What Every Child Abuse Survivor Should Know About Human Memory

Understanding the concept of human memory can be helpful to you if you're recovering from child abuse. It's especially helpful if you're trying to confront an abuser and the only evidence you have is your own human memory.

If you're trying to confront your abuser or the abuser's relatives, they may say things like:

1. "That never happened, you were just a kid, you can't remember from way back then."

2. "Maybe you did see something but it's not what you think. People's memories can get distorted."

3. [You fill in the lame excuse, denial, etc. here].

So to combat any lies and distortions headed your way, it can be helpful to not only understand how the human memory works, but also what the issues are in the recollection and storage of traumatic memories.

How The Human Memory Works

Think of the human memory as an information storage and retrieval unit (like a computer). In fact, recent experiments have shown we remember at a rate of 2 bits per second¹ (that's computer talk for saying human beings will remember a few hundred megabytes over a lifetime, which was the average size of a computer hard drive in the 1990s).

The idea of the human memory as a computer is known as the information-processing model of memory and many of its tenets are currently supported by memory scientists.

The Information Processing Model of Human Memory

Essentially, there are 3 types of memory in the information processing model. Each type of memory can be thought of as a "stage" in the encoding of a human memory.

Stimulus or Trigger Event

You step out of the house in the morning and notice it is snowing. Or perhaps you hear the wind blowing. Later in the day you may recall it was snowing in the morning or the wind was blowing. These are both stimulus events that you perceived, and therefore, remembered. But you won't remember the footprint in the snow to the 3 feet to the left of you because you didn't notice it.

Stage 1 Sensory Memory

Each stage acts as a kind of filter for the one before it. Scientists aren't sure whether events are filtered out during the sensory memory stage or if the brain has a separate decision to make on whether the event is important enough to remember. Nonetheless, if the information wasn't filtered, your brain would be quickly overwhelmed. The sensory memory stage stores all the stimuli that are picked up by your 5 senses and stores it anywhere from a fraction of a second to up to 3 seconds.

Stage 2 Short Term Memory

Any sensory input that catches your attention (like seeing the snow in the morning) is transferred into short term memory. Short term memory is pretty limited. It can hold roughly 7 meaningful items of information for about 20 seconds. For instance, if you go to a party and are told the names of 7 new people you have never met, you could only hold the information for about 20 seconds in your short term memory before forgetting (assuming no further interaction occurred).

Stage 3 Long Term Memory

Eventually, important information from short term memory is transferred into long term memory. Information that gets transferred to long term memory tends to be:

• the kind that is repeated - That's why practicing something like a musical instrument helps you learn it. All the repeated fingerings and movements you perform to play it get tucked away into long term memory. It's also why you experts recommend studying for tests over extended periods, as opposed to an all-night cram session.
• information you already have a connection to - Information about a subject you know something about is more readily remembered than something you know nothing about. It's why you more easily remember information related to a hobby you're interested in rather than something you're not interested in - like say, your schoolwork.
• the kind that is emotionally significant - For instance, you vividly remember the day your grandfather died as you were sitting by his hospital bed. It's also why people say they remember where they were when John F. Kennedy died or what they were doing on September 11, 2001.

Human Memory Retrieval

As you can see in the above diagram, at each stage of creating memory, you can "forget" things as they happen to you.

Sensory information that your brain doesn't perceive as important or that you don't notice won't make it from the sensory to the short-term memory stage and you will "forget" those.

Information that you receive that isn't repeated or aren't connected to in some way likely won't make it from short-term to long-term memory. For example, I can't even remember my best friend's phone number now that it can be programmed into my cell phone. This is a case of a short-term memory not being transferred or "encoded" to long-term memory because of a lack of repetition.

In addition, distractions can cause us not encode a memory. For instance, if you're trying to read while in a busy train station, you may think you're remembering the information, but in fact, you may not be saving it to your brain.

Why do we forget?

Scientists used to believe that we "forget" things due to the passage of time. But in 1924, John Jenkins and Karl Dallenbach concluded that forgetting was caused by interference.

Interference can be caused by:

• Prior information (proactive interference) - Old information can hinder the learning of encoding of new information.
• New information (retroactive interference) - Learning new information can affect our ability to recall previously learned information.

Traumatic Memories - Is there such a thing as repressed memory?

The processing of traumatic memories is a big area of contention for memory scientists. Some of the leading theories argue that trauma such as child abuse disrupts the normal memory encoding process and these traumatic memories are encoded differently than typical memories. It is postulated that the extreme fear accompanying the traumatic event will not be able to be integrated by the traumatized individual into the conscious mind.

Thus, "repressed" memories are created, and a dissociation occurs so that these memories may persist in the form of intrusive flashbacks, images, dreams, and thoughts relating to the traumatic event.

Recent scientific data suggest that the encoding of emotional memory is different from the encoding of non-emotional memory. For instance, a researcher named Cahill found that emotional events which cause the release of stress hormones are more strongly remembered and may be associated with the flashback symptoms that are typical of people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (e.g., child abuse survivors). Other researchers have done studies indicating that different parts of the brain (such as the amygdala) not normally used in the processing of non-traumatic memory are used in the processing of traumatic memory.

Some of the issues that at the core of the debate are:

• Human Memory Suggestibility - Can "false" memories be implanted in abuse victims?
• Recall Accuracy - How accurately can human memory be recalled? How much "distortion" in the human memory do you need before a memory is considered inaccurate?
• Human Memory Completeness - When recalling complicated memories, how much do you need to recall in order for a memory to be complete? For instance, while attending a football game, you may remember who won and who played in the game, but do you remember what the person sitting next to you was wearing?

The bottom line is that although scientists disagree on the accuracy and reportability of traumatic memories, the growing body of work suggests that repressed memories can and do occur in victims of child abuse. Because it's such a tender issue, only time and a growing body of data can uncover its intricacies. In the meantime, if you suspect that you're having flashbacks or having to suppress certain thoughts that keep coming to the surface, it's worth exploring with your therapist.

References

*This article was last updated September 4, 2009.

1. Merkle, Ralph. "How Many Bytes in Human Memory?", http://www.foresight.org/Updates/Update04/Update04.2.html#anchor44344 (accessed 9/2/09).

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