MEMORY
Memory is defined as the faculty by which sense impressions and information are retained
in the mind and subsequently recalled. A person's capacity to remember and the total
store of mentally retained impressions and knowledge also formulate memory. (Webster,
1992)
"We all possess inside our heads a system for declassifying, storing and retrieving
information that exceeds the best computer capacity, flexibility, and speed. Yet the
same system is so limited and unreliable that it cannot consistently remember a
nine-digit phone number long enough to dial it" (Baddeley, 1993). The examination of
human behavior reveals that current activities are inescapably linked by memories.
General "competent" (1993) behavior requires that certain past events have effect on the
influences in the present. For example, touching a hot stove would cause a burn and
therefore memory would convey a message to not repeat again. All of this is effected by
the development of short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM).
Memories can be positive, like memories of girlfriends and special events, or they can
be negative, such as suppressed memories. Sexual abuse of children and
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adolescents is known to cause severe psychological and emotional damage. Adults who were
sexually abused in childhood are at a higher risk for developing a variety of psychiatric
disorders, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and mood disorders. To understand
the essential issues about traumatic memory, the human mind's response to a traumatic
event must first be understood. The memory is made up of many different sections with
each having different consequences on one another.
Can people remember what they were wearing three days ago? Most likely no, because
the memory only holds on to what is actively remembered. What a person was wearing is
not important so it is thrown out and forgotten. This type of unimportant information
passes through the short-term memory. "Short-term memory is a system for storing
information over brief intervals of time." (Squire, 1987) It's main characteristic is
the holding and understanding of limited amounts of information. The system can grasp
brief ideas which would otherwise slip into oblivion, hold them, relate them and
understand them for its own purpose. (1987) Another aspect of STM was introduced by
William James in 1890, under the name "primary memory" (Baddeley, 1993). Primary memory
refers to the information that forms the focus of current attention and that occupies the
stream of thought. "This information does not need to be brought back to mind in order
to be used" (1993). Compared to short-term memory, primary memory
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places less emphasis on time and more emphasis on the parts of attention, processing, and
holding. No matter what it is called, this system is used when someone hears a telephone
number and remembers it long enough to write it down. (Squire, 1987)
Luckily, a telephone number only consists of seven digits or else no one would be able
to remember them. Most people can remember six or seven digits while others only four or
five and some up to nine or ten. This is measured by a technique called the digit span,
developed by a London school teacher, J. Jacobs, in 1887. Jacobs took subjects (people),
presented them with a sequence of digits and required them to repeat the numbers back in
the same order. The length of the sequence is steadily increased until a point is
reached at which the subject always fails. The part at which a person is right half the
time is defined as their digit span. A way to improve a digit span is through rhythm
which helps to reduce the tendency to recall the numbers in the wrong order. Also, to
make sure a telephone number is copied correctly, numbers can be grouped in twos and
threes instead of given all at once. (Baddeley, 1993)
Another part of short-term memory is called chunking, used for the immediate recall of
letters rather than numbers. When told to remember and repeat the letters q s v l e r c
i i u k, only a person with an excellent immediate memory would be able to do so. But,
if the same letters were given this way, q u i c k s i l v e r, the results would be
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different. What is the difference between the two sequences? The first were 11
unrelated letters, and the second were chunked into two words which makes this task
easier. (1993)
"Short-term memory recall is slightly better for random numbers than for random
letters, which sometimes have similar sounds. It is better for information heard rather
than seen. Still, the basic principals hold true: At any given moment, we can process
only a very limited amount of information." (Myers, 1995)
The next part in the memory process involves the encoding and merging of information
from short-term into long-term memory. Long-term memory is understood as having three
separate stages: transfer, storage, and retrieval. Once information has entered LTM,
with a size that appears to be essentially unlimited, it is maintained by repetition or
organization.
A major part of the transfer process concerns how learned information is coded into
memory. Long-term and short-term memory are thought to have different organizations.
Where the STM is seen as being organized by time, LTM is organized by meaning and
association then put into categories. For example, our memory takes in Coke and Pepsi as
drinks then organizes and puts them in categories such as soda. An important role in the
transferring of information into long-term memory is rehearsal.
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The critical aspect is the type of rehearsal or processing that takes place during the
input time. "Simple repetition, which serves only to maintain the immediate availability
of an item, does little if anything to enhance subsequent recall. Active processes such
as elaboration, transformation, and recoding are activities that have been found to
enhance recall." (Asken, 1987)
Information that is stored in LTM is stored in the same form as it was originally
encoded. Major forms of storage are episodic memory and semantic memory. Episodic
memory involves remembering particular incidents, such as visiting the doctor a week ago.
Semantic memory concerns knowledge about the world. It holds meanings of words or any
general information learned. Knowledge of the capitals of all the states would be stored
in semantic memory. A Canadian psychologist, Endel Tulving discovered that there was
more activity in the front of the brain when episodic memories were being retrieved,
compared to more activity towards the back of the brain with semantic memory.
Retrieval, the third process related to LTM, is the finding and retrieving of
information from long-term storage. The cues necessary to retrieve information from
memory are the same cues that were used to encode the material.
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For some, positive memories are recalled through music. Certain songs remind people of
special times spent with friends. Couples sometimes have songs that remind them of their
time spent together. Everyone has some way of remembering good times from the past.
Along with positive memories come the negative ones, which are suppressed deep in our
minds. Another word for negative is traumatic, an experience beyond "the range of usual
human experience," (Sidran Foundation, 1994) and is brought about with intense fear,
terror and helplessness. Examples include a serious threat to one's life (or that of
one's children, spouse, etc.), rape, military combat, natural or accidental disasters,
and torture.
So how does trauma affect memory? People use their natural ability to avoid concern of
a traumatic experience while the trauma is happening. This causes the memories about the
traumatic events to emerge later. People with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) who
have survived horrific events experience extreme recall of the event. Some people say
they are haunted by memories of traumatic experiences that disrupt their daily lives.
They cannot get the pictures of the trauma out of their head. This brings recurring
nightmares, flashbacks, or even reliving the trauma as if it were happening now.
Vietnam veterans experience this symptom because of what
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they saw and lived through. Some researchers have proven in the laboratory that ordinary
or slightly stressful memories are easily distorted. However, this laboratory research
on ordinary memory may be irrelevant in regard to memories of traumatic experiences.
Other scientists argue that traumatic memories are different from ordinary memories in
the way they are encoded in the brain. Evidence shows trauma is stored in the part of
the brain called the limbic system, which processes feelings and sensory input, but not
language or speech. (1994) People who have been traumatized may live with memories of
terror, though with little or no real memories to explain the feelings. Sometimes a
current event may trigger long forgotten memories of earlier trauma. The triggers may be
any sound or smell like a particular cologne which was worn by an attacker.
Whether remembered or not, the memories are stored in the brain, and today with
hypnosis, recall can bring forth what has been deeply suppressed. The question is, does
one really want to know what is not remembered? Along with memories that are recovered,
comes the effects that follow.
Short-term memory holds every experience encountered, while long-term memory retains
only what's important. Memory is stored through episodic and semantic memory. The
retrieval of decoded information occurs the same way it was
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encoded. Memory is affected through positive and negative emotions, some remembered
others suppressed. Not only is memory used to dwell in the past, it also helps
formulate the present and the future.
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