Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Long Term Memory Is Excellent

I sometimes wonder about my son. You ask him what he did at school today and he can't remember. Something shocked me the other night though.

Dr Who came on, it's the old series, but they had updated the intro. It used to be the TARDIS, Time And Relative Dimension In Space, going through some sort of tunnel with some white noise for sound. Now it's been updated to some stars and a little bit catchier music, mind you we are still talking about 1979-80 here.

As soon as Yu-Jin saw it he said, "Is this the four doctors?" meaning The Five Doctors - a movie that I stayed home to watch instead of going to the school dance. Get this, Yu-Jin saw this movie at the end of January or beginning of February. Not having seen it for about five months he recognised it straight away, the intro is the same, and almost got the name right.

He pulls memories out for things that happened six or 12 months ago and talks about them as though they happened yesterday. And then he gets upset if you can't follow what he is talking about straight away. Yesterday is a term that means any day before today - his concept of time needs a bit of work.

I'm just astounded by how well his long term memory works sometimes. Short term is shot to bits but the long term is impressive.

4 comments:

Nick Souter said...

not sure about that hambone, I reckon like most people only things that really interest him stick in his brain. WHen I don't care about something I forget it straight away. Ask him about a cartoon he just watched 5 minutes ago and he'll run the whole plot through again, but ask him a question about his homework 5 minutes ago and he'll ask if he can go watch cartoons instead!

lori said...

working in a call centre can be at times difficult due to the sheer amount of people that i talk to every month, however - whatever freak of nature my memory is, I can remember a whole conversation from 3 months ago once i read the history notes.

Anonymous said...

You sound a bit jaded Nick, or is it jealousy?

Hammy said...

Great notes allow for a great memory. If you train yourself you can retain any memory. I just need to get Yu-Jin to be interested in whatever he is doing. Maybe it isn't too much to be worried about at this stage but when you are a parent unneccessary worry is part and parcel.