Extended Reading: It's Magical. It's Malleable. It's..Memory.

1. What is the relationship between memory and selfhood?
According to the article, “We remember, therefore we are.” This implies that memory is the foundation of our identity; we are what we remember. Our memories are usually based on our experiences, along with their associated emotions; however, some memories retrieved can be an event that never happens. Memories can be reconstructed as new information is added into the old. This finding changes the belief that everything we experience is recorded into the brain and that memory is stable and solid. This also has a huge impact on the reliability and credibility of eyewitnesses. If who we are depends on our memories, then our selfhood is changing all the time.

2. What new discovery about memory do you find most interesting?
The new discovery I find most interesting is Gluck’s development on computers. Knowing that the hippocampus has the abilities to learn and associate, Gluck is building computers for the military that have these similar abilities. One of the abilities is sending the alarm, warning about an engine’s mal-functions, before it actually breaks down. I think that this discovery can also lead to other more applications such as human-like robots.

3. What is the homunculus crisis?
The homunculus crisis is the name given to the mystery of what activates memories; it is used in the situation, in which a memory that a person does not think about for a long time, just suddenly reappears in the person’s mind. Neurologists and psychologists are still unable to find the origin that stimulates the memory’s neural networks in the brain.

4. Which theory of dreams finds support in the experiments by Lynch?
Experiments, by Lynch, support Winson’s cognitive theory of dreams. The theory argues that dreams are a replay of daily lives, which helps humans learn and remember. The results of Lunch’s experiments also confirm the same idea; he finds that the consolidation of memories or long-term potentiation (LTP) is strongest when delivering stimulation corresponding to the slow rhythms of theta to the hippocampus.

5. How can some memories become indelible?
Some memories can become indelible because of their associated emotions such as happiness or fear. When under stress, powerful stress hormones are released, and these hormones can boost the ability to store memories. Moreover, the hormones also stimulate the amygdala, which is responsible for emotions and fears. Although the ability to store memories permanently helps in the survival because it enables organisms to separate life-threatening events from the normal, ordinary events, it can also be a curse, especially when a traumatic event such as a rape is stored.

6. How can amnesia and repression be explained?
While amnesia is when an event is forgotten because it is never encoded, repression is when an event cannot be retrieved but it will suddenly just emerges into consciousness. Both amnesia and repression might be the result of the mal-functions of the hippocampus, which makes it impossible to recall an explicit memory. While the hippocampus is not working, other organs are functioning properly, explaining how the events are encoded as implicit memories and affect the victims without them knowing why. The reason for the emerging of an event in repression is still unknown, but some might be the result of creation.

7. Explain the following statement: “Memory is more reconstructive than reproductive.”
Memory is better at recalling an event as a whole or as a summary than as details or procedures. Details wear out over time; when asked to recall details such as the source of information, people reconstruct memories to fit the questions, the cues, or their own schemas. Memories cannot be reproduced like how they are encoded in the first place.

8. What new paradigm of memory is now emerging?
As modern researches and experiments show, memories are both realities and fantasies; some are what really happens while some are created. Experiences and emotions also shape how the situations are encoding into the memory. According to the article, the new paradigm of memory is “where memories are understood as creative blendings of fact and fiction, where images are alchemized by experience and emotion into memories.”

9. After reading this article, what conclusions can you make about memory?
Memory creates self while self, in turn, affects memory. Memories can be real experiences and emotions stored or it can be a reconstruction of fiction. The ability to store memories can increase by certain stress hormones and by sleeping. Even memories can have mal-functions such as amnesia and repression, which can be explained by the hippocampus failing to work properly. By understanding the anatomy of memory and functions of the components of the brain, new technology can also be made.

Demonstration 4: Reconstruction Memory

In the beginning of the experiment, Mr. Anthony showed the class eight images of geometric shapes, and after that, the class was given a sheet of paper with clues about each shape.

After finishing the paper, Mr. Anthony asked everyone to share his or her answers to the person sitting beside. Looking at the paper, we all realized that the there were two sets of hints. The differences were as follows:

1. A: Eyeglasses; B: Dumbbells
2. A: Bottle; B: Stirrup
3. A: Crescent Moon; B: Letter “C”
4. A: Beehive; B: Hat
5. A: Curtains in a Window; B: Diamond in a Rectangle
6. A: Seven; B: Four
7. A: Ship’s Wheel; B: Sun
8. A: Hourglass; B: Table

We found out that our drawings were reconstructed; the images drawn were all distorted to fit the cues. What and how we remember can be changed by our personal cues and the cues given.

Another example is what Mr. Anthony told us in class about how the selection of words can have an impact on the answers. If asked a witness, “What is the speed of the car when it...
a. bumps into another car?”
b. collides into another car?”
c. smashes into another car?”

From the sample questions, it is obvious that the witness, who claims that he or she can recall a certain accident, will possibly construct the memory of the speed of the car to fit the question.

From similar experiments, psychologists conclude that memory is not an accurate recording device of past experiences because the recollections recalled can actually be a reconstructed memory. This finding dramatically changes how people view their own memories and how reliable crime witnesses are.

The Rumor Chain Activity

Mr. Anthony asked for four volunteers and sent three of them out of the class. He read a story about a plane hijack, similar to a gossip, to the first volunteer. Then, the second volunteer was called in to hear the story from the first volunteer. This process repeated itself until the story was told to the fourth volunteer.

As the story was repeatedly told, there are three main changes occurring:

1. Leveling: simplifying material (some information was forgetting such as radioing Bangkok for help, the rebellion of angry passengers, People’s Revolutionary Army, the name of the pilot, and the arrest)

2. Sharpening: highlighting or overemphasizing some material (some information was always repeated such as the type of gun used and the microphone used to throw at the hijacker

3. Assimilation: changing details to better fit the subjects own background or knowledge—schemas (some information was changed into something else such as the number of pilots changed from 1 to 2, from the hijacker to the terrorist, from the cockpit to the pilot cabin)

Demonstration 3: Meaning Enhances Recall

In the beginning of the experiment, Mr. Anthony gave the class instructions to memorize the 20 words flashed in front of us, and with each word, we had to either count the word’s syllables or identify whether the word is pleasant or unpleasant (determined by the letter A or B on the card). After Mr. Anthony called out all the words, the class had to write the words they remembered down.

The results are:
- The highest number of words remembered is 20 while the lowest is 10.
- The two modes of the data are 15 and 10; therefore the data makes a bimodal graph.
- The average number of the words recalled is15-16 words.

There are two possible reasons of the varying range of scores:
1. Different backgrounds (depending on who you are and what you already remembered)
2. Different memorizing technique: some might make stories or use peg-words while some did not.

There is noticeable difference between the number of words recalled from Group A (syllables) and Group B (pleasant/unpleasant feeling):
- Three students received more A’s than B’s.
- Four students received the same number of A’s and B’s.
- Nine students received more B’s than A’s.

From the results, it can be concluded that words that are associated with meaning—in this case with pleasant or with unpleasant feeling—can be remembered more than words that were memorized with no meaning—counting the syllables. Therefore, when trying to memorize something, it is better to know its meaning. In another words, it is best to use semantic encoding.

Video: Remembering and Forgetting

From the video, I learned new things about memory of a human being. Here is the summary of what I learned:

1. There are roughly 100 trillions bits of information that are stored in a person’s memory.

2. How well a person remembers depends on
- concentration
- rehearsal
- psychological factors (motivation, wishes, and fears)
- physical state and biological condition

3. Ways to improve remembering:
- create links between old memory and new information
- discover meaning, order, and organization
- use peg-word (one is to bun; two is to shoe; three is to tree; and so on

4. Possible things that handicap learning:
- interference
- distraction

5. The memory’s information processing is made up with three parts: encoder, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

6. It is better to chunk information into groups for maintaining information in the short-term memory.

7. The long-term memory is like a library of data; when activating a certain memory in the network, other information linked to that memory will also be activated.

8. What a person remembers is determined by:
- who he or she is
- what already being remembered
- schemas (pre-conception)

9. During old age, the brain starts to shrink and neurons start to die. As the neurons die, the memories of those neurons are also lost, as shown in the Alzheimer’s disease.

Demonstration 2: Short-Term Memory

Another demonstration on short-term memory we had in class is the remembering of words. Mr. Anthony said word after word out loud, and after he was done, we had to write the words we remembered down.

After the data was collected, we could tell from the graph that people in the class tended to remember words that appear in the beginning and at the end of the sequence and that they tended to forget words in the middle. This data proves the serial position effect, which states that people remember better in the beginning and at the end.

The word that got recalled the most was night, and the reason was that it was repeated in the sequence by Mr. Anthony; this shows that repetition improves the remembering of the information. Another word that got recalled often was pineapple. The sequence of words was related to sleep and night; therefore, when the word, pineapple, was said, it was not related; it shows distinctiveness, which makes us remember it more.

Another two words that are not related to the sequence were toss and turn, but some classmates were able to recall it. They used chunking to relate those two words together to make them remember the words.

The numbers of correct responses were also collected, and the mean (average) number of words recalled is 7, which is the capacity of a human’s short-term memory.

Some people in the class, including myself, recalled hearing the word, sleep, although it was not said. Mr. Anthony explained this phenomenon by saying that people were relating the words being said such as night, dark, and bed to sleep; therefore they constructed a false memory of hearing the actual word. This shows how our memory can be malleable.

Demonstration 1: Short-Term Memory

We had an activity in class concerning short-term memory of numbers. Mr. Anthony said digits of numbers out loud, and we had to recall those numbers and write them down. The first group of numbers started with 3 digits, and with increasing group, one more digit is added.

I got all the numbers correctly until line four, which means the 6-digits of number while some classmates got lower (5 digits) and some got higher (7-9 digits).

To conclude the demonstration, Mr. Anthony explained about the capacity of a human’s short-term memory; it can only store 7 pieces of information at the same time—give or take 1 to 2 pieces. There are two ways to improve the capacity of short-term memory of numbers; the first is to relate those numbers into an event or anything that can related to, and the second is to chunk those information together into groups.

Cognitive Learning: My First Memory

Memory:

The very first memory I have is when I was about three years old. During that time, I slept in my parents’ room with my parents and my nanny. I slept on the mattress that was on the floor while my parents slept on the bed next to me. I loved drinking milk, so on that very night—even it was really late—I drank about six boxes of milk. After I lied down for a while, I sat up and puked on the mattress.

After Class Discussion:

After Mr. Anthony listed the class’ first memories and explained about memory storage, the first point I learned is that the first memory a person can recall must happen when he or she is between three to five years old (most likely to be give). It is so because when a person is younger than the age, the neurons of the brain does not have the ability to retain memories.

The second point is that the first memory usually has strong emotion content; it is commonly associated with fears, joy, or discomfort. Looking at the class’ first memories, some of the ages assumed were lower than five or even three; it is so, as the third point states, because these memories are either planted by a picture of the event or told by a family member. When a person is told and seen a picture, he or she tends to later believe that he or she can remember the event itself.