You Can’t Forget What You Never Learned

But you can distort what you’ve learned to mislead in advertisements.

An especially irksome supplement ad recently made it past my YouTube ad blocker. Fortunately, the commercial is short, so it shouldn’t be too painful to view it and get the full context.

The idiom “an elephant never forgets” shouldn’t need much explanation. It’s so well known and has been around long enough that actual research has been conducted to test the hypothesis. It supports the idea that they do have excellent memories, as this short Scientific American article summarizes.

But what’s that about the “three dimensions” of memory? Did your intro psych and/or cognitive psych course present memory as having three dimensions? I’d be surprised if anyone answers in the affirmative: in all my years of teaching, I’ve never come across a textbook or a colleague who describes memory in terms of “dimensions” (to be fair, I didn’t survey my colleagues). It’s a very odd way of characterizing memory.

My initial response to the ad is captured in the title of this post: I thought that whoever wrote the copy either didn’t take any psychology courses or they’d forgotten what they learned. It didn’t occur to me until I started researching for this essay that a third explanation likely hits closest to the bull’s eye—it’s a sleight of hand intended to link to the product’s name.

Neuriva 3D is a new variant in the Neuriva line of products. It goes hard on the trinity stuff.¹ First and second, the title on the linked Amazon page describes it as “decaffeinated nootropic capsules for memory, focus, and cognitive function – short term, long term, and working memory support.” And third, the active ingredients can be considered as three categories: B vitamins—namely, B6, B9, and B12; Cognicell™ grape extract; and Neurofactor® coffee fruit extract.

A review of “original Neuriva” is interesting and informative; its author argues that that formulation has only one nootropic ingredient—phosphatidylserine (PS)—and describes why the coffee fruit extract isn’t considered a serious brain supplement. I can’t help but wonder why the PS has been removed from the 3D formulation in favor of “grape extract”: the trademarked term “Cognicell” is a possibly a way to disguise that it is apparently resveratrol. The Evidence Live website also has an article titled “10 Best Natural Nootropics and Cognitive Enhancers.” Spoiler alert: resveratrol isn’t on it.

This screenshot, which appears beside the ingredients image above on the product’s Amazon page, really gives the game away regarding those “three dimensions of memory.”² How are short-term and working memory different? Don’t be fooled by the various gerunds in the two descriptions. Reproduction, recognition, and recall are three ways to test a person’s memory of information, events, or skills—so, technically speaking, they apply to any type of memory. We have to see what it is the person is remembering, and/or what they aren’t remembering. And demonstrating or using that information is itself a fairly complex task.

Every intro psych textbook that I remember seeing describes the activity of remembering in terms of “moving” information from whichever type of long-term memory the person is accessing to short-term memory so it can be actively used.³ It’s important to note that because memories are actively used in this work, they aren’t veridical replays—research suggests that they are slightly altered every time one recalls a specific memory. Short-term memory is “where” the working happens, which is why most psychologists and intro psych texts equate the two.

I know better than to expect ads to critically evaluate their products—after all, most of the time that would undermine their purpose. And they are a great resource for developing one’s critical thinking skills… which has the bonus of making one less susceptible to fall for the slick marketing. Since I’ve been casting a critical eye at psychology lately, this Neuriva ad’s handwaving about the types of memory hit me extra hard.

1: Bonus trinity: the very sciency graphic announcing the existence of 3! published! studies! on ingredients. We needn’t be bothered with such trivialities as: which ingredients; what types of studies; and what they found regarding them. Also, don’t pay attention to the mounds of research on the B vitamins both alone and in various combinations over previous decades. (back to the paragraph)

2: This is particularly galling because memory overall has traditionally been organized into three categories: sensory; short term (or working); and long term. Sensory memories are really just an artifact of the transduction of a specific type of energy in the environment into nervous-system energy/signals; as such and because of their relatively short duration, it’s debatable that they should be considered actual memories. (back to the paragraph)

3: There’s a good argument to be made that short-term/working memory is a fancy term for internally directed attention. Let’s save that thicket for another time, shall we? (back to the paragraph)