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Hmmm... where did I leave the remote? Valerie Everett via Creative Commons
Memory

Public invited to explore nature of memory at the Science Gallery

Is memory nature or nurture? Why do we struggle to recall some information while other events stay in our thoughts forever? Help researchers find the answers by popping down to the Science Gallery this March.

THE SCIENCE GALLERY has launched an exhibition called Memory Lab, which will invite people to take part in experiments during the month of March that will inform real scientific experiments.

Eight separate experiments will be presented to participants at Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin, with the aim of establishing why we retain some pieces of information and forget others. Functional memory, short-term memory as well as how – and why – we evolved memory in the first place will all be explored by researches based on feedback.

Organisers have told people to prepare for processing a “barrage” of information, including numbers, letters, faces and even smells.

Participants will be invited to record their earliest ever memory as Memory Lab seeks to create “the largest database of earliest memories in the world”.

The programme also includes a talk by former US Memory Champion and author of “Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything” Joshua Foer and a table quiz.

The experimentation begins at Science Gallery on March 11th and continues until 8 April 2011.

Visit the Science Gallery’s website>