How’s your memory when it comes to movies?

Can you recall the exact dialogue between Vincent (left) and Jules in this scene from the movie Pulp Fiction, and also the general plot of the movie? Its because we can recall our memories in a flexible manner.

Researchers have discovered that “fully detailed” memories are stored in the brain, but people access this information at different speeds and levels of detail, with people accessing memories “forward”, i.e. recalling older information first.

They quickly skip episodic blocks of information when recalling events in summary – for example, telling a friend about the plot of a movie they have seen – but can also delve into greater levels of detail at a slower speed when asked about a particular movie scene.