The Strength of the Memories

Our emotions are linked to the quality of our memories. We remember events better when emotions have played a part in encoding them. 

That event where you felt grief or sorrow. Something (someone) that made you sad. Falling into, or out of, love. You felt emotions that bubbled into your memories. Conversely, the memory reappears as an emotion when you recall an unhappy event.   

Let’s not leave this post on such a note. Try this instead:

The comedy show on TV made you laugh. You re-tell the best parts to someone, even quoting the funny lines.

Stand-up comedians make us laugh, whether at ourselves or a situation. We relate. We nod our heads and think, ‘That’s so true.’ Memories of the comedian reach the higher parts of our thinking brains.

They are carried there through our enjoyment of the show. Over time, the memories dim, but we can recall them without much effort. We are especially good at this if we share the experience with someone else at the same show.

Early memory encoding in children is linked to their emotions. How much encouragement did you give to the beginning walker? Or talker? 

The child taking those hesitant first steps has the process pretty much under control within a short time. They enjoyed trying it out. You enjoyed it with them. The loop of feedback was strong. The memories stuck. 

Think about the strength of the memories if we applied the same enthusiasm to all learning.