Memory, like perception, is a topic in scientific research that still contains many unanswered questions. While there are several processes and mechanisms that are known about memory, and its relationship to visual perception, a lot of questions remain unanswered. A big phenomenon that is known about the recall of memory images is known as the Mandela effect. Kim Armstrong, who wrote an article for the Association for Psychological Science has quite a few things to say about it.
This article is very interesting because it talks about memory and the fact that we sometimes remember things incorrectly without knowing it. Armstrong talks about subtype of the Mandela. She refers to it as the Visual Mandela Effect (VME), which was originally brought about by Fiona Broomer (Armstrong, 2024). The VME refers to incorrect memory recall of images. The most common example of the Mandela effect is the monopoly character, in which many people associate with a monocle, when in fact, there isn’t one. The article explains that some of the causes to these types of memory distortions are related to schema and to visual experiences that are related to that image. The article also mentions a study in which researchers Prasad and Brainbridge showed participants a blurred canonical image of popular characters like Pikachu and Curious George and famous logos like Volkswagen and Fruit the Loom. After showing them these images, they were shown two additional images: a related VME image and the canonical image. Participants then had to relate the first image to either of the two images that they were given. What was surprising about the results is the fact that the participants looked at the images the same regardless of whether they had picked the correct one or not. With these results, Armstrong makes the suggestions that the attentional and perceptional differences on how people process images are not linked to the Mandela effect. She also states that tentative explanations for visual memory recall distortions could be that the act of enhancing the distinct features of an object is what makes them more memorable. These are all interesting points because they suggest that there is a influential connection between vision, perception, and memory.
Earlier in the semester, Dr.Nicholas Baker introduced us to his interest in visual perception, specifically the representation of shapes and objects. Dr.Baker and colleagues studied the hypothesis that constant curvature segments serve as primitives in visual perception and representation. His findings suggested that segments of constant curvature are the building blocks of contour shape representation (Baker et al., 2021). In his research, Dr.Baker and colleagues asked participants to determine if shapes of two figures were the same or different. In this experiment, participants were shown an image for 1000 milliseconds. Immediately after that, the image was replaced with its sealed counterpart so that participants could chose whether that second image had the same shape as the previous one.
While the purpose of this experiment was to investigate whether contours are represented as joint regions of constant curvature, I realized that memory also played an important role in this task. This made me wonder how memory, in addition to perception, played a role in the way in which participants responded. In another article titled The Interaction of Perception and Memory, Megla et al., make the statement that while visual perception and memory are two separate processes, they have a strong influence to one another and that modification of visual features can lead to enhanced memory.
These interesting suggestions about memory and perception can also lead to further answer questions about memory modification. Although memory and perception still withhold some mysteries, the topic of memory modification is already being talked about. For this reason, I think that continuance of memory and perceptual research should continue to be studied. S. Matthew Liao and Anders Sandberg reviewed the ethical concerns about memory modification. According to them, if memory modification technologies (MMTs) do no harm to others and are strictly voluntarily, they should be allowed. In my opinion, there is still so much more to learn about memory before opening a door to such risky experiments.
References
Baker, N., Garrigan, P., & Kellman, P. J. (2021). Constant curvature segments as building blocks of 2D shape representation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 150(8), 1556-1580. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001007
Liao, S. M., & Sandberg, A. (2008). The Normativity of memory modification. Neuroethics, 1(2), 85-99. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-008-9009-5
Megla, E., & Bainbridge, W. A. (2023). The interaction of perception and memory. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264086.013.392
Visual memory distortions paint a picture of the past that never was. (n.d.). Association for Psychological Science - APS. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/visual-memory-distortions.html
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