#430 – Charan Ranganath: Human Memory, Imagination, Deja Vu, and False Memories
Lex Fridman Podcast
Illusion of Memory Stability and Prediction Errors
The construction of a narrative about our past creates an illusion of stability in memory. Memory is focused on understanding the present and predicting the future, with the brain optimized to learn from the past to enhance this capability. Our brains prioritize cause-effect relationships to make predictions about the future. Despite the unpredictability of the future, our memories often lead us to believe in a sense of certainty and predictability. This illusion of knowing everything that will happen is shattered when prediction errors occur, leading to learning opportunities. Prediction errors, resulting from discrepancies between predictions based on memory and actual outcomes, are crucial for learning and acquiring new information.
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