| Claudine |
| Doris |
Claudine Mondesir
ESL 91
Fall, 2001
PROJECT TOPIC: Discuss the psychological and physiological aspects and factors involved in human memory. You should discuss both normal memory as well as memory disorders such as amnesia and Alzheimer's disease.
Memory is the process of storing and retrieving information. Memory is very complicated issue. Memory is an active system that receives, stores, alters and recovers information. Memory acts like a computer; in some ways a computer acts like a mechanical memory system. Both system process information, and both allow encoding, storage and retrieval.
According to the reading,
”Remembering the forgotten art of memory” by Scruggs and Mastropieri, human memory appears to have three
interrelated memory systems. These are sensory memory, short-term memory (S T
M) (also called working memory) and long-term memory (L T M). Memory also
appears to have some diseases. Amnesia is caused by damage to a component of
the cognitive memory system. Alzheimer’s disease is related to age and to loss
of memory and mental confusion.
Memory appears as a process
of information, in which our experiences are archived and then recovered as we
remember them. Memory is intimately associated with learning, which is our
ability to change behavior through experiences that are stored in our memory.
In other words, learning is the acquisition of new knowledge. Thus learning and
memory are the bases of all our knowledge.
Memory is active system that
receives a lot of information. The information is encoded. Then the information
is converted into a form in which it will be retained in memory. Next
information is stored or held in the memory for later use. Finally the
information is retrieved or recovered out of storage to be used in the memory.
There are three stages of
memory: sensory memory, short-term memory, long- terms memory to be stored for
a long time, information must pass through all three stages. Sensory- memory is
the memory that includes very brief memories composed of lingering traces of
information sent to the sense organs. Sensory memory is the one that has and
keeps the message for only a short moment. The message deteriorates very
rapidly. The sensory memory holds information just long enough, so that some of
it can be transferred to the second memory system, short- term memory (Neath
1998). The second of the temporal stages is short-term memory, into which some,
but not all of the information from sensory memory is transferred. Short- term
memory is a memory system that holds the information for a short period for
time. If the information stays in that short-term memory for long time being transferred
into the long-term memory, you will forget the information. Short-term memories
can be stored as images, but more often they are stored on the basis of sound,
especially in recalling words and letters (Neath 1998). Information that is
important or meaningful is transferred to the third memory system called long
-term memory. In contrast to short-term memory, long-term memory is a memory
system that holds the information for long periods or permanently in your
memories. Long-term memory has everything we need. The information can stay
longer than we might assume. Long-term memory can be gradual and continue for
many years (Squire 1989).
The more we know, the easier
it becomes to add new information to memory. Because when you learn something
or study it over and over, after each time you use it, your knowledge becomes
stronger by learning and practicing every time. Long- term memory is also very powerful for getting an
education. For example, when we study something, we remember what we studied by
practicing of it every single time.
Memory has some diseases like
Alzheimer’s disease and Amnesia. Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive,
neurodegenerative disease characterized by memory loss, language deterioration,
impaired skills, poor judgment, indifferent attitude, but preserved motor
function. Alzheimer’s disease usually develops after the age of 65. However,
Alzheimer’s disease onset may occur as early as age 40. It comes first as memory
loss Alzheimer’s disease can destroy your ability to function. The early symptoms
of Alzheimer’s disease, which include forgetfulness and loss of concentration, are
very rapid because they look like natural signs of aging. The same symptoms can
also make you feel bizarre. Someone who suffers from Alzheimer’s may have a
progressive disease, in which nerve cells in the brain degenerate and brain
substance shrinks.
Alzheimer’s warning signs
include memory loss affecting job skills, difficulty performing familiar tasks,
language problems, time and place disorientation: poor or decreased judgment;
problems with abstract thinking; misplacing things or putting them in
inappropriate places. Alzheimer’s disease is a serious problem.
Amnesia is caused by damage to a component of the cognitive memory system. The components of the cognitive memory system include the medial temporal lobe, medial thalamus, mamillary bodies, basal forebrain cholenergic system and orbitital prefrontal lobe. Damage to any of these can produce Amnesia. Warrington and Wieskrantz (1982) proposed that such damage results in disconnection of the frontal lobe from temporal or midline structures. The frontal lobe is theorized to control retrieval processes while the other areas control storage of information.
Another severe type of memory
disorder is called retrograde Amnesia. Retrograde is also usually caused by brain
injury or disease. In this condition, individuals have trouble remembering
things in their life that occurred prior to that brain injury. These people do
not lose all their memories. The memory loss is worse for events just before
the injury; events from long ago are more likely to be safe. For example, if a
man develops retrograde amnesia in middle age, he might have excellent memory
for his childhood, nearly complete memories if young adulthood, and progressively
less memory for the years up to his brain injury. Usually, when a person has a
brain injury resulting in a memory disorder, there is some degree of retrograde
Amnesia. The retrograde Amnesia will generally have good memory for the past,
up until the time of the brain injury but will have extreme difficulty
remembering anything that has happened since then. Such a person may not able
to remember what he had for breakfast or what year it is. This memory disorder
is devastating for patient and for their families. People with Amnesia have
trouble holding a job because they have trouble remembering from minute to
minute what they have to do. There is no way to repair the brain damage, which
causes retrograde Amnesia. However, the use of memory aids (such as detailed
schedules) and other methods can help these people cope with their memory disorder.
Amnesia patients lack the ability to learn and to remember new things. There is
total inability to remember things that just happened.
The treatment for symptoms is
very complicated. The CO-Q10 is a program of supplements that include the
neuroactive compounds CO Enzyme Q-10 (CO-Q10). CO-Q10 is rapidly gaining
notice as a powerful neuroprotective agent
(Beal 1996). It works as a dynamic
antioxidant throughout the brain’s cell membranes and mitochondria. It’s a
product of high-energy phosphate compounds. Another treatment is Acely L
Carnitine (A l C) which is a superbly versatile metabolite and plays a pivotal
role facilitating energetic path aways in brain cell mitochondria (Boundareff
1981). The herb Ginkgo Biloba is also utilized at a dose of 120-mg/day. This
dose increases microvascular circulation, scaventration free radicals and helps
improve concentration and short-term memory
(Werthreit, 1982, Pincemail 1989; Semlitsh 1995). For some people in the
early or middle stages of the disease, medications such as tacrine may alleviate
some cognitive symptoms. Aricept (Donespezil) and exelan (Rivastigmine) are reversible
acetylcholimesteraste. Acetylchomesteraste is important in Alzheimer’s. Its inhibitors
are indicated for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s. Also some medications
may help control behavior symptoms such as sleeplessness, agitation, wandering
anxiety and depression. These treatments are aimed at making the patient more
comfortable. There is no treatment available against Amnesia.
MY RESPONSE
During this English course I
Learned how to do research on several topics especially about memory. I found
out some symptoms of disease a person can suffer from. I learned for instance
that Amnesia can cause damage to a component of the cognitive memory.
Alzheimer’s disease is related to age and leads to loss of memory and mental
confusion. This information will be very important for me in my future,
especially in my career as a nurse. I will be able to see or know what symptoms
my patient has. I will know what causes those symptoms quickly. This research
increased my knowledge through reading books and other materials that were connected
to my topic. I expect to apply the research skills in my other classes and work
with the sources of information as attentively as I did during this project.
In fact memory is very complicated.
It plays many different roles in every part of our brain. The sensory memory is the one that has the
message first and transfers it to the short -term memory. In thirty seconds then it transfers the
message to the long-term memory. It
stays longer than we might assume.
Alzheimer’s and Amnesia are diseases that affect memory. Alzheimer’s can
destroy your ability to function and Amnesia is the loss of the ability to
remember things. There are so many things
we need to do with our memory. Without
memory our life would make no sense.
Works Cited
Warrington , Weiskranz,
Squire: “Amnesia.” [Online]. http://www.psy.ohio-state.edu/psy31
Beal ,Boundareff, Werthreis,
Pincemail, Semeitsh. “Alzheimer’s pretension”
[Online]. http://www.brain.longevity.com/men.html
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Doris Alarcon
ESL 91
Fall, 2001
PROJECT TOPIC: Discuss the psychological and physiological aspects and factors involved in human memory. You should discuss both normal memory as well as memory disorders such as amnesia and Alzheimer's disease.
Memory
is the ability to remember something that has been learned or experienced. Memory is an
important part of the learning process.
Consequently ,without memory , learning would be impossible. In
addition, memory also refers to the mental process of keeping and
remembering information. Therefore our memory helps us to store information about our environment
and allows us to retrieve events from the distant past.
Memory
is divided into three types, and each type
has a different function. These types are the sensory, the short-term, and the long-term. The sensory
memory retains an exact copy of what is seen or heard. Short-term
memory contains what you actively think about at any particular time.
It can hold a fact for as long as you think
about it. Long-term memory can store
facts, ideas, and experiences after you stop thinking about them. Moreover,
the loss of memory may cause disorders such as Amnesia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Memory
is the ability to remember something that has been learned or experienced.
Memory is an important part of the learning process.
Consequently, without memory, learning would be impossible. In
addition, memory also refers to the mental
process of keeping and remembering information. Therefore our memory helps
us to store information about our
environment and allows us to retrieve events from the distant past.
Memories help us to store and retrieve information from a
short period of time. Storing
new memories therefore involves chemical changes in the nerve cells of the
brain. Storing new memories also
involves structural changes, such as changes in the physical structure of the
brain's nerve cells. In addition,
memory works by making links in the mind between two or more ideas or thoughts.
In
addition, storing memories may affect
our brains. One problem occurs when the information is stored in memory, but temporarily cannot be retrieved because signs are not present. When information is forgotten, a common
reason is interference. There are two types of interference which are
Retroactive interference and Proactive interference. Retroactive interference
occurs when an experience makes unclear
our ability to remember a previous experience. Proactive interference occurs
when an experience blocks our ability
to learn and store a new or future experience.
Sensory memories are only temporary recordings of information in our sensory systems.
Therefore most information only lasts a few seconds and is replaced with
something else that holds our
attention. Sensory memory is
related to the change from one energy form to another. The body has special
sensory receptor cells. These cells change from one form of energy to
another. In the process of the change from one energy form to another, a memory
is created. In addition, certain limited
information moves from sensory memory to short -- term memory.
Short
-- term memory refers to temporary retention of information. Short --
term memory has a limited capacity of seven pieces of independent
information. The short duration of
information lasts from 3 to 20 seconds.
Decay contributes to the loss of information from the sensory and
short-term memory stores. ( How Memory Works , http://www.vita
connection.com/vc92a.htm).
Long-term
memory is intended for storage of information over a long time. Long term
memory , therefore , can store facts, ideas, and experiences after you stop
thinking about them. There are two types of long-term memory: episodic memory
and semantic memory. Episodic
memory shows our memory of events and
experiences in a serial form. On the other hand, semantic memory is a
structured record of facts, concepts
and skills that we have acquired. The information in semantic memory originates
from our own episodic memory, such that
we can learn new facts from our experiences. However, long term memory is
related to short term memory.
Furthermore the loss of information stored in short term memory has the
same traits as loss of information
stored in long term memory.
There are three main activities related to
long term memory: storage, deletion and retrieval. Information that is being
maintained in short-term memory through rehearsal is gradually absorbed into
long-term memory. (How Memory Works”, http://www.vita-connection.com/vc92a.htm).
The repeated exposure to a stimulus of a piece of information
transfers it into long-term memory . Deletion is caused by decay and
interference. Emotional factors also affect long-term memory. However, it is
debatable whether we actually ever forget anything or whether it becomes
increasingly difficult to access certain items from memory. For example, having forgotten something may
just be caused by not being able to retrieve it.
There
are two types of information retrieval,
recall and recognition. In recall, the information is reproduced from
memory. In recognition the presentation of the information provides the
knowledge that the information has been seen before. Recognition is of lesser
complexity, as the information is provided as a cue. However, the recall can be
assisted by the provision of retrieval cues which enable the subject to quickly
access the information in memory. For example, the method of recall is when
someone gave a party and and someone
asks him/her a few weeks later who was
there. The simplest way to find out how much he or she remembers is to list as
many names as she/ he can. On the other
hand, in recognition, the person asking about your guests would give you a list
of names. The list would include names
of people who were at the party and of others who were not. You could then indicate which people were
there. Most people can recognize more
facts than they can recall (“Memory," Elizabeth F. Loftus, page 4-5).
Memory
loss caused by dementia means a loss in the brain
functions that are responsible for thinking. Memory disorders result from the death of brain cells and multiple
strokes. In addition, memory disorders
may cause a loss of thinking and remembering abilities. Moreover, memory
loss is caused by Amnesia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Amnesia is a disorder where memory is
lost. Amnesia is a situation in which
someone cannot remember stored
memories. However, Amnesia may be
caused because memories cannot be stored for long time. In addition, there are six types of Amnesia and each has a
different meaning and symptom.
These are anterograde amnesia,
emotional/hysterical amnesia, lacunar amnesia, korsakoff syndrome, posthypnotic
amnesia and retrograde amnesia. Anterograde amnesia is an incapacity to remember ongoing events after
the incidence of trauma. Emotional/hysterical amnesia is caused by psychological trauma. Lacunar amnesia is the
impotence to remember a specific event. Korsakoff ‘s syndrome is caused by alcoholism. Posthypnotic amnesia is a
memory disorder which a person has the incapacity to remember information stored in long-term memory. Retrograde
amnesia is when a person has the
incapacity to remember events that occurred before the amnesia.
Alzheimer’s is a brain disease that causes
increasing loss of memory. Alzheimer's
disease results from the destruction of
brain cells. It is the most common
cause of dementia among people aged 65 or older. Dementia is a group of
symptoms marked by the gradual loss of mental function. However, people who
have Alzheimer's disease have smaller brains than normal people. They also have lower amounts of a neurotransmitter
called acetylcholine. This chemical is essential for memory and thinking.
Alzheimer’s disease affects few people before age 60, but it occurs in about 20
percent of people who live to age 85.
My Response
It
was very important for me to learn how do research about memory. At the
beginning I had a hard time knowing how to put all the information together.
Therefore I learned a lot of things. I
learned how to put a lot of information together and use my own words. In short, I learned how to do a research
project. Furthermore, I learned
that memory affects our learning process. Moreover, I learned that memories help us to store and retrieve information from a
short period of time.
I think that my knowledge about memory and doing research will help me in
my future. My knowledge about
memory will help me in the
psychology class that I will be taking
next semester. On the other hand, my knowledge
about doing research will help me when I take
English 24. This will be very helpful for me because I will not have as many conflicts as I did the first time. In the first time that
I was doing research about memory I
spent four hours just searching
for information about Amnesia. It was very difficult to find information about how memory loss is related to Amnesia.
Conclusion
Memory is the mental process of keeping and remembering information.
Furthermore, memory helps us to store
information about our environment and allows us to retrieve experiences from the past. Also, memory is divided into
three types, and each type has a
different function. These types are the
sensory, the short-term, and the long-term. In addition, there are memory
disorders such as Amnesia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Bibliography
* Basil Rosemary. “How Memory Works” : Online-http://www.vita-connection.com/vc92a.htm
*Glass, Arnold Lewis. “Episodic Memory”. Online-http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~aglass/Episodic/ 3/27/00).
*Manfred Davidmann “How the Human Brain Developed and How the Human Mind Works" Online - http://www.solbaram.org/articles/humind.html (1998).
*Loftus, Elizabeth. "Memory." World Book/Macintosh edition, 1998
* Psaltis Demetri and Fai Mok “Holographic Memories” Online -http://optics.caltech.edu/publications/SciAm-Nov1995/article.html (NOVEMBER 1995).
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