Schacter's seven sins of memory and their functions

Memory Failures

Are memory failures sins of memory?

Memory failures in different degrees are sins of memory. Schacter (2001) has divided memory malfunctions into seven broad categories. Out of these, transience, absent-mindedness and blocking are sins of omission where the mind fails to remember a fact or event or information while the four sins of commission are misattribution, suggestibility, bias and persistence where some amount is remembered though not entirely.

Transience is the loss of memory over a period of time and it is difficult for a person to recollect mundane events that took place a few years ago. Absent-mindedness is the gap between attention and memory because of distractions. The required information is not registered in the memory for retrieval. Blocking is the inability of the mind to come up with the required information at a certain point, though the same information may be retrieved sometime in the future. Misattribution is remembering the wrong source of information while suggestibility is the memory that is implanted by others using leading questions and suggestions. Bias is the influence of our knowledge and beliefs and persistence is our wish to remove certain disturbing events from our mind completely (Schacter 2001). Each of these sins contribute in one form or other to memory failure.

Potential functions of memory failure

The memory has certain potential functions after memory failure. One of the most important function is its evolutionary functions. Most scientists believe that the mind has been adapted to solve problems that arose in the environment and it is the natural selection process of the mind that leads to memory failures. In other words, memory failure occurs because the mind wants to focus on other things that will help us in the future.

A personal function of memory failure is to help us to forget things that we wish to. Its a good idea to leave behind information that is not necessary for us any more like past phone numbers and names of strangers whom we may not meet again.

Implicit memories

Implicit memories are those that do not require intentional remembering or recollection and include perceptual and motor skills learning. The cerebellum part of the brain is involved in motor skills learning and when this part is damaged, it becomes difficult for patients to learn or recollect motor skills thereby leading to an implicit memory failure. Also, the basal ganglia is another part of the brain that is responsible for sequencing actions in the right order and when this is damaged, it has an impact on the implicit memory. This is why amnesia patients have no problem in learning new motor skills because their cerebellum and basal ganglia remain unaffected.