It is often claimed that goldfish have a three second memory. Therefore, if you put two goldfish in a bowl, as soon as they turn around, they would forget about the other fish, and they would be obliged to say: "How do you do. It is a pleasure to meet you. Have you come far?"
Luckily for the goldfish that is just a myth. Goldfish can remember things for months. Just try to borrow money from one. I can guarantee that it will not let you do it a second time.
Now to the interesting part. Some adults actually have the mythical three second memory. They see another person do something silly, and the adult says: "is that not amazing, how silly he is?" Three seconds later, they see someone else do something silly, and they repeat: "is that not amazing, how silly he is?"
This can go on for ever. These adults simply cannot learn that a lot of people do stupid things.
It always amazes me, when I meet that kind of adult.
4 comments:
I saw a program on television about that disease. It was quite sad. The guy had a thirty second memory. That was it. I think he remembered older stuff; he was quite educated. Strange life he had. And so did his wife.
There is that of course, but it is a little different. That is so called anterograde amnesia. It can be caused by damage to hippocampus, fornix and the mammillary bodies of the medial temporal lobes of the brain. The damage can be caused physically but also through infections like herpes encephalitis. The condition is depicted in a frightening way in the movie Memento but in a more lighthearted tone in 50 First Dates.
The condition is very tragic for the individual, but luckily for the human race it is very rare.
The recurring surprise at people's silly behaviour, on the other hand, is a much more common phenomenon.
I think the guy I talked about above had a seven second memory. An article about him here.
I'm not sure how much I trust that story. Assuming everything is told sincerely by his wife, it still seems possible Clive has a lasting memory, but in many cases it does not work in a way she expects. It is very possible that he would remember if you shouted at him "Don't drink from that bottle! It's poisonous." Strong emotional surprises tend to be easier to remember than routine. But then his wife would not necessarily write that down, as it does not contribute to the story.
As far as I know, even primitive animals have long lasting memories, but they do not, of course, remember thing like the battle of Hastings or my wife's birthday.
Animals may remember things like where they saw a ferocious snake last year and, when we come to more evolved vertebrates and octopoda, each other as individuals. If I see an antelope one week, there is no way I can remember which antelope it was even one hour later, but I understand they can. In that respect an antelope has a better memory than me.
So it does not seem basic long term memory requires any advanced brain. Clive certainly remembers some things short term and probably even long term. Things most of us expect to be easy to remember, like what he just wrote on a piece of paper five minutes ago, are visibly gone completely. But are they? My guess is that even in that case, repeated writing makes it go into Clive's both short term and long term memory, even though many more repetitions are needed for him than for most of us.
It is even possible (but admittedly not very likely) that he remembers different things from the rest of us. His brain may concentrate on remembering musical sounds, melodies, rhythms, and he may do that better than most people.
The article in the Daily Telegraph is interesting, but it contains more questions than it at first appears.
(I should perhaps mention that in contrast to most of the relatives I mention in this blog, my brother Malte actually does exist.)
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