Tracing The Memory System Unit 4 Ip

1TRACING THE MEMORY SYSTEM

Running Head: TRACING THE MEMORY SYSTEM

Memory, Thinking, and Intelligence

Carla J. McCoy

Unit 4 Individual Project – Aspects of Psychology

American InterContinental University

February 1st, 2009


Abstract

In tracing the memory system from stimuli into long-term memory this article will

discuss features and step by step factors that will enhance or impede the information flow

through each process. Proactive and Retroactive interference will be explained where a

maximum absorption of information might counteract each of their effects during this

study that will result in long-term memory. An explanation of various types of forgetting

will be discussed and you will be shown some strategies that can improve memory

consolidation and/or retrieval. The thesis for this Article is “Our Memory is our own

personal Diary”. (McCoy, C., 2009)


Introduction

It’s true that our memory allows us to store information for later use and we each

remember things or transform the information we have by using various things such as

images, sounds, colors, or something we can associate with an existing memory. Clear

Presentations of tracing the memory system from stimuli into long-term memory and

discussing features of each step will be shown here. There are factors that enhance

information or impede the flow during each step of the process as well. When explaining

Proactive and Retroactive interference there are ideas that show how people might

counteract certain effects when studying which will facilitate maximum absorptions of

information into long term memory. Another area to discuss here is how and why people

forget things and the different types of forgetting we each have. There are strategies we

can take that will improve memory consolidation and/or retrieval. One good thing to

remember here is that we all have memories whether they are good or bad, we all have

our own personal diaries within our memories which are something no other person can

ever take away from any of us. (McCoy, C., 2009)

Tracing the Memory System

There are three processes involved in memory that everyone should master. The

first is called encoding which is where information is transformed to be stored by means

of transforming it into a memory that’s meaningful by associating it with various things

such as images, colors, sound, or even associating it with an existing memory. The next

process is called storage which is where physiological change has to take place in order

for memory to be stored. And lastly we all have a process called retrieval which is where


we can retrieve memories that we stored originally during the encoding process so

basically we return the information we stored to the same point in which we stored the

information to begin with. (Psychology 101, 2009) Memory actually begins with

perception but it has to be encoded into creating a memory that is rooted in the Senses.

There are various sensations we receive from other people such as our visual system

which registers things such as physical features about them, or the color of their hair or

eyes. You can also take a look at the auditory system which may have picked up the scent

of their cologne or perfume, or the sound of their laugh. Each separate sensation that we

experience travels to what is called the hippocampus part of your brain which has

integrated your perceptions of the experiences you’ve had with various people. The

hippocampus and frontal cortex analyzes various sensory inputs to see if they are worth

remembering or not. If they are then they could possibly become part of your long term

memory. Various pieces of information we get from other people are stored in various

parts of our brains. It is unknown how we later identify and retrieve information that we

store to form a cohesive memory.

We all have nerve cells that connect with other cells at the synapse where the

action occurs in our brains with other synapses. We all have electrical impulses that leap

across gaps in our brains which then releases chemical messengers called

neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters diffuse across the spaces between cells, and

then attach themselves to neighboring cells. Each individual brain cell can perform

thousands of links like this which can give the brain approximately 100 trillion synapses.

A particular part of the brain cells that receive these electrical impulses is called dendrites

which are the feathery tips of brain cells that reach out to neighboring brain cells. Of


course we all know that connections between brain cells are not set in concrete because

they change often. Plasticity within our brains can help rewire itself if our brains ever get

damaged all because brain cells work together. Brain cells organize themselves into

groups that perform different kinds of information processing. Where one brain cell will

signal to another, the synapse between the two will get stronger and where there are more

signals being sent between the two means they are getting stronger and the connection

grows. Our brains are capable of organizing and then reorganizing itself by the

experiences we each have and the things we all learn in the world. As we learn and

information becomes repetitive we have intricate circuits of knowledge and memory that

are embedded in the brain. In order to encode a memory we have to first pay attention

because most things that occur within our daily lives are simply filtered out because we

can’t pay attention to everything all the time and only a few stimuli actually pass into our

conscious awareness. One thing that scientists are unsure about is if stimuli are screened

out during the sensory input stage or if it happens after the brain processes what is

significant. (Mohs, R., 2006-2009) One thing I found Interesting is that not all scientists

agree on the distribution of memory in the human brain. Some scientists assume that the

human brain constitutes memory in one particular region within the brain whether others

believe that memory is distributed through out the brain. (Gunaseelan, J., 2004-2009)

Proactive and Retroactive Interference

When a person can’t retrieve information they know they learned or experienced

because that previous information is interfering with the retrieval process, then the

interference is working forward in time and is called Proactive. On the other hand if a

person can’t retrieve information they learned or experienced because later information is


interfering with the retrieval process, then the interference is working backwards in time

and is called Retroactive. We also need to take a look at the release from proactive

interference which is where material that is being kept in a persons short term memory

improves performance if the material is changed which is further evidence that

interference plays an important role in short term memory forgetting. One might

counteract each effect while studying or being given a test in order to facilitate maximum

absorption of information into long term memory and there’s one study that was done to

prove this theory. Gardiner, Craik & Britwhistle (1972) gave subjects a set of three words

in a category which was followed by 10 distractor words that were spelt backwards in

which each subject was suppose to say forwards. After this the subjects were prompted

for the first three words. After doing this three times, the fourth trial subjects were either

given a clue prior to seeing the words, prior to being prompted to recall the words, or not

given a clue at all. Each clue given indicated that the words were from a subset of the

category (e.g., wild flowers or garden flowers). Subjects that were not given a clue

declined in recall performance, but subjects who were demonstrated the release from

Proactive Interference which proves that people can impose some categorical knowledge

on information they’ve already seen in a way that memory performance will improve.

(io.uwinnipeg.ca)

Types of Forgetting

There are seven types of forgetting which include Repressed Erasure, Prescriptive

Forgetting, Forgetting that is constitutive in the formation of a new Identity, Structural

Amnesia, Forgetting as Annulment, Forgetting as planned Obsolescence, and Forgetting

as Humiliated Silence. There are also seven types of normal memory problems which


include Transience, Absentmindedness, Blocking, Misattribution, Suggestibility, Bias,

and Persistence. Everyone forgets things sometimes, this is normal, but it’s not normal to

forget too much. The Human Memory has a Use-It-Or-Lose-It quality. When we forget

facts or events over time this is called Transience. Some people may view Transience as

a memory weakness; however it can be beneficial due to clearing the brain of unused

memories and allowing new space to be created for newer memories. Transience can be

referred to basically as cleaning the junk out of your closet. Every human experiences

Transience of memory, but to people with things such as amnesia or damage to the

hippocampus this can be debilitating for them. (Harvard University Health Publications,

2009) Absentmindedness occurs when people don’t pay attention closely enough such

as forgetting where you laid your neck tie or socks. This happens because you were

currently thinking of something else or nothing in particular when you put that neck tie

and socks somewhere and your brain didn’t encode the information securely. (Harvard

University Health Publications, 2009)

Another form of Absentmindedness would be forgetting to do something at a

prescribed time such as bedtime or breakfast. A good example of this would be keeping a

Dr. Appointment or taking a prescribed Medicine. This becomes a problem when you

don’t focus on cues that can serve as reminders for you to do something such as placing

your medication on the bathroom sink at night so when you wake up your morning

routine of say brushing your teeth and seeing the pills on the sink will trigger your

memory that you need to take your medicine that morning. Another example would be

posting your Dr. Appointment on the Refrigerator. If you do this then when you wake up

the morning of the Appointment, you’ll see that you have to be at the Dr’s office at a


certain time when you go to eat Breakfast. Blocking is something everyone experiences

as well. When blocking occurs it’s not that you didn’t encode the information properly or

that you weren’t paying attention, it’s just a temporary inability to retrieve a memory

because something is keeping you from finding it. A good example of this would be to

call one of your 3 children by the wrong name. You might call one son what your other

sons name is. Brain imaging has been done in order to figure out how blocking might

occur in the brain. There are areas in the brain that become more active and others that

become less active when a person is trying to retrieve a memory. The active part of the

brain inhibit other areas of the brain in this case and when they are activated and

inhibiting other areas it can also at times keep a persons brain from retrieving

information. In other words the part of the brain that encoded the information may be

suppressed because other areas of the brain are so active. Memory blocks are more

common as people age. (Harvard University Health Publications, 2009)

Misattribution is another form of forgetting. A good example here to use would

be if someone asked you who Angela Smith is and you remember who she is but also

remember what she’s done lately that’s been in the news on television. Then someone

asks you where you learned that information from and you tell them that you learned it

from the television on the evening news. However there was actually no report about

Angela Smith on the evening news on television, but rather instead you got your

information from a close friend that you had dinner with last night. So in this case you

got the right memory, but the wrong source which would be a classic example of

misattribution which is where you remember something quite accurately but misattribute

details such as persons involved, place, and time. Another kind of misattribution is when


you actually believe a thought you had was completely original when actually it came

from something you read, or heard but had forgotten about. This type of Misattribution

explains cases of unintentional plagiarism where a writer passes off information that

another writer actually wrote as his or her own that they actually read elsewhere at a

different time. Misattribution is something that happens to every human and is normally

harmless, but can have big consequences. Age actually matters when it comes to

Misattribution because people absorb fewer details due to having more trouble

concentrating and as we all grow older our memories grow older and older memories are

prone to misattribution. (Harvard University Health Publications, 2009)

Suggestibility refers to false memories that we develop that will fool your mind

into believing it’s a real memory. A good example of this would be when leaving a store

such as Lowe’s for instance and you see a person stealing a car but you didn’t get a good

look at them. Another lady standing next to you is insisting that the car thief was wearing

a bright red jacket with white lettering on it. What’s happened here is that at the same

time you are processing some key information of what you actually did see, and

processing what the lady told you at the same time, you end up putting it all together as if

it was your own memory when it isn’t. Later on when the Police officer shows you

photos of a few possible suspects, you get confused until you see a picture of a man

wearing a bright red jacket with white lettering on it so you point to him. This is a good

example of giving false information because someone else gave you that key information

rather than you having had experienced it. (Harvard University Health Publications,

2009) Bias affects all sorts of memories, one of the best examples of this are people’s

recollections of their romantic relationships. Within our memories our personal biases are


filtered by things such as Reality, prior knowledge, beliefs, our mood, and even

experiences. All these things influence what information we can actually recall so there’s

a lot of room to forget here also. (Harvard University Health Publications, 2009) Lastly

we have Persistence which also involves memories of past events that were traumatic, or

having chronic fears, or even negative feelings. Some memories reflect horrifying events

while other memories may just be negative distortions of reality. There are two groups of

people that are prone to having persistent memories. One group is people who are

depressed that actually dwell on the negative events that only fuel more depression. The

second group is people who want to get rid of unwanted memories but can’t, these people

in most cases have Flashbacks which are persistent and end up with PTSD. Persistent

memories require the activation of pieces of the brain that respond to things such as

anxiety, fear, or emotionally charged information. (Harvard University Health

Publications, 2009)

Strategies that Improve Memory Consolidation and Retrieval

Some good strategies to use that would Improve Memory Consolidation and

Retrieval are listed below:

Believe in yourself – Don’t believe it when people tell you aging contributes to a

failing memory because it’s been proven that middle aged and older people do

worse on memory tasks when they are encouraged by people who have

stereotypes about aging and memory. Take the time to learn about memory

preservation and how you can improve your own memory. (Harvard Health

Publications, 2009)


Economize your brain use – Designate a place for every type of reminder you

need on a daily basis, and even for ones that are not daily, such as calendars,

maps, shopping lists, file folders, planners, address books and keep these items

accessible. You can also keep your own personal items in order and in place such

as where to put your glasses, keys, or bills that are due. (Harvard Health

Publications, 2009)

Organize your Thoughts – You can organize your own thoughts by

remembering things such as your own phone number (without the area code)

because this makes less numbers to remember, or your social security number

rather than trying to remember the names of everyone you may have gone to

school with etc.. Also Practice makes you using your brain in a repetitive way to

which it stores information you are memorizing which will later on make it much

easier for you to retrieve information from when you need it. (Harvard Health

Publications, 2009)

Use all your Senses – Use all the senses you can when you are learning anything

such as odors, sight, sound, taste, even emotional content or even the scent of

something. Using these senses will help your brain retain memory. (Harvard

Health Publications, 2009)

Expand your brain – Draw an Image of something you like, or read a book you

want to read, even write down all the information you want to learn on a piece of

paper just to form images of something. This makes it much easier to remember

and understand and it allows certain brain regions to get involved. (Harvard

Health Publications, 2009)


Repeat after me – Repeating things out loud such as someone’s name and saying

it while speaking to them will help you remember their name. Call people by their

names when you are introduced and if you forget right after you are introduced,

don’t be embarrassed to ask them what their name is once again. Remember its

for your own knowledge and memory. (Harvard Health Publications, 2009)

Space it out – Try new study techniques such as saying things out loud, or

memorizing things once per hour, then the following day do it every few hours,

then the third day do it every single day every few hours. Spacing out periods of

study will become valuable to you when it comes to your memory when trying to

remember things that you originally found complicated. (Harvard Health

Publications, 2009)

Make a mnemonic – This type of learning takes the form of acronyms, such as

“Every good boy does fine,” or for older learners they could create a story

mnemonic in which each particular item cues them to remember the next one.

(Harvard Health Publications, 2009)

Challenge yourself – Engage yourself in activities that require concentration such

as discussing books you’ve read, or doing crossword puzzles, trying new foods or

tastes, traveling, or taking up crafts as a new hobby that require skills you aren’t

comfortable with or have never done. (Harvard Health Publications, 2009)

Take a course – They now have memory improvement classes to help people.

Never take a course that centers on computer or concentration games, but rather

choose courses that focus on practical ways to face and manage everyday

challenges. (Harvard Health Publications, 2009)


Sleep – This is necessary for memory consolidation so make sure you have a

regular sleep routine, avoid coffee and caffeine, plan vigorous exercise early in

the day, never take sleeping pills, avoid napping in the daytime, and never try to

sleep if you aren’t tired. (Harvard Health Publications, 2009)

Conclusion

Our memories are our own personal diaries. We can sometimes choose to lock it up or we

can sometimes choose to use the information we have experienced, learned, seen, heard, seen,

discussed, and even felt to our advantage. Keeping our thoughts fresh and having positive

attitudes about life and not allowing stereotypes sway your thoughts in any way are keys to

having a successful memory. Sometimes we have a need to dump information from our memory

in order to create new ones, which is great. One great memory most people have are times spent

with loved ones and then we have bad memories as well because everyone eventually goes

through something that creates fear, worry, negative emotions, and even trauma. Use this article

to keep your mind fresh and gain new ideas on how to use strategies in order to improve your

own memory consolidation or retrieval. Remember, our diaries are our life stories and how we

want to remember them is up to us. (McCoy, C., 2009)


References

Psychology 101, (2009) Chapter 6: Memory, Intelligence, and States of Mind retrieved

at: http://allpsych.com/psychology101/memory.html

Mohs, R., (2006-2009) How Human Memory Works How Stuff Works retrieved at:

http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-memory.htm/printable

Gunaseelan, J., (2004-2009) Human Brain and Memory Process isnare.com retrieved at:

http://www.isnare.com/?aid=214557&ca=Computers+and+Technology

Uwinnipeg.ca Short Term Memory, Electronic Resource:

http://io.uwinnipeg.ca/~epritch1/stm2000.html

Harvard University (2000-2009) Forgetting: What’s Normal? Harvard Health

Publications Special Health Report at

https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Forgetting_Whats_normal.htm

Reprinted from: Improving Memory: Understanding and preventing age-related memory

loss — A Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School, (2007) by the President

and Fellows of Harvard College at:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/HEALTHbeat_101107.htm

https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/HEALTHbeat_101107.htm

https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Forgetting_Whats_normal.htm

http://io.uwinnipeg.ca/~epritch1/stm2000.html

http://www.isnare.com/?aid=214557&ca=Computers+and+Technology

http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-memory.htm/printable

http://allpsych.com/psychology101/memory.html

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