Liya Abil- Week 13- Deceptive Memory
Memory is deceptive. Things that we remember from our past might not be true at all.
I have a vivid memory of a friend coming over to my house when I was around 6 years old. We were hanging out on my balcony with our bikes. I was extremely jealous of her fancy Cinderella themed bike because it had a mini carriage in the front that could hold a little doll. She didn’t have a doll in it so I brought a stuffed animal from my room to put into the carriage. I remember her taking it and playfully pretending to throw it over the balcony into a small stream below.
I told my parents about this memory years later and they had no recollection of this event, despite them being there the whole time. They claimed that our balcony never overlooked a stream.
Puzzled, I told my friend about this event, asking her if she remembered it. She did not remember this occurring and claimed that she had never even owned a Cinderella bike.
How could something so vivid in my mind not have existed in real life?
I am confused about this occurrence to this day and have concluded that it is most likely a dream that just happened to intertwine with my memory of real life events. Although this is such a small and niche memory, I could have potentially mixed up my dreams with bigger events of my life as well.
Knowing that this memory never happened makes me wonder: how much of what I remember from my childhood is true?
I have always had vivid dreams about realistic events and I am worried that they will intercept my memories. 10 years from now, will I be able to accurately remember good memories with my friends and family?
It is frightening to think that stories that I have made up in my head are interfering with the reality that I have lived.
Hi Liya, I had a similar experience with you. I remember as a kid that I would tell these stories to my parents and they would tell me none of that actually happened. Even to this day I would tell my parents stories and they would tell me never of that happened. I even tell stories to my friends and to my family and none of them would remember. The most confusing thing it that i would remember it so clearly, I would be able to say every detail but it would just all be a dream. Now sometimes, I would just question myself if an event ever happened, even with proof that the event happened. I find this very interesting and very creepy, the fact that I can remember something so vividly and all it was, was just a dream? There has been many studies showing that you only remember dreams right when you wake up. Only if you can remember them, you would only remember them for a few minutes. I don't believe that there has been any studies on this though.
ReplyDeleteHi Liya. This has happened to me before, too. It’s so confusing sometimes because I wonder how many of my memories from when I was little are actually true and how many are just dreams. I often find them silly, but I’m curious about why they happen. I think it might have to do with the dreams we remember when we’re young and how real those dreams feel. These fake memories might be detrimental to how we live our lives, but for me, they’ve usually been innocuous things I’ve falsely remembered from dreams, so I don’t usually feel concerned about them. I thought it was interesting that you had this memory, and I can understand how it can sometimes be unnerving how crystal clear those memories are, but I don’t think they would interfere with memories in the future. I liked reading your blog, and I think you brought up an interesting idea.
ReplyDeleteHey Liya,
ReplyDeleteI really like your blog because it reminded me of a similar occurrence that happened to me. I was told multiple times about how my dad broke his leg. He was carrying me down the stairs of our apartment building and lost his balance and in order to keep me from falling he used his knee to stop his fall. Even though I was way too young to remember this I can still see it clearly in my head down to how my hair was styled that day. Later when I was talking about it with my mom she said "That's not how it happened" and I was so confused because it had fixated in my head like a memory to the point where I could differentiate between my imagination of events that were described to me and actual memories. I think it's very cool how that happens and I like that you wrote a blog about it because no one every talks about it even though it's a common occurance and most likely happens to everyone.