by NevermindNichole
Nichole from Nevermind the Music here. I’m your friendly neighborhood psychology professor here to give some context on what specific types of memories Reghabi is accessing for Mark S2E3 “Who Is Alive?”
She is trying to unify his multiple identities, and these memories overlap between different selves in Mark. Here are her questions and my thoughts on why she is asking each one specifically.
Who am I?
Where are we?
These are called AO questions. The term “alert and oriented” (AO) is a medical notation describing a person’s level of consciousness and cognition (the ability to understand and learn through thought, experiences, and the senses). So here, she is checking that he is lucid and generally knows what is happening.
What’s your mother’s name?
What was her eye color?
Did you love her?
These are emotionally based episodic memories. Episode memories are a type of memory that is unique to you. Episodic memory, which is a part of long-term explicit memory, comprises each person’s unique recollection of specific experiences, events, and situations. Generally, emotions associated with a memory tend to raise the likelihood that that memory would be recollected more easily and more vividly.
In a way, she asks him to recall his earliest memories, which is important in this process because it establishes a break between Mark’s Innie and Outie. It’s clear that each personas has different episodic memories, so we see this later when he is asked to recall his first memory.
Name a dam.
These fact-based questions are working his Semantic Memory. Semantic memory is a type of long-term memory that stores general knowledge, concepts, facts, and meanings of words, allowing for the understanding and comprehension of language and the retrieval of general knowledge about the world. It's also simply a funny question, which made me question Regahbi's sanity a little. Of all the questions to ask, this is the most random…I’m getting distracted.
What does MDR stand for?
This Semantic-sounding question holds no episodic Memory for Mark’s Outie. The term MDR does not exist in both “Worlds,” so it’s meaningless to Marks Outie.
What is something which you feel shame?
Feelings of shame could heighten Theta waves in the brain. Maybe this is trying to isolate those to aid in integration. Listen to the Breakroom pod for more info about that!
Where were you born?
What month is it?
Another set of AO questions. These are probably placed here in sequence to see if the Integrated Mark is orientated to time and place. Spoiler – He’s not.
What is your first memory?
This is where we see the cracks in memory starting to show. Again, he’s asked to recall an episode memory and can't. Here, we see his shift between Innie and Outie. Mark Outie’s first memory might have been about his mother; now we see integration. Those first memories of his mother are replaced/integrated with the first memories of his Innie on the table.