Why do our memories perceive past events as being better than when they actually happened?

Is it common to look back at past memories with such fond recollection, that they appear better than when the event transpired itself. I'm referring to pleasant memories or just memories of an event that might have benign in itself, but meant something personally to you.

Does this happen to you when you look back?

Is this a common way for people to think?

Why do our memories perceive past events as being better than when they actually happened?sheet music

Yes, bravo! Memory is more like dreams than video tape. I studied memory in grad school for a semester, and they actually did this study: When the Challenger blew up, this one psychologist had the presence of mind to go around to all his colleagues, in that very hour, and ask them to write down what they were doing when they heard the news. (This was one of those events that everyone remembers what they were doing for the rest of their life). He collected all the papers. Then five years later, he went around to all of them again and asked them again to write down what they were doing when they heard. There was WIDE discrepancy! Even on something like that.

Memory is entirely fluid, not at all strictly accurate.

Why do our memories perceive past events as being better than when they actually happened?state theatre opera theater

I think because you saw them before, the memory is strongest. A memory is soemthing you dont forget. If something happened like you got raped or something, of course your going to remember it. Then, if it happens again and you manage to get away, your memory serves as a boost to the trauma of getting raped.

I hate looking back. It hurts too much because as in my teenage years, I've had so many hardships.

I have a very complex mind, others do too. Im just sayign it liek this because this is an answer.

Hope it helps.
If the details are fuzzy, it's easy to reminisce on the past through rose colored glasses. Since it's in the past, why not view it positively when it helped shape who we are rather than dwell on it negatively when we cannot change it? It's just as easy to remember the past as worse than it was, but what really matters is learning to be more than we were
Yes definately for me anyways. The present always seems less interesting or exciting compared to events of the past, especially if I've been working hard or making personal sacrifices for a very long time and feel the need for a radical change. Often I even want to relive an entire year because it seemed so great even though I realize now how much things had changed for the better since then, materialy and psychologicaly. I think most people think this way but they don't express it because the past is often deressing.
I think if you are lucky this is true. In my family, some people view past memories only as hurtful and unhappy, while others view the same memory with positive feelings. I think it is personality driven.
Time does distort memory. Now wether the memory is good or bad It can and usually is distorted for the better or worse. It depends on the person.
I think it's a coping mechanism. In the moment things may not have seemed so fantastic. When we look back on good and bad memories we naturally want to get rid of the painful ones. I experience this all the time, and it really works for me.
The older we get, the more we remember earlier memories.

Given that the mind has an inbuilt 'self-protection clause' which deludes us into believing that we will live forever... and thus refutes death... well.

Memories recontruct who we are as individuals. The notion that Holocaust survivors have 'false memory syndrom' is as disgusting as the notion that Spain didn't rape Central and South America.

There is a possibility that the mind, per se, is self-delusional. Then again, possibly, the BRAIN is 'firing' on less than 'one-cylinder'. BAD metaphor... but is it?

We apparently use less than one-tenth of our brains. Which puts on the 'why are we the top of the food chain' list.

Simple: we are omnivores. By choice or no, we survive. And that is the whole point. We are prepared, in a time of necessity, to eat our neighbours.

Eat anything. To survive.

Paul
Hindsight is 20/20.

It is only in looking back that we can see the full picture. While experiencing something we are so often lacking bits of information. Like if we knew it was the last hug from our parents, the entire experience would have played out differently.