# Se Memory vs Si Memory



## tahrah11 (Mar 3, 2018)

Even though Si is often associated with memory, high Se users are also known to have really great memories. So what would you guys say the difference is between the two in terms of retaining information?


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## Bunniculla (Jul 17, 2017)

Subjective sensory impressions vs a broader breadth of sensory impressions. I notice Se users do not tend to recall the past and reminisce (they experienced it and that was great but time to move on to the present). Both my husband (ISTP) and sister (ESTP) are exactly like this. Si users (high and even lower stack) tend to be more nostalgic. Not saying we are like stereotypes always recalling memories on a rocking chair, but I have observed we tend to prefer to have subjective impressions that we enjoy recalling the good times or things that work in a system.


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## Stevester (Feb 28, 2016)

Memory is memory, everyone has it.

It's how you process experiences that differs between Se and Si. Se processes memory in a more shallow way: _''That was fun''_ _''That was boring''_ _''She was hot''_ etc. Si digs into how they felt, what they were thinking and why and what that kinda represents in the grand scheme of things/their life. Every memory for Si is internally linked with many other things: concepts, people, places etc. Se's memory are more independent from one another.


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## Convex (Jan 5, 2015)

Bunniculla said:


> Subjective sensory impressions vs a broader breadth of sensory impressions. I notice Se users do not tend to recall the past and reminisce (they experienced it and that was great but time to move on to the present). Both my husband (ISTP) and sister (ESTP) are exactly like this. Si users (high and even lower stack) tend to be more nostalgic. Not saying we are like stereotypes always recalling memories on a rocking chair, but I have observed we tend to prefer to have subjective impressions that we enjoy recalling the good times or things that work in a system.


whenever someone reminisces about an experience i had with them when i'm in a convo with them, i feel almost restless, like alright get with it already. i'd probably just be saying yeah... yeah... while they're recalling it, for some reason it's one of the few things that affects me

i noticed it happens with Si users where they will almost retell the story, whereas non-Si users will just point out a fact of the past to bring it up or laugh at it or whatever

when i personally get nostalgic about something, it's different, i wouldn't share it first of all, and it's more of a sad feeling. the thing that could get me the most depressed would be nostalgia, doesn't even have to be a bad memory, in fact they're usually good memories


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## Drecon (Jun 20, 2016)

In general I'd say that Si-users tend to remember facts and information where Se-users tend to remember impressions and experiences. (not to say that Si memory is more objective or anything, that has nothing to do with it). 
I think it has to do with the Se-users using Ni to structure the memories. Ni abstracts the information and looks for patterns that Se filters for it. This means that Se gets the impressions that are remembered in a generalized "big picture" way. 
Si on the other hand observes and saves the information.


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## Aelthwyn (Oct 27, 2010)

I would have to agree with the gist of many of the comments, that Si people tend to reminisce more and have detailed memories, while Se people tend not to talk that much about past events and when they do they usually don't fill out the whole picture or get into as many specifics.


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## incision (May 23, 2010)

Si correlates with long term memory retrieval and Se, to working memory.


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## Bunniculla (Jul 17, 2017)

Convex said:


> whenever someone reminisces about an experience i had with them when i'm in a convo with them, i feel almost restless, like alright get with it already. i'd probably just be saying yeah... yeah... while they're recalling it, for some reason it's one of the few things that affects me
> 
> i noticed it happens with Si users where they will almost retell the story, whereas non-Si users will just point out a fact of the past to bring it up or laugh at it or whatever
> 
> when i personally get nostalgic about something, it's different, i wouldn't share it first of all, and it's more of a sad feeling. the thing that could get me the most depressed would be nostalgia, doesn't even have to be a bad memory, in fact they're usually good memories


Yes, my ISTP husband gets restless with me too haha. I asked him why before and his answer is very short and to the point. He just doesn’t feel interested to reminisce. He’s very present focused in that way.


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## DavidGH (Aug 10, 2019)

Duo said:


> Si correlates with long term memory retrieval and Se, to working memory.


Types of Memory - The Human Memory


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## Stevester (Feb 28, 2016)

A concrete example: Let's say someone witnesses a woman at Starbucks making a scene because the Barista mispelled her name on the cup.

An SJ is likely to report this as the dramatic highlite of their day, while an Se will probably sum it up _''Oh yeah there was this crazy bitch when I went to Starbucks''_ and that's IF they even think of mentioning this at all, just something that happened during their day. 

That is not to say that SJs have really boring days and anything the slightest out of the ordinary makes them go :O and SPs have such wild adventures that they basically need to get shot at for them to consider a day out of the ordinary.....but that Si's experiences, even small ones tend to have a much more lasting and meningful effect on them.


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## L P (May 30, 2017)

Do actual senses come into play too? When I smell a certain smell sometimes it's linked to a memory and I have a very vivid and detail memory linked to that smell almost like the smell brings me back to that moment.

There are certain colognes I smell and I get lost in a very specific time when I smelt that cologne before.

Like if someone's feet smell bad, Se user might say "Your feet smell like shit" while Si might say "Your feet smell like burnt rubber."

And low key it does irk me when someone says something smells like shit when it smells way more particular, like rotten eggs or burnt rubber, in my head I'm like " It doesn't smell like shit, have you ever smelled shit? Everything does not smell like shit!" lol.

But do the senses trigger memories different for Si/Se?


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## L P (May 30, 2017)

Stevester said:


> A concrete example: Let's say someone witnesses a woman at Starbucks making a scene because the Barista mispelled her name on the cup.
> 
> An SJ is likely to report this as the dramatic highlite of their day, while an Se will probably sum it up _''Oh yeah there was this crazy bitch when I went to Starbucks''_ and that's IF they even think of mentioning this at all, just something that happened during their day.
> 
> *That is not to say that SJs have really boring days and anything the slightest out of the ordinary makes them go :O and SPs have such wild adventures that they basically need to get shot at for them to consider a day out of the ordinary.....but that Si's experiences, even small ones tend to have a much more lasting and meningful effect on them.*


Actually I think this is accurate XD.


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## jetser (Jan 6, 2016)

Si is your own experience.
Se is a shared experience. Think a concert or something like that.

Si users value the experiences they gathered or experienced for themselves and they don't feel the need to share them at all.
Se users go for experiences that can be shared and be valued together. Like a concert, or sex or a presidential election.

Neither of them is "memory" in the sense we talk about memory. They're just different observations of the same thing.


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## L P (May 30, 2017)

Convex said:


> whenever someone reminisces about an experience i had with them when i'm in a convo with them, i feel almost restless, like alright get with it already. i'd probably just be saying yeah... yeah... while they're recalling it, for some reason it's one of the few things that affects me
> 
> i noticed it happens with Si users where they will almost retell the story, whereas non-Si users will just point out a fact of the past to bring it up or laugh at it or whatever
> 
> when i personally get nostalgic about something, it's different, i wouldn't share it first of all, and it's more of a sad feeling. the thing that could get me the most depressed would be nostalgia, doesn't even have to be a bad memory, in fact they're usually good memories


This is interesting? Do you know why it makes you feel restless?

If I was to make guesses on it my guess would be, Se is concerned with experiencing many experiences, so sitting around and reminiscing over past experiences takes away time one could spend experiencing a new experience?

Or is it that Se doesn't necessarily hold any experience higher than any other so they don't pay much attention to one over the other, they want them all equally? Like they seem them all and don't know which one is more worth reminiscing over another?

Idk I'm just spit balling.


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## hal0hal0 (Sep 1, 2012)

L P said:


> Do actual senses come into play too? When I smell a certain smell sometimes it's linked to a memory and I have a very vivid and detail memory linked to that smell almost like the smell brings me back to that moment.
> 
> There are certain colognes I smell and I get lost in a very specific time when I smelt that cologne before.
> 
> ...


Maybe, but more incidentally than intrinsically, since sensing in the biological meaning isn't the same as the Jungian meaning which is more concerned with telling "if something exists."

The introverted attitude of Si I think imbues it with a more personal attachment, hence the thought that Si-heavies tend to lean on memories, file them away and come back to them to relate to new, incoming information. It is not unlike Ni-heavies which will lean on a certain potential/pattern as a way of viewing the world. In this regard, I've long considered Ni-doms the closest to the Si-doms since I consider the attitude of principle importance, moreso than the function itself.

Introversion in general (of all 4 functions) tends to be more stubborn in its ways, since its subjective nature likes to dig its roots into something, whether it be an experience (Si), concept (Ni), value (Fi), system (Ti). Extraversion is more objective, 10,000 foot view, so it's less likely to form such intricate attachments to one specific thing. 

Introversion in general is like the immovable object to extraversion's unstoppable force.


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## L P (May 30, 2017)

hal0hal0 said:


> Maybe, but more incidentally than intrinsically, since sensing in the biological meaning isn't the same as the Jungian meaning which is more concerned with telling "if something exists."
> 
> The introverted attitude of Si I think imbues it with a more personal attachment, hence the thought that Si-heavies tend to lean on memories, file them away and come back to them to relate to new, incoming information. It is not unlike Ni-heavies which will lean on a certain potential/pattern as a way of viewing the world. In this regard, I've long considered Ni-doms the closest to the Si-doms since I consider the attitude of principle importance, moreso than the function itself.
> 
> ...


Ha, makes perfect sense, this answers my other question too.


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## Alana (Jun 21, 2019)

According to the John Beebe model/Socionics model A, XSXP types actually have high Si


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## Pastelle (Dec 12, 2016)

They're both sensing so they're both about the "experience", but focus in on different facets of it. Se focuses on the object, as in, the experience itself (the party, the music, etc. Interest is in the "is"). Si focuses on the subjective nature. For Si, the experience itself is downplayed for how the person "observes it". I might sound like a broken record but my go to when portraying the functions is art. Say, a painting. Se is attracted to the painting itself, the experience of viewing it. Si doesn't quite care about the painting, but the personal archetype that stirs within the person's perspective (Ie, the person "sees" the dreariness. It's this perceptual overlay that is upmost focus them).


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## VoodooDolls (Jul 30, 2013)

After reading this thread i doubt sjs can practice sports at all


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## Forest Nymph (Aug 25, 2018)

I don't think that my entire life philosophy revolves around Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" though it reaches in deep parts of my childhood, and I'm able to separate myself from stuff I thought was cool in my childhood, in fact in a rather nasty and ironic way: i.e. "Got Milk?/Beef it's What's for Dinner" commercials, the Colgate Pump, 80s television. It's easy for me to separate my Self from these things though I may have enjoyed them as a child. It's easy for me to make fun of them and see what's wrong with them.

Of course as an Fi type I have that "aesthetic" thing going on, where I'll have a subjective emotional attachment to a song or painting or dance, etc. That's where Fi and Si get mixed up, frankly. Because Fi will ultimately create an aesthetic that probably started in childhood. I mean no disrespect when I say Peter Murphy is a part of that.


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