Each of us has lost or forgotten our glasses or keys or had difficulty finding where the car is parked. This study encourages us not to write off our memory, because its capacity appears to be much greater than we think. So, while previous research has already shown that if you see a large number of objects, you are very “good at remembering” the objects you have seen, this new study suggests that you are also and surprisingly good at remembering where and when they were seen.
A massive spatial and temporal memory
The study asked its participants to remember a number of objects placed on a 7 grid in rows of 7. Each item was highlighted for two seconds by placing a red square around it. After showing all objects to participants, all images were removed and participants were then tested on their ability to recall whether they had seen an item before and, if so, where that item was on the gate. In total, the participants were able to observe 300 different objects.
Experience reveals that:
- when objects are arranged on a 7 by 7 grid, many participants are able to remember the location of over 100 objects (across multiple grids), choosing, in practice either the exact location or a location adjacent ;
- in another experiment, participants viewed items one at a time and were asked to click on an on-screen timeline to specify the order in which they viewed the items. The experiment shows that the participants located 60-80% of the old elements within +/- 10% of the exact order.
“Our memory is often thought to be fallible, but our results show that we can remember where and when an object appeared with very good or even perfect precision, and for a large number of objects”, comments lead author Dr. Jeremy Wolfe of the BWH Department of Surgery. Even if the spatial and temporal memory of humans is not as impressive as that of some birds or squirrels – which must remember where they have hidden their food for the winter.
“Since ancient times, we have used indices of places and dates to help us encode large amounts of information. In this sense, it is not very surprising that by using these same methods, we confirm, with these experiments, that we are quite good at remembering where we left the objects”.
