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Extraction Summary
3
People
1
Organizations
1
Locations
3
Events
1
Relationships
4
Quotes
Document Information
Type:
Book excerpt / evidence file
File Size:
Summary
This document appears to be page 18 of a book or essay titled 'Hardwired for Hope?', included in a House Oversight evidence file. The text discusses a psychological study on memory and optimism, referencing the September 11, 2001 attacks as a catalyst for the author's research into how memory reconstruction relates to imagining the future. It notes that memories of 9/11 were often inaccurate 11 months later, and posits that the memory system evolved to help construct future scenarios rather than perfectly record the past.
People (3)
| Name | Role | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Author (Unnamed) | Narrator/Researcher |
Writing in first person ('I') about their research on optimism and memory.
|
| Volunteers | Study Participants |
Subjects whose brain activity was recorded by the author.
|
| Scientists | Researchers |
General group of memory researchers referenced by the author.
|
Organizations (1)
| Name | Type | Context |
|---|---|---|
| House Oversight Committee |
Indicated by the footer stamp 'HOUSE_OVERSIGHT'.
|
Timeline (3 events)
August 2002
Survey conducted 11 months after the 9/11 attacks regarding memory accuracy.
Around the country
Survey respondents
Locations (1)
| Location | Context |
|---|---|
|
Location where the author lived during the Sept. 11 attacks.
|
Relationships (1)
I decided to record the brain activity of volunteers
Key Quotes (4)
"The reality is that I stumbled onto the brain's innate optimism by accident."Source
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Quote #1
"I was intrigued by the fact that people felt their memories were as accurate as a videotape, while often they were filled with errors."Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030285.jpg
Quote #2
"The core function of the memory system could in fact be to imagine the future — to enable us to prepare for what has yet to come."Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030285.jpg
Quote #3
"Mundane scenes brightened with upbeat details as if polished by a Hollywood script"Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030285.jpg
Quote #4
Full Extracted Text
Complete text extracted from the document (2,036 characters)
18
Hardwired for Hope?
I would have liked to tell you that my work on optimism grew out of
a keen interest in the positive side of human nature. The reality is that
I stumbled onto the brain's innate optimism by accident. After living
through Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City, I had set out to investigate
people's memories of the terrorist attacks. I was intrigued by the fact
that people felt their memories were as accurate as a videotape, while
often they were filled with errors. A survey conducted around the
country showed that 11 months after the attacks, individuals'
recollections of their experience that day were consistent with their
initial accounts (given in September 2011) only 63% of the time.
They were also poor at remembering details of the event, such as the
names of the airline carriers. Where did these mistakes in memory
come from?
Scientists who study memory proposed an intriguing answer:
memories are susceptible to inaccuracies partly because the neural
system responsible for remembering episodes from our past might not
have evolved for memory alone. Rather, the core function of the
memory system could in fact be to imagine the future — to enable us
to prepare for what has yet to come. The system is not designed to
perfectly replay past events, the researchers claimed. It is designed to
flexibly construct future scenarios in our minds. As a result, memory
also ends up being a reconstructive process, and occasionally, details
are deleted and others inserted. To test this, I decided to record the
brain activity of volunteers while they imagined future events — not
events on the scale of 9/11, but events in their everyday lives — and
compare those results with the pattern I observed when the same
individuals recalled past events. But something unexpected occurred.
Once people started imagining the future, even the most banal life
events seemed to take a dramatic turn for the better. Mundane scenes
brightened with upbeat details as if polished by a Hollywood script
I would have liked to tell you that my work on optimism grew out of
a keen interest in the positive side of human nature. The reality is that
I stumbled onto the brain's innate optimism by accident. After living
through Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City, I had set out to investigate
people's memories of the terrorist attacks. I was intrigued by the fact
that people felt their memories were as accurate as a videotape, while
often they were filled with errors. A survey conducted around the
country showed that 11 months after the attacks, individuals'
recollections of their experience that day were consistent with their
initial accounts (given in September 2011) only 63% of the time.
They were also poor at remembering details of the event, such as the
names of the airline carriers. Where did these mistakes in memory
come from?
Scientists who study memory proposed an intriguing answer:
memories are susceptible to inaccuracies partly because the neural
system responsible for remembering episodes from our past might not
have evolved for memory alone. Rather, the core function of the
memory system could in fact be to imagine the future — to enable us
to prepare for what has yet to come. The system is not designed to
perfectly replay past events, the researchers claimed. It is designed to
flexibly construct future scenarios in our minds. As a result, memory
also ends up being a reconstructive process, and occasionally, details
are deleted and others inserted. To test this, I decided to record the
brain activity of volunteers while they imagined future events — not
events on the scale of 9/11, but events in their everyday lives — and
compare those results with the pattern I observed when the same
individuals recalled past events. But something unexpected occurred.
Once people started imagining the future, even the most banal life
events seemed to take a dramatic turn for the better. Mundane scenes
brightened with upbeat details as if polished by a Hollywood script
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030285
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