Do your memories come back as 'pictures' , words or ,both.?

Question

Often 'out of the blue' a scene from the past will pop into my head as a snapshot.
Some times from the distant past as pictures, recent memories are often words.

Answer 1

My childhood memories come back as pictures, probably because it was long ago and I forgot the sound...
The recent memories, especially those the most powerful and important to me come like a real "movie" :)))

Answer 2

For me I think its a sense of both now that you bring it to lite.

I always thought of it as a visual of pictures that I get flashes of the past and memories. But thinking of it now I realize words or things I see or hear BOTH trigger those flashes to occur. So is it the word I hear that triggers it or am I jolting back in time to another time it was used? I can at times play back in my mind quite a length of a memory. I can also look back at a flash picture and tell you discriptive details of the picture most of the time.

Example. I was standing in a front yard with a friend talking. It was very dark. Suddenly, one of those motion lights flashed on but for a quick few seconds. All I saw was someone walk between house. With my angle it was only a few blinks of a viewing. My friend said what was that. I said a person. She didn't believe me. I said well who ever it was had on .......and I described the shirt, pants and even shoes they had on. She said no way could you have seen all that so fast.

Well about half an hour later we had went on in the house. She went into the kitchen and it was only a second before she screamed loudly. When she ran back into the room I was in and I asked what happened. She said she turned on a light and before she realized it was only her older brother standing there she saw a man with the exact outfit I describbed and it scared the daylights out of her.......... She could not understand how I described to so correct. I told her from the picture I can see.

I have very young memories based on these pitcure flashes. Which really spooks my mother when I share some memories with her. She can't beleive I can recall them. Some are clearer than others. "Some" I wonder if hearing the stories retold over the years has altered my pictures in anyway???

Anyway, I would say predominately mental pictures. As in pictured flashes of things.

PS smells also do it for me. Sound, many things I suppose. But they all seem to trigger the picutres.

Answer 3

Both.......funny that you should ask this now. Just last night,I was asked to write up memories from when I went through basic training, which was 53 years ago. That sure dusted off a whole lot of brain cells. Pictures, words, sounds, emotions, all came back. Every memory brought back others.
I wrote twelve pages, but could have done a lot more.

Answer 4

Mine are usually pictures, probably about 3/4 of the time, but sometimes as words; very seldom as both which I find odd. Length of time/age of the event does not seem to be a major role in how it comes back though the oldest are almost always (90% plus) as pictures.

Answer 5

Both for me. I love memories. They sometimes help me go outside of myself and remember those happy moments or smells or days. I love it. Memories come to me from smells, fragrance etc.

Answer 6

Both

Answer 7

I agree with Canute. Picture, movie, song, smell...ahhhh, memories!

Answer 8

Pictures... And Sometime Thinking About It Suck...

Answer 9

Pictures, films, words, conversations, tastes, smells

Answer 10

it depends on the person, what side of the brain you use the most, and what you saw in the memory I remember in both.