Learn about the “reminiscence bump” that explains why you pine for your teens and 20s; the “Tetris Effect” that explains why things you focus on appear in your dreams; and the 19th-century doctor you can thank for tree-lined city streets. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: The Reminiscence Bump is Why You Pine for the Days of Your Youth — https://curiosity.im/2I0WTWb The Tetris Effect Is When Things You Focus On Appear In Your Dreams — https://curiosity.im/2HWC8Lq Like Tree-Lined City Streets? Thank This 19th-Century Doctor — https://curiosity.im/2HZMtGy If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn about the “reminiscence bump” that explains why you pine for your teens and 20s; the “Tetris Effect” that explains why things you focus on appear in your dreams; and the 19th-century doctor you can thank for tree-lined city streets.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/the-reminiscence-bump-the-tetris-effect-and-why-we-have-tree-lined-city-streets
CODY: Hi! We’re here from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about the term for why you remember your teens and 20s so fondly; the “Tetris Effect” that explains why things you focus on appear in your dreams; and the 19th-century doctor you can thank for tree-lined city streets. [ad lib / it’s also Cody’s birthday]
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
The Reminiscence Bump is Why You Pine for the Days of Your Youth — https://curiosity.im/2I0WTWb (from Monday, because 4/4 IS CODY’S BIRTHDAY) (Both)
ASHLEY: There’s a term for why you put so much stock in the things that happen in your youth. It’s called the reminiscence bump, and scientists have some theories as to why this happens. And it’s appropriate that we talk about this story on CODY’S BIRTHDAY. [ad lib]
CODY: Unlike ME, THIS study comes from the 1970s. That’s when psychology researchers ran a study when they were basically like “hey, we’re gonna give you some words, and you tell us about memories related to those words.” Then they plotted those memories on a graph, and it showed that most of the memories were recent memories, followed by older memories, and it kinda trailed off when you got to early childhood.
ASHLEY: Right. But then in the 1980s, researchers ran the same experiment with older adults. They found a gradual decline in memories as time went further back, just like before. But with these older adult participants, they found a “bump” in the number of memories from right around their 20s. Researchers repeated this experiment with lots of different variables, but they kept finding that everyone has more memories of early adulthood than of any other time in their lives. And other studies have digged even deeper into this.
CODY: Now, to reiterate, scientists aren’t exactly sure why this might happen. But it could be that those decades are when you experience most of your firsts: first love, first job, first car, first heartbreak. Those memories are likely to stick out more in your mind than the second and third times they happen. It could also be the fact that your teens and 20s have the most diversity of experience. It's when most people move across the country to college, backpack across Europe, and otherwise sow their wild oats. In your 40s and 50s, you're more likely to have settled down with a house and a job.
ASHLEY: But the best theory could be that the era of the reminiscence bump is also the era that psychologists say is one of identity formation, when we figure out who we are. If something happened at the same time you were becoming, well, you, it's likely to have a pretty significant influence on your memory. Just remember that those memories are subjective.
CODY: Yeah: the world probably wasn't the best it's ever been when you were in high school and college. You just remember it that way.
The Tetris Effect Is When Things You Focus On Appear In Your Dreams — https://curiosity.im/2HWC8Lq (from never, but IT’S MY BIRTHDAY)
ASHLEY: Have you ever done something for so long that you see it in your sleep? Because there’s a name for this, too. It’s helped scientists explore both memory and brain structure, and it’s called… the Tetris Effect. [ad lib]
ASHLEY: This idea comes from a 1994 magazine article by author Jeffrey Goldsmith in WIRED. He wrote about how he played the video game Tetris a LOT during the day, and at night or even while going for a walk, he’d see geometric shapes falling down from the sky. Researchers started to study this effect in 2000, when a Harvard psychiatrist named Robert Stickgold wondered why he kept feeling the sensation of scaling rocks in his sleep after a day of mountain climbing. Even when he tried to think of something else, the images stayed stuck in his brain. These are known as hypnagogic images, by the way. To find out, he launched a study with a group of college students in the Harvard sleep lab. After playing Tetris for several hours before bedtime, 60 percent of the students reported seeing Tetris pieces floating in their vision as they drifted off to sleep. While they slept, their minds continued to make sense of the game. What's most remarkable about this study is that two students with amnesia still pictured blocks turning on their sides in their sleep even though they couldn't later recall playing the game at all. But why? It all has to do with how our brains process memories. One part of your brain keeps track of the THINGS you know, like from real-life events, and a different part keeps track of what you know HOW to do. Specifically, your hippocampus stores those explicit memories from real-life events, while your cerebral stores cortex more procedural, implicit memories—like how to rule at Tetris. The same process happens when you have an earworm. Amnesiacs who had damage to the hippocampus still saw Tetris blocks in their sleep. And that means that the Tetris effect happens in the brain's implicit memory system. This ability can be used for positive effects, like learning a new language. [ad lib]
[INDEED :30]
CODY: Today’s episode is sponsored by Indeed.
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ASHLEY: I’ve used it before, and that dashboard is SWEET. That’s indeed-dot-com slash podcast. Terms, conditions, and quality standards apply.
Like Tree-Lined City Streets? Thank This 19th-Century Doctor — https://curiosity.im/2HZMtGy (Republish) (from Saturday) (Cody)
Do you like tree-lined city streets? Well there’s a 19th-century doctor you can thank for that. A lot of cities these days have tree-planting campaigns to offset carbon dioxide emissions and improve local urban climates, but as reported by The Conversation, we might not have tree-lined streets at all if not for the efforts of New York City physician Stephen Smith. New York City’s population went through the roof in the 19th century, and with poor sanitary conditions and overcrowding, people started getting sick. Think major diseases like cholera spreading like wildfire. And the expansion of utility lines, subways, and real estate development really took a toll on the streets. That’s why in the 1870s, Stephen Smith said it was time to plant some trees, arguing that it would save lives. He was the author of a groundbreaking study that correlated high temperatures with the occurrence of children dying from infectious diseases, and he said planting trees could save three to five thousand lives a year. The study became known as the Washington Elm study, and it claimed that the famous Washington Elm standing on the Cambridge Common in Massachussetts had about 7 million leaves. The study also said if you laid the leaves out next to each other, they’d cover a whopping 5 acres. The point was to show the huge amount of potential good you could do just from planting one tree. In 1873, Smith drafted a bill for the New York State legislature to establish a Bureau of Forestry. It didn’t get passed until 1902, and even then, funding was pretty bad. But by that time, Smith and other citizens had gotten fed up with waiting, so in 1897, they put together the Tree Planting Association. The group helped homeowners plant trees in front of their homes, and some major movers and shakers were part of the association, including former mayor Edward Cooper, art dealer Samuel Avery, and financier J.P. Morgan. Shout-out to you gentlemen from me and all my fellow tree lovers! [ad lib / They’re so inspiring, I’m starting my own association: find the entwives]
ASHLEY: Read about today’s stories and more on curiosity-dot-com! [and pls tell Cody happy birthday on Twitter @ProducerCody]
CODY: And if you want me to have a REALLY good birthday, then please tell us how you feel about having guests on our show! We posted a poll on our Patreon page at patreon-dot-com-slash-curiosity-dot-com, all spelled out. Just click “Posts” and let us know what you want to hear on our show. THAT would be an awesome birthday present.
ASHLEY: You can find a link to that and more in today’s show notes. Join us again tomorrow for the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m [NAME] and I’m [NAME]. Stay curious!