CAN WE CHOOSE TO FORGET?

WRITTEN BY OSCAR J - YEAR 7

Memory is what we build our lives on; the fact that something deep down always guides us; that feeling of safety is often created by a comforting memory of the past. But if we could decide what we can remember, would that have an effect on the way we live our lives? What we could contribute to the world? Our shortterm memory is proven to be unstable, collecting information and disposing of it just as quickly The way an event reaches our long-term memory from which it is remembered and valued is through a process known as encoding. There are three main types of encoding, known as visual acoustic and semantic The way a memory reaches our short-term memory is for a combination of acoustic and visual encoding to take place This way our brain will repeat the memory and visualise a list of information until we might remember it for a time. However, to truly remember and value that memory in your long-term memory we must use semantic encoding in which a piece of information experienced is exchanged for the meaning of that experience This means it is much harder to forget a memory once it is in the semantic form.

Scientists and psychologists alike have argued that it is very unlikely that once a memory has entered your subconscious and long-term memory it would be very unlikely for it to be able to be destroyed This is mainly because of the way neurons work The neurons that form the connections in your brain are highly unlikely to expire before your death. You may be thinking the neurons that existed in your brain when you were a baby no longer exist anymore as you do not think like a baby However, the connections these neurons formed at that time have simply been repurposed to better suit your current life This means a neuron can never truly die unless you suffer from a disease such as Dementia or Alzheimer’s

If there is a memory in your subconscious that you cannot really remember that well it is probably because the neuron that was holding that memory there has been partially repurposed This means that the memory is still there but extremely hard for you to recover If this theory is correct it means you can never truly forget a long term memory (We are not including short term memories in this argument as by design you will forget some of your short term as this is simply how your brain memories are not accurate recollections of the event is an ancient one

Many of if you may have experienced a time when someone has said “that's not how I remembered it!” This could be a strong argument that you can forget something or partially forget something Our subconscious can also be accused of altering our memories to best suit our own purposes Why do I raise this point I hear you ask? Because this provides evidence for both sides of the argument! Although it is true that you are altering your memory it shows that you can never truly forget the memory itself The very fact that your memory remains even after severe alteration via your conscious and subconscious may mean that you cannot ever truly forget.

The subconscious has an effective tug on our deep memory so even if you do not know it you have hidden memories in your brain As I discussed in the first paragraph the way to access these memories is with a memorial trigger Such triggers will have something to do with the event and will likely be at the core of the memory that it is triggering. For instance, if someone is trying to make you remember the time

In conclusion once a memory has entered your sub consciousness you cannot truly forget it (unless you suffer from a brain disease such as Dementia or Alzheimer's) This is because of the neural structure in your brain However, whilst the memory is still in your short-term memory it is possible, via methods such as trigger blocking, repeating the opposing view and focusing on that memory to forget. Once in your long-term memory it can be very hard to forget however research has shown that it could be possible (as long as it has not reached your subconscious) Once in your subconscious however then it seems that is impossible to forget and only your very valued memories make it into your subconscious The conclusion I've come to whilst researching and writing this essay is that in all probability you can't purposefully forget a long-term memory This conclusion is controversial There is still no clear answer, and research is ongoing

Although it seems short term memories can be purposely forgotten the reason I believe we cannot choose to forget is because important, meaningful memories will almost always enter our long term memory and then the subconscious and the biological structure of our brains, the