The Seven Sins of Memory Memory and errors of memory are topics of interest in medical research and particularly in the field of Industrial and Organizational (I/O) Psychology. Memory is an ability that gives humans the tools to accomplish many simple and complex tasks: from helping us define who we are as individuals; to communicating with one or another; and to perform complex tasks, such as, building a home. In other words, memory supplies us with the information we need.       A better understanding of the fundamental construction and characteristics of memory may allow mankind to interact more productively with the world in which we live. The benefits of discovering such secrets are endless. For example, the standards of education in the United States could be greatly enhanced, if students could instantly and accurately recall information from a text or a lecture at any given time. Efficiency and productivity in the workplace might increase by reducing time and cost spent if people could remember how to perform a simple or complex routine after being shown only once. But as it happens, memory does not always function, as one would anticipate.      There are seven "sins" or errors of memory ranging from acute to chronic which are divided into three groups. The first error group involves types of forgetting described as transience, absent-mindedness, and blocking. The second group called misattribution, suggestibility and bias relate to information being stored or retrieved incorrectly. Lastly, a significantly different type of memory error known as persistence exhibits the opposite characteristics of forgetting.      Forgetting is the type of memory problem to which most people can relate. When people forget something they are more likely to forget most of it right away and forget less as time passes. Forgetting over time is called transience, and it holds an inverse relationship to time. The longer the memory exists, the slower it is forgotten. Transience is a combination of several events and processes. Some experiences do not get recorded into long-term memory and are quickly forgotten, while others may have been recorded into memory but cannot be recalled. Neuroscientists have identified sections of the brain related to transience and believe that the encoding of information into memory is a significant factor. Levels of brain activity at the time of encoding appear to predict whether something is remembered or forgotten. Psychologists have also studied and validated transience through behavioral experiments and observation.       One of the most common forms of forgetting is absent-mindedness. Absentmindedness occurs when people are not concentrating on what it is they are to remember. Not paying attention to actions or events results in less encoding of information into memory, which in turn may be rapidly forgotten. Sometimes absent-mindedness occurs at a later time when something is expected for recall. For example, a student forgets to bring a needed book to class. The student failed to perform the necessary tasks for encoding the information to be retrieved at a later date. Memory tasks are classified as event-based and time-based. Event-based relates to remembering to perform a task when it is appropriate, relying on external stimuli to prompt memory retrieval. A time-based event relates to performing a task at a specific time and depends on internally encoded cues for proper retrieval and execution. Increasing familiarity with these cues and the stimuli that trigger memory tasks can reduce absent-mindedness.       Blocking is a type of memory failure commonly associated with the widely studied tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomena. TOT is generally a short-term condition in which information is believed to exist in memory but cannot be retrieved. Studies indicate that TOT appears to increase with age and may be the result of memories that bear some similarities to the desired memory interfering with or blocking the retrieval of the desired memory.       Therefore, with better understanding of these types of forgetting, I/O psychologists can examine ways to improve work environments, and increase performance levels by looking at ways to generate stronger encoding of information. For example, development of new training programs to teach chemical processes and other highly technical and task oriented types of work. New ways of generating internal cues may help executives with time management issues, such as remembering to attend meetings. Improving external stimuli for employees who are routinely absent-minded may increase profit margins and productivity. As more is learned about brain function, psychologists will be armed with new tools to perform experiments, and test new techniques for reduction of these types of problems.       Learning to overcome the problems of forgetting will in no way insure that information is properly encoded into memory or properly retrieved. When a person remembers correctly, but incorrectly remembers the original source, that person is experiencing misattribution. Confusion about the source of information is an important issue that may have serious consequences. Individuals who incorrectly remember information about witnessing an event can substantially affect the outcome of a court case, or taint incident interviews with victims after an accident, explosion or other types of disasters. People frequently mistake the identity of others, and their relationship to others. Sometimes believing that real information is imaginary corrupts memories. Believing that something never happened when it actually occurred is another form of contaminated information. All of these cases are forms of misattribution and demonstrate that our memories have some texture of pliability.       Knowing that memories can be altered leads to the examination of suggestibility. Suggestibility occurs when a person's memories are altered by exposure to another situation that may be perceptually similar. This supports the idea that people can be lead to remember a situation and that memories are influenced by external suggestions. It has been demonstrated that individuals can be persuaded to remember happenings that never occurred. For example, alleged mental or sexual abuse as a child. I/O psychologists must closely examine this in relationship to false confessions. It is not clearly understood why people who are legitimately innocent have many times confessed to crimes only to reveal later the actual truth. Also the testimony of children must be carefully examined to determine their abilities to differentiate reality from imagination.       Preexisting information and beliefs can result in the development of a memory failure known as bias. People tend to exaggerate consistency when comparing past to present. Many people identify the similarity of the past experience to the present when in reality they are different. Feelings about relationships, political viewpoints, racial attitudes are only a sample of the types of memories that can be affected by bias.       The last "sin" of memory is persistence. Persistence describes the inability to forget something that may be unpleasant or not desirable to remember. Persistence is characterized by frequent, intrusive, reoccurring memories that a person would rather forget. Persistent memories can haunt individuals who cannot escape them and complicate mental health conditions such as phobias, stress, and depression. Mood swings can have a significant effect on triggering these memories as well as the levels of certain brain chemicals. Dealing with stress in the workplace is common for many people and I/O psychologists are faced with the challenge of helping people find ways to reduce stress and deal with different crises.       The undesirable effects of memory are sometimes described as the cost of having an adaptive system. At a glance, all of the errors of memory appear to be negative in consequence. Memory can be demonstrated to be frequently unreliable which in turn causes many other problems. Some people argue that memory has intrinsic design flaws while others contend that the errors of memory serve specific, necessary, and beneficial functions. For example, if people did not forget information then they may become overloaded with irrelevant and trivial facts and have trouble making good rational judgments. Bias may serve as a means of giving people a sense of normalcy, while persistence may be a highly developed defense mechanism that protects us from danger. Neuroscientists and psychologists have studied each of these phenomena. Many have varying opinions about whether these mistakes are fundamental shortcomings of our physiological design, or whether these flaws are not actually flaws at all. The "sins" of memory may be a complex system of adaptive mechanisms created through the evolutionary process to protect us from otherwise worse fates by not having them at all.       It is unclear whether the tasks we do and our changing behaviors as a species have affected memory's function. Exactly how memory developed, and whether the functions of memory are changing along with us are also mysteries waiting to be solved. Through the combination of technology, research, neuroscience, and psychology, scientists are bringing new answers to some of the oldest questions of mankind.