If this entity is active, strong and threatening to our welfare (even our existence) that we need the flashbulb memory so that we can take action in the future to fight against, flee from, or freeze in the face of this threat (Sapolski, 2004). If the entity is inactive or weak then we don’t need to save the memory. Conversely, if the entity (say our new wonderful son-in-law) is good for us, strong and active then we want to save (even cherish) this memory (perhaps preserving a memory of his marriage to our daughter in a photo album).
One other point must be considered regarding the Amygdala-based retention of memories. It is not a matter of us suddenly becoming mnemonists like Teddy Nadler. While essentially all of Nadler’s brain was operating like the Amygdala without any neurochemicals to wipe out a memory, the process of “light bulb” remembering for those of us not afflicted with Nadler’s “illness” is quite different. This is because the lightbulb memories (whether good or bad) come with powerful emotions attached.
These emotions, in turn, impact on the accuracy of the retained memories. The process of assimilation is just as strong as the process of accommodation when a “light bulb” memory is retrieved. We must remember what actually happened—but can’t help but modify the memory or fill in the missing details (who else was there, what really happened). We also can’t help but add our interpretation and assign the event some important meaning (here is why this occurred) (this is “Gods’ way of telling me/us that . . . ).
Conclusions
It is precisely when we are confronting these challenging retrievals of important memories that we have to be most diligent, most self-critical, and most in need of sharing and checking out these memories with other people. As we shall note in other essays in the future, the effective engagement with human-embedded technologies requires our collaboration with other people so that we can best discern how best to dance with these technologies.
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References
Argyris, Chris and Donald Schon (1974) Theory in Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Bartlett, Frederic (1995) Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology (2nd Ed), Cambridge, U. K.: Cambridge U. Press.
Jameson, Frederick (1991) Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Lashley, Karl (1950) “In search of the engram.” Society of Experimental Biology Symposium 4: 454–482.
Luria, Aleksandr (1987) The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book about a Vast Memory (Rev Ed) Cambridge, MA: Harvard U Press.
Sapolsky, Robert (2004) Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. (3rd ed) New York: Owl Books.
