Memories....................

But here’s the thing: a lot of what we think we know about how memory works is wrong. First off, it’s not a perfect video recording of what happened. Memories are a lot more like Legos, assembled and reassembled each time, and rarely in the same way twice.

And memory isn’t even one system. It’s a collection of different systems in your brain: episodic, semantic, procedural, working, sensory, etc. This is why you can maintain a memory in one type despite losing it in the other. (I doubt you have any problems tying your shoes — procedural memory — but you may find it impossible to recollect the moment you learned to tie your shoes — episodic memory.)

No, your memory is never going to be perfect. (Having a photographic – “eidetic” — memory is almost unheard of in adults, though it’s not uncommon in children.) But we can all improve our memories.

-Eric Barker