Enhancing Working Memory

Memory is an idea that people often rely on for important information, however, it is something that we cannot often always rely on. Although we all believe that our memories are true, researchers have found just how easy it is to implant another idea into our brain. Multiple studies have been conducted demonstrating just how simple it is to misconstrue a false idea to be real. Researcher Bartlett (1932) was able to give us key terms to identify the concepts of memory which are reproductive and reconstructive memory. Reproductive memory is accurate memory, but reconstructive memory is trying to remember ideas and concepts but contain many errors (Bartlett, 1932, p.) These words are very important in understanding the concept of memory because

Good friend, W. (2012, December 4). Amnesia in '50 First Dates ' Retrieved July 21, 2016, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/psychologist-the-movies/201212/amnesia-in-50-first-dates

The biological approach to the basis of memory is explained in terms of underlying biological factors such as the activity of the nervous system, genetic factors, biochemical and neurochemicals. In general terms memory is our ability to encode, store, retain and recall information and past experiences afterwards in the human brain. In biological terms, memory is the recreation of past experiences by simultaneous activation or firing of neurons. Some of the major biopsychological research questions on memory are what are the biological substrates of memory, where are memories stored in the brain, how are memories assessed during recall and what is the mechanism of forgetting. The two main reasons that gave rise to the interest in biological basis of memory are that researchers became aware of the fact that many memory deficits arise from injuries to the brain. And the other reason was that they realized that psychological processes must have a physiological basis.

Thorndike, E. L. (1898). Animal intelligence: An experimental study of the associative processes in animals. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 2(4), i-109.

99). There are three structures involved in the information processing model; sensory register, short-term store and long-term store (Tangen & Borders 2017, p. 99). The sensory model is a way of attaining information through any of the five senses; smell, sound, taste, sight and touch (Tangen & Borders 2017, p. 101). Most information attained through the senses only lasts for up to three seconds (Tangen & Borders 2017, p. 101). However, if attention is paid to the information, it can be processed to the short-term store/ short term memory (Tangen & Borders 2017, p. 101). If information stored in the short-term memory is not learned and given attention, it will decay over time (Schunk 2012, p. 183). The short-term memory has a small capacity, and large amounts of information cannot all be stored (Schunk 2012, p. 183). To make it esier, information can be shortened or broken up to fit it in the short-term memory (Schunk 2012, p. 183). Information that is used will be transferred into the long-term store/ long-term memory (Schunk 2012, p. 183). There are different strategies to strengthen the memory of information from short-term to long-term. This can be done through repetition, relating it to information already known and organising information into meaningful units (Tangen & Borders 2017, p. 103). The long-term memory is a permanent supply of learnt

Imagine spending time with your loved one and not being able to remember what happened shortly after. Your memories cease to play a role in your life while you’re ability to take in new information is impaired. This is case for Clive Wearing, the person with worst case of amnesia ever recorded. “Each blink, each glance away and back, brought him an entirely new view.” His wife, Deborah and a doctor named Oliver Sacks watch over Clive for twenty years and keep a journal of his progress.

Memory is an important aspect of life as you are able to remember old memories and create new ones as well. In this paper, the focus is primarily on dementia. Declarative memory, procedural memory, and recall are various topics that are used to understand the roles they may play in dementia. Each topic is discussed in a paragraph. In each paragraph I introduce and explain the topic, then provide an example from the movie, The Notebook (Emmerich, Harris, Johnson, Kaplan, & Cassavetes, 2014). As I discuss each example, I will also explain how it demonstrates and links to the concept. The paper concludes with a brief discussion about the struggle between portraying accuracy of psychological topics in movies, as it was confusing for me to understand some of the connections.

1. Flashbulb memories are very detailed and vivid reconstructive memories that are usually linked with emotion and last a lifetime. Originally, flashbulb memories were thought to be very accurate and uneasily forgotten. One of the first studies ever done on flashbulb memories was Brown and Kulik (1977). They wanted to investigate if flashbulb memories were as accurate as everyone hypothesized they were. They had 80 participants in their study. Each participant was asked to recall memories that were linked to a shocking event. The results were that participants were able to recall the memories vividly and with much detail. Memories that were linked with a high level of emotion such as the assassination of JFK or a death of a relative caused

An understanding of human memory is substantial in the study of cognition. As one of the most essential and influential cognitive process, memory affects various aspects of our daily life. Examples of its importance include functioning in everyday life, recognizing faces of people around us, remembering some of our basic skills that we gained through knowledge and experience. Mainly, without memory we would have the same lack of knowledge as newborn infants. (Eysenck, 1997)

Imagine you are teaching a class; physics, for instance. Most of the class seems to be doing well and understanding the material, but in the back of the class, there seem to be a handful of students who have no idea what’s going on and no grasp of the material. How do you catch them up and ensure they remember the material? This is the exact problem that I have come across while choreographing Catawba’s main stage musical, Godspell. Before this process began, I asked the members of the cast if any of them considered themselves dancers. No one raised their hand. I then asked if any of them considered themselves actors who move. About half of the group raised their hand. Finally, I asked if any of them believed that they could pick up choreography

Memory falls under cognitive development and we use memory every moment of the day from waking up to going to sleep. It might not seem like we are using it but it is actively on, such as when we are doing our daily chores or even sitting down to watch TV. The definition of memory by Sigelman and Rider is “our ability to store and later retrieve information about past events, develops and change over the life span”. While doing our daily chores, we use memory to recall the skills that are required to do these daily chores so in short memory is used to retrieve information from our brain that is store there. When we are sitting down to watch a TV show, we also use our memory to recall information from our brain about what had happened last episodes so we can understand the current episodes

To conclude the working memory to some extent provides valid information on how the memory works in terms of the Short Term Memory system however it is not all that reliable because it doesn’t provide that much information on the other components like the Central Executive and the Long Term Memory.

There are several types of memory. They include explicit, episodic, semantic, implicit, and procedural memory. Explicit memory is one of the two main divisions of long-term memory. It consists of all information that requires consciously remembered. An example of explicit memory is remembering what was done in class the day before or a sibling being born. Episodic memory is a memory of an autobiographical experience. It is a type of explicit memory. Normally, these memories are emotional and in great detail. A personal episodic memory for me is the Henryville tornado on March 2, 2012 which destroyed my elementary school. This memory for me is episodic because it was very emotional and I can remember almost every detail. Another type of explicit memory is semantic. It includes a person’s memory

The classic model of working memory was proposed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974 (Courtney, Ungerleider, Keil & Haxby, 1996). Working memory is responsible for the maintenance and controlled manipulation of information before it can be recollected (Aben, Stapert & Blokland, 2012). Baddeley and Hitch had proposed that working memory consisted of three key components; the central executive, phonological loop, and the visuospatial sketchpad (Aben, Stapert, & Blockland, 2012). The central executive is primarily responsible for reasoning, decision making, and the coordination of operations of the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad, and dual-task performance (Logie, 1995). The phonological loop is responsible for the storage and manipulation

In 1974, Baddeley and Hitch proposed a new model of working memory to expound upon the existing model of short term memory. Their initial framework was modular, with the temporary storage system components separate from long term memory. Recent research explores, both theoretically and experimentally, the connection of long-term language production knowledge on verbal working memory, specifically with immediate serial recall tasks. In section 2, I will first briefly introduce relevant aspects of Baddeley and Hitch’s influential model and also provide an overview of recent research articles exploring the connection of language production to verbal working memory. In section 3, I will discuss the details of the experiment for this proposal. Lastly,