Memory for Racers

As with many things in Speed Craft, I must start by professing my ignorance. I do not claim that what follows is ‘right,’ or that I even fully understand all of the details and implications. However, what I feel reasonably certain about is that no one else really knows how memory works, so they come up with models to use when thinking about it and trying to understand it. I have simply chosen the model that I feel best captures what I’ve observed and felt within myself when driving.

Why is Memory Important for Intuitive Driving

Obviously, you don’t have to know anything about how your memory works to create or use memories; just as you don’t necessarily have to know anything about how engines and suspension work to drive a car. However, I believe that having at least a way of thinking about and relating to your memory can be useful because memory is such an integral part of intuitive driving.

The foundation of intuitive driving is efficient sensory information processing. A major component of that, as described on the Reducing the Sensation of Speed page, is to process information as much as possible using recognition (an intuitive/holistic/parallel process) and to rely as little as possible on processing via analysis (an intellectual/serial process).

But what exactly do I mean by ‘processing’? Depending on the processing method being used, there may be some prerequisite steps related to sensory input filtering, etc., but really, what I’m talking about is comparing reality to the model/map/plan/process or whatever you want to call it, that you use for getting around the track as quickly and safely as possible, which is stored in your memory.

In Search of a Memory Model

In the mid 80s I was busy formulating my theories about driving that became Speed Craft. As part of that, I was doing research about brain functions and systems. Most of what I learned validated my observations and the empirical understanding I’d gained from my <unusual experiences>. However, I was never satisfied with the models of memory in the books I read. They spoke of electrical impulses, reduced resistance at synapses and electrochemically ‘wiring’ the brain through these relatively lower-resistance paths. Other books would try to explain memory by using a computer analogy (Hard Drive = long-term memory, RAM = short term memory, etc). In desperation I even investigated the Scientology information about memory engrams.

These memory models just didn’t work for me; they did not reflect the holistic nature of what I had experienced and what I felt when driving. They all seemed to break memory down into individual ‘things’ stored here or there in the brain, along with the related processes for creation and retrieval of a memory. But they did not deal with our apparent ability to simultaneously/holistically remember many different elements that make up a moment in space/time on the track, such as:

A 3D image of a location on the track
Where we are supposed to position our car within that 3D image
What type of information processing and concentration methods we are supposed to be using
Where we are supposed to be looking
What actions we are supposed to be taking (or what sensations we should be monitoring)
What vestibular, kinesthetic, tactile, and auditory sensations we are supposed to be feeling and which are the most important in that moment.
What gear we are supposed to be in
And so on…

That’s one hell of a busy ‘switchboard’ in your brain if these are all discrete bits of memory that are somehow being pulled from their various locations and combined (in real time) into a complete ‘4D memory construct’ of that one particular location on the track. Especially considering that if you are using the analysis/intellect information processing mode, then your brain would also be busy simultaneously processing the incoming sensory information you experience from driving, by filtering, analyzing, and interpreting if things are matching up with your memory construct for successfully navigating that bit of track.

Mind you, I’m not saying that memory does not work as described above (for all I know it might), but that does not seem to reflect my information/memory comparison process when I drive.

The Holographic Memory Model

In 1985 or 1986, I learned of a new and different memory model (The Holographic Memory Model) that was created through a collaboration of neuroscientist and Stanford Professor Karl Pribram, and theoretical physicists David Bohm. Their work was based on the invention of the holographic method developed by Nobel Prize winning physicist Dennis Gabor.

Their model of understanding memory as a hologram challenged the concept of memory being individual bits of information stored here and there, by presenting a new concept of memory as being a holistic recording of everything in a given moment stored as distributed interference patterns in the fine fibers of the brain.

What’s a Hologram?

Ok, before we go any further with the holographic memory model, it’s important to know what a hologram is, how it’s created, and its important properties.

However, before we get into holograms, as a comparison, let’s first look at something we already know; a photograph. A photograph is a two dimensional recording of a three dimensional object created by using a lens to focus light reflected from the object onto an imaging medium (CCD sensor, photographic film, etc.). In the photographic method, only a small portion of the available information (photons) is actually collected by the lens and used to construct the image; with the rest of the information being scattered off ; spreading in all directions.

There are several types of holograms, but for the holographic memory model we are talking about a transmission hologram. A transmission hologram is a full three-dimensional recording (or representation) of an object that is created by imaging the interference patterns (described by a Fourier transform) in the light field around an object, which is stored in two-dimensions via a 2D media such as film or a photographic plate.

Even though both photographs and holograms can be recorded on film, creating a hologram requires additional equipment. First, a laser (coherent single-frequency light source) is needed to provide the illumination. Also, the light beam must be split so that one beam (the ‘reference’ beam) travels directly to the film, and the other beam (the ‘object’ beam) striking the ‘object’ and diffracts/scatters onto the film. The interference pattern created by the two beams is recorded on the film. When the film is developed, what remains is the hologram. Stored within the hologram is all the information needed to recreate the ‘object’ in three dimensions and in exacting detail. However, if you look at the developed film, you will only see the actual interference patterns (a nonsensical bunch of squiggly lines).

Recording a hologram Developed Hologram Film
Credit: Bob Mellish / Creative Commons

To view the hologram, you must shine the same laser light on the film, at the same angle as the original ‘reference’ beam. When you do, the hologram image will appear as a 3D object suspended in 3D space. Unlike a photograph, where the image is a 2D representation of the object (with some 3D clues based on light/shadow), the hologram produces a full 3D image with complete parallax and depth-of-field that is virtually indistinguishable from the original object.

Reconstructing a hologram Holographic image of a mouse viewed from two angles
Credit: Bob Mellish / Creative Commons

Important Properties of Holograms

In addition to a hologram’s ability to produce a full 3D image from a piece of film, holograms, and the holographic process, have some other important properties such as:

Transforming energy (light) into another type of information; i.e. changing (encoding) all of the reflected, diffused, and scattered light energy around an object as interference patterns that are stored on a piece of film.
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Holograms are created through a parallel process; a non-focused and non-specific recording of everything simultaneously.
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A hologram is a ‘distributed recording’ method. That means that if you cut a photograph in half, you have two halves of a photograph. However, if you cut a piece of hologram film in half, each half can produce the full 3D image. This is possible because of the next property…
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Each point on a holographic recording includes information about light scattered from every point in the scene.
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Holographic images are reconstructed (viewed) by exposing a hologram to a light source that replicates the original reference beam used to create the hologram.
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A piece of hologram film can store a huge amount of information. For example, one square inch of holographic film can store all the information contained in fifty volumes of an encyclopedia! How? Because the interference wave patterns for multiple ‘objects’ can be stored on the same piece of film (without impacting each other) if a different reference beam angle is used to create each object’s interference pattern. Then to project a 3D image of a particular object from the developed hologram film, you just have to strike the hologram with the laser set to the particular reference beam angle used to record the object.

Evolution of the Holographic Model

The original Holographic model evolved into a Holonomic model to clarify that the memory is not one big hologram, and to better represent the localization of memory in certain areas of the brain. The Holonomic model essentially describes memory as a network of many interconnected holograms. According to the Holographic/Holonomic model, memories stored in our brains have important properties that are similar to the properties of holographic imaging, such as:

Transforming energy (electrochemical sensory input) into another type of information; i.e. changing (encoding) all of our sensory information, thoughts, plans, etc. as interference patterns that are stored in the brain’s fine-fibered dendritic webs.
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Holographic memory is created through a parallel process; holistic or ‘non-specific’ recording of all information/sensations simultaneously.
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Holographic memory is a ‘distributed recording’ method. That is, rather than a memory being stored in a particular cell or synapse; the memory is distributed locally in the adjacent fine-fibered dendritic webs.
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For a holographic memory, the various sensations (and corresponding interference patterns) that make up the memory can function as either ‘object’ or ‘reference’ beams to project the memory onto your consciousness. For example, seeing something that brings back a memory might also trigger the auditory sensation from that same memory, or smelling something might cause the playback of the corresponding visual memory.
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Experiences that have more ‘impact’ (are perceived as more important, or threatening), or that elicit strong emotional responses, have more electrochemical energy, and therefore produce stronger holograms. More ‘intensity’ holographic memories are also more readily available to consciousness. (Of course, repetition can replace, or supplement, ‘impact’ for creating strong, readily available, memories.)
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Vividly imagined visual images and sensory impressions create electrochemical energy and interference patterns, so the body and mind interpret them as ‘real,’ and therefore stores them as memories.
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The brain has a virtually unlimited memory storage capacity due to the incredible storage capabilities of holograms, and the number of fine-fibered storage areas available in the brain.

As research continued, the Holographic/Holonomic model was further refined to take into account the different ways in which we experience reality and/or access and use information stored in memory. There were two schools of thought that were originally pitted against each other:

Matrix Theory – where things are separated in space and time (also known as the Space/Time Domain)

This is basically an intellectual/serial approach of processing and/or understanding the ‘whole’ by taking discrete pieces of information from the hologram and labeling (naming) them, categorizing them, describing them, establishing their meanings, identifying their relationships to other bits of information, etc., but always keeping each piece separate in space and time relative to the other bits of information and also separate from the hologram in which the information resides.

Convolutional Theory – where things are considered holistically (also known as the Spectral Domain)

This is basically a holistic or intuitive/parallel approach that treats all the information as a whole. The entire ‘picture,’ the meaning represented by it, the relationships between the information is all instantly understandable. This Convolutional processing is exceptionally good for providing rapid correlations and comparisons.

Later work merged the two theories into a single concept, where Matrix theory and Convolutional theory are the ends of a continuum that represents how we can perceive reality and process holographic memories.

What Does all this Memory Stuff Have to do with Intuitive Driving?

Before we get into the implications/applications for intuitive driving, I want to point out something I found interesting and encouraging. I theorized (back in the mid 1980s), and wrote (in early 2016) the Sensation of Speed and related information processing methods, Concentration for Racers, all of the information in the Learning section, and the Race walking information based on the original (mid 80s) Holographic Memory Model… so before I started this page.

I then discovered the information related to the evolution of the Holographic/Holonomic brain theory while doing additional research for this page. I must admit I was very encouraged to discover that some of the properties of the evolved model, along with some of its implications makes the model fit my experience/interpretation of driving even better than the original model… which I thought fit pretty well.

Anyway, the concept of the Matrix theory and Convolutional theory forming a continuum that supports an integrated model of perception and memory processing is important for intuitive driving for several reasons (which tie into ideas related to Sensation of Speed, Learning Stages, and Concentration for Racers):

The Matrix theory addresses the idea of memory being processed serially and/or as deeply analyzed and understood discrete pieces or channels of information. For example, like when a driver is in the early learning stages, and drives by analysis (collecting bit’s of information, combining them to create meaning, and then evaluating the meaning and deciding how to respond.
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The Convolutional theory addressed the idea/capability of memory being holographically created through a holistic parallel process that records all information/sensations simultaneously, along with the corresponding process for reading memory holistically. This is critical to intuitive driving because, as detailed in the Reducing the Sensation of Speed page, intuitive drivers process information efficiently by using pattern recognition comparison (a holistic/parallel process). However, to do that, the driver must have created a detailed full 4D ‘model’ of the track in memory that reflects the visual information, sensory information, and ‘process’ for getting around the track.
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The concept that the relationship between the two theories is a continuum is important because that supports the idea of there being some intermediary point (likely skewed toward the Convolutional end of the continuum) where a driver has the capability of using parallel processing to drive intuitively via ‘recognition’ (using pattern recognition matching between sensory input and a 4D model of the track stored in memory) instead of by using analysis.
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Since the ‘memory’ model is also a model for how we perceive/experience reality, then if you look at the Matrix end as being ‘Intellectual’ processing and the Convolutional end as being intuitive processing, then this model also is a very good analog for:
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- The concepts of Intellectual information processing and Intuitive processing, and especially the pattern matching/comparison element of intuitive processing that is detailed on the Reducing the Sensation of Speed page.
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- The concept of Focused (separate/specific) concentration vs Holistic concentration presented on the Concentration for Racers page, along with the idea that if you laid the concentration continuum on top of the memory model continuum that the Focused Concentration end of the continuum. would align with Matrix theory and Holistic concentration would be somewhere in the primarily Convolutioinal portion of the continuum; adjacent with where intuitive processing is done.
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- The idea that if you were to lay the continuums of Consciousness and Attention on top of the memory model continuum, then that would tend to support the idea that at some point on the memory model continuum (slightly to the Convolutional side of the center) there could be a place where the pattern recognition process could be happening at a lower level of consciousness/attention (in the preconscious or meditative state range).
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- The idea that if you were to relate the driver learning stages on the memory, concentration, and attention/consciousness continuums you would find Novice drivers are at the Matrix theory end of the continuum, aligned with Focused Concentration, and Expert/Master drivers would tend to align with somewhere in the primarily Convolutioinal portion of the continuum; adjacent with where intuitive processing is done.

A Visual Explanation of What Memory Has to do with Intuitive Driving

I realize that the information above may be hard to wrap your head around… it is for me, so in this section I’ll attempt to present the information visually.

So, we start with the concept of a Holographic/Holonomic memory model with Matrix theory and Convolutional theory forming the ends of a perception and memory processing continuum:

Then we can take a look at how the concept of intuitive drivers using pattern matching/recognition to process sensory information instead of using intellectually processing fits into the perception and memory processing model:

Next we can move on to see where the concept that drivers can direct their attention using a Concentration Continuum (with Focused Concentration and Holistic Concentration at its ends) fits into the perception and memory processing model:

Then we can see how the Attention and Consciousness continuums might relate to the perception and memory processing model:

And finally, we can imagine how the driver learning stages might relate to the perception and memory processing model, to all the other concepts/continuums above, and to Zone-level performance:

So that’s how I see memory fitting into the big picture of intuitive driving, and how I see memory fitting into the key elements of intuitive driving: Concentration, Sensory Information Processing/Sensation of Speed reduction, and the Learning Process.