Forgetting In Short-Term Memory

Outline and evaluate research in to the duration, capacity and encoding information in short term memory.

Delayed free recall experiments consists of subjects being given a rundown with words or images following the test of remembering the most words possible afterwards. In the middle of these two stages, there is a short postponement or interlude, which contrarily impacts the measure of words that can be recalled. (11)

C. In general, the brain's system for creating and using memories is very effective, but problems often occur.

“Anterograde amnesia is the inability to create new memories; long-term memories from before the event typically remain intact. However, memories that were not fully consolidated from before the event may also be lost.” [8] Anterograde amnesia affects the short term memory of a person more than their long-term memory. “Your long-term memory, is everything you can remember that did not happen today. This ranges from stuff that happened when you were three to stuff that happened yesterday. Your short-term memory includes things that happened today. The change from STM to LTM happens while you sleep. Long-term memory is often divided into three categories by psychologists. They are procedural, semantic and episodic. Anterograde amnesia only impairs your formation of new episodic memories.” [23] Our short term memory 2 seems to be between 15 and 30 seconds.” [25] Repetition of what is in our short-term memory is what eventually leads to

C. Memory loss that disrupts daily life is one of the most common first signs of Alzheimer’s.

C. Inability to recall important personal information that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.

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

Additionally, to further support these theories, researchers tend to conduct studies on the famous patient case, HM, to propose the consolidation deficit theory, in which those with amnesia cannot turn short-term memories into long-term memories (Dewar et al., 2010). However, researchers Dewar, Della Sala, Beschin, and Cowan (2010), mentioned that HM’s case does not fully explain why a patient with anterograde amnesia has the ability to get better at cognitive tasks despite being unable to recall having performed those tasks at a previous time. On the same hand, Duff, Wszalek, Tranel, and Cohen (2008) mentioned that most individuals with anterograde amnesia experience heightened intelligence, attention, skill, and reasoning levels (procedural memory).

The learner can go from a unconscious incompetence (where they do not know the procedure), through conscious incompetence (where they realise what they do not know), to conscious competence (when they begin to understand and carry out the task to the required standard). The final phase to unconscious competence is achieved through experience until the task becomes a habit or routine (Immenroth, M, 2007).

Why do you think the author talks about doubling the capacity of short-term memory when in the rest of the article he talks about issues related to long-term memory?

According to Dr. Rita Smilkstein’s research into learning, the Natural Human Learning Process explains how the brain develops when someone learns. The first step is motivation to learn a new skill. People get motivated when something becomes a necessity or seems fun to them. Then the second step is the beginning practice. The beginning practice is when someone uses hands on experience and uses trial and error with the skill they are motivated to learn. The third step, she calls the advanced practice stage. In this stage the learner gains control through repetition and continuing practice learning the skill. The fourth step is skillfulness. The learner becomes more successful due to practice and gets positive reinforcement from their results. The fifth step is the refinement stage. This is when the skill becomes second nature and the person can learn new methods. The sixths and final step is mastery. This is when you can teach your skill you learned to someone else

Short Term Memory Loss. Ironically most of us don’t even think about memory that often, much less Short Term Memory. Because of that, this psychological disorder often tends to get overlooked for a small problem that no one wants to take serious. Most people would recognize this disorder from the popular movie, Finding Nemo. In which one of the main characters suffers from short term memory loss. In the film it’s taken as a lovable flaw, instead of the serious disorder that it is. But Short Term Memory is a lot more than one disorder found in a character in a movie. It is a somber disorder that could happen to any of us. This paper will be going through the gravity of this disorder and the causes to its victims.

To learn from stressful events, memories of these events must be consolidated into long-term memory in case a similar situation occurs in the future. In the normal process of consolidating a memory, three different processes take place: synaptic long-term potentiation or LTP, systems consolidation, and reconsolidation (Depperman et al., 2014). LTP is a mechanism of neuroplasticity that increases the strength of certain synaptic connections through the stimulation of neurons involved in the connection. After an event happens, the new memory is transmitted to the hippocampus. Systems consolidation is the slow process by which memories are transferred from the hippocampus to the cortex such that memories are no longer hippocampus-dependent. Reconsolidation

Working memory capacity Is the limit of the brain to process information. This information is processed as chunks and individuals can code to increase the amount of information in a chunk.

The cognitive development stage of attaining expertise is the first stage in which the individual develops what is call declarative encoding of the skill in which “a set of facts relevant to the skill is commit to memory” (Anderson, 2010). The learner will rehearse the facts as they perform the skills, for example, a child is learning to ride a bike he or she will rehearse the steps as the skill is perform. So the child will remember where the pedal is, learn how to hold to the handle, learn to balance, and learn to pedal and these steps become the set of problem-solving to ride the bike. Basically the child or learner is trying to figure out what needs to be done and the actions here are usually controlled in a conscious way. Learners also experiment with strategies in order to figure out the ones that work and the ones that does not. This knowledge that is acquired is in the declarative stage because the child’s performance cannot be called skilled. The child recalls facts about the skill of riding as he or she tries to ride the bike and pay attention in a step-by-step execution of the skill