Most children are able to imagine their future selves as astronauts, politicians or even superheroes; however, many older adults find it difficult to recollect past events, let alone generate new ones. A new Harvard University study reveals that the ability of older adults to form imaginary scenarios is linked to their ability to recall detailed memories.
According to the study, episodic memory, which represents our personal memories of past experiences, “allows individuals to project themselves both backward and forward in subjective time.”
Therefore, in order to create imagined future events, the individual must be able to remember the details of previously experienced ones extract various details and put them together to create an imaginary
Loftus argues that people can be shaped to remember their past in different ways. She used a study about getting lost in a Mall to show that individuals can be prompted to recollect the whole events that occurred to them (Loftus 74).
of their memories, when people encounter similar situations in the future, they will know how to
This framework is known as a ‘schema’." This means that our previous memories or experiences shape the ones we have in the future. In example, we may remember eating Oscar Meyer (Oscar Mayer) hot dogs as a child, and from that point on remember it wrong.
Every act of remembering is also, intrinsically, an act of forgetting. Giving preference to particular details of an event lessens the immediacy of others. Thus, memory is its own, unique narrative culled from an almost endless sea of details present, and sometimes not present, in the original event. Memory is the past, reformulated and interpreted through the lens of the present (Huyssen 1995). When an event is commemorated through a physical act of memory, the narrowing of possible details becomes even more finely tuned, limited by the physical scope of possibilities for bodies in a three-dimensional space.
The study of creation of false memories has been a topic of interest since the 1930s when Bartlett (1932) conducted the first experiment on the topic. Though the results of this experiment were never replicated, they contributed greatly to research by distinguishing between reproductive and reconstructive memory (Bartlett 1932 as cited in Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Reproductive memory refers to accurate production of material from memory and is assumed to be associated with remembering simplified materials (e.g., lists). Reconstructive memory emphasizes the active process of filling in missing elements while remembering and is associated with materials rich in meaning (e.g., stories).
Loftus and Palmer support the reconstructive memory hypothesis. They believe that information gathered at the time of an icident is
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
The two concepts that I resonated with are Memory and the Psychodynamic theory. Starting with the Psychodynamic theory is an approach to psychology that studies the psychological forces underlying human behavior, feelings, and emotions, and how they may relate to early childhood experience. This theory is most closely associated with the work of Sigmund Freud, and with psychoanalysis, a type of psychotherapy that attempts to explore the patient’s unconscious thoughts and emotions so that the person is better able to understand him or herself. The second one is Memory; understanding how memory works will help you improves your memory. Which is an essential key to attaining knowledge. Memory is one of the important cognitive processes. Memory involves remembering and forgetting. I chose the two concepts because throughout the class they stood out to the most. Understanding the conscious, subconscious mind and also memory. I’m interested in understanding the human behavior.
The idea that our memories change the way on which we see the world and ultimately change reality is a difficult one to understand. An answer to this question depends on the way we define reality. If we define reality as objective- then it can not be altered by memories. However if we define reality as subjective, then, yes, our memories can affect our reality. But what do we mean by memories? What do we mean by relationship? What follows is an attempt to answer some of these questions, and see whether and how our memories affect our reality.
Psychologists have mainly defied prospective memory into two types of prospective memory remembering situations, named time-based and event based. Some researches have also come up with the third type of prospective remembering situation knowns as activity-based. However there are various controversies regarding the activity based being different from the event based.
Do you remember your first holiday? Can you describe or visualize how you may spend your future holidays? The answer should be yes, but it isn’t for some people. A person who suffers from amnesia may not be able to answer the latter, nor give a vivid description for the second question. Scientist has; continue to research and study brain activity during both imagination and memory. Studies have shown the hippocampus as being one region of the brain that is active during these processes. “The hippocampus is one of the first brain regions to show signs of deterioration as we get older… the ability to envision future experiences declines in parallel with memory as people age.” As a society we look to the elderly for wisdom, and information based
I would like to write my research proposal this semester on the effects of HIV on prospective memory. I chose this topic for two reasons, one personal and one professional. First, my cousin died of AIDS in 2007. I didn’t get to know him very well and did not know that he was sick until right before he died. Even though we weren’t close, I’ve always felt a connection to him. I would like to know what his life was like as he lived with his illness and this topic would give me insight into how he lived leading up to his death. Second, I want to be a counselor for children and adolescents with chronic illnesses, HIV being one of the illnesses that I want to work with. I believe that knowing how HIV affects the prospective memory of my future patients will allow for me to help them overcome any deficiencies so that they can correctly manage their disease and excel in school despite their illness.
Match the following characteristics to their types of memory. The answers can be used more than once.
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.
A study by Addis et al in which participants were scanned while they were either remembering a past experience or imagining an event that might occur in the future. Addis et al divided each of these tasks into two phases. In the initial construction phase, participants generated either a remembered or an imagined event in response to a cue word (example, “dress”) and made a button-press when they had an event in mind, which typically required about 7 or 8 seconds. In the immediately following elaboration phase, participants generated as much detail as possible about the remembered or imagined event.