change colors

#86bc42
#8373ce
#14d4f4
#72284b

Custom colors

Are you forgetful?

That's just your brain erasing useless memories

 

The purpose of memory might not be to record everything.

Most of us think “perfect” memory means never forgetting, but maybe forgetting actually helps us navigate a world that is random and ever-changing.

 

So say two neuroscientists in a review published today in the journal Neuron. The argument is that memory isn't supposed to act like a video recorder, but instead like a list of useful rules that help us make better decisions, says study co-author Blake Richards, a University of Toronto professor who studies the theoretical links between artificial intelligence and neuroscience. So it makes sense that our brains would make us forget outdated, irrelevant information that might confuse us, or information that leads us astray.

 

We have yet to find the limits of what the human brain can store, and there's more than enough room, so to speak, for us to remember everything. Still, the brain actually spends energy making us forget, by generating new neurons that “overwrite” the old ones, or by weakening the connections between neurons. But why does it do so if our brains aren't running out of space?

 

First, forgetting old information can make us more efficient. In the new paper, Richards sites a 2016 study in which scientists trained mice to find a water maze. The maze location was moved, and then some of the mice were given a drug that helped them forget the original location. The mice who forgot the first round of training found the new maze more quickly. Just think about all the times you've memorized the wrong name, and then later wished that you could remove that memory and stop confusing it with the right name.

 

Forgetting old information can also keep us from generalizing too much from one piece of information. Here, there are many parallels with artificial intelligence and how these systems learn, according to Richards. If you teach a computer to recognize faces by making it memorize thousands of them, all it will do is learn the particulars of all the specific faces. Then, when you expose it to a new face, the model won't actually know it's a face because it never learned the general rules. Instead of learning that faces are usually oval and have two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, it learned that some of these pictures have blue eyes and some of them have brown eyes and some have thicker lips and so on.

 

Human brains could run into this problem, too. Richards compared this to “Funes the Memorious,” a story by Jorge Luis Borges in which a man is cursed with perfect memory. Funes remembers in exquisite detail, but “doesn't understand because everything he experiences is its own individual snapshot moment.” To fix this program, researchers use a technique called “regularization,” where they force the system to forget some of the details until they're left with the core information they're interested in: what is a face, what is a dog versus a cat, and so on.

 

The process of which, and how much, information the system should forget can be trial-and-error, both in humans and computers. Our brains tend to forget memories of things that happened (episodic memories) more quickly than general knowledge (semantic memories). In fact, episodic memories tend to fade fairly quickly anyway — knowing which shirt you wore six weeks ago is rarely helpful. Many different factors go into this: how novel the situation is, how much attention someone is paying, how much adrenaline is in the system. “The brain's principle is to forget everything except those instances that were highly salient,” says Richards. Traumatic events like assault, for example, stick with us because the brain wants us to remember, and avoid, things that will help us survive.

 

Ultimately, says Richards, we often assume that memory is a good thing, but “at the end of the day, our brains only do things if it was good for our survival from an evolutionary perspective.” And in the case of memory, he adds, our brains probably have been shaped by evolution God to only remember that stuff that is pertinent to our survival. So maybe not being able to remember how you know someone is a feature of our brains, not a bug.


5 Ahead 5

“O you who believe, fear Allah the way He ought to be feared and do not die except as Muslims” (Q3:103). Now, how do you stay alive even after death so that... Read More

Are you forgetful?

That's just your brain erasing useless memories   The purpose of memory might not be to record everything. Most of us think “perfect” memory means... Read More

Child Development

Our concern as parents and teachers is to assist the child to develop the appropriate personality. This implies that we must not only know what we want the child to... Read More

Children with Learning Difficulties

  Causes of Learning Problems in Children Some children are unable to learn as much as others due to a number of factors including the following: 1. Physical... Read More

Combat Insults with Sweet Silence

How many times has it happened that somebody has verbally insulted you and in the heat of the moment, you have taken it up as a challenge to produce bigger verbal... Read More

Construction Education Toys

Best option for the promotion of both convergent and divergent thinking process.For simultaneous setting of the platform for creativity of both convergent and divergent... Read More

Convergent thinking

Ability to decide things having only one predefined answer by learning the facts and guidelines to move upon for reaching to that answer! This is to develop fundamentals... Read More

Determining the Right Way

All the Praises are for Allah and Salutation is for the Messenger and his family and all those that follow him doing good works until the Day of... Read More

Discipline Improvement within the School

To start with, What is Discipline?    Discipline is regarded as inner consciousness of every human being which enables him/her to behave well and have... Read More

Divergent Thinking

This defines the way of thinking in the sense of exploring more than one possible answer, creating newer conceptions and solving conceptualized problems. This is... Read More

Does Reading Take Care of Depression?

Resorting to reading books alone could actually drive you farther away from reality and deepen your depression. Too much reading detaches one away from everyday life.... Read More

Female Circumcision: Islamic View

Female circumcision is among the primordial human nature that was ordered by Allah on us. It's authenticity can be gotten from what was brought by Abu Hurairah (may... Read More

Fulfilling Promises

Adorn yourself with fulfillment of a promise Praise be to Allah, peace and blessings  belong  to prophet Muhammad, after  that ,it is known  that... Read More

GREAT DECISION

PATHWAY TO SUCCESS  The advanced learners dictionary defines decision as the abilty to decide and act according, if you confront me personally anywhere and ask me... Read More

Greeting In Islam…

“And when you are greeted with a greeting, greet in return with what is better than it or (at least) return it equally.” (Qur'an, An-Nisaa... Read More

Home Falling Apart by Social Media

Though, social media as world-wide online connection that is widely accepted by the young and old in the universe to promote economic, social and political ideas of the... Read More

How to Help Kids Talk about Learning Disabilities

“I learn differently.” Three small words that can make a world of difference for kids like me who grew up struggling with learning issues.   Sounds... Read More

I Shall Not Relax

I shall not relax because I have lots of things to do. I have set goals to be achieve I do not want to be lazy I am determined to be on top I must study to pass my... Read More

Is Poverty Genetic?

It is a common occurrence in the society to see poor person comes from a poor family and rich individual from wealthy family especially in the countries where resources... Read More

Memory Failure, Enhancement and Optimization among Adults

focus scientists. Over time, memory has often being defined and restricted to one-dimensional aspect of learning ''Recalling'', meanwhile, focuses on attending,... Read More

Motivation

Motivation result from interaction of conscious factors such as the Intensity of desire or need Incentives or reward value of the goal Expectation of the individual... Read More

Muslim Youths and Nigerian Society: The Role of Integrated Education System

Nigerian Muslim youths comprise the economically active segment of the population using the population distribution indices, who are adherents of the Islamic faith in... Read More

Nature and Soul: One is seal, one is print

Nature is immensely inspiring and incredibly beautiful, those who spend time in its embrace will benefit from it tremendously. Travelling around Nigeria for me is... Read More

One way

The saying of Allah further emphasises that there is only one way. He said: Whoever opposes the messenger after the guidance has been clearly shown to him, and follows... Read More

PROSE

  Everyone knows the key of life to this generation of ours but some people still misquote this fact that it is not nothing. But the educationists say ii now and... Read More

Remedy for Fighting Procrastination

Procrastination is the avoidance of a task which needs to be accomplished. It is the practice of doing more pleasurable ones, or carrying out fewer things in place of... Read More

Success

The road to success is never straight or easy, On this path is a curve called failure, Some bumps called friends, Red light called enemies and, Caution signs called... Read More

SUCH IS LIFE

No matter the natue of you problem, not minding the degree of you misfortune, do no lose hope. Never submit to your frustration, human being has to undergo... Read More

The Patient Old Man

When passing through a mountain; a Bedouin once came across an old man who was blind and who seemed to be afflicted with various ailments all over his body. It was clear... Read More

Time

Tade is the first son in the family of Uzos. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Uzo. His dad's full name is Usman Uzo while his mother bears Tobi Uzo in full. Tade is a lazy... Read More

Ways of choosing true learning educational Toys for your kids

What will be your criteria to decide whether you are choosing a good educational toy after seeing one? Educational videos, software, chemistry kits, telescope, flash... Read More

What you need to know on Rhesus Positive and Negative Blood Types

Knowing your blood type is important, especially if you have frequent blood transfusions or want to be pregnant. The ABO blood system labels blood types with the letters... Read More

Why Failure Is Good For Success

To achieve the greatest success, you have to embrace the prospect of failure (Pauline Esteem August 25, 2016) The sweetest victory is the one that's most difficult. The... Read More

You And The Computer

Introduction Today, the computer is one of the most commonly mentioned words in our society. More common than its mention however is its usage. To pay after shopping in... Read More

Your Time, Your Life

Seconds make minutes as minute make hours, Hours make days as days make life. Life is time. How well you utilize your time from day to day determine how successful... Read More

WhatsApp Live Chat