Mental Time Travel

Elizabeth’s colleagues at Boston College, graduate student Nina Curko and Professor Maureen Ritchey, recently wrote a great review on memory at Frontiers for Young Minds. You can click here to read their full article.

Here is a summary of some of the topics they discuss:

Have you ever closed your eyes and suddenly been back at a birthday party, a soccer game, or a really fun day with friends? You didn’t actually go back in time, of course, but your brain made it feel that way, like you were travelling through time in your mind.

Your brain does this time travel using two types of memories:

1. Your “life events” memory. This type of memory helps you remember events from your life and details like what happened, where you were, and who you were with. It’s called episodic memory.

2. Your “knowledge bank” memory. This type of memory helps you remember facts and information about the world. It’s called semantic memory.

These two memory systems work together. Even though episodic and semantic memory are different, they work together like team players. Your life events help you build knowledge, and your knowledge helps you understand your life events.

Usually, each time you remember something, these two types of memories are working together, and so each time you recall the experience you make that memory a little stronger. You can think of it kind-of like exercising a muscle. The more you practice remembering something, the easier it will become to remember it the next time.