A man has turned to internet users for help after discovering his wife threw out priceless VHS tapes of his deceased first spouse. Pictures possess a unique ability to trigger memories buried in the human brain. They can take individuals back to a precise moment in time in a way mere words or memories cannot.
This was highlighted as far back as 1973, with a study published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology in which neuroscientists were able to highlight our incredible ability to encode pictures. As part of the study, a test group was shown 10,000 photographs. A few days later, they were presented with another 1,000.
Half these pictures came from the original 10,000 while the other half were new. Amazingly, the group were able to identify the pictures they had seen before. Scientists have concluded that this is down to the brain's innate ability to store the essence of a picture.
It means that, while you might have a memory of a time, place or person, a photograph conjures a more vivid recollection of what has been before. It is what makes taking photographs such an important practice from day to day, and is a concept that likely extends to video. Clips not only conjure these same vivid memories, but also bring them to life in moving pictures.
For the past 16 years, one Reddit user kept the memory of his first wife, Cloé, alive with a collection of video tapes based off recordings they made after Cloé discovered she was pregnant with their daughter, Elean.
