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Memory, distraction, and nostalgia
In Context
do not have a transfer effect to other tasks. Instead, McNab highlighted the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging and behavioural studies to explore working memory and distraction. She also referred to the Great Brain Experiment, an app that allows users to play games to test their memories and provide data for neuroscience research. The final speaker was Tim Wildschut, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Southampton (UK) who explained why nostalgia should not have such a bad reputation. He said that while the public perception of nostalgia involved looking back at the past through rose-tinted spectacles, the reality is that nostalgia is a motivational force for increasing social connections. Wildschut pointed to research carried out in 18 countries showing how various cultures share the same concept of nostalgia. Through results from experiments, he showed that if individuals felt lonely, then they used nostalgia as a tool to remember happier times, which motivated them to increase their social connections to combat their loneliness. Jules Montague, a consultant neurologist at the Royal Free London National Health Service Foundation Trust (London, UK) chaired the event and did an excellent job of highlighting the connections between memory, distraction, and nostalgia, especially during the panel discussion and question and answer session. The three topics worked well together and, judging by the number of questions from the audience, struck a chord with festivalgoers.
Lancet Neurol 2017 Published Online January 9, 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ S1474-4422(17)30001-7 For more on the 2016 Edinburgh International Science Festival see http://www. sciencefestival.co.uk/ For more on Mazzoni’s research interests see http://www.hull. ac.uk/memorylab/ For the app for brain training see http:// thegreatbrainexperiment.com/ For more on Wildschut’s research interests see http:// www.southampton.ac.uk/ nostalgia/
Peter Ranscombe
Peter Ranscombe
They are scenarios that will be familiar to many people; you’re rushing to get out of the house for an appointment and you can’t find your car keys because you can’t remember where you’ve put them. Or you’ve left your vehicle in a large car park, but then you can’t remember where you parked it. Or you write a shopping list, but then you forget to take it with you when you go to the shops. “I do these things all the time,” confessed Professor Giuliana Mazzoni, director of research in the Department of Psychology at the University of Hull (UK), to the audience at the Edinburgh International Science Festival. “Once I spent three hours trying to find my car in an airport car park.” Mazzoni was one of the speakers at Slipping The Mind, an event held at the National Museum of Scotland, in Edinburgh, UK, on March 31, 2016. She explained that memories are important for giving individuals a sense of their past, their personal history, and their identity. Yet perhaps not all of those memories are real. Mazzoni introduced the concept of false memories and explained that about 25% of the population have at least one vivid memory of an event that never happened. During the question and answer session that followed her presentation, many members of the audience were concerned about forgetfulness, but Mazzoni explained that forgetting is necessary. Forgetting can be a good thing—for example, if you’ve moved home many times, forgetting old telephones numbers helps to avoid interference when it comes to remembering your current one. Mazzoni also compared the natural process of forgetting to that in individuals who have so-called super memories and who cannot forget. She contrasted the cases of Jill Price and Aurelien Hayman; Price finds that being unable to forget is a burden, while Hayman—who was the subject of a Channel 4 television documentary, The Boy Who Can’t Forget, presented by Mazzoni in 2012—is not overwhelmed by his memories. Mazzoni explained that, while most individuals have a similar brain capacity, what sets those with super memories apart from the general population is their ability to access their memories; they can access all of their memories at the same time, while the rest of us have to move back and forth between memories to find the right connection. Working memory and distractions were the subjects of the second speaker, Fiona McNab, a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellow at the University of York (UK). McNab explained that working memory is important for decision making, reasoning, language, and mathematical processing. She said there was no scientific evidence to show current brain training games could improve working memory; while games might improve the performance of a specific task intrinsic to the game, they
Edinburgh International Science Festival
Event Memory, distraction, and nostalgia
Speakers Giuliana Mazzoni, Fiona McNab and Tim Wildschut
www.thelancet.com/neurology Published online January 9, 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(17)30001-7
1
do not have a transfer effect to other tasks. Instead, McNab highlighted the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging and behavioural studies to explore working memory and distraction. She also referred to the Great Brain Experiment, an app that allows users to play games to test their memories and provide data for neuroscience research. The final speaker was Tim Wildschut, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Southampton (UK) who explained why nostalgia should not have such a bad reputation. He said that while the public perception of nostalgia involved looking back at the past through rose-tinted spectacles, the reality is that nostalgia is a motivational force for increasing social connections. Wildschut pointed to research carried out in 18 countries showing how various cultures share the same concept of nostalgia. Through results from experiments, he showed that if individuals felt lonely, then they used nostalgia as a tool to remember happier times, which motivated them to increase their social connections to combat their loneliness. Jules Montague, a consultant neurologist at the Royal Free London National Health Service Foundation Trust (London, UK) chaired the event and did an excellent job of highlighting the connections between memory, distraction, and nostalgia, especially during the panel discussion and question and answer session. The three topics worked well together and, judging by the number of questions from the audience, struck a chord with festivalgoers.
Lancet Neurol 2017 Published Online January 9, 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ S1474-4422(17)30001-7 For more on the 2016 Edinburgh International Science Festival see http://www. sciencefestival.co.uk/ For more on Mazzoni’s research interests see http://www.hull. ac.uk/memorylab/ For the app for brain training see http:// thegreatbrainexperiment.com/ For more on Wildschut’s research interests see http:// www.southampton.ac.uk/ nostalgia/
Peter Ranscombe
Peter Ranscombe
They are scenarios that will be familiar to many people; you’re rushing to get out of the house for an appointment and you can’t find your car keys because you can’t remember where you’ve put them. Or you’ve left your vehicle in a large car park, but then you can’t remember where you parked it. Or you write a shopping list, but then you forget to take it with you when you go to the shops. “I do these things all the time,” confessed Professor Giuliana Mazzoni, director of research in the Department of Psychology at the University of Hull (UK), to the audience at the Edinburgh International Science Festival. “Once I spent three hours trying to find my car in an airport car park.” Mazzoni was one of the speakers at Slipping The Mind, an event held at the National Museum of Scotland, in Edinburgh, UK, on March 31, 2016. She explained that memories are important for giving individuals a sense of their past, their personal history, and their identity. Yet perhaps not all of those memories are real. Mazzoni introduced the concept of false memories and explained that about 25% of the population have at least one vivid memory of an event that never happened. During the question and answer session that followed her presentation, many members of the audience were concerned about forgetfulness, but Mazzoni explained that forgetting is necessary. Forgetting can be a good thing—for example, if you’ve moved home many times, forgetting old telephones numbers helps to avoid interference when it comes to remembering your current one. Mazzoni also compared the natural process of forgetting to that in individuals who have so-called super memories and who cannot forget. She contrasted the cases of Jill Price and Aurelien Hayman; Price finds that being unable to forget is a burden, while Hayman—who was the subject of a Channel 4 television documentary, The Boy Who Can’t Forget, presented by Mazzoni in 2012—is not overwhelmed by his memories. Mazzoni explained that, while most individuals have a similar brain capacity, what sets those with super memories apart from the general population is their ability to access their memories; they can access all of their memories at the same time, while the rest of us have to move back and forth between memories to find the right connection. Working memory and distractions were the subjects of the second speaker, Fiona McNab, a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellow at the University of York (UK). McNab explained that working memory is important for decision making, reasoning, language, and mathematical processing. She said there was no scientific evidence to show current brain training games could improve working memory; while games might improve the performance of a specific task intrinsic to the game, they
Edinburgh International Science Festival
Event Memory, distraction, and nostalgia
Speakers Giuliana Mazzoni, Fiona McNab and Tim Wildschut
www.thelancet.com/neurology Published online January 9, 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(17)30001-7
1