Why We Tend to Remember “Useless” Things Better — and Why I Hated Gulliver`s Travels With All My Might

When my sister and I were little, we spent a lot of time at my grandma’s house in the village. The combination of two kids and a tired grandma did not work out well for her, and she had a specific time-out method for us.

Whenever we misbehaved, we were sent to the bedroom to read books.

I don’t remember what my sister read, but I know I was forced to read Gulliver’s Travels (a school-mandated read). I’ve read that book several times, but nothing remained in my memory. I wanted to go out, run around with my friends, and eat some ice cream, but instead, I was stuck in the room, reading some story about a giant guy trapped by Lilliputians.

Since I couldn’t remember a thing from what I read, I devised a plan to deceive my grandma. I’d skim a page in the middle of the book and immediately tell her what I remembered. It worked! But to this day, I don’t know what happens in that book, and I have avoided re-reading (or even watching movies and animated shows) ANYTHING about Gulliver’s Travels.

Somehow, something in my mind was Gulliver’s fault, and I disliked that story with every ounce in my body.

I’m not sure if my dislike of subjects I was forced to learn started from Gulliver’s, but my technique of deceiving Grandma worked well at school, too. So, for years, I would skim the material in history books (I didn’t like memorizing dates) and pass the subject somehow.

So what happened? Why couldn’t I remember a thing after reading the pages several times and finishing the book without knowing what happened?

There’s a thing called “The Forgetting Curve.” It’s a memory model that German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus introduced in the late 19th century. He suggests that our memory curves and shifts, and we forget the memories we retain if they do not resurface regularly.

Wanna know a fun fact?

According to the curve:

• You forget 50% of all new information you acquired within a day
• You forget 90% of all new information you acquired within a week

That seems like a lot, but don’t worry. Most of this information is useless.

Researchers redesigned the original study to find if Ebbingdau’s research was correct. We have variations of this model, and most say we forget A LOT of information.

I got a bit carried away!

Yes, the memory curve exists, but that’s not why I forgot everything I read instantly or in a few minutes. There was something else at hand — something far worse than forgetting 90% of all new information within a week — forced education.

The Stress of Forced Learning

Forced learning isn’t a new concept. Many of you have heard of it or experienced it. In fact, it’s a universal thing that stresses students of all ages worldwide. In a study by Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China, researchers highlight that students are forced to increase their homework engagement and learning content and decrease sleep and personal time.

I’m not a parent, but I don’t need the practical experience to know that it’s almost impossible to convince a child to eat something healthy instead of a salty or sweet snack. I have witnessed several kids being lectured about the benefits of growing strong and large if they eat carrots, yet they will dive nose-deep into potato chips and soda.

So, if we can’t get kids to eat healthy or read books for their own benefit, how come we use forced learning as a punishment?

The Stress of Learning as a Punishment

Thank heavens, I found some books that piqued my interest and didn’t give up on reading completely. I would’ve missed Yuval Noah Harari’s gems and books about persuasive copywriting. Heck, I wouldn’t even be able to write articles if my vocabulary could fit in a shoebox. But using reading books as a punishment definitely hurt my appreciation of books and literature.

My articles don’t do squat without psychological analysis. I love digging deeper into these subjects and finding gems. For example, in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, Christina Clark and Kate Rumbold published a study in 2006, “Reading for Pleasure,” highlighting that children are motivated to read by outer and inner factors. The inner factors can be curiosity and the thirst to find answers to questions. Outer factors are extra-curricular reading materials, homework, and school point systems. They also explore the essentiality of teaching children to love books so that both factors healthily affect them.

Researchers also explore the antagonization of outer factors and how most of us favor inner factors. This is wrong! Outer motives can often benefit inner factors, but if we use reading and learning as a punishment, it will ultimately sink the inner factors, and kids will be left with outer motives that don’t last long.

What’s more interesting is that children who grow up in an environment where reading books and learning new information is shown as an example by parents or family members will display higher interest in reading later in life.

For me, reading books was always positioned as something educated people do and was a must. The only two people I’ve ever seen read books at my house were my grandpa and my mother. My grandpa would read technical, complicated, and work-related books. He didn’t read for pleasure; he read because it was necessary. On the other hand, my mother would read fiction, novels, and romance books. She read for pleasure and interest but also because she “needed” to read.

I was taught that reading books was necessary, and if I didn’t, I would be considered illiterate. I was often shamed for not having read certain books, and to this day, I avoid discussing popular book subjects since I haven’t read many of them. I revisited some classics a few years ago, and I’m starting to fall in love with them. However, it was difficult for me to take a book I was told I HAD to read.

I feel like I’m rambling. Let’s get back to the main subject — why do we remember “useless” information instead of keeping what’s “important?”

Why Do We Remember “Useless” Information?

Why can I remember the lyrics to O Zone’s Dragostea din tei (even though I don’t speak Romanian) but can’t, for the love of all that’s holy, remember the names of historical figures, important years and even the plots of books I’ve JUST read?

It was a long wait, but I’m finally here, talking about the subject I named this article after. Forgive me for the V-saucesque approach, but my work always has a point and path to get there. It’s impossible to satiate my endless curiosity about such subjects, but I must finish writing somewhere.

So.. What’s up with the “useless” information we remember, like all the Disney movie lyrics and plotlines, but can’t remember the formula for the volume of a pyramid?

According to Garry Lynch, a psychobiologist at UCI’s Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, we are using two separate kinds of memory:

• Engraved memory: a powerful system that preserves details of emotionally heavy moments. Like the first time, you got flowers from your SO. Lynch says that the hormones we release during these moments intensify the memories, and they stick forever.
• Temporary memory: We also call it a “scratch-pad memory.” This memory type is unique because it only keeps memories for a few hours and discards them. That’s why we forget what we ate earlier that day, where we left the keys, etc.

“The brain is an unimaginable jumble of electrical circuits. Each of 10 billion brain cells connects with 50,000 others. One square millimeter of cortex, the crinkly surfaced dome of the brain, contains 80,000 brain cells, making the cortex the most complex electronic circuit board on Earth.”

Source: LA Times | The MYSTERY of MEMORY: Why do we remember useless things forever while important ones vanish? New research offers some clues | Steve Emmons

But that’s not what I’m talking about. The question is, why do we remember useless things but can’t retain helpful information? However, the sub-context of the article is that stress and punishment can influence our memory and suppress even the information we JUST attained.

J. Douglas Bremner, MD’s earlier research, “Traumatic stress: effects on the brain,” shows a correlation between stress and brain function. Stress and traumatic events affect memory function and change some circuits, including the hippocampus, amygdala, and medial prefrontal cortex (all the fancy words for memory functioning).

A new study suggests the contrary and highlights that stress actually helps us retain memories due to the intensity of the emotions during stressful events and cortisol (which allows the brain to structure memories).

But as the quote above highlights, our brains are fascinating and complex. Researchers are unsure how EXACTLY stress affects our memory retention abilities, but I’m sure it’s different for everyone.

Why?

My view of books and reading has restricted me from picking up exciting reading materials for years. Still, I have a curious mind and would find ways of learning new information (videos, illustrated magazines, conversations, asking questions, listening to lectures, etc.).

In middle school, I found a few books (that I judged by the covers) and started reading them. Some were nice, some boring, but I promised myself I’d get through them all and find out what I enjoyed. And it worked!

Do I remember everything I read? No, of course not! But brains work mysteriously, so who knows why some details remained in my mind and some evaporated. One thing I know is that curiosity is a strong driving force. It’s an inner factor that motivates people to read and seek knowledge, even if the outer motivators are misused.

Fortunately, I found my way back to the books, but I still absolutely despise Gulliver’s Travels.