Psychology Today Blogs - Remember the Alamo

This Is Your Brain...On Anti-Drug Campaigns

Nicole Dudukovic, Ph.D. — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:18:59 -0700

"This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?" For anyone who watched TV in the late 1980s, that phrase should bring back memories of an egg in a frying pan. As a child, that anti-drug commercial was, if not powerful, at least memorable. I didn't really understand how my brain would ever be anything remotely like a fried egg, but I certainly got the message that drugs weren't good for me.

Nowadays, anti-tobacco ads are filled with cartoon characters and sing-a-longs, part of the tongue-in-cheek efforts of the Sunny Side of truth ad campaign. Recently, I was watching one of these TV ads and found myself humming along to "The Magical Amount" song, which satirically suggests that tobacco companies have manipulated the level of nicotine in cigarettes to the extent that you'll be addicted but not have any adverse health effects. Was I thinking about this as I hummed? No, to be honest, I had little awareness of the actual point of the commercial. After seeing it several times, I was surprised that an anti-tobacco commercial would try to convey its message through songs whose lyrics communicate the opposite message. As a memory researcher, I question whether the actual message will be as memorable as the campaign hopes.

What inspired this new approach? What happened to traditional negative campaigns, where you bash your opponent in the clearest possible terms? Sure, we're all rightfully annoyed by negative political campaigns, particularly when the truth behind many of the attacks is dubious. Yet, research has shown that negative ads do work. One of the reasons for this may be because people tend to believe that repeated statements are true, regardless of their actual truth, a phenomenon known as illusory truth effects. If you tell me enough times that Product A is less desirable in some way than Product B, I'll start to believe it. Through repetition, this statement becomes so familiar that I eventually remember the claim but forget that the source of it (Company B) may not be credible. Even posing a question, such as ‘Did Senator X lie about Y?', can later be remembered as ‘Senator X lied about Y.' Although unethical people could exploit this memory phenomenon through the repetition of false statements about their competitors, certainly anti-smoking or anti-drug campaigns, in which the claims against the enemy are backed by scientific evidence, should take advantage of the fact that repetition breeds familiarity.

The problem is that a negative ad that is confusing, or whose target is ambiguous, may be worse than no ad at all. I've seen some car commercials that attempted to point out the shortcomings of their competitor but were so poorly done that at the end of them I couldn't remember which of the two cars they were trying to sell. I'm concerned that the Sunny Side of truth ads may turn out to be ineffective for this exact reason. The worst-case scenario is that kids go away from them remembering that there is a magical amount of nicotine in cigarettes. More likely, the context of the message will be forgotten and they'll just be left with an irritating song in their heads. As much as I appreciate the novel approach that these commercials take, the satire behind cartoons and songs may not be nearly as transparent as the image of drugs turning your brain into a fried egg.

The (Un)bearable Lightness of Memory

Nicole Dudukovic, Ph.D. — Sun, 04 May 2008 23:57:40 -0700

Some memories are better off forgotten. Like your ex-boyfriend's phone number or the reason why you dated your ex-boyfriend in the first place. If forgetting can be a blessing, why do we more often think of it as a curse?

Many of us have the tendency to focus on what's absent in our lives rather than what's present, and memory is no exception. We notice the time our spouse/child/roommate forgot to take out the trash rather than the countless times they remembered to do the dishes. We agonize over the bills we forgot to pay rather than praising ourselves for the errands we did remember to run. I know many people who wish their memories were better, but I've yet to meet someone who wishes his memory was worse.

The latest edition of Wired magazine features ways to increase your brainpower, including improving your memory. One article highlights Piotr Wozniak, a man so obsessed with perfecting his memory that he has created a computer program called SuperMemo that calculates the ideal time to practice remembering every piece of information he wants to learn. His life is extremely regimented, with the computer dictating exactly when and what he studies. As you might imagine, all of this comes at a cost to his social life. Although he's married, it's unlikely you'd see him out at a party.

As much as most of us complain about forgetting, the idea of being slave to a computer program doesn't sound appealing, and we would never consider such an extreme approach to improving our memories. So why is forgetting still seen as the bad guy?

Consider the idea that forgetting liberates us. When I tried to recall an embarrassing memory to use in this blog, I drew a blank, evidence in itself of the sweet bliss of forgetfulness. Our ability to forget eliminates distractions that might otherwise dominate our thinking and allows us to focus on present and future events. Yet, these present events may one day be forgotten as well. Does forgetting an event render it meaningless? You could argue that memories that are forgotten might as well have not happened at all, that forgetting frees us from the past.

Maybe it is this freedom that we all fear. You only have to spend time with an elderly relative or a friend with Alzheimer's Disease to see that memory loss equals identity loss. By losing your memory, you lose your sense of purpose in life. For this reason, we will likely continue to cling to our memories, despite their lightness, and often fail to appreciate how bearable forgetting can be.

Eat Blueberries, Remember More?

Nicole Dudukovic, Ph.D. — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:34:44 -0700

Looking for any easy way to improve your memory? Try eating more blueberries or other "brain foods" believed to be effective at decreasing the forgetfulness that occurs as we age. Stuffing yourself with blueberry smoothies, pies, and cobblers could be the key to a better memory.

Before you go running to the grocery store, you might want to think about how well easy solutions have worked for another problem that plagues many Americans: obesity. Improving your memory is a lot like losing weight. There are a few basic rules to follow. To lose weight you need to eat less and exercise more. To improve your memory you need to pay attention, think deeply about the information you want to remember, form associations between concepts stored in memory, use visual imagery, and practice, practice, practice. Sounds pretty simple. So why are we all still looking for a magical solution, a pill to take or a food to eat, that will immediately make us thin and beautiful with the mind of a memory champion?

When it comes down to it, the main problem our memories and our waistlines face may be our own laziness. I don't doubt that there are foods that may contribute to memory improvements or a revved up metabolism, but I don't think a complex problem like memory loss or obesity has such a simple solution. Memory enhancers may prove to be beneficial for people with severe memory impairments, but like other psychoactive pills, they would work best in concert with behavioral changes. For those of us who only have mild memory frustrations or a few pounds to lose, we might be better off taking the time and energy to try to tackle the problem ourselves rather than waiting around to see what food or pill scientists will be touting next.

Unfortunately, this strategy really takes the fun out of my next blueberry muffin.