Why's that? Wow.
First off I want to say that it bugs me how different I can feel on a weekend day versus a weekday day. During the week I can feel beat, tired, down, grumpy as well as pretty good. On a weekend, even sitting at home doing work, I feel great and creative. Well, sometimes, but far more than I do at work. I have so many things I want to do and attempt and somehow my energy for these things is so much higher on the weekends. I just wish I could keep that up through the week. heck, I'm knocking off several creative things today and it just makes me feel alive.
Secondly, and this is what I was orignally going to write about, is my own sort of state dependent memory. Except it's location and aural dependent memory. Here it is: I walk to work nearly every day and nearly every day I listen to this american life on my ipod. I often have to stop my ipod in the middle of a story or a program because my walk only takes about 25 minutes and the shows are 50-55 minutes. So what I'm finding is that even if I don't listen for a few days, when I have to search through for where I left off my brain starts popping up images of almost my exact location at the point I was listening to whatever part I'm hearing. If David Sedaris is talking about going to Greece then my brain jumps to the image of walking up the 23rd street hill. This happens almost every time and it simply amazes me. Without paying specific attention my brain went ahead and stored that information. When I play back a trigger my brain shows me where I was and, I must say, I think it's pretty darn accurate, like within 10 feet. This is a lot like how smells, a specific smell, can conjure up a strong mental image of where you were and what it reminds you of. I'm sure the same thing often happens with music and songs. This, though, is something that happens several times a week and it really amazes me to have that experience. It's so visceral, emotional. LIke being transported in time and space by someone's voice and story in my ears.
Secondly, and this is what I was orignally going to write about, is my own sort of state dependent memory. Except it's location and aural dependent memory. Here it is: I walk to work nearly every day and nearly every day I listen to this american life on my ipod. I often have to stop my ipod in the middle of a story or a program because my walk only takes about 25 minutes and the shows are 50-55 minutes. So what I'm finding is that even if I don't listen for a few days, when I have to search through for where I left off my brain starts popping up images of almost my exact location at the point I was listening to whatever part I'm hearing. If David Sedaris is talking about going to Greece then my brain jumps to the image of walking up the 23rd street hill. This happens almost every time and it simply amazes me. Without paying specific attention my brain went ahead and stored that information. When I play back a trigger my brain shows me where I was and, I must say, I think it's pretty darn accurate, like within 10 feet. This is a lot like how smells, a specific smell, can conjure up a strong mental image of where you were and what it reminds you of. I'm sure the same thing often happens with music and songs. This, though, is something that happens several times a week and it really amazes me to have that experience. It's so visceral, emotional. LIke being transported in time and space by someone's voice and story in my ears.
posted by Mr. Astigmatism at 12:42 PM
2 Comments:
Haven't been on the blog in a while but I stopped by to read... and yes, my brain does the same thing location specific.
I remember Sandy used to have a very specific reaction where he would suddenly remember to call people when we would drive by their house :)
Hope you're having fun in the burning desert.
Oh, that wasn't Justin, that was Jess... I appear to be loggged in as Justin for no good reason...
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