Why Do We Remember things From Our Childhood?

[Angrboda]

I also find it interesting to see how accurate my memory is. For an example, I used to play Street Fighter 2 all the time for years. A while after I finally stopped playing it, I had in my head what the music was like for various stages. I would hum it myself or even play it on the piano. Then my brother would say to me, "That bit's wrong!" I'd be like, "No way man! I know this fucking tune inside out!" It was clear as day in my head, I was convinced I was right.

Multiple times, I was not right. My brother had caught me out, my memory had got distorted. I had changed parts of the tunes, cut bits out, swapped orders, all kinds of things. When I went back and listened to the tunes from the game, they actually sounded wrong. My brain was protesting, saying, "Nah man, what's up here? They don't go like this!" But this was the actual game, there was no argueing with it.

That's probably pretty normal. In psychotherapy, I had to retell my history with each new therapist. I'd be halfway into telling my story when suddenly I'd realize that I'd got it all wrong. I was just taking isolated bits and rearranging them and connecting them up so that it made sense, without regard to how things actually had happened. I suspect we make all sorts of memory errors, we're just so seldom put to the test on it. But if you've ever sat around with family recalling childhood events, it's clear that people remember things differently from each other, and from how things actually occurred.