Discuss the Reasons We Forget, and Give at Least Three Examples of How We May Improve Our Memory.

This essay will consider evidence from studies to show the strengths and weaknesses of research methods used by cognitive neuroscientists in their understanding of the biological bases of behaviour and mental processing specifically in the case of amnesia. This will be done through the use of journals, textbooks, articles and other relevant sources to outline where the research methods are used in studies and how they aim to provide an understanding in behaviour. Research methods to be discussed include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electroencephalogram (EEG) and positron emission tomography (PET). Amnesia is the loss or partial loss of a large area of memories often caused by a sudden brain injury or shock. (Eysenck, 2004). Amnesia caused by trauma is often temporary but can be permanent loss of an area of memory.

Memory is a set of cognitive processes that allow us to remember past information (retrospective memory) and future obligations (prospective memory) so we can navigate our lives. The strength of our memory can be influenced by the connections we make through different cognitive faculties as well as by the amount of time we spend devoting to learning specific material across different points in time. New memories are created every time we remember specific event, which results in retrospective memories changing over time. Memory recall can be affected retrospectively such as seeing increased recall in the presence of contextual cues or false recall of information following leading questions. Memory also includes the process

Memory is defined as “the mental capacity to encode, store, and retrieve information” (American Psychological Association, 2002). It is a part of the means by which humans function. The process of forming and recalling memories involves various complex neurological processes and disruptions to these processes can result in loss of memory or the inability to form new memories. Amnesia is a memory disorder, in which, due to trauma or a head injury, certain parts of the memory is inaccessible. The two main types of amnesia are anterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia. Anterograde amnesia refers to the inability to create new memories (Mastin, 2010). “Retrograde

1) Memory is the act of reviewing or processing of what has been studied. We use memory to learn and think in our everyday lives. Memory is a personal library in our brain for us to look back at information we encounter in our lives. While doing research on this paper I stumbled upon a lot of informations about memory and tips and trick to improve our memory. In chapter 7 of Karen Huffman and Katherine Dowdell's textbook, I learned amazing new bits knowledge into how we recall information and why we forget. Memory is broken up into three parts. You have encoding, storage, retrieval. Encoding is the introductory learning data. Storage is the maintenance of encoded data over time. Retrieval is the ability to get to the data when you need it. All three of memory stages figures out if something is recollected or forgotten. Students will likely not remember

The importance of understanding the underlying psychological mechanisms by which both memories are repressed and

Amnesia is a memory disorder that contributes to the loss of memory (King, 2016). There are two types of amnesia: anterograde and retrograde amnesia.

Memory retrieval is likely to be good after repeated testing of that material. In fact, practising retrieval has a larger effect on memory than revising the information (Hockley, 2009).

How does memory work? Is it possible to improve your memory? In order to answer these questions, one must look at the different types of memory and how memory is stored in a person's brain.Memory is the mental process of retaining and recalling information or experiences. (1) It is the process of taking events, or facts and storing them in the brain for later use. There are three types of memory: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Moving onto retrieval of information. There are two major viewpoints on how humans retrieve memories and those viewpoints are spreading activation and constructive recall. Spreading activation favors semantic network theory. Spreading activation is basically when one retrieves a node from memory it stimulates activation of related nodes (Sdorow, 2015). An example to help think about this is if one is “looking for a book in a library. You would use the online catalog to give you a retrieval cue (a book number) to help you locate the book you want.” (Sdorow, 2015). Constructive recall favors the schema theory. Constructive recall is “the distortion of memories by adding, dropping, or changing details to fit a schema.” (Sdorow, 2015). Neither semantic network theory or schema theory has emerged as the best explanation for the retrieval and storage of long-term memories (Sdorow, 2015). Moving past the retrieval of memory and what to the forgetting of memory. Forgetting can actually be a good thing it is also thought of as “adaptive because it rids us of useless information that might impair our recall of useful information.” (Sdorow,

Retrieval failure, this theory indicates that when information is stored in the memory [long term] and

Despite the fact that memory is the ability to recall and retain information, it can be forgotten or even falsely membered. Memories can be inaccurate because most are processed and remembered with distorted facts. Commonly distorted memories use positive bias, in which negative memories are remembered more positively over time, obviously making them inaccurate. Negative memories are also known to be remembered least accurate or entirely suppressed. So when one if expected to remember negative memories for therapy, like those of abuse, they are usually false memories. During this process the attempted recover of a memory is guided by a therapist or someone else, they may suggest possible events making one recover false memories. Another possible cause of memory inaccuracy can be due to encoding it falsely, one may alter the memory and then believe it to be true later when retelling it.

“Psychogenic amnesias are usually caused by some sort of emotional trauma. Emotional trauma is the common thread that runs through the amnesia associated with the following disorders: dissociative amnesia (the inability to recall significant personal information); fugue (memory loss accompanied by sudden, unexpected travel from home); dissociative identity disorder (the presence of two or more distinct personalities, with the inability to recall extensive time periods); and post-traumatic stress disorder (significant distress and memory disturbances following an extreme traumatic event). Psychogenic memories, while principally involving episodic information, may extend to semantic information, which is rarely seen in biogenic amnesia” (Chara 1).

Memory is defined as "the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information." Our memory can be compared to a computer's information processing system. To remember an event we need to get information into our brain which is encoding, store the information and then be able to retrieve it. The three-stage processing model of Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin suggests that we record information that we want to remember first as a fleeting sensory memory and then it is processed into a short term memory bin where we encode it ( pay attention to encode important or novel stimuli) for long-term memory and later retrieval. The premise for the three step process is that we are unable to focus on too much

Memory makes us. It is, to an extent, a collection of unique and personal experiences that we, as individuals, have amassed over our lifetime. It is what connects us to our past and what shapes our present and the future. If we are unable remember the what, when, where, and who of our everyday lives, our level of functioning would be greatly impacted. Memory is defined as or recognized as the “sum or total of what we remember.” Memory provides us the ability to learn and adjust to or from prior experiences. In addition, memory or our ability to remember plays an integral role in the building and sustaining of relationships. Additionally, memory is also a process; it is how we internalize and store our external environment and experiences. It entails the capacity to remember past experiences, and the process of recalling previous experiences, information, impressions, habits and skills to awareness. It is the storage of materials learned and/or retained from our experiences. This fact is demonstrated by the modification, adjustment and/or adaptation of structure or behavior. Furthermore, we as individuals, envision thoughts and ideas of the present through short-term memory, or in our working memory, we warehouse past experiences and learned values in long-term memory, also referred to as episodic or semantic memory. Most importantly, memory is malleable and it is intimately linked to our sense of identity and where we believe we belong in the world.

Central idea: Memory is a process of the brain which is prone to certain failures, although specific steps can be taken to guard against these failures.