Sunday, March 11, 2007

The Search Function

1] We are unaware about HOW we recall things….the process seems to occur completely outside our control, as does the beating of the heart. So how does memory recall work? You don't think very hard; you more hope your brain fetches the memory for you. And yet you're happy when you remember something. I guess the pride is that you stored that memory to retrieve in the first place! Is the brain scanning for associations? To what could the brain’s “search mechanism” be compared? A computer searching for files? What is the “method of storage”? -------- When you get the feeling that you are "getting close" to remembering the answer, or if you get the feeling it starts with an M, are you literally searching somewhere near the information required and have briefly scanned over it, or a part of it? Somebody help me out with this one!

2] For memory scientists. I figured out something while playing Memory Blocks (where you flip blocks, trying to find matching pairs). Which you should investigate. I only ever set the record the first time I play, so the short-term memory must confuse itself, the map of which block is where the second time I play must interfere with the map from the first game. Etc

3] If somebody asks you “What do you think about X” you often realise during your response, mid-sentence, that you are wrong (or that you have not given the matter adequate thought). This is because different parts of the brain work at different speeds. (On a slightly different but related note, nobody says “I hear a ball dropping now” – you know the event will be finished by the time you’ve completed the sentence, yet you say “I’m in Love” because the parts of the brain making you feel love are active for much longer periods). After somebody asks a question, our auditory systems often start responding before our brains have been able to recall ideas we learnt before and stored, and ideas we no longer actually believe in start to stream out. Then the other systems of the brain catch up, and we realise that we’ve been talking bullshit. Goddamn

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An atheist says, hey, let's not spend our time and money building a church, let's build a hospital instead.

2 comments:

Eastcoastdweller said...

Spongebob has a classic episode in which we glimpse the office staff in his mental warehouse, working away with their files.

Perhaps that's the true secret of cerebral comprehension.

Lance Abel said...

I'll have to download it, know the episode name?