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.