TERRE HAUTE — Recently, some presidential candidates have apparently forgotten something that others expected them to remember. Also some superdelegates have switched allegiance from one candidate to the other, revealing that they forgot the candidate they originally favored. However, others have claimed that the candidates or superdelegates had not truly forgotten anything. Instead, these critics have accused the candidates or superdelegates of lying when they said that they forgot something. This column examines instances of alleged poor memory or alleged dishonesty raised in three recent political controversies.
You probably know this story but let me review it so we all begin on the same page. Hillary Clinton recalled in a recent campaign speech that she was fired upon by snipers when she arrived at an airport in Bosnia in 1996. She recalled further that she had to run to a vehicle for safety. Subsequently, a TV news channel found footage of video taken of the arrival mentioned by Ms. Clinton. The film clearly showed she arrived without sniper fire and, instead of making a rapid departure to a vehicle, the video showed that she experienced a somewhat prolonged greeting by a party of citizens and politicians.
Shortly after the video was shown in news reports, some critics asserted that Ms. Clinton was lying about her encounter of sniper fire. Please don’t make inferences about my leanings one way or another regarding Ms. Clinton’s candidacy, but let me propose that Ms. Clinton was not lying. Instead her mistaken report about the Bosnia arrival was due to several weaknesses of human memory.
First, liars have to have an excellent memory. If Ms. Clinton were a liar, she would have caught herself before she incorrectly recalled her Bosnia arrival story. Many of us (not necessarily you or me) are inclined to embellish on a story. However, if you or I were running for President, we would take care to not misspeak (and certainly not lie) about our past experiences because we want to avoid the pickle that Ms. Clinton got herself in.
Second, Ms. Clinton’s memory failure appears to have been a blended memory. This is a kind of memory we all have sometime, In Ms. Clinton’s case, her memory appears to have been a blend of imaginations of a feared dangerous arrival and the real arrival. No doubt, highly visible people in politics worry occasionally about encountering dangerous situations. Consequently. it is plausible that she failed to distinguish between a real memory and an imagined one about what danger might have happened during her arrival.
If you still are inclined to believe that Ms. Clinton was lying when she spoke about her Bosnia experience, recall that such disputes about past events is common between significant others, family and friends.
For example, a voice emerges from the dining room. “Jack, it was not like that. How could you say that.” “Well Sally, you are the one who has it wrong. You never remember these things right.” And on it goes. Who can claim that their memory is totally above ever making such a mistake.
Around the same time that Ms. Clinton was coping with the dispute about her memory for the Bosnia event, other critics were claiming that Barack Obama had not been telling the truth when he said that he had not heard anti-American statements made by his pastor in one or more sermons. Some critics claimed that it was impossible for Mr. Obama to regularly attend church and not remember offensive comments of his pastor. Please don’t make inferences about my leanings, one way or another, regarding Mr. Obama’s candidacy, but let me propose that Mr. Obama was not lying. Instead, his failure to remember his pastor’s sermons was due to several weaknesses of human memory.
First, people in general have difficulty in noticing, much less remembering, comments that are contrary to their views. You and I usually do not register each and every comment that differs from our own viewpoint. Alternatively, we tend to remember the comments that support how we view things.
Second, we tend to remember primarily the comments of honored figures that are consistent with their reputation. It stands to reason that Mr. Obama may not have paid attention to comments of his minister that were contrary to what Mr. Obama believes what his pastor would be expected to say. Everyone has an significant other, a family member, friend, or role model who sometimes says outlandish things. When the comments of a respected person are outlandish, we tend to ignore them - which is why we do not remember them.
Third, remembering the sermons of anyone’s pastor, priest, or rabbi is extremely difficult because the experience each week has a lot in common with that of other weeks. We humans remember well unique events that occur in different locations at different times in the presence of different people - but not events that occur in the same seat, pew, or prayer position week after week. Who can remember each and every visit to the dentist or each and every visit to the local ice cream shop.
Now lets turn to the memory and honesty of super delegates. Some of them have recently switched from being in favor of one candidate to favoring the other candidate. When they do so, have they forgotten their previous allegiance to the other candidate (or forgotten what the previous candidate did for the super delegate in the past)? Clearly the switch in candidates is not an aberration of memory. Instead, what has happened is that the supper delegate has evaluated the recent statements of each candidate and has decided to change his or her mind. We tend to remember events and information that gives us some peace, that achieves a balance between the positive and negative.
In conclusion, instead of attacking candidates or super delegates for supposedly lying about what they remember or forget, lets focus on the issues and vote accordingly.
A Sharper Mind
April 30, 2008
Candidates, superdelegates not lying, just forgetful
- A Sharper Mind
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- A Shaper Mind: A review of Sharper Mind columns Don’t worry. Just because I am providing a review in this column, it doesn’t mean I am going to give an exam afterward. I just want to go over some of the most important ideas discussed in this column previously. The reason that I am doing this is because this is my last column. I admit that I just could not remember any topic that had not been examined here.
- Holiday gift giving for the sharper mind This year, more than most years, gift giving during the holidays is going to be especially challenging. Gift-giving this year will require more accurate remembering and more problems solving than in previous years.
- The pros and cons of cell phones This column will, first, review why cell phones have a positive effect on our mind. Subsequently, we will consider the dangerous consequences of talking on a cell phone while driving and then the very dangerous consequences of text-messaging on a cell phone while driving,
- Activities of daily living that depend on memory Everyone forgets something that they are supposed to do in everyday life. They may have known what they should do for a long time or for after a minute or so. This column examines the role of memory in some common activities in one’s day.
- Why names and appointments are difficult to remember Everyone has weaknesses. Mine is popcorn and more popcorn. We also have weaknesses when it comes to memory. I don’t know your memory weaknesses and I don’t care to share mine. But I can tell you the memory weaknesses that most of us say we have.
- Consider thinking training It is possible to buy products that are supposed to improve one’s mind? Last month’s column discussed products that aim at improving a person’s memory. As promised, this month’s column reviews products (such as courses, books, tapes, CDs, and CD ROMS) that are aimed at improving a person’s ability to think.
- A Sharper Mind: The science behind commercial methods of mind improvement It is possible to buy products that are supposed to improve one’s mind. Most of these products aim at improving a person’s memory but many products aim at improving a person’s ability to think. This month’s column reviews products that are supposed to improve a person’s memory. Next month’s column will review products intended to improve a person’s thinking ability.
- Candidates, superdelegates not lying, just forgetful Recently, some presidential candidates have apparently forgotten something that others expected them to remember. Also some superdelegates have switched allegiance from one candidate to the other, revealing that they forgot the candidate they originally favored.
- The advantages and disadvantages of memorists Every family has one. Every group of friends has one, too: a person who tends to remember almost everything that is going on. This person knows all about upcoming events (concerts, lectures), what is at the movies, and what’s on TV. Sometimes, this person even knows what is going on among family members, friends and acquaintances. Accurate gossip is a valuable commodity.
- Drake sweeps ISU softball Friday, but Saturday's game called off Indiana State’s softball team played 19 games before ever stepping foot on the Price Field diamond Friday for a doubleheader against Drake. The homecoming wasn’t a happy one — Drake swept ISU with 5-1 and 6-2 victories — but the long-term concern is on the mound, where star pitcher Darcy Wood is battling a shoulder injury.
- Completing a medical history form at a doctor’s office These days, when you visit a doctor’s office for the first time, you are given a form on which you are supposed to record important facts about your medical history. Unfortunately, these forms ask for considerable information, much of which few human beings can recall. More unfortunate yet is that different doctors use different forms. Consequently, we are required to fill out medical history forms calling for essentially the same information all over again for each new doctor.
- Owls may get the credit for being wise, but you should want an elephant’s mind Just to be clear at the outset, this column does not endorse or reject the symbol of a political party. Also, the column has nothing to do with a rock group called Elephant Memory that Yoko Ono and John Lennon promoted in the early 1970s. Instead, the topic of this column is the memory of real live elephants.
- Sometimes we fail to remember something and feel guilty Some people regard memory as an open or shut case. We either remember or don’t remember.
- A Sharper Mind: Benefiting from each others memory failures We all are forgetful occasionally and leave something of ours behind in public places such as stores, shopping centers, and at the homes of family, friends and acquaintances. For example, we may forget to take with us things like a pair of gloves, an umbrella, a scarf or a jacket. Because we are all in this world together, we should forgive each other's memory failures.
- Don’t let others profit from your memory failures We all are forgetful on occasion. Some of us are more forgetful than others. If our forgetting inconveniences someone else, we hope that they will not be angry and will forgive our lapse. However, in addition to the possible anger or forgiving, there is another way someone might respond to our memory failure.
- A Sharper Mind: Learning how to get a bright idea In the past, this column has discussed the factors that facilitate problem solving and critical thinking. For example, such factors include understanding a problem in the first place, ignoring solutions tried previously, avoiding being fixated on a solution to a similar problem and by overloading one’s brain.
- A Sharper Mind: Reminiscences of meals past Much of our lives are spent eating. As a result, we have many memories of breakfast, lunch or dinner, as well as for in between snacks. Sometimes we may want to remember what we ate on a certain occasion. This column considers what is the best way to recover the memory of what was eaten.
- A Sharper Mind: Some amount of forgetting is normal, but just how much? We often hear that it is important to be normal. Certainly we prefer to have a normal body temperature, heart rate and blood pressure. However, we probably prefer not to be normal on some occasions. I am not saying we should prefer to be abnormal, but we want to be distinguished for something, to know something or do something better than others.
- A Sharper Mind: How to not look stupid (at least some of the time) I do not mean to suggest that you or I look stupid a lot of the time.
- A Sharper Mind: Politics of remembering and the intelligencia of Indiana Part of this column will be devoted to an announcement. Another part will be devoted to my claim that Hautians are among the brightest people on the planet. Finally I will discuss a public demonstration of how important remembering can be in everyday life.
- A Sharper Mind: Forgetting names is most annoying but we aren’t raised to remember Here is a topic that we haven’t covered for quite a while. It hasn’t been covered because there were so many other things to discuss. Nevertheless, it probably will be beneficial for most of us to review the key ideas about how to learn names.
- A Sharper Mind: Finally enough failures for Forgetting Hall of Fame III A few months back, this column honored noteworthy memory failures in the Forgetting Halls of Fame I and II. It looks like these Halls of Fame have been very helpful to readers because very few failures have been happening to the people around me.
- A Sharper Mind: Is it nature or nurture? Why memory differs for men, women Here is a topic that most people find interesting: the memory performance of men and women. I will review the results of a great deal of research about gender differences in memory in this column. The research indicates that women are superior at some memory tasks and men are superior at other memory tasks. Some of the results are not surprising; some are surprising. Regardless of how the results come out, there is one overriding question. Do men and women differ in memory performance because of differences in genetic ability or because of differences in how males and females are raised and treated as adults in our culture?
- A Sharper Mind: Changing of seasons makes for forgetful time of year Ah yes, spring is upon us. This is the time that our thoughts stray to — whatever. As wonderful as spring may be, we actually are especially vulnerable to forgetting when this season arrives. Each season we become accustomed to the season’s typical temperature and season’s typical appearance of the sky. When the environment changes unexpectedly, we lose environmental cues that remind us of things to do.
- A Sharper Mind: Consider the effort we give to thinking about our problems There is a famous statue of a nude person sitting with his head looking down, with his jaw resting on the fist of the right forearm, which rests on the person’s right knee. The sculptor, a Frenchman named Auguste Rodin, called this sculpture “the thinker.”
- A Sharper Mind: Memory performs up to cultural expectations People in different cultures vary in what memory tasks they are good at. A culture refers to a group of people who share beliefs and habits of communication. The workplace is made up of different cultures, management, skilled workers and unskilled workers. Each family has its own culture. Everyone belongs to one or more cultures.
- A Sharper Mind: Brilliant ideas more elusive, likely to be forgotten Some of our thoughts elude us because they pass through our mind so quickly that we cannot remember them later. For this article, we are concerned with just important elusive thoughts. These are thoughts about brilliant ideas we may want to act on or about ideas that are practically useful, such as for something we need to do.
- A Sharper Mind: Mental dictionary, spell check provide sharp language tools This column considers how sharp we are when it comes to language.
- Herrmann: Creativity: Something for all, no matter what you think Creativity is admired whenever it is noticed. We may recognize a new invention as creative.
- A Sharper Mind: As matter of courtesy, don’t be caught faking memory Courtesy is more than knowing what fork to use and when.
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