Off topic question on memory

Hi guys,

Had a thought - has anyone experienced the feeling before of after you leave a holiday or something, and when you get back to your house, it's instantly forgotten like some kind of distant memory? Then once you leave your own home to stay in another place for a while, that place quickly becomes so 'normal' and your home is a distant memory? Is this a known phenomenon? Is it in any way related to the loss of memory between dreaming and waking? I suspect it is not, as the dream memory loss is related to the changes in brain canter activity between waking and dreaming..

Yea, I get that feeling a lot. The first time I ever took a big move at age 8, I found myself missing original home so much, but eventually I forgot about it and enjoyed the new place more than the old one.

Every move after that first one, I've had the feeling you've described. It's almost as if I don't even miss the places or people I leave behind, but that they immediately become distant memories the second I leave them, even if in fact I only left for a short vacation or whatever. I've always assumed it's some kind of side-effect of travelling a lot as a child and having at least one traumatic experience of moving as a child. I kind of put it down as a defense mechanism. Skip the crying and missing your old home and just put it behind you. Only it's definitely not a conscious effort. It just happens automatically.

Does that sound remotely accurate?

No, I think it's normal Savy. Trauma or not.

When you think about any type of memory, it is actually very similar to remembering a normal dream. It always feels distant when you actually think about it.

But yeah, I think this different environment thing has to do with awareness too.
When you are in the same place all the time, you ignore most things.
And when you go to a new place, you notice a lot more.

If you leave for a while and come back, you're familiarising yourself with the environment again.It's probably an evolutionary thing. It is beneficial to not ignore things in a new environment. But when you know it's safe etc. you can just do what you do, instead of focusing on the minor details of your environment.

You can bring this "new" perspective to your usual habitat pretty easily.
If you practice ADA, you will realise your perception of your every day environment is similar to when you first got there.

This might be a bit off-topic, but the strangest forgetfulness case for me has been forgetting my school schedule about as soon as the semester is over. It's been like that since high school. It seems my class schedule resides in my long-term memory during an entire semester, I can retrieve the information with barely a thought concerning which classes I have on which days, their times and their room numbers. Then, within a couple days of the semester being over, I completely forget it all. I must be subconsciously releasing the memory since I know I don't need it anymore. It isn't that my memory is bad. I can go for a week-long break from school and return with my schedule still memorized. Does anyone else experience this specific phenomenon?

Interesting. I wonder if you only remember it so clearly because when you leave one classroom for instance it cues yo to go to the next. Did I explain that right? LOL

I mean, maybe you're not actually remembering the classes so much by name, but you just know that when you leave a certain part of a certain building you always go to the same room next. Sort of like how I can get to just about anywhere around here pretty well, but if you ask me for directions I'm like "Well... uh... I'd have to actually GO there to tell you.."

Or would you be able to repeat your exact schedule to somebody? (I mean during the semester, not afterwards).

I don't think that's what's happening. During the semester I can easily recite my schedule. It's rare that I don't have at least an hour between classes, so I rarely go directly from one class to another.

On second thought, something like that might help me remember which class I have next more quickly. I always have some idea in the back of my mind where/what/when my next class will be. Then when the semester is over I have no next class to remember. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Yeah... maybe it's not really in your long-term memory but because you think about it every other day or whatever it just keeps it refreshed in short-term? lol idk, I'm just throwing ideas at the wall to see if any stick.

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Originally Posted by Darkmatters

Interesting. I wonder if you only remember it so clearly because when you leave one classroom for instance it cues yo to go to the next. Did I explain that right? LOL

I mean, maybe you're not actually remembering the classes so much by name, but you just know that when you leave a certain part of a certain building you always go to the same room next. Sort of like how I can get to just about anywhere around here pretty well, but if you ask me for directions I'm like "Well... uh... I'd have to actually GO there to tell you.."

Or would you be able to repeat your exact schedule to somebody? (I mean during the semester, not afterwards).

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That's a good theory. It's called situational memory I think.
There's probably some less obvious scientific name for it lol But yeah.

It's the reason why ex-addicts should avoid places they use to carry out their addictive behaviour.

I wonder if that relates to or is the same thing as state-dependent memory. Like while tired or drunk or stressed your memory of things that happened or that you memorized while in that state before will be enhanced. Students tend to do better in exams if their exam room and lecture room are the same.

LOL that ties in with something I heard, but don't know if it's true: basically that if you learn something when you're high you'll remember it better when you're high. Learn it sober and you'll remember it better sober.

*****

Oh ok, I see you pretty well covered that with drunk. Mah bad!