Short Term Memory

[CLOfriendOSE]

Hello fellow INTPs

I was wondering about your experiences with Memory, especially that of the short term. I have virtually no short term memory. I have many moments when I'm going to open a cabinet and forget what I'm doing (sometimes I even forget that I am hungry). I assume this has something to do with being only vaguely connected to the sensory world and instead experiencing a torrent of thoughts at all times while trying to do basic tasks.

Yet, I have always done well in school. While I can't remember what I ate for breakfast, apparantly just being present in a class is usually enough to call upon all of the information at a later date. This aspect, I feel, develops from active listening - I acquire the data, run through multiple permutations while the teacher is talking, and that's that. Oftentimes I find myself drawing while the teacher is talking. This physical imprint of the lecture is often more useful than notes because it allows a complete recall of the lecture at a glance.

Anyway, how do you feel about your Memory (or lack thereof)?

 

[MissQuote]

Walk in a room and forget why you are there, leave the room and instantly wonder why you are in the new room?

Yeah.

 

[Darby]

I always referred to my memory as being non-specific. So if I just sit in a class I can ace the test even if I don't concentrate simply because when I see the question on the test it triggers a general memory of the event, however, it's very fuzzy. I have a hard time with true/false questions if I have seen both a sentence saying it's true, and one saying it's false.

The cabinet/walking into a room happens occasionally, but where my memory fails tends to be the 30<x<1day range of short term memory.

I once spent an entire afternoon trying to remember if I had given a quarter to my friend or not. Specifically because I was almost positive I had given it to him, but I appeared to still have the quarter, not only that but I could easily picture both not giving it to him and giving it to him (my thought process is very visual, as is my memory, so if I imagine something enough, it often jumbles up my memory).

 

[Dimensional Transition]

It's like my body just does stuff on auto-pilot, while I am going through all sorts of scenarios, theories, fantasies etc. in my mind.

So yeah, I definitely know what you mean. I find it very hard to find my way through a town at first, because people will always guide me for the first time(or I'll use google maps or so), but I'm never really paying attention. So the next few times I always forget where I should be going. Eventually it all just goes automatically so I don't have to think about the route anymore.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Bad short term, excellent Episodic memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episodic_memory

 

[Tungsten]

I know what you mean. Sometimes I don't know why I am in my room - or any other division as well -, I open my cellphone to see what time is it and right after close I forget it ...

But I have no such problems with relevant data. I'm prone to learn by heart the scientific names of several species and to recall them even if I don't use them, just to give an example. I'm also good at using formulas, because I easily learn them by heart.

 

[ParaFreak]

I know what you mean. Sometimes I don't know why I am in my room - or any other division as well -, I open my cellphone to see what time is it and right after close I forget it ...

But I have no such problems with relevant data. I'm prone to learn by heart the scientific names of several species and to recall them even if I don't use them, just to give an example. I'm also good at using formulas, because I easily learn them by heart.

Exactly what happens to me every single day. I have to look at my watch 2 or 3 times because I forget what i just read after looking up...
I always felt like my short term memory was really bad for somethings (e.g. remembering what I ate for breakfast the day before), but I have also realised that I learn things (e.g. mathematical formulas) a lot easier than people in my class. Perhaps it's an INTP thing?

 

[Lobstrich]

I do sometimes forget random things. When I go downstairs and bring my bottle of water to refill, with me. Then when I get downstairs I go to he bathroom and go upstairs, I forget to refill the bottle, which was actually the reason I went downstairs.

But memory in general? I remember like ten elephants. I have insanely good memory, if I say so myself. I can remember things from when I was 6,7 years old. Very very acturately and detailed.

 

[The Gopher]

I have insane long term memory, I also have insane short term memory but in the other meaning of insane.

 

[Lobstrich]

I have insane long term memory, I also have insane short term memory but in the other meaning of insane.

The other meaning? What's the first meaning?

 

[kantor1003]

Depends on so many things. I don't think it's particularly good, but I'd really like to test out another brain some time so I could have something to compare to.

 

[Hadoblado]

I have five 'slots' of working memory, which is two below average and half of what the girl next to me scored.

 

[420MuNkEy]

I've had some of the same experiences described above, but additionally, my lack of short term memory prevents me from reading more than a couple pages at a time. If I try for more, I'll end realizing 20 pages later that at some point I'd stopped paying attention to what the words meant but continued reading them. I have yet to find a way around this other than reading painfully slow (which negates any enjoyment that could be had from a novel).

In fact, this extends to my posting habits. I'll usually avoid a thread that has a lot of replies already because I know I won't want to read them all and wouldn't feel right replying to a thread I hadn't read.

 

[Yet]

I have got a significant bad short term memory (compared to my IQ it is 1% or so that has a short term mem as bad as mine) ... which can be a pain in the ass.
I cannot remember irrelevant and 'loose' data.

I compensate this with a real real good memory for data that is imbedded in a relevant structure or situation when I am in a 'flow'.
You could say I forget what everybody around me seems to remember and I remember al sorts of stuff other people around me tend to forget.

By example: if I have been somewhere I can find my way back years later. I've quite an impressive internal map / visuospatial.

But my short term memory is blubber
(to be precise --> 3 points below avarage)

 

[Lobstrich]

You guys keep talking about "points" and "slots" What are you talking about? Did you take some kind of memory test??

 

[Linsejko]

I have always had similar attend class = almost perfect recall, getting hundreds in classes like history while never studying. I've also attributed it to active listening.

I think this lack of short term memory is actually the opposite--lack of focus. It sounds more like a vague ADD esque symptom (did I start that argument? . We're internal, thoughtful people, so while executing an external action, your mind wanders. I have found one brief second of intense focus allows me to overcome this problem, however, so I've largely eliminated it by a slight behavior change.

It's odd, this ability to intensely focus to intentionally direct quality of memory. I explicitly recall a moment when I was 14, taken the trash out at that house I lived in at the time, and realizing all the small moments that are completely insignificant, like that particular moment, that get completely 100% lost in memory. As a tribute to those moment, I paused, and chose to focus very hard, stare at the stars, and never forget that moment.

It's many years later, an I never have. :\

I have also found that if I'm looking for something like keys, cell phone, etc., do not get stored in my memory. It's odd, but I realized my mind uses an entirely different process that must be related to the intuitive process--I subconsciously set my stuff in one of several places intentionally so that I will find it in the morning, also subconsciously without looking.

I realized this because when I would lose something, I would sometimes catch myself absentmindedly going in circles to the same 12 or so possible locations (in thought about something else entirely halfway through, and so subconsciously repeating the track). After several times, I realized what was going on. Often it would be lost only because someone else had set something on it that would cover it up, it had fallen off of its placed location, or somehow it had become moved entirely. Even if it was to another reasonable place, I would never check there if it wasn't one of 'my' places (that I had never consciously been aware of or thought about, and cannot intentionally discover without using a camera and tricking myself or something).

I'm a kinesthetic-audio learner/thinker, so motion brings back associations of memory for me, and the phenomena described with being able to simulate two sides of a coin on memory visually occurs for me aurally (I can remember hearing both); however, sometimes I can also listen to a direct repeat in my head to check what I just heard and get the data, so it's not always like that. Not sure what makes the difference.

 

[pjoa09]

I always referred to my memory as being non-specific. So if I just sit in a class I can ace the test even if I don't concentrate simply because when I see the question on the test it triggers a general memory of the event, however, it's very fuzzy. I have a hard time with true/false questions if I have seen both a sentence saying it's true, and one saying it's false.

The cabinet/walking into a room happens occasionally, but where my memory fails tends to be the 30<x<1day range of short term memory.

I once spent an entire afternoon trying to remember if I had given a quarter to my friend or not. Specifically because I was almost positive I had given it to him, but I appeared to still have the quarter, not only that but I could easily picture both not giving it to him and giving it to him (my thought process is very visual, as is my memory, so if I imagine something enough, it often jumbles up my memory).

Same when I loose something. I so picture myself putting something on a table when I didn't and wonder if that is memory or just imagination.

I used to also use my imagination to spell words as a child. I imagined it being written down in the same style that I saw 'Confucius'.

But I just sucked at school.

 

[Darby]

But I just sucked at school.

I'm curious as to what exactly that entails, because I "failed" 3 years in a row, but I went to an alternative school where they don't believe in holding kids back, and I also aced every test given to me, I just never did ANY work that was assigned (this has changed, now I just do whatever the bare minimum is).

EDIT: I realized that has nothing to do with the rest of the thread so:

It is quite nice to know that I'm not the only one who has a bad short-term memory. In fact I hate my short-term memory (or lack thereof) so much that I have seriously considered going into neuroscience or something of the sort simply to find a good way to fix this.

I have many memories I hold dear that I wish to keep, and whenever I think about losing them I begin to feel like I'm like a sand castle next to the ocean just watching the tide slowly rise and eat away at me and the memories and experiences that make me who I am.

 

[Hadoblado]

You guys keep talking about "points" and "slots" What are you talking about? Did you take some kind of memory test??

Are you familiar with the precise definitions of short and long term memory? If not, wiki it. Anyway STM isn't really the most prevalent term anymore, instead, 'working memory' has taken prominence. One's working memory capacity is equal to the number of concepts one can store before the information is memorized for the long term. The change in terminology is due to the common misconception that STM is storage space at all, instead it is more like the work area for your conscious thought.

Working memory is measured using a relatively simple numbers memorization game (or at least mine was). If you're interested in taking one I could probably recreate one if you could find a rl person to administer it.

 

[Yet]

Linsejko

I think this lack of short term memory is actually the opposite--lack of focus. It sounds more like a vague ADD esque symptom

I think you've got a point there. Lack of attention for certain types of info.

 

[The Gopher]

The other meaning? What's the first meaning?

Ahh first meaning (though not nessesaraly first logicaly just first in the sentence) Is Insane or great, Second meaning insane...ly bad.

 

[shoeless]

my short term memory is shot.

i blame it on the drugs.

 

[Lobstrich]

Are you familiar with the precise definitions of short and long term memory? If not, wiki it. Anyway STM isn't really the most prevalent term anymore, instead, 'working memory' has taken prominence. One's working memory capacity is equal to the number of concepts one can store before the information is memorized for the long term. The change in terminology is due to the common misconception that STM is storage space at all, instead it is more like the work area for your conscious thought.

I know what the difference is between short/long term mermory. But I don't know how many "memory points" I have.

I mean, how do you know that yourself? "Ah damn.. I forgot the bottle, I knew I only had 4 memory points" I just didn't see how you come to the knowledge of how many "points" you have.

Working memory is measured using a relatively simple numbers memorization game (or at least mine was). If you're interested in taking one I could probably recreate one if you could find a rl person to administer it.

So you did take a test. Why did you doubt my understanding of the definition of the words then? I was wondering how you knew about your "slots" and "points" and asked if you had taken some kind of test (Which you had) and then you ask me if I'm sure about the definition?? I don't feel insulted, I'm just confused and wondering.

 

[thelithiumcat]

(my thought process is very visual, as is my memory, so if I imagine something enough, it often jumbles up my memory).

That happens to me. More so with things like books. I drift off and a lot of the time I find that things which I think happened actually only exist in my mind. For example, I often get the description of how things look very wrong because I get preoccupied by my own idea of what the character or location looks like without reading the description.

 

[Hadoblado]

I was asking whether you knew the definitions so that the other things I said had context. I didn't mean to tickle insecurities or come across as condescending or imply you didn't know, I was explaining what the slots and points were that you were asking about. The reason I overly explained myself was because it is a common misconception, and for the sake of the readers of this thread and potentially your own understanding, I felt it not inappropriate to do so. Does this clear confusion?

 

[Lobstrich]

I was asking whether you knew the definitions so that the other things I said had context.

I see, my bad.

I didn't mean to tickle insecurities or come across as condescending or imply you didn't know

You tickles no insecurities. I like to think of myself without insecurities. I have no problem acknowledging when I'm bad at something or unknowledgeable at a topic.
As I said when I replied, I was did not feel insulted so I again you're confusing me now, by telling me that you did not mean to sound concescending. I know you didn't

Of course, one could argue that I'm being slightly insecure now, since I'm explaining myself a lot on insecurities.

I was explaining what the slots and points were that you were asking about. The reason I overly explained myself was because it is a common misconception, and for the sake of the readers of this thread and potentially your own understanding, I felt it not inappropriate to do so. Does this clear confusion?

Absolutely!