Lecture on Narratives, Memory, and Perception

Introduction

• Video from Churchill, Manitoba went viral showing a polar bear interacting with a sled dog.
• CBC News described it as a tender moment, "gentle giant polar bear cuddles up with dog."
• However, further information revealed complexities, such as a polar bear killing a dog at the same sanctuary.

Interpretation and Narrative

• Initial interpretations of the video were influenced by personal narratives.
• Contrasting narratives: "polar bear loves dog" vs "polar bear playing with its prey."
• Narratives are influenced by personal experiences and existing stories.

Cognitive Scripts and Memory

• Cognitive Scripts: Expectations about how situations unfold.
• Roger Schenck and Robert Abelson's studies on human understanding show reliance on stories rather than pure logic.
• Memory: Not raw data, but narratives constructed from past experiences.
• Daniel Schachter: Brain uses past memories to simulate and predict the future (prospective brain).

Example of Cognitive Imagery

• Common image of dragons created by combining features from various real-world animals.
• Cultural and evolutionary influences on perceptions of mythical creatures.

Narrativization and Memory

• Narrativization: Simplifying and shaping memories into culturally familiar narratives.
• Michael Schudson describes this as "narrativization of memory."
• Importance of narrative structure in shaping cultural and personal memories.

The Narrative Fallacy

• Nassim Nicholas Taleb warns of the "narrative fallacy": the tendency to weave explanations into factual sequences.
• Risks of oversimplification and misinterpretation.
• Using narratives to provoke critical thinking about stories.

Artistic and Literary Perspectives

• Defamiliarization: Art and literature can help re-examine familiar perceptions.
• Viktor Shklovsky: Art disrupts habitual perception and renews capacity for fresh sensation.
• Wordsworth and Coleridge aimed to challenge perceptions through poetic narratives.

Conclusion

• Critical thinking requires awareness of cognitive scripts and narrative constructions.
• Stories serve as both tools for understanding and potential traps for misinterpretation.

Assignment

• Exercise based on Frederick Bartlik's memory experiment.
• Focus on recalling and writing down a story from a different cultural context.