How memory works: why you can be sure of something that never happened
Memory encoding: why you forget a name but remember a job
Someone tells you her name, then her job. Ten minutes later, the job is still there and the name is gone. It happens to almost everyone, and it starts with how a memory gets in.
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1
You and your friends Miva and Rono go camping by a lake, and Rono films all of it on his phone. A friend of his, who camps with you, says hello: "I'm Ilen. I keep bees."
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2
Ten minutes later, you want to call her over. The bees come back at once. Her name is gone.
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3
In your head, "bees" lands on many things you already know: honey, stings, flowers, summer. "Ilen" lands on nothing, so nothing holds it.
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4
Psychologists showed people faces and read out a name and a job for each one. The same word, Baker, was remembered more often as a job, "a baker", than as a name, "Mr Baker".
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5
Putting something into memory is called encoding, and it works by tying. A new name sticks once you tie it to things you know: Rono's friend, the lake, the bees.
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6
So you tie it: "Ilen, who keeps the bees." Now the name hangs on things you already know. It stays, and something in your head has just changed for good.
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Quick check
At work, someone says: "This is Tomas, our new pilot." A week later, which part are you more likely to remember, and why?
Show the answer
That he is a pilot. "Pilot" lands on many things you already know, and "Tomas" lands on nothing, unless you tie it to something.
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Go further
The effect of the two faces has a name, and so does the idea behind encoding.