What is the popular "core memory" on the Internet?
What is your core memory in childhood? Can you choose to lock a core memory? What is your core memory about you? The concept of
"core memory" has become well known in popular culture. Core memory first appeared in the 2015 movie " Mind Agents ". Core memory is considered to be your five most important memories.
The theory holds that certain specific events are very important, and experiencing them will immediately shape your personality, behavior and self-awareness.
Thousands of TikTok users have posted "core memory" posts about prominent memories (usually from childhood), with more than 880 million views worldwide.
Usually, these posts are filled with a strong nostalgic element, focusing on the hourly moments: watch Saturday morning cartoons, hold hands with campus lovers, or frolick in the rain.
So, does core memory really exist? While we do use memories to build self-awareness that support our mental health, memory science shows that the concept of “core memory” is wrong in five key aspects.
1. Our core memory is more than five
autobiographical memories (memories about ourselves and our lives) are preserved in our long-term memories. This is a huge memory storage with no known size or capacity limits.
Therefore, we are not limited to 5 (or 50) important life memories. Different memories may be related to us in different environments, which means we may think of a different set of custom memories on different occasions.
2. Core memory will not affect our personality
Although our memory is crucial to us, individual memory cannot drive our personality.
Psychologists and cognitive scientists often say that autobiographical memory has (at least) three key functions.
According to self-function, we know who we are because of our past experiences.
According to social functions, telling stories memorizes helps us socialize and connect with others.
Finally, according to the command function, our memory helps us learn from the past and solve future problems.
3. Our childhood memories are not always the deepest.
. Contrary to popular media descriptions, our most prominent autobiographical memories do not always come from our childhood.
In contrast, most of our prominent and important memories tend to be concentrated in early adulthood. This phenomenon is called "memory collision." One explanation of this discovery by
is that our earliest childhood memories are usually mundane. Things that we were interested in as children may not be that interesting as adults, and vice versa.
Instead, our most important growth experience occurs in late adolescence and early adulthood because our self-awareness tends to stabilize.
4. We can't predict what will become core memory
On social media, "new core memory" has become a shorthand method used to emphasize it immediately when exciting new experiences occur. These experiences can include snowball fights, hugs, vacations, and more.
Although we do remember emotional events more easily than neutral events, we cannot choose our memories.
This means we cannot predict what we will think of and forget later - our memories will surprise us!
5. Core memory is not more accurate than other memories
Core memory is sometimes depicted as a real snapshot of the past, like pressing the play button of a camcorder and watching the event unfold.
In reality, every memory we have is prone to change, forget, and mistake in small details - even if it involves an important event.
When we retrieve the event, we refactor it. This means we want to piece together the points and details as much as possible and fill in any gaps in detail we may forget.
Every time we recall an event, we have the potential to change the details, introduce new emotions, and reinterpret the meaning of the event.
Think about the happy memories after getting engaged to your lover. If the relationship breaks down, the process of reconstructing memory allows new negative emotions to be introduced into the memory itself.
What core memory is correct
Although "core memory" is a fabricated term, the core memory trend helps to show how valuable our memory is.
Memory opens a window to our past lives: full of emotions and is closely connected with identity. By recalling our experiences with others, we also share our parts.