Eideard

The human brain stores some kinds of memories for a lifetime. But when our eyes are open and looking at things, our gray matter also creates temporary memories that help us process complex tasks during the few seconds these visual memories exist. For decades, scientists have held that such short-term memories don’t suddenly disappear, but grow gradually more imprecise over the course of several seconds.

Now researchers at the University of California, Davis, have found just the opposite. Their subjects retained temporary memories of an object’s color or shape for at least four seconds. After that, the memories began to wink out like streetlights at daybreak, remaining quite accurate until they suddenly disappeared…

Published in the April issue of the journal Psychological Science, the study found that subjects “either had the memory or didn’t have the memory,” Luck said, “and the probability of having it decreased between four and ten seconds. The memories did not gradually fade away.”

The finding provides insight into the underlying mechanisms behind memory formation and retention. “The memories are not like flashlights that get progressively weaker as the battery runs low,” Luck said. “They are more like a laptop computer that continues working at the same speed until it suddenly shuts down.” This could be important in everyday life, he explained, because it would provide a mechanism to help us avoid the confusion that might arise if we tried to make decisions on the basis of weak, inaccurate memories.

Zhang and Luck are currently incorporating these findings into a study of short-term memory dysfunction in people with schizophrenia.

Now I’m going to have to read a copy of the article. The conclusions are easy enough to understand and make sense – given the electrical nature of the process. But, I’d love to see a truly broad study of the phenomenon.

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From four leaf clovers to a severed rabbit’s foot, when it comes to lucky mascots reason and taste often go out of the window.

No more so than at AC Milan where one charm is being held responsible for the team’s recent upturn in fortunes on the pitch: David Beckham’s bottom.

Since Beckham’s arrival at the San Siro, the England midfielder has started every game and scored his first goal in last weekend’s demolition of Bologna.

But as he walked away after celebrating the goal, Clarence Seedorf and Andrea Pirlo both stroked his left bum cheek.

This was apparently because they believe Beckham’s posterior has as much to do with Milan’s revival as his sweet right foot.

“Italy is a superstitious country, people touch things for luck,” an AC Milan spokesperson told UK newspaper “The Sun.”

“Now the players are doing the same thing with Becks’ bottom. He is seen as lucky.”

Whose bottom will Louis Hamilton squeeze before his next start for McLaren? Race car drivers are just as weird as footballers.