Modifying memory: selectively enhancing and updating personal memories for a museum tour by reactivating them.

Modifying memory for a museum tour in older adults: Reactivation-related updating that enhances and distorts memory is reduced in ageing.

Memory reactivation, the activation of a latent memory trace when we are reminded of a past experience, strengthens memory but can also contribute to distortions if new information present during reactivation is integrated with existing memory. In a previous study in young adults we found that the quality of memory reactivation, manipulated using the principle of encoding specificity and indexe...

Neural mechanisms of reactivation-induced updating that enhance and distort memory.

We remember a considerable number of personal experiences because we are frequently reminded of them, a process known as memory reactivation. Although memory reactivation helps to stabilize and update memories, reactivation may also introduce distortions if novel information becomes incorporated with memory. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural mec...

Modifying memory for a museum tour in older adults: reactivation-related updating that enhances and distorts memory is reduced in aging

QnAs with Daniel Schacter.

Since time immemorial, the fallibility of human memory has fascinated intellectuals in many fields of human endeavor. In his book The Seven Sins of Human Memory, a popular tome of scholarly work aimed at a general audience, Harvard University psychologist Daniel Schacter, a recently elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, described the vagaries of memory, including, by turns, its pi...

Point-and-shoot memories: the influence of taking photos on memory for a museum tour.

Two studies examined whether photographing objects impacts what is remembered about them. Participants were led on a guided tour of an art museum and were directed to observe some objects and to photograph others. Results showed a photo-taking-impairment effect: If participants took a photo of each object as a whole, they remembered fewer objects and remembered fewer details about the objects a...