John Irving's 'Meet The Phenomena'

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Meet the Phenomena
John Irving once said, “Your memory is a monster; you forget - it doesn't. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you - and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you” (Brainy 1). Few people would ever consider memory a monster, but John Irving speaks the truth, at least in a sense. Think back to an early childhood memory. Perhaps the memory is extremely vague, or perhaps you can recall every single detail. That precious memory of a single moment in time seems so tangible, you can smell, see, and taste the things you did then. Your childhood memories are so dear and special that you will most likely remember them as long as you live. …show more content…

Since memory is known to fade with the passage of time, it is very unlikely any one person remembers everything in perfect detail, unless that person has been diagnosed with a savant syndrome. Nevertheless, the likely hood of a truly photographic memory in an ordinary person is unlikely. Those precious memories of swinging in a swing or of riding a bike for the first time are probably riddled with false information, all the result of another mental phenomenon known as false memory.
In one study conducted by Jason Chan and his partner Jessica Lapaglia, participants put the accuracy and concreteness of their memories to the test. Volunteers were told to watch the pilot episode of the show 24 and then answer some comprehension questions about the episode. Next, the participants listened to an audio summary of the episode, where some of the details had secretly been changed. After listening to the summary, the participants took another comprehension test over what they had seen in the episode. What Chan and Lapaglia found was that the false information had rewritten the original information, even if the participant had correctly recalled the information the first time. The unfortunately two-faced side of memory is the fact that "memories are just rewritten once, but every time we remember them" (Yong

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