Why Do Random Memories Pop in My Head?

I was in the kitchen on that peaceful night, gently washing some dishes after dinner. No one else was in the kitchen at the time. Only the distinctive sound of running water kitchen tools competing with each other.

Suddenly, a flash of memory comes to my mind. A moment of me hanging out with my friend in college. I wondered — why I suddenly recollected that particular moment. I try to relate the memory to the current situation reasonably. Maybe something reminds me of that incident. But I failed. The memory is too random to connect to the current situation merely.

This episode somehow is not rare to me. It has happened relatively often. A random memory comes to my mind at an unexpected moment. I always ask myself a question whenever it happens.

Why do I remember a particular moment?

However, I have found out that this situation is not uncommon to anyone. If you have experienced the same things — worry not! It’s not weird. This phenomenon has been discussed as an involuntary memory that everyone might encounter throughout their life.

Although this mental processing phenomenon did not get much interest, a few researchers have explained this experience as mind-pops.

Mind-pops refer to words, images, and melodies that randomly enter our conscious mind without any intention to retrieve them.

Often, we will associate a memory with the cue or something that typically triggers it. We might recollect a memory on a birthday when we look at a cake. However, the rule does not apply to this phenomenon, making it harder to track back the memories’ sources.

Based on research, mind-pops will occur when we do something that does not demand much attention. For example, wearing a shirt or drinking water- when our mind is wondering.

However, mind-pops are not 100% unsourced, but mental processing that occurs unconsciously makes it tricky to pinpoint its source. The stimulus for mind-pops might encounter a few days or weeks before. For instance, you could be remembering a long-lost friend after a few weeks of looking at the gift that she gave.

This phenomenon could be the long-term priming which happens when stimulus influence response delays the process to spark the memories into the conscious mind. Therefore, the memory comes out after some time.

The involuntary memory is more comfortable to pop out than the memory deliberately called because there is no effort required to recall it. In other words, effortless.

So, whenever a random memory suddenly hits you, it might not be random at all.