Long-term memories and vivid fear memories in INFJs?

is so cool that you're into neuropsych! (I'm thinking of studying it too).
mmm...my short and long term memory are both awful ._. ,but I do have vivid fear memories.
 
-I can remember sitting in my stroller, laughing at a Micky Mouse balloon.
-I remember the first day I actually READ letters and it all suddenly made sense... it was a My Little Pony narrated coloring book.
-I remember the little boy I had a crush on in pre-school.

Weird.
 
I have vivid memories. I remember many good times and bad times. So many. They do come in flashes sometimes, maybe if I smell something it may trigger one.. I like consciously recalling a specific memory. I can replay a memory in my head and analyze it to death..
 
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I think I repressed my childhood memories >.<
But from what little neurology I know I'd agree, INFJs have an active limbic system
 
I remember snippets of my childhood more than real "memories." Bits and pieces, although the ones I have I remember pretty vividly. And they sort of connect -- I may not be able to think of many now, but once I start thinking them up, more and more come until I have a wide expansion of memories in my recollection.
 
Wow, I think you are onto something really interesting :).

My short-term memory is abominable. My long-term memory is pretty accurate, and I do have vivid memories, especially in fearful situations as a child. I remember a distinct one where I was on a plane and it was very turbulent (I was about 2 or 3 years old), and I...ermm...didn't make it to the bathroom and puked all over my dad. He got extremely angry. To this day I won't go on any kind of roller coaster, thrill ride, etc...that mimics the sensation of that airplane...even if you paid me. I am 26 and have vivid memory even of what I ate, the floor tiles of the plane, and the colors of the seats. I have plenty of other memories, but some of them are a lot more painful than the example, and I have really repressed them. I always hate it when for some random reason, one of those memories will come up and it is very vivid and I want to crawl into a hole and die :m035:
 
rainrise said:
my long term memory is like a reservoir i leave alone unless i am carried into it by a current of significant association with the present to the past. once in, it is difficult to get out and usually these triggers are spontaneous, like an undercurrent i am not prepared to swept by.
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It is the same with me. If I have to remember what I did a certain day in my past it is like I have to move through the mist to find it in my memory reservoir. But when something that is associated with a past memory, happens to me, I get drown into it and relive that memory again. My memory consist of the feelings I had rather then the things that where said and are realy vague. And it seems like I only record bad memories.

My short term memory is terrible as well, i have to write down appointments or I forget them.

about the fear bulb-things. I don't have them for a garden hose to be a snake or something like that. I do have some "fear attacks" when something happens that is simular to a bad event in my past.
 
Interesting thread - Serendipity. Reminds me of studies that show introverts have higher startle responses. It might be all introverts have heightened limbic activity.

But I do think INFJs have a different more specific version of this.

My INFJ gf has extremely vivid realistic dreams all the time. She'll dream about me making pancakes or some other mundane activity with fantastic and realistic detail. I dream about more fantastic scenarios and never have significant or specific details in them.

I wonder if your the heightened fear and startle response combined with your limbic system theory makes INFJs more likely to be creeped out by clowns and mannequins. Hehe, I'm sort of kidding. Every INFJ I met seems to have these irrational fear/aversion of seemingly random but often consistent things (clowns, mannequins or other life-like but actually life-less forms).

For instance, if I hold a knife to cut vegetables, my infj girlfriend freaks out. When she was a kid, she would flip out every time her dad took out his boxcutter to break down cardboard boxes.

Btw, can you do MRIs (or some other method) on INFJs to test your theory out? It seems to make sense but is there a good way to verify it?l
 
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meanlittlechimp said:
Interesting thread - Serendipity. Reminds me of studies that show introverts have higher startle responses. It might be all introverts have heightened limbic activity.

But I do think INFJs have a different more specific version of this.

My INFJ gf has extremely vivid realistic dreams all the time. She'll dream about me making pancakes or some other mundane activity with fantastic and realistic detail. I dream about more fantastic scenarios and never have significant or specific details in them.

I wonder if your the heightened fear and startle response combined with your limbic system theory makes INFJs more likely to be creeped out by clowns and mannequins. Hehe, I'm sort of kidding. Every INFJ I met seems to have these irrational fear/aversion of seemingly random but often consistent things (clowns, mannequins or other life-like but actually life-less forms).

For instance, if I hold a knife to cut vegetables, my infj girlfriend freaks out. When she was a kid, she would flip out every time her dad took out his boxcutter to break down cardboard boxes.

Btw, can you do MRIs (or some other method) on INFJs to test your theory out? It seems to make sense but is there a good way to verify it?l
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Closed doors, shower curtains, and closets freak me out, as do some types of dolls.

You might be on to something there.
 
meanlittlechimp said:
Btw, can you do MRIs (or some other method) on INFJs to test your theory out? It seems to make sense but is there a good way to verify it?l
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Ooh, fun question! *rubs hands together excitedly*

I think that it would be possible via fMRI. More "active" brain regions use more oxygen. fMRIs can actually measure the differences in iron content of oxygenated vs. deoxygenated red blood cells. When an area of the brain is in use, that area will light up on the screen. We could ask subjects to recall the earliest memories of their childhood, or particularly frightening memories, and see what area of the brain lights up. Unfortunately however, fMRIs can be pretty sketchy and not always entirely accurate. I'd like to look into more reliable ways of investigating this.
 
I signed up to answer this question :)
I have a terrible short term memory. And a terrible long term memory for that matter. Or at least I can't memorize things in the traditional way for the long term. My long term memory for things I learn automatically is really really good though. And worse I have very bad problems remembering faces (apparently I'm in the worst 2% of the population). But the things I do remember (having had my brain involuntarily decide to remember them) are remarkably vivid and I tend to remember them very well for a very long time. My dreams are beyond vivid, and quite often lucid. Its like living in a high def movie for a few hours every night. Also photographic memory (spatial only) runs in my family. I find it easy to manipulate n-dimensional structures in my head too (including infinite dimensional structures), and graphs (in the sense of nodes etc) are trivial to visualize. Also I have a horrendous (nonexistant at times) sense of time, does anyone else have this?
Also I have to ask, how many of you tend to get very strong gut feelings based on information that you haven't consciously processed yet? I get these *all* the time and I've yet to hear a good explanation of how the processing works. I don't see how it can be based on a existing memory given some of the situations it works in are entirely new and sufficiently complicated, with too little data to match to existing memories. So I don't see how this can be the action of the amygdala when the gut feelings are synthesizing and processing information in new ways. Or maybe I don't understand what your saying? Interestingly enough though, this is not the first time I have had someone propose that I had a more active limbic system then most. So, its plausible your on to something.
 
gloomy-optimist said:
Closed doors, shower curtains, and closets freak me out, as do some types of dolls.

You might be on to something there.
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She hates dolls too, especially cabbage patch dolls. Oh yeah, same thing with shower curtains.

Serendipity said:
Ooh, fun question! *rubs hands together excitedly*

I think that it would be possible via fMRI. More "active" brain regions use more oxygen. fMRIs can actually measure the differences in iron content of oxygenated vs. deoxygenated red blood cells. When an area of the brain is in use, that area will light up on the screen. We could ask subjects to recall the earliest memories of their childhood, or particularly frightening memories, and see what area of the brain lights up. Unfortunately however, fMRIs can be pretty sketchy and not always entirely accurate. I'd like to look into more reliable ways of investigating this.
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The other drawback is MRI machines must be pretty damn expensive. Let us know if you ever get access to one to play with!
 
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JohnDoe said:
My dreams are beyond vivid, and quite often lucid. Its like living in a high def movie for a few hours every night.
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Just had a random thought. I've read pregnant women also have very lucid hyper vivid dreams. I wonder if something changes in their brain chemistry to make them temporarily similar to INFJs.

Maybe there is something in the academic literature on this re: pregnant women.
 
I'm pretty new to this forum and this is one of the first posts I have read. I can definitely relate to what has been said here. My short-term memory is awful, I can forget things almost instantly. However my long-term memory is extremely vivid. I have memories that occurred when I was a toddler, as young as 1 or 2. I even remember how I was feeling at that particular moment. It's quite odd. One time I was falling asleep, and then I had this memory of when I was 2 come to me all of a sudden. It felt like a deja Vu. I hadn't remembered it before, but now I do. When I asked my mom about it she confirmed that this event had really happened(I wanted to make sure it wasn't just imagination).
 
I also have very vivid dreams. I wonder if this is another common thing for INFJS? Many times they can be quite frightening, and it's not uncommon for me to wake up screaming. This doesn't happen all the time though. I've often been nervous to go to sleep because my dreams are so vivid (and often unpleasant or disturbing). Not that I've never had any good dreams.
Something that is related to this I think is that I have a very vivid imagination. I'm sure many Infjs can relate to that. I daydream a lot, and in very intense detail. Sometimes I get so lost in them that I feel as though I'm in a daze, and I even get a headache. When I was 15 I went to a Naturopath and she did this test where she attached my fingers to this machine, which is supposed to process what is going on your body. She told me that my nervous system was showing the most, and that it that I have a very vivid imagination, along with intense dreams. I can't explain the details of this works because it was so long ago, and I know it must sound a bit strange. :D It was weird how it came up though, since it is true.
Can anyone else relate to this at all? Sorry for the long rambling post!
 
I used to have phenominal long and short term memory. Drove my first husband up the wall. Never failed that some argument or other would bring up a point where I had to relay to him a discussion and I'd tell him exactly when it was, time of day, where we were, sitting positions, exact words said, tone of voice used... etc.

Since my third month of pregnancy in 1997 my memory has steadily degraded! I read that pregnancy had an effect on memory, but I never expected the severity. I also never thought it was permenant!

My memory is so bad now that I have to use Outlook calendar for EVERYTHING.

Increased electrical activity is... ummm... interesting. I have a very wierd affect on electronics. Everything from fans, radios, to computers!
 
I seem to mostly remember stuff from ages ago in my long term memory from outside of my perspective, which is bizarre, because it's always stuff that happened to me (an example being: breaking my leg falling off a bike. I remember that from a distance).

My short term memory is horrible, probably due to stress (studied a tiny bit of stress' effect on memory).
 
meanlittlechimp said:
But I do think INFJs have a different more specific version of this.

My INFJ gf has extremely vivid realistic dreams all the time. She'll dream about me making pancakes or some other mundane activity with fantastic and realistic detail. I dream about more fantastic scenarios and never have significant or specific details in them.
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I'm glad I can place myself in the latter. Listening to peoples boring dreams makes me wanna vomit. Gives you a better understanding of them though, but usually never anything new.

I can remember a great deal of details though if I try to write down my dreams
 
You're definitely onto something.

I too have a good long term memory along with very vivid fear memories. I can also dream vividly too and can usually recall them without any problems.

For some reason, the vivid fear memories don't really subside and I constantly find myself shadowed by them, triggering them involuntarily.

In relation to the hard wiring in the brain and MBTI type, I have also seen that there commonly is at least some left sided dominance in INFJs (like hand/foot/eye/ear/nostril/mouth).
 
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laurie said:
I seem to mostly remember stuff from ages ago in my long term memory from outside of my perspective, which is bizarre, because it's always stuff that happened to me (an example being: breaking my leg falling off a bike. I remember that from a distance).
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Ooh, dissociation. I've got some memories like that. One time I was really getting a scolding from my mom - don't remember what for - and at the same time I was thinking "Wow, this guy's really getting it!" Only "this guy" was me I realized moments later. For me, I'll remember it at a distance if that's how I processed it initially. Anyone else experience dissociation?
 
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