PSYCH 9B Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Positron Emission Tomography, Hindsight Bias, Emotion And Memory
Document Summary
In the movie, at one point the character sadness picks up one of riles memories. Because now when riley remembers this memory it will be a sad thing. So we think that memory distortion and fading is bad. But the function of memory isn"t just to keep an exact memory of the past. The reason we have memories is to guide us through the future: primary function of memory: not to keep an exact record of past events but to guide future behavior. If you don"t like it you won"t remember in detail but you know not to go there again. If you like it, it"s the opposite: updating memories in light of our current understanding of past events makes those memories a better guide. Memory for emotion is reconstructed as our understanding and attitudes change as we learn new things, so our memory is updated. This makes our memories better on what situations we want to avoid.
