Memory and Bias

Magicians are quite clever in the art of misdirection, such as using a less than modestly clad assistant to divert the audience’s attention while the real ‘magic’ happens just feet away.  But we do not need a master prestidigitator to distract or fool us, for we are rather good at fooling ourselves, especially when it comes to memory.  Impact events are good at galvanizing memories; for example you likely remember where you were and whom you were with when you heard about the events surrounding the World Trade Center on 9/11/01, but the events of the following day are likely a bit hazier even though they are more recent.  Similarly, you may recall exactly what you were doing when you got the acceptance letter to your alma mater or the news of a family member or friend passing away.  Memory bias has a way of skewing our own perception and recall of past realities, so much so that this has been an area of interest and introspection of philosophers for centuries.  Most of us exhibit a strong tendency toward an egocentric bias, in which past events are recalled in a self-serving or self-aggrandizing manner.  The primacy affect, in which items near the beginning or near the end of a list or sequence of events are easier to recall and are more robust in the memory, which is highly demonstrable in the judging of talent shows and beauty contests.  Some of us even exhibit crypto-amnesia, where imaginations are mistaken for memories of real events.  Almost all of us can recall “having something on the tip of the tongue”, but not being able to produce the thought or word – a type of memory bias in which multiple similar memories are being recalled simultaneously and ‘blocking’ the sought after information in a pattern of destructive interference.  How miraculous would it be to have perfect recall?  Actually, it would be and was normal, but welcome to one of the noetic effects of the Fall; the curse even extends to memory…and there was something else I was going to tell say…