Why Do Memories Fade?

This is the text version of the interactive 3D documentary. 한국어

Why Do Memories Fade?

Why do we remember, and why do we forget? How can one photo bring back a whole day? 15 short scenes, shown with a small memory network that really computes and Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve, each with an interactive 3D view.

Open the 3D documentary

Chapter 1 · Why we remember

1. Cells that light up together link up

   A memory is a link growing stronger

2. Replayed during sleep

   The hippocampus replays the day at night

3. Days full of feeling

   A memory stored strongly survives a crowd

Chapter 2 · Why we forget

1. The forgetting curve

   What we learn fades fastest in the first few hours

2. Review it, forget it slower

   Seeing it again, with gaps in between

3. Similar memories get mixed up

   Memories get in each other’s way

4. The man who could not make new memories

   H.M., who lost his hippocampus

Chapter 3 · One photo

1. From one piece

   One corner of a photo pulls back the whole day

2. Even from a blurry photo

   A wrong clue still rolls to the nearest memory

3. Photos can change memories

   A photo seen later takes the memory’s place

4. Try your own photo

   Put one of your photos into the network

Chapter 4 · Erase and rebuild, every day

1. Trimmed during sleep

   Turn every link down evenly, and the pictures stay

2. Never forget, and you forget everything

   A network that never erases collapses all at once

3. Build by day, erase by night

   A year of a network that erases a little each day

4. Erase and rebuild, every day

   And that is why we can still remember today

The dot board and the spiral are a small learning memory network (a Hopfield network) that really computes. It is not a picture of a real brain; it shows the principles. Numbers from research are given with their sources.