Memory Failures Are Memory Failures

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.

Episodic Memories

Episodic memories are the autobiographical events of a person's life based on his or her experiences, relationships, learning and ideas. In a loss of episodic memory, the links that exist in the temporal and frontal lobes of the brain are broken. This happens when the patient has suffered a head injury or has been in any form of trauma. Also, episodic memory failure happens when the frontal lobes are damaged and as a result, the patient is able to remember some information though not in the order in which it happened. Further more, this leads to false recollection of events that could not have happened.