Memorization And Remembering
The same individual can regularly exhibit notable feats of memory, good feats and bad feats. I can recall the names of almost all the actors of Beverley Hills 90210 and be told I have a good memory then consistently forget to take my lunch to work and be told that I have a lousy memory. Seems contradictory? The easy explanation is that they are really two different things working in two different ways. If they are so different, why then do we use the same word, memory, for both? They don’t seem too different to me. They both are a suite of routines involving the three “R’s.” Register, retain, retrieve. Perhaps the differences between the ability for cast memorization and the inability for sandwich portage are willingness and triggers. Memorization and remembering are not quite the same thing. I didn’t so much lack the memory of taking my lunch (ie. memorize) as much as the memory didn’t trigger (ie. remember) at the appropriate time, possibly due to a lack of willingness to remember. Why would I be motivated to memorize the cast of Beverley Hills 90210? The answer might appear to be that, no, I would not be motivated to remember the cast. Although, I can name the cast of The Facts Of Life (except Blair but including Mrs. Garrette(sp.?)). I know who Tina Yothers and Dana Plato are. You got to care in some form to know that. And I didn’t even mention anything about queueing memory and how that plays into all this.
Being a real scientist looks very glamorous to me but it couldn’t be as fun as being an internet scientist. Probably not, since you’d probably have to exercise a high amount of discipline, responsibility, and follow through to pay for all that glamour.
And on the subject of memory, let us solemnly never forget the debit card incident.
Jae-Ho
The short answer is, we remember what seems important to us. The longer answer would involve the parts of the brain that are used for remembering (re: to take an action) vs. recalling (re: bringing into the foreground a background piece of information.
So why don’t we say I can recall all the real names of the Facts of Life cast members? I think we did use to say something like that; see: Danke Schoen and “I recall Central Park in fall”. Recall means a thing was in there, and we can bring it back.
Remember implies that we need to take an action – remember to take out the garbage, am I right fellas? But does it? Or did it use to? I can’t…remember. (Oh man this is too easy.)
I think that I like this distinction and might bring it into my everyday vernacular. “Hey, do you remember the name of that client lead from Saatchi?” “No, I can’t say I recall.”