Extended Reading "It's Magic..."

What is the relationship between memory and selfhood?

According to the article “memory builds that about us which often seems most solid- our sense of self. We remember, therefore we are.” In my opinion, memory is what b

uilds up the “self” or who we are. Our self maybe relies upon how we think or our perception of the world, which is influence by our past experience, our parents’ guidance. It is mentioned that memory storage of childhood experiences help us develop a richer send of self! As I go through the article it has mentioned other factors such as physiological

ly-the brains and its function that influence our memory. On the other hand, our memories can be reconstructed by list

ening to others or imagining things that makes you believe you really did something. This implies that memory is malleable and easily manipulated, which in fact has an affect on the “self” as well. “Memory is malleable – so are we.”

What new discovery about memory do you find most interesting?

I found the discovery about how sleep helps enhance our memory and the discovery about our memories are being processed at different areas of the brain very interesting.

The discovery that sleeping helps enhance our memory is not the first time I’ve hea

rd of it. Actually, my dad use to tell me that we should go to sleep early because when we sleep our brains release chemicals that will help sort and classify what we’ve learn that day into our brain. The article help confirms what my father use to tell me and it really worked.

The second discovery makes it clearer to me that our memories are not a single file. One memory can be associated to all the 5 senses, and once we recognize one of the cues that lead us to the memory, we will be able to retrieve that piece of memory easily. Our memory works as a network where it is broken in to little parts, in which they are all connected.

How can some memories become indelible?

Some memories become indelible or unforgettable because it is emotionally deep-rooted. We can say that the more we connect our memories to our emotion, t

he deeper and better we remember them Emotional memories are very powerful because when we encounter with such context the brain releases hormone that regulates several physical reactions associated with that emotion. If we encounter similar situations the same hormones overflows repeating similar body reactions. These hormones stimulate the amygdala. In addition, it is said that the amygdala may process many of our unconscious response. Because of this, it is hard to heal or forget the memories that disturb us.

How can amnesia and repression be explained?

Amnesia is when information is not encoded into the long term memory. For example, a victim in car accident does not recall the incident because they lose their conscious right after they got hit. Repression is memory that is forgotten but later is able to be retrieved. It is the body’s defence mechanism that helps protect the person from painful memories (e.g. repeated rapes.)

Amnesia and repression maybe due to a malfunction of the hippocampus. In order to recall certain memory the hippocampus must process the information taken in first. Perhaps, the work of the hippocampus is disrupts while processing the information (e.g. cause by trauma events) while other components of memory carry on.

Explain the following statement: "Memory is more reconstructive than reproductive."

“Memory is more reconstructive than reproductive” this statement implies that time passes by details of the memory fades away and we replace them with our own details based on our perception and schemas. We don’t remember the “actual” event but the “big picture” and reconstruct the details ourselves. We don’t reproduce our past experiences because we don’t remember them; instead we reconstruct them based on what we think we remember and other people’s suggestion.

So does it mean, we cannot rely on our memories and does others? – Nothing is reliable?

What new paradigm of memory is now emerging?

The new paradigm of memory says that memory is the blending or fact and fiction, where images are transformed by experience and emotions. In other words, our memory is not a 100% recall of the actual event but a mixture of what we “think actually” happens and not. We create images according to our feelings and based upon our “self.”

After reading this article, what conclusions can you make about memory?

After reading this article I come to a conclusion that memory is not a solid based that build up that we are, but it is malleable and is easily shaped by our perception, our emotions, other people, or other factors.

Our memories build up who we are, and in contrast who we are determines what we remember. We remember what we think we know and add them with tiny bits of information from other people. This implies that we cannot rely on our memories because it is mostly reconstructed. No matter how confident you are, you can be proven wrong.

Activity 5 - Rumor Chain Activity

In this activity Mr. Anthony tells Pang a story about a passenger hijacking an airplane. Then Pang retells the story to Maytee, and Maytee to Daniel.

The demonstration shows us examples of leveling, sharpening, and assimilation.

Leveling is simplifying materials, we can see this as the story is retold, and the shorter it goes. This can happen because the person forgets minor details, or sometimes eliminate the details because they don’t think it is important.

Sharpening is highlighting or over emphasizing some materials. In this case, the spec of the machine gun came across the three people.

Assimilation is changing details to better put the subjects own background or knowledge (schema.) For example the pilot in this story is female, and the Stuart of the plane is male. As Maytee retells the story to Daniel, he unconsciously said the pilot is male and change Stuart to an air hostess. Because most pilots are male and flight attendants are air hostess, we change the gender of people in the story to fit with the teller’s schema.

You can see how a story can dramatically change between 3 people. So I guess we don’t have to be over excited when someone gossips or heard rumors because it is likely to be painted all over.

Activity 4 - All purpose memory activity

In this 4^th activity 14 words are read out loud to us. After that we write down as many words as we can remember.

The words include…

Bed Quilt Dark Silence Fatigue Clock Snoring Night Toss Tired Artichoke Turn Rest Dream

You can see that the words are associated with night schemes.

The chart shows how many students remember each word. From this graph it demonstrates different concept of memory in a role.

1. Serial Position Effect- most people remembers first and last words.
1. Primary - first word
2. Reacency – last word
2. Semantic distinguishes – most people remember words that stand out or pronounce differently. E.g. Artichoke & Fatigue
3. Rehearsal improves recall – because the word “night” is repeated 3 times, it enhances our memory and tells us that the word is somehow important for us to remember.
4. “Toss and Turn” is an idiom that most people associate them together. We “chunk” the words together that is why we hear one part of the idiom we automatically recall the other half.
5. In this activity 3 people (including me) think the word “Sleep” is said, but it turn out it doesn’t. This is an example of memory reconstruction, which a person thinks they hear or see something happening when actually it doesn’t occur (aka Dejavu.)

*(Keep in mind that this is just a small sample size)

Activity 3 - Meaning enhances recall

Our third activity is to experiment on how well we recall our memories.

First, 20 words were presented to us, and at the bottom of each card indicated the letters A&B.
(A is for us count to syllables)
(B is to associate pleasant or unpleasant feelings to the words.)

After all 20 words have been said out loud, we write as much as we can remember. Then we count the total, and categorized the numbers in to 2 groups A and B.

• The highest numbers of words remembered is 19 and lowest is 6
• The person who scored 19 said he created a story to help him remember the words.
• the more wild and fancy the story is; the better you can remember

• Another person who scored 6 was because he's sleepy
• outside factor can also affect the way we remember
  

The pattern we found is most people will remember words associate to feelings.

The class average for... A is 5.09, B is 7.09, and total words are 12.2.

This activity shows us that in order to remember all 20 words require a effortful-processing. The more meaning to words is to a person, he or she will be able to remember to more.

SHORT TERM MEMORY~

what's the capacity of our "short term memory" ; how much can we remember in a short period of time???

my psych class did a little activity to test it out.

first, a set of number is read aloud, after that we write that set of number down.
followed by another set, every set of number is increase by 1 digit.
when all the sets are read aloud, we check to see our scores of how many numbers we got correct.

my class average is 6.5, but the average of people around the world is 7 +/- 2

haha~ guess what i think i have a short short term memory because i score a 4....

* fortunately, only 1 trail is not yet a reliable data. we should perform at least 10 trials !!!

from this activity we observed that

• most of us remember only the first and last digits, and tends to forget the middle ones.
• when we focus too much on the first couples of digit, we will forget to remember that ones behind.
• but when we focus on remembering last digits, it interferes with the first half of our memory
• 
  

from our discussion...

• we learn or remember things better when we are able to visualize or see what's going on.
  
• however, the numbers are abstract, which makes it hard for most people to visualize, and to remember them all
• also there is no pattern in which the numbers are said.
• it will be easier if the numbers are put together in "chunks"; e.g. grouping numbers in 3

MEMORIES THAT WILL STAY WITH US
ARE MOSTLY LIKELY THE
MOST MEANINGFUL AND EMOTIONALLY SIGNIFICANT TO US

Our first memory

Today we do a little activity trying to recall our first memory.

I remembered that I was about 6, in summer school and there was no electricity. Instead, of being afraid I was happy… perhaps it’s because I’m happy that this is my first summer school.

Then everyone shared their memory. The average age we recalled ourselves was 3-4 years. However, there are some people who recall their age to be around 1-2 years. It turned out to be that it is highly not possible because logically our brains are not fully developed.

Most of the memories are emotional elements. The more tense the emotional we encounter that deeper we will remember. For example, if we get bitten by dogs and its hurts painfully. Mr. Anthony suggests that most of our early memories are reconstructed. Our early memories are malleable, flexible and more likely shape from external factors. We might not remember exactly what happened; instead we remember what our family discusses during dinner, what was told, and we reconstruct the scene. The perspective we see is like watching movie, we see ourselves doing the things told at that age.