New Understanding of How We Remember Traumatic Events
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081028103111.htm
Who conducted the experiment: Neuroscientists at The University of Queensland.
Overview of Experiment: These neuroscientists have discovered a way to explain how we remember traumatic events easily, they did this by studying the almond shaped part of the brain called the amygdala in which they found out that the formation of emotional memories occur in the presence of a stress hormone that our bodies develop. They have been successful at showing that we human beings develop a stress hormone that lie in the formation of emotional memories. They say that memories that we store for a long time and vividly are usually associated with emotions such as fear, love and rage. According to Dr Faber, her team's discovery intended to help other scientists to elucidate new targets, leading to better treatments for conditions such as anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder.
This research may be applied to real-life because we are to know and be conscious that traumatic events, whether they’d be emotional, psychological or just about anything, we should know that they will probably be kept longer and vivid in our memories since we have a specific part of the brain which focuses on emotional feelings and definitely impact us the most in respect to the development of these memories.
Some Short-Term Memories Die Suddenly, No Fading
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090429091806.htm
Who conducted the experiment: Researchers at the University of California; Weiwei Zhang, a postdoctoral scholar, and Steve Luck, a professor of psychology, both at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain.
Overview of the experiment: Chang and Luck developed an experiment that consisted in 2 tests. The first test consisted in measuring the accuracy of a short-term memory and the second consisted in measuring the probability that memory still existed. Each test was given to 12 adults. In the first test, the adults were shown of box with 4 squares in it, each squared filled with a different color. They were shown a color wheel and later show a black box with 4 squares in it, only 1 highlighted. They were told to say the color that should be in the highlighted square of the big box. They found out that the subject either chose a similar color to the one it had before or they didn’t remember at all. The second test was similar to the first just that they used shapes instead of colors. The results of the experiment show that subjects either have the memories or they don’t and that memories do not gradually fade.
This could be important in real-life because it provides a mechanism to help us avoid the confusion that might arise if we tried to make decisions on the basis of weak, inaccurate memories.
The Memories You Want To Forget Are The Hardest Ones To Lose
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070815105026.htm
Who conducted the experiment: Keith Payne, an assistant professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences and former psychology graduate student Elizabeth Corrigan.
Overview of the experiment: The experiment consisted in showing that the memories we want to forget are the hardest ones to do so because they revolve around emotional constraints, and it was shown that emotion places limits on the ability to control the contents of the mind. They developed the experiment by showing 218 subjects to react to photographs instead of text. The researchers found that the subjects could not intentionally forget emotional events as easily as ordinary ones. They also found that both pleasant and unpleasant emotional memories are resistant to intentional forgetting.
The experiment may be applied to real-life since we are to be well informed of how memories that we really want to forget are the hardest ones to do so since emotions limit us to control the contents of our mind even though if you have a great will power, you might be able to withdraw memories we don’t want in our brains. In the end we have to always keep in mind that intentional forgetting of memories is worse than unintentional forgetting of memories since we tend to concentrate on the things we don’t want in our lives or in our memory which can result in harsh conditions.
miércoles, 27 de octubre de 2010
martes, 19 de octubre de 2010
What Is Memory - How Does It Work?
1. Explain the concept of sensory memory.
Sensory memory retains the brief impression of a sensory stimulus after the stimulus itself has ended. Which means that we human beings, retain vivid memories of what we have seen for a split second.
2. Give an example of sensory memory.
An example of sensory memory could be, when I am in class and Mr. Dougherty calls my name, I look at him and look back at my desk and still have a vivid memory of just a split second when Mr. Dougherty called my name.
3. What is the capacity of our sensory memory?
For visual stimuli, we have an extremely short 'photographic' memory (about 500 milliseconds), which gives us a persistent image. In hearing we have echoic memories, which are mental echoes of stimuli.
4. Describe the concept of short-term memory.
Short-term memory consists in storing and managing information required to carry out cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehending. Short-term memory involves the selection, initiation, and termination of information-processing. One test of short-term memory is memory span, the number of items, usually words or numbers that a person can hold onto and recall.
5. What is the "magic number" as it relates to short-term memory and who conducted the experiment which established this measurement?
The magic number 7 +/- 2 was shown by George A. Miller. He chose this number to be a magic one since he discovered that most human beings retain up to 7 items which can be held in short-term memory at any one time. Furthermore, Miller showed that for example, we human beings tend to remember phone numbers in chunks of 2, instead of remembering 7 digits. In the end, Miller in his experiment, shows that we remember items easily by chunking.
6. What is chunking?
Chunking refers to the process of taking individual units of information and grouping them into larger units.
7. What has been determined to be the ideal size of "chunks" for both letters and numbers?
About two or three.
8. Which mode of encoding does short-term memory mostly rely on, acoustic or visual?
Acoustic memory.
9. Explain the duration and capacity of long-term memory.
Long-term memory is the relatively permanent memory store in which you hold information even when you are no longer attending to it. Its capacity is said to be unlimited and its duration to be a lifetime one.
10. Explain in detail the Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of memory.
The Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of memory suggested that memory is organized into 3 divisions, sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. Sensory memory consists in us, human beings receiving information and being capable of restoring the majority of the information we received in future moments. Short-term memory consists in the low capacity of restoring information in our memories. Furthermore, long-term memory consists in us recalling vivid images and information of past information given to us. In the end, the model proposed by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin in 1968 showed the structure of memory and in it it proposed that we human beings remember only small amounts of information we are given previously.
11. Identify three criticisms or limitations of the Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of memory.
• Much too linear.
• Its structure does not parallel well within the neurological explanations of where and how memory is stored.
• The model does not acknowledge the asynchronous nature of the neural activity which occurs between anatomical structures, such as the relationship between a neuron and a motor end-plate.
12. Explain the Levels of Processing Model of memory.
• Vision: Strongest recall value of all senses, and also allows the widest spectrum of levels-of-processing modifiers.
• Hearing: Within auditory stimuli, semantic analysis produces the highest levels of recall ability for stimuli.
• Touch: The less liable level of processing since a subject has no perspective on what he is shown, he/she is unable to determine the true obejct’s characteristics.
• Smell: Odor memory is weaker than visual memory, achieving a successful identification rate of only 70-80% of visual memory.
13. What is maintenance rehearsal - give an example.
the process of repeatedly verbalizing or thinking about a piece of information. For example, when I study for vocabulary tests, I repeat the words over and over again to keep them a little longer in short-term memory.
14. What is elaborative rehearsal - give an example.
Elaborative rehearsal is a memory technique that involves thinking about the meaning of the term to be remembered, as opposed to simply repeating the word to yourself over and over. For example, when I am given a vocabulary word I relate the sound of it to another word that relates to its definition. This makes it easier for me to hold the information for a longer period of time.
15. Who developed the Levels of Processing Model and the concepts of maintenance and elaborative rehearsal?
Fergus I. M. Craik and Robert S. Lockhart in 1972 developed the levels of processing model and the concepts of maintenance and elaborative rehearsal.
Sources:
www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/.../memory.html
www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=7142
www.psywww.com/.../atkinson-shiffrin_model.html
http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/120/AtkinsonShifrin.html
Sensory memory retains the brief impression of a sensory stimulus after the stimulus itself has ended. Which means that we human beings, retain vivid memories of what we have seen for a split second.
2. Give an example of sensory memory.
An example of sensory memory could be, when I am in class and Mr. Dougherty calls my name, I look at him and look back at my desk and still have a vivid memory of just a split second when Mr. Dougherty called my name.
3. What is the capacity of our sensory memory?
For visual stimuli, we have an extremely short 'photographic' memory (about 500 milliseconds), which gives us a persistent image. In hearing we have echoic memories, which are mental echoes of stimuli.
4. Describe the concept of short-term memory.
Short-term memory consists in storing and managing information required to carry out cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehending. Short-term memory involves the selection, initiation, and termination of information-processing. One test of short-term memory is memory span, the number of items, usually words or numbers that a person can hold onto and recall.
5. What is the "magic number" as it relates to short-term memory and who conducted the experiment which established this measurement?
The magic number 7 +/- 2 was shown by George A. Miller. He chose this number to be a magic one since he discovered that most human beings retain up to 7 items which can be held in short-term memory at any one time. Furthermore, Miller showed that for example, we human beings tend to remember phone numbers in chunks of 2, instead of remembering 7 digits. In the end, Miller in his experiment, shows that we remember items easily by chunking.
6. What is chunking?
Chunking refers to the process of taking individual units of information and grouping them into larger units.
7. What has been determined to be the ideal size of "chunks" for both letters and numbers?
About two or three.
8. Which mode of encoding does short-term memory mostly rely on, acoustic or visual?
Acoustic memory.
9. Explain the duration and capacity of long-term memory.
Long-term memory is the relatively permanent memory store in which you hold information even when you are no longer attending to it. Its capacity is said to be unlimited and its duration to be a lifetime one.
10. Explain in detail the Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of memory.
The Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of memory suggested that memory is organized into 3 divisions, sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. Sensory memory consists in us, human beings receiving information and being capable of restoring the majority of the information we received in future moments. Short-term memory consists in the low capacity of restoring information in our memories. Furthermore, long-term memory consists in us recalling vivid images and information of past information given to us. In the end, the model proposed by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin in 1968 showed the structure of memory and in it it proposed that we human beings remember only small amounts of information we are given previously.
11. Identify three criticisms or limitations of the Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of memory.
• Much too linear.
• Its structure does not parallel well within the neurological explanations of where and how memory is stored.
• The model does not acknowledge the asynchronous nature of the neural activity which occurs between anatomical structures, such as the relationship between a neuron and a motor end-plate.
12. Explain the Levels of Processing Model of memory.
• Vision: Strongest recall value of all senses, and also allows the widest spectrum of levels-of-processing modifiers.
• Hearing: Within auditory stimuli, semantic analysis produces the highest levels of recall ability for stimuli.
• Touch: The less liable level of processing since a subject has no perspective on what he is shown, he/she is unable to determine the true obejct’s characteristics.
• Smell: Odor memory is weaker than visual memory, achieving a successful identification rate of only 70-80% of visual memory.
13. What is maintenance rehearsal - give an example.
the process of repeatedly verbalizing or thinking about a piece of information. For example, when I study for vocabulary tests, I repeat the words over and over again to keep them a little longer in short-term memory.
14. What is elaborative rehearsal - give an example.
Elaborative rehearsal is a memory technique that involves thinking about the meaning of the term to be remembered, as opposed to simply repeating the word to yourself over and over. For example, when I am given a vocabulary word I relate the sound of it to another word that relates to its definition. This makes it easier for me to hold the information for a longer period of time.
15. Who developed the Levels of Processing Model and the concepts of maintenance and elaborative rehearsal?
Fergus I. M. Craik and Robert S. Lockhart in 1972 developed the levels of processing model and the concepts of maintenance and elaborative rehearsal.
Sources:
www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/.../memory.html
www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=7142
www.psywww.com/.../atkinson-shiffrin_model.html
http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/120/AtkinsonShifrin.html
miércoles, 13 de octubre de 2010
How Does our Memory Work?
In respect to the videos shown in class, I have learned so much about memory and has caused in me a great intrigue in how memory shape us, our personality and just about everything we are surrounded with. The videos showed that memory is stored in small areas of the brain which have to be perfect in size and perfect in construction to function the way it should. It totally amazes me that we unconsciously store memories and recall them and it definitely takes a lot in our brains to accomplish such thing. Our brains are so perfect that although many theories have been made on how are memory functions, there are still things that cannot be proven by us human beings, they are left unknown till today since there is no reasonable explanation to what exactly happens. I´ve also learned that our memory fades as we grow older because of the white matter in our brains. We all have white matter and it has been shown that as we grow older the white matter undergoes severe changes, which is why the blood circulation in the brain is not as healthy as it was years ago and as a result thinking becomes impaired. I’m totally amazes me to see how our memories depend on the past and therefore affect the way we perceive our own future. It was also kind of traumatizing to see how are memory functions since there are many minute details that are really very important in the process of storing memories. How Alzheimer’s, a tragic memory disorder is acquired through age but some of us are lucky to not develop it as much as other unlucky ones. The videos were definitely eye-opening ones; they’ve given me a different perspective on memory storage in the brain.
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