers or film historians care to add thoughts?
Hi friends, Iβve read a lot about how a lot of aphants have SDAM but I was curious if anyone else has a strong memory of personal events in the same way I do. This is how I experience life and wanted to see if anyone feels this way:
I canβt visualize. For example, I know what kind of features my motherβs face has, but I canβt βseeβ it - I remember observing it saving that in memory. When playing video games, I struggle to remember what visual queues look like - for example, if an action requires pulling out the minimap to perform, it takes me a moment to process the minimap when I pull it up even after doing so for the 1000th time. Unless I tried really hard to associate parts of the map to named locations, I can only give very vague descriptions like itβs on the top left, bottom right, etc.
Iβve read that a lot of aphants are great with words, have a strong inner voice, etc... I donβt. I donβt think in words unless Iβm trying to speak or type. And I find it difficult to find the right words to use, or to put thoughts into words, and then words into grammatically correct words, and then physically speak the words I decided on correctly without skipping or swapping or fumbling over them.
BUT I have a fantastic memory for things Iβve experienced. Iβll remember details about events and conversations from years ago. Itβs hard to explain, but I recall the experience and feeling of the event even though I canβt see or hear (I canβt reproduce other peopleβs voices or sounds in my head) - like I can remember the experience of walking and thinking certain things when an event happened and thatβs why I remember the event so clearly.
I just put it together that my lack of confidence in recalling experiential memory (not facts), where I'm worried I'm interpreting something wrong or overreacting by playing the devils advocate in my head, is actually my episodic memory being fucked and me thinking that's normal shit and I'm just being considerate. I generally try and run the thought process behind my thoughts or emotional responses by someone to make sure it makes sense because I don't trust that I'm not trying to be manipulative or that I have reason to feel how I feel. Realizing this kind of blew my mind to be honest. Kind of scary how fucked my episodic memory is with this understanding, but at least I sorta feel some validation.
Is anyone familiar with the concept of episodic memory (opposed to semantic memory) and knows about experiments on how to measure or test episodic memory? I'm thankful for every hint and insight.
Been trying to reconcile some issues with my memory and parts of SDAM feel very on point. However there's a few areas that are not congruent with what I know of it (-which isn't much-), and wanted to see if anyone else has experienced the same thing.
I've always wondered if the memories I have were mine, or just "memories" based on the stories people have told about them (since "memories" I can usually recall are things family members talk about)... even stories -I've- told about them (some later found to be false)... in addition to that I have big chunks of memory that just doesn't exist... 2nd grade tons of "memories"...4th grade tons of memories... 3rd grade? did I even -go- to 3rd grade??! who knows. similar chunks are missing through out my past... 8th grade? no idea... and fat chance me remembering what happened on a specific month or even year without some other prompts.
When I do "remember" it's mostly semantic in nature... "I went to the park" and since I definitely don't have a problem with Aphantasia I can visualize it, but it's always in the third person, often looking over the scene. Often I'm not even in it, but the scene happens just with me not being visible in the scene. (which I find odd in and of itself...)...
(after writing all that I have to wonder if even that visualization is just the imagination issue below)
Now the curious part, in regards to SDAM, is that if I put any effort at all even a little, I'm able to imagine that memory first person, but the keyword is imagine, It doesn't "feel" like a memory. First it requires effort, not a lot mind you... but I definitely have to -try- if not it's the 3rd person view. Secondly when this happens it seems to me much more like I'm imagining what would be happening from a 1st person view. Even having some "glitches" that get fixed as I remember something semantic in nature.
For example:
I know I snuck a ride on a dirtbike in a field near my house as a kid, if I think about that I then can then start to imagine what it would have been like o that dirtbike, then I remember I burnt my leg on the muffler, so I re-imagine that same scene with burning my leg on the muffler. Nothing sensory mind you just the motion of surprise (often popping out of 1st person to 3rd and back) I don't semantically remember if I fell off, I think I did but don't know how, so I usually never imagine that part, but sometimes I imagine several variations at the same time.
Just curious if any one else
... keep reading on reddit β‘Just curious if ADHD can cause a young adult to have issues with episodic memory? I am fascinated by memory as it pertains to the aging process.
What might explain a young adult to have memory issuesβspecifically episodic memory? Other possible factors: anxiety, depression, early on-set dementia, etc.
Am I missing anything? Appreciate anyone who may entertain my curiosities!
In this long text (be courageous if you accept to read it!) titled 'An historical perspective on Endel Tulving's episodic-semantic dichotomy' (https://psyarxiv.com/uzdpf/) the authors explain many things about 'episodic' memory but what is odd, i think. There is no link with mental imagery. There is no where in this text, they say : people can 'visualize' their past.
I think that's why it is so difficult to speak about SDAM. If you say : I can't visualize my past. I have no mental pictures about my past. Who cares because for scientists there is 'no official' link beetween mental imagery and the ability to remember your past with it. So the lack of it of course has no meaning for them!
Does it get harder and harder to visualise things in your head and recall memories as you age? And if so, how much?
(I would like you to comment if you have easeness or hardnees in visualizing images or memories. Please.)
I think that a lack of episody memory is a symptom of SCT... I have suffered Sct all my life, and I identify with all the symptoms of Sct, but I think that the most relevant problem from which all the other symptoms derive, is the problem of sensory processing. The focus of the vision is wrong, so some of us have a very bad long-term memory and an almost non-existent episodic memory.
It's called aphantasia, i think it is quite common in people with pure sct. It is a symptom of sct that is not recognized yet but doctor barckley mentioned in a conference that people with sct can have problems in long term memory which I think is related to episodic memory because long-term memories are images of memories from the past.
If we think about it, it makes sense because the problem of the SCT is in the focus of the view, then, how could we remember a "focused" image from the past in our imagination, if the problem is that we don't know how to focus well.
FYI this is somewhat of a spoiler b/c I am going to reference a question that I think is from FL 4 P/S.
I came across a question (I think from FL 4) that said when someone is trying to recall whether or not they were diagnosed with a disorder or illness of some sort during childhood it is related to episodic memory, however I chose semantic memory because I thought it would be a fact about your childhood. The explanation said that semantic memory has to do with general world knowledge and facts, not facts based on your personal life, therefore the answer would be episodic memory. Then, while doing Anki today, there was a flashcard that said autobiographical memory is made up of episodic memory (memory of events in your life) and semantic memory (memory of facts about your life). So is semantic memory truly just general world knowledge or could it also refer to facts about your life? Thanks in advance!
https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(20)30619-2
https://preview.redd.it/bgtpbaf8wyj51.jpg?width=761&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9827489110e93eaf6c02695292a5f2acfabbeae4
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2001.10913.pdf
MEMO: an architecture endowed with the capacity to reason over longer distances β this was accomplished with the addition of two novel components. 1. it introduces a separation between memories/facts stored in external memory and the items that comprise these facts in external memory. 2. it makes use of an adaptive retrieval mechanism, allowing a variable number of βmemory hopsβ before the answer is produced.
