"Your brain is a memory powerhouse, constantly recording experiences in long-term memory. Those memories help you find your way through the world: Who works the counter each morning at your favorite coffee shop? How do you turn on the headlights of your car? What color is your best friend's house?
An experiment conducted by researchers from Princeton University and the University of Texas-Austin shows that the human brain uses memories to make predictions about what it expects to find in familiar contexts. When those subconscious predictions are shown to be wrong, the related memories are weakened and are more likely to be forgotten. And the greater the error, the more likely you are to forget the memory.
"This has the benefit ultimately of reducing or eliminating noisy or inaccurate memories and prioritizing those things that are more reliable and that are more accurate in terms of the current state of the world," said Nicholas Turk-Browne,...
The researchers say the findings fit a model for how the brain handles memories called the nonmonotonic plasticity hypothesis. The model claims that strong activation of a memory—such as when a remembered object or event is encountered again—will strengthen the memory.
But moderate activation of a memory—such as the activation that occurs when your brain makes an unconfirmed prediction using the memory—can degrade the memory.
"I think it's an incredibly compelling story that this automatic prediction mechanism is constantly operating under the radar of our conscious experience, optimizing what elements of a memory we should remember based on how likely they are to occur in our environment," said Barense, who studies how memory functions are organized in the brain." MedicalXpress
I will praise You
An experiment conducted by researchers from Princeton University and the University of Texas-Austin shows that the human brain uses memories to make predictions about what it expects to find in familiar contexts. When those subconscious predictions are shown to be wrong, the related memories are weakened and are more likely to be forgotten. And the greater the error, the more likely you are to forget the memory.
The researchers say the findings fit a model for how the brain handles memories called the nonmonotonic plasticity hypothesis. The model claims that strong activation of a memory—such as when a remembered object or event is encountered again—will strengthen the memory.
But moderate activation of a memory—such as the activation that occurs when your brain makes an unconfirmed prediction using the memory—can degrade the memory.
"I think it's an incredibly compelling story that this automatic prediction mechanism is constantly operating under the radar of our conscious experience, optimizing what elements of a memory we should remember based on how likely they are to occur in our environment," said Barense, who studies how memory functions are organized in the brain." MedicalXpress
I will praise You
because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made.
Psalm 139:14 HSCB
