Understanding the relationship between memory, the present and the future.

Back in the mid 1990s I was living in the UK, based at the University of Sheffield. During the four years I spent there, I was repeatedly reminded that a real-life experiment could be a far more powerful teacher than any amount of theory. One of the most effective in-class experiments we conducted in Sheffield was with first-year psychology students. The experiment aptly named ‘How fast was the car going?’ still sticks clearly in my mind.

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Helen

‘How fast was the car going?’ involved showing the 200 plus students seated in the room a clip from the movie Smoky and the Bandit. Anyone as old as me may well remember the mustached Burt Reynolds and the glamorous Sally Field  battling their way through this action comedy. The clip we showed students showed a car colliding with a wall. Following the clip, we asked half of our students to guess ‘how fast the car was going when it hit the wall’. The other half of our students were asked to guess ‘how fast the car was going when it crashed into the wall’. None of the students knew what anyone else was being  asked. Every year, without exception, the answers given varied significantly depending on the question that the students had been given.

Students who were asked about the car speed when it ‘crashed’ into the wall always reported a significantly higher speed than those who were asked about the car speed when it ‘hit’ the wall. Thus, we can see that by merely changing one word in the question (i.e. crashed versus hit) we were able to influence the memories of our students, and the subsequent answers they gave.

This is an incredibly powerful experiment because it demonstrates that our memory is, in part, dependent on our current thoughts and feelings. This is true to such a degree that we actually remember things differently when different thoughts are presented now. In the case of the ‘How fast was the car going?’experiment, it did not matter who was more accurate in their answer. What mattered was the knowledge that memory is not an accurate tool working in isolation. Rather, memory is strongly influenced by how we think, feel and use language in the here and now. We see a similar effect when we look at the relationship between people’s current mood and their memories of childhood.

Often individuals suffering from depression or anxiety will report unhappy childhood memories. They will be confident that their unhappy memories are not only accurate, but that they offer some validity for their current unhappiness and distress. Yet, when these same individuals have been through successful therapy, and are feeling happier, their memories become noticeably more positive. Not only will they now report happier childhood memories, they will swear that these new memories are true and accurate, just as they had done about the old memories prior to therapy.

These examples, along with many others, demonstrate that memory is not necessarily a very accurate way of recalling the past. Rather it is more reflective of where we are now, and how we are thinking about the future. Such is the power of thought and of our current emotional state of mind. I see this effect in my own children frequently. When they are happy and full of energy after school, they recall happy events about their day. If hunger or tiredness strikes later on in the evening, their memories change to reflect their changing mood and energy levels. Suddenly their great day has become one they barely survived.

As teachers, an understanding of the changing nature of memory and perception can be enormously helpful in supporting our understanding of how children are thinking and feeling right now. If a child has unhappy memories about last week at school, it may well mean that something is bothering them about this week, or about their expectations of the future. Thus the comment ‘I have never liked maths’ may be more about anxiety connected with a future test than any accurate  memory of maths last week or last term. Similarly, the more desirable comment, “I have always loved maths”, may simply reflect a current jump in learning or increase in confidence.

This is not to say that we should start doubting or challenging students’ memories of past events. Rather, it is to say that by carefully listening to the way a student recalls an event, we can learn a lot about where they are now, and how they see their future. In simple terms, a myriad of bad memories often equates to current distresses and fear about future events.

The really good thing about all this is that it means we can help students deal with distress by focusing on how they think about the present and the future, rather than diving into the lengthy process of deconstructing the past. For example, it can be time consuming and uneventful to spend excessive time examining the reasons that a good music student recalls that they ‘never enjoyed being part of the orchestra’. Far better to focus on their fear that continuing to play an instrument during Year 12 seems daunting and overwhelming. As such, it may be more encouraging to suggest how music can help during a time of pressurised study, rather than trying to reflect on how great things were last year. “With Year 12 upon us, your music may be a really great way for you to manage your stress” shows greater understanding than “I remember you looking so happy after the concert last year”.

Similarly, if a student is feeling anxious about a friendship not working out, it is a survival mechanism to remember the friendship as not being great in the past. Thus, when 10-year-old Jane says she doesn’t like Emily and doesn’t want to sit with her, it is not necessarily helpful to remind Jane how she and Emily were inseparable all last term. Far better to find out what is bothering Jane right now and what, if anything, she is scared about in the future.

Many experts in autobiographical memory (i.e. our memory of our life stories) suggest that the true purpose of memory is to help us plan for the future. We have no real need to produce an accurate representation of our past; we do have a need to plan for a satisfying and longterm survival. As such, a great memory is not so much an accurate recollection of past events, but rather it is a memory that helps us move forward effectively in life. It is of course important to bear in mind that unhappy memories often do relate to events or encounters that were genuinely distressing when they occurred. There is indeed valuable past content relayed in people’s memories of past events. However, we need to also be aware of the influence our current thoughts and feelings have on our memories and on our future expectations.

There is no absolute truth out there as far as the social world is concerned. Everything we perceive is shaped by a mix of our past experiences, our current thoughts and expectat ions , and our feel ings . Some interpretations are healthy in that they result in a healthy emotional reaction and productive behaviour. Other interpretations are unhealthy in that they create disabling emotional reactions and unhelpful behaviour. When a student is overwhelmed or distressed in some way, it becomes easy for them to fall into the habit of remembering the past in particularly unhelpful ways.

Stressed students are more likely to catastrophise and assume that one problem means that everything from now on will be a disaster (I  remember how I failed my test and this means I am going to be a failure in life). They are also more likely to attribute negative events to themselves (i.e. they are more likely to remember how they were responsible for causing that argument with a friend) rather than accepting that the environment may also have played a part (remembering how they were both struggling with the 40 degree day).

Stressed students are also more likely to focus on any single negative aspect of a memory (the question they didn’t understand), as opposed to the many positive aspects (all the questions they answered well).

At times the glass is remembered as being half full for our students and that is great. At other times it may appear to have been perpetually half empty; this is when a healthy shift in current thinking can really change this perception for the better.

The most important thing is to help students to remember that there is always more than one way to interpret a past event or situation. Interpretations can be unhealthy or healthy; they are always there because of a reason. Negative interpretations do not always need challenging but they can be useful indicators of current fears that need addressing.

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Dr Helen Street


Helen is an applied social psychologist with a passion for wellbeing in education. Helen is co-chair of The Positive Schools Conferences (www.positiveschools.com.au) and regularly presents seminars and workshops for schools. In May, she will publish her third book, a collection of essays co-edited with Neil Porter, Better than OK: Helping Young People to Flourish at School and Beyond. Helen’s previous books include Life Overload and Standing Without Shoes (with George W. Burns). She also contributes regularly to the education blog, www.positivetimes.com.au