Blog #9...

Memory is extremely important to who we are as human beings. Human beings are essential to this advancements of the earth. Because humans hold the ability to remember things, they are able to further advance technology to better our species and environments. Without memory, we would not be able to learn or later retrieve that information. Our species could easily cease to exist without our remarkable sense of memory.

Clive Wearing is a British musician that suffers from anterograde amnesia, which means he is not able to form new memories. Because of Wearings condition, he literally wakes up or is reborn every 7 to 30 seconds. This means that every few seconds he has to recharge his conciousness. The only memories he holds are pieces from before 1985. I cannot fathom being married to Clive Wearing. I give this woman a lot of credit for sticking by the man she loves throughout his condition. If I was in her shoes, I would have to handle the situation with humor. My grandmother suffers from demensia, and although it is not as severe, my family has learned overtime that it is most often easiest to handle if we are able to laugh about things she says. Although it seems unmoral, sometimes we make little white lies about who we are or where we are going, just because we know she wont remember in five minutes. I think this is the same way I would handle Wearing. After not only hearing Clive Wearing's story, but also experiencing my grandmothers, I am extremely thankful for my strong memory that is often taken for granted.

Although I feel as if i had a decent grasp on understanding that memory is not always consistant or reliable, studying this chapter has given me a better understanding and explanation of why. When studying the Thompson - Cotton case a lot of questions crossed my mind with my own memories. Although I cannot relate to the trauma Jennifer Thompson experienced, I still related to her on a level everybody can: how has our memory played tricks on us that has had unfortunate circumstances? Merely because of our conversation in class, I also considered how some of the memories I hold from my childhood are probably extremely altered from the truth. Also, by using several of the applied cognition exercises that were linked to us, I have reached a better understanding of simple things, like how I can memorize pictures better that sounds. This is useful because each student has to study a different way. If I easily remember things I learned from visual demonstration verses lecture, I will probably do better when tested. I also learned how easily interference can affect someone. Everybody has done it: when someone is concentrating on counting or remember a number, it is always fun to list random numbers to screw them up. Why doesnt the same affect happen when the person memorizing or counting has other distractions? After the several examples of the inconsistancy of memory, I am now more concious not to rely solely on my memory, and not to feel bad when my memory is wrong, because it is simply part of the way the human brain works.

Something significant I learned while reading this chapter is how to improve my memory. Some ideas seem obvious, such as repeated studying and using mneumonic devices but some ideas suprised me. One idea that really shocked me was "activating retrivial cues." This means that when one is trying to remember something, they should recreate the environment and mood they were in when they originally learned the material. The should then allow each cue to lead them to another memory, until they discover the desired memory. Now that I think about it, I have done this while taking test, sometimes I close my eyes and try to picture a page of my book or whiteboard in a classroom. Although I have used this technique in a sense, I cannot say I have ever completely recreated the environment and/or mood. I also was suprised on how much sleep can increase one's memory. I know experts say that sleep is healthy to recharge your body, which in turn increases performance, but I really never realized the organization your brain does while sleeping in order to better remember things. Because of my understanding of this chapter, especially this concept, I hope further use these techniques to increase my success in my remaining high school, and continued college, education. I truly believe if I exercise all of these techniques simutaneously, verses which ever I feel are appropraite or easy at the time, I will have a easier time remembering important concepts and details to not only increase my test scores, but also make my homework go by faster.