3 friends relive some of their most vivid memories

This podcast will include both Henry’s and my memories of being at the basketball court. In order to remember the events, we both went back to the scene and acted out what happened. We asked each other many questions, including things about the weather, placement of bodies, outcome, and other key details. These were context dependent memories because going back to the location of occurrence easily triggered them. Having the same smell, sound, visual, and paying greater attention to the event can also trigger context dependent memories. By discovering specific places around campus where we have memories, we were able to remember great detail by being present in the certain spot. While at these locations, we were able to retrieve, or locate, the stored information in our brains. Once locating it, we were able to return it to conscious thought and explain to others what happened.

When Cici and I visited the Duxbury Student Union, we first saw the whole building and were suddenly remembered of the days back in middle school when we were allowed to hang out with friends and listen to music at the student union for lunch, the dances that were held there and all the memories we retrieved from those wonderful days. This is an example of the context dependent memory because we remembered the memory that came back after looking and being at the student union. Context dependent memory are memories that come back after being prompted by something. Another example of this memory is the state dependent memory, because at the time we were happy and we remembered having fun at the dances from middle school. We walked up to the front of the building where we then retrieved from the dances that the inside got super hot, so we were allowed to walk outside and get some air.

In our podcast, MC recounts the time he crashed his 10th grade winter chorus concert. We went back to the spot it happened, the PAC, and when MC was standing near the stage, Julia reminded him of the memory. It is a context dependent memory because it was prompted by being there and seeing MC in that spot. In addition, context dependent memories can be prompted with food, music, or smells. When prompted, he remembered pulling his dress up to run across the wing of the stage, something he wouldn’t have remembered without being there. It was retrieved from his long term memory and brought into the front of his consciousness.