• Question: Rather erase your old memories or never be able to make new ones? And why?

    Asked by totaldestruction to Ben, James, Jen, Michael, Susanna on 11 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Jen Todd Jones

      Jen Todd Jones answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      I once worked with a patient with short-term memory loss (called anterograde amnesia), he couldn’t make any new memories but could remember what had happened before he had his stroke. I think it depends on what age you are, but I’d prefer this kind (rather than the one where you lose all your old memories, called retrograde amnesia). I would rather be able to remember all of the people I’d met and all of the things I’d learned at that age – but if I was younger, I think I’d prefer to lose my old memories and be able to rebuild my life with new ones.

    • Photo: Susanna Martin

      Susanna Martin answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      I think both would be horrible. If I erased my old memories, but somebody told me about them would I be able to remember them? Because I think I could handle that better than not being able to make any new memories. There are some really interesting cases of people with super memories this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mind-Mnemonist-Little-about-Memory/dp/0674576225 talks about a man who can remember everything and he does it by making connections. Some methods for remembering things involve picturing them along a familiar walk, so if you need to remember a shopping list then you visualise the bread next to the front door and the milk by the gate etc, then when you need to remember you ‘walk’ through your route and hopefully remember all the associations.

    • Photo: Michael Craig

      Michael Craig answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      I’d erase my old memories being young. That way I could make new memories with the people from my past but if I was old then I’d like to keep all my old memories and not be able to make new ones.

      Michael

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