Are Memories of Events Accurate?

Most people have so-called flashbulb memories of where they were and what they were doing when something momentous happened: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, say, or the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. (Unfortunately, staggeringly terrible news seems to come out of the blue more often than staggeringly good news.) But as clear and detailed as these memories feel, psychologists find they are surprisingly inaccurate.

Eye witness accounts are often unreliable.  There are cases where a person has ended upon death roll and the person is innocent.  Here is one such case:  A man was convicted of rape and murder of a child in 1984 by five eye witnesses.  After serving 9 years in prison, DNA proved him not guilty.  Such devastating mistakes by eyewitnesses are not rare according to a report by the Innocence Project.

 

Memories are stored in a region of the brain called the hippocampus, shown in red in this computer illustration.  Photo by Researchers, Inc.

Researchers have known for decades that memories are unreliable.  They're particularly adjustable when actively recalled because at that point they're pulled out of a stable molecular state.  Last spring, scientists published a study performed at the University of Washington in which adult volunteers completed a survey about their eating and drinking habits before age 16.  A week later, they were given personalized analyses of their answers that stated - falsely - that they had gotten sick from rum or vodka as a teen.  One in five not only didn't notice the lie, but also recalled false memories about it and rated that beverage as less desirable than they had before.  Studies like these point to possible treatments for mental health problems.  Both PTSD and addiction disorders hing on memories that can trigger problematic behaviors, such as crippling fear caused by loud noises or cravings brought about by the sight of drug paraphernalia.

Childhood memories are often inaccurate.  We can be led to believe almost anything if we are told the same thing over and over again. Memory is not like a video recorder, recording every moment of our lives in accurate detail. It is a murky, complex system that can be manipulated as research shows.  There have been cases where a psychologist or psychiatrist has led a child to believe sexual abuse happened to them when it didn't.  An ordinary adult can manipulate and convince others something happened in their childhood that didn't, or at least not the way they remember it.

Hypnosis is, also, and inaccurate tool, but yet has been heavily relied on.  Okay, my question for all of you:  Is your memory of events accurate, or twisted?  I know for a fact that my siblings and I have different memories.  Life is too short to allow bad memories to live in your mind, especially, when they mostly inaccurate. 

Sources:  http://www.popsci.com/article/science/how-scientists-are-learning-shape-our-memory, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-the-eyes-have-it/, http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/04/03/how-easily-is-your-memory-manipulated/, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-our-brains-make-memories-14466850/?no-ist, http://phys.org/news139159412.html and http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140127093027.htm

Thank you for reading.  Have a great week, and I'll see you again next Sunday.

Sandra K. Marshall, Author

@ Eirelander Publishing
http://www.eirelanderpublishing.com
http://www.skaymarshall.com

Do Animals Know When Disaster is going to Happen?

Researchers are divided on this topic; some believe animals know when a natural disaster is going to happen and try to get to safety and others do not believe animals have any special powers.  We've all seen our pets and other animals act differently when the weather is going to change, but what about earthquakes, hurricanes and other disasters?

I'm going to try to give some specifics about this, but even these are disagreed upon by those doing the research.  For instance, in Florida, researchers studying tagged sharks say they flee to deeper water just before a big hurricane arrives. They also may be sensing the air and water pressure changes caused by the big storm. 

Michelle Heupel, a scientist at the Mote Marine Laboratory who worked on the shark study, has told reporters. “When things change, they may not understand why it’s happening, but the change itself may trigger some instinct to move to an area that is safer for them.”

Many believe animals know when there is going to be an earthquake.  Researchers like Liz Von Muggenthaler — who appears in NATURE’s, Can Animals Predict Disaster? — believe animals can pick up the “infrasonic” sound pulses created by storms and earthquakes, and get a head start on fleeing to safety. It would make sense, she says, that the animals learn to associate such signals with danger.

An elephant trumpets wildly, breaks a chain holding it to a tree, and flees to higher ground — just before a massive tsunami crashes ashore, drowning hundreds of thousands of people. Did the elephant know the deadly wave was coming?

Could it be some creatures may be able to “hear” infrasound, — sounds produced by natural phenomena, including earthquakes, volcanoes, and storms, that are inaudible to the human ear. This ability may give elephants and other animals enough time to react and flee to safety.

Another explanation may lie in animals’ sensitivities to electromagnetic field variations. Quantum geophysicist Motoji Ikeya has found that certain animals react to changes in electrical currents. He now regularly monitors a catfish, the most sensitive of the creatures he has tested, to aid him in warning others of coming disaster.

 

It is thought seagulls will return to land if there is a barometric change. 

Seagull

What happens to animals before storms roll in or at the onset of winter? Infrasonic sounds could still be the culprit because hurricanes and thunder produce sound waves at those frequencies. But there's also the matter of changes in barometric (air) and hydrostatic (water) pressure.

Birds and bees also appear to sense this drop in barometric pressure and will instinctively seek the cover of their nests or hives. Birds also use their ability to sense air pressure to determine when it's safe to migrate.

There have been interesting proposals about the validity of some animal folklore. Some Native Americans believe black bears choose different sleeping spots in their caves depending on how cold the winter will be, or the fur on a hare's feet will grow fluffier if heavy snows approach. While there's a chance these are simply coincidences, some have pointed out that science is based on observation, and folklore is based on centuries of observation -- although the observations haven't been conducted in controlled circumstances.

So far, science hasn't found a surefire way to answer many of the questions we have about animals' behaviors, perceptions and motivations. Until that time, it's hard to prove once and for all what's going on in their heads.

It's highly unlikely animals can predict weather in an ESP-sort of way, but they very well may be able to sense environmental signals that humans miss. Reaction is another key component: A human might sense a drop in barometric pressure, for example, but not feel compelled by that sensation to seek shelter before a storm hits, as an animal might.

Another potential reason animals might react to impending weather events and natural disasters differently than humans is because at least some of their five senses almost always surpass our own. Many weather occurrences generate noises in the infrasonic range, too low for people to usually hear, for example, but well within the hearing range of many animal species.

There are many ways the conditions of an environment may alter to give animals a heads-up that something rough is on the way. Apart from barometric pressure and sound waves, there can also be changes in hydrostatic, or water, pressure.

How animals pick up on and react to fluctuations in environmental signals likely varies from species to species, as well as among the individuals of those species.

Sources:  http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/animals-predict-weather2.htm, :  http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/can-animals-predict-disaster/introduction/130/, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/can-animals-predict-disaster/tall-tales-or-true/131/,

Some day science may learn the answers to the question of:  Can animals predict the weather and other natural disasters?  Right now, there is no definitive answer. 

Thank you for reading.  Have a great week, and I'll see you next Sunday. 

Sandra K. Marshall, author

@ Eirelander Publishing
http://www.eirelanderpublishing.com
http://www.skaymarshall.com

Predicting the Weather

It's September and it's supposed to be fall.  In August, when we usually have triple digit temperatures, we had fall temps.  This month, we're having 90+ degree weather.  Everyone is predicting a harsh winter, who knows what will happen.

Have you ever tried to forecast the weather?  As a kid I grew up in the country and everyone predicted the weather.  It amazed me how often the farmers were right.  They always knew when a storm was coming by looking at the sky. If the air became very still, or the wind started blowing hard they knew something was brewing.

Today, we have meteorologists with all kinds of scientific equipment who calculate the weather.  Are they more accurate than the farmers were years ago?  Well, there's the Farmer's Almanac (two different books- I didn't know this), and a lot of people swear by their predictions. 

For me, it's impossible for anyone to be totally accurate, not even science.  There are just as many mistakes made by the scientific community as ordinary people make.  The farmers aren't scientific, but they had good judgment and good read the signs when something was about to happen. 

Have a great week, and I'll see you next Sunday. 

Best always,

Sandra K. Marshall, Author at Eirelander Publishing