Why do memories make us who we are? (2023)

Why do memories make you who you are?

Our personal memories give us a sense of continuity — the same person (or sense of self) moving through time. They provide important details of who we are and who we would like to be. Memories offer us potential solutions to current problems and help guide and direct us when solving them.

Memory plays an important part of identity formation and creating a positive sense of self. As a child develops and has experiences, there is a part of the brain that creates a story from these experiences and over time there is a sense of self that develops. This is known as Autobiographical Memory (AM).

Our memories influence how we perceive the world around us, respond to new situations, perceive ourselves, and interact with others. Over our lives, we accumulate many different types of memories, from everyday routines to facts, subconscious behaviors, and even emotional patterns.

Memories are very essential in our lives because they allow us to grow and learn to be a better person. Our recollections can teach us very important life lessons, demonstrate skills and abilities and can make us feel happy and entertained.

Many scholars believe our experiences do shape who we are and that memories of those experiences are equally as important. Some scholars, however, believe that there is a core identity each individual has that is unchanging, the very root of one's existence.

Memories make us who we are. They shape our understanding of the world and help us to predict what's coming. For more than a century, researchers have been working to understand how memories are formed and then fixed for recall in the days, weeks or even years that follow.

Individual memory assumes a fundamental part in the improvement of individual identity. Individuals' available points of view about themselves, feelings, and goals affect their recollections and evaluations of past selves.

Personality traits, abilities, likes and dislikes, your belief system or moral code, and the things that motivate you — these all contribute to self-image or your unique identity as a person. People who can easily describe these aspects of their identity typically have a fairly strong sense of who they are.

Memory and the self☆

The relationship between the working self and long-term memory is a reciprocal one in which autobiographical knowledge constrains what the self is, has been, and can be, whereas the working self-modulates access to long-term knowledge.

Memory is powerful because most of the time it serves us well, forming the foundation of our knowledge of the world and of ourselves. In the case of emotionally experiences, memory is a source of tremendous power in our lives.

How do good memories affect us?

“We found that good memories seem to have a positive effect on health and well-being, possibly through the ways that they reduce stress or help us maintain healthy choices in life.” The findings were published in the journal Health Psychology^®.

Memory is life, borne by living societies founded in its name. It remains in permanent evolution, open to the dialectic of remembering and forgetting, unconscious of its successive deformations, vulnerable to manipulation and appropriation, susceptible to being long dormant and periodically revived.

Identity formation and evolution are impacted by a variety of internal and external factors like society, family, loved ones, ethnicity, race, culture, location, opportunities, media, interests, appearance, self-expression and life experiences.

We are defined and shaped by our past, our present and we also have the power to influence and make changes in the future. So, our past does shape our future, but it doesn't have to define who we are today.

Generalized amnesia

This rare form of amnesia occurs when an individual completely forgets their own identity and life experiences. They can forget who they are, who they spoke to, where they went, what they did, and how they felt.

Studies have shown that it's easy to make people falsely recall small details about events, but as the fake memories grow in complexity and specificity, implantation grows progressively harder, though not impossible.

Observers correctly identified 60% of false memories, and 53% of true memories – with 50% representing chance. This study was the inspiration for the present research.

Our memories have much to do with how we define ourselves, how we do, in fact, remain the same people. Though we go through physical changes on a perceivable as well as molecular level, though we might learn new things and change our minds about certain issues, most of us still retain a sense of self.

Your identity is formed accordingly. As Soren Kierkegaard said: Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. So basically you are your memories and if your memories are lost, then consequently, you're not the same person.

What are the 4 parts of a person's identity?

No matter what terms a person uses to describe their identities, we all possess the following four components of human identity: Gender Identity, Gender Expression, Attraction, and Assigned Sex.

If you take the time to think about your beliefs and are willing to take a stand on something that is important to you, then it's likely that you have a strong sense of self.

Many sociologists believe that our identities are formed through the characteristic norms and values of cultures and societies that we belong to and socialise in. These characteristics are important sources of our identity and according to many of our societies are name, age, sex, gender, ethnicity, class and region.

Everyone grows and sees their interests, hobbies, passions, and opinions change over time, but does that mean that our very identity changes as well? That's what researchers set out to investigate, ultimately concluding that the core aspect of one's identity largely remains the same throughout life.

According to the new research, when we get emotional, the amygdala in our brain is stimulated and our bodies often secrete adrenaline. Somehow, these two processes work on the hippocampus, which is the centre of memory function, and our memories for that time period are sharpened.

It is normal to have some level of memory distrust, or the lack of trusting in one's own memory. This may occur when speaking with your parents about your childhood, for example. However it seems that everyone has their own level of memory distrust, and memory distrust syndrome seems to be a severe case.

The particular aspects of the self that define “you” are present in your brain alone. In order for you to remain who you are from minute to minute and year to year, your brain must somehow retain the essence of who you are over time. Memory is thus central to understanding the self in terms of neural mechanisms.

Because the olfactory bulb and cortex are so close physically to the hippocampus and amygdala (huge factors in memory retention), smell is considered the strongest and quickest memory inducer.

The sense of smell is closely linked with memory, probably more so than any of our other senses. Those with full olfactory function may be able to think of smells that evoke particular memories; the scent of an orchard in blossom conjuring up recollections of a childhood picnic, for example.

Marine mammals can remember their friends after 20 years apart, study says. Sorry, elephants: Dolphins have taken the top spot for best memory, at least for now.

Why am I reminiscing about my childhood?

You might be nostalgic for simpler days and miss your childhood. It could mean you're exhausted from the current situation in your life. Often, it's said people miss their childhood because they're bored. It can be a sign of loneliness.

Here are 5 factors that can influence the functioning of the memory: The degree of attention, vigilance, awakening and concentration. Interest, motivation, need or necessity. The emotional state and emotional value attributed to the material to be memorized.

Many think of long-term memory as a permanent “bank” within the brain. Once a memory arrives there, the mind stores it completely and indefinitely. In truth, this is not the case. Although the long-term memory process allows information to remain in the brain for an extended period, nothing in the brain avoids risk.

There's a famous quote that is attributed to Albert Einstein: “Never memorise something that you can look up.”

The theory of cellular memories states that memories, as well as personality traits, are not only stored in the brain but may also be stored in organs such as the heart.

"The painful or unhappy memories people would most like to leave behind may be the ones that are most difficult to dislodge." The researchers suggest that emotion makes intentional forgetting much more difficult. It's hard to isolate emotionally charged memories from other memories.

"Our study has confirmed that complex, multi-featured memory involves a partial reinstatement of the whole pattern of brain activity that is evoked during initial perception of the experience. This helps to explain why vivid memory can feel so real."

When your brain recognizes a similar situation to one stored as a memory, it brings up those same feelings that are attached to the memory. The stronger your memory, whether it is associated with happiness, fear, or curiosity, the stronger the emotional response will be if you find yourself in a similar situation.

We can be haunted by the past because we haven't learned mindful ways of releasing our attachment to things, events, memories and people. We have toxic thought patterns of dwelling, obsessing, replaying things and clinging to them.

The human brain is continuously using comparisons in everyday situations to understand things, people, feelings, moments better. So when we recall positive memories, we unconsciously compare them to the present moment. What if the now is unpleasant? This possibility makes the reminiscence so painful.

How do you stop your memories from haunting you?

A person with hyperthymesia can remember nearly every event of their life in a lot of detail. On the other hand, eidetic memory is the ability to accurately recall an image after only seeing it once for a short period.

Memory errors were detectable (76% of participants made at least one), but accuracy was very high overall (93-95% of all verifiable details were accurate). Moreover, this level of accuracy did not decline in older participants nor in older memories, even though memory quantity and vividness did.

MEMORIES fade quickly, as we all know too well. “All things being equal, it's harder to remember things from a long time ago compared to more recent events,” says neuroscientist Marc Howard of Boston University. But forgetting doesn't just happen by accident.

According to research, events that cause a strong emotional reaction are more memorable. This can include both positive and negative emotions, but we tend to remember more specific details from a negative event. This is why we seem to easily recall moments that made us feel embarrassed or rejected.

Triggers can be people, places, or situations. Thoughts, emotions and sensations can also trigger trauma memories. Triggers can be something specific tied to the memory of the traumatic event (like bridges, the smell of fuel or feeling afraid) or something general (like being in a crowd).

During an emotional flashback, because your ANS is damaged and uncoordinated, the amygdala recognizes what it perceives as danger (trigger) and reacts, triggering the fight/flight/freeze response.