No matter how we define memory, we all know how important it is to us. In fact, try to imagine how difficult life would be without memory. Sometimes forgetting might actually be simpler but alas, where would we be without our memory? For example, memory provides the basis for learning the information in this class, knowing who you are, recognizing people and objects, remembering what you did on your birthday, where you parked the car, and your grocery list, just to name a few (McLeod, S. A. 2008).

The system is designed to store small amounts of information for a short period of time. When we think of memory, this might be the type of memory that first comes to mind (although others may argue long-term memories are more important) – when we try to remember a phone number, pay attention to a conversation, or try to follow along while reading a textbook – these are all examples of STM (PSU 2014).

Working memory is involved in storing information for a short period of time but it is also involved in reasoning and comprehending language. Instead of all information going into one single store, there are different systems for different types of information.  Working memory consists of a central executive, which controls and coordinates the operation of two subsystems: the phonological loop and the visual-spatial sketchpad.

Working memory is the same as short-term memory. It is like when some thing is on automatic pilot and you forget where the actual command is. The working memory applies to real life tasks such as reading (phonological loop), problem solving (central executive), and navigation (visual and spatial processing) (McLeod, S. A. 2008).

Central Executive is the most important determines what working memory pays attention to and will allow passing through into Long Term Memory (LTM), like a filter.

There are 3 systems controlled by the central executive; the phonological loop, the visuo-spatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer which combines the information from the other two allowing us, for example, to walk around our houses and count the amount of windows at the same time in our heads.

The phonological loop is the part of working memory that deals with spoken and written material. It can be used to remember a phone number. It consists of two parts (phonological store, inner ear – iinked to speech perception and holds information in speech-based form (i.e. spoken words) for 1-2 seconds and articulatory control process, inner voice – linked to speech production. It is used to rehearse and store verbal information from the phonological store). The Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad (inner eye) stores and processes information in a visual or spatial form. The VSS is used for navigation, and the episodic Buffer. The episodic buffer acts as a ‘backup’ store, which communicates with both long-term memory and the components of working memory.

Sometimes I forget where I parked my car if it is in a different place than the usual spot and my memory doesn’t kick in for a few seconds. I get scared that it was stolen. Eventually I remember after going through my file cabinet of memory. There are also times when I’m on my cell phone and at the same time, I am frantically looking for it. How crazy is that that I forgot that fast that I am actually talking on my cell phone. My memory has gotten so bad that I have to put sticky notes my computer to remember things, especially where I park my car.

The mind is so incredible and learning about it, studying it, and remembering it is all part of the Shot Term Memory process.

Reference:

Goldstein, B. (2011). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience, 3rd Edition. Wadsworth, Inc.

McLeod, S. A. (2008). Working Memory. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/working%20memory.html

The Pennsylvania State University (2014). Commentary. Lesson 05: Short Term and Working Memory. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa14/psych256/001/content/06_lesson/06_page.html

The method of using mental imagery to help remember is so useful and important to help me to remember important, and sometimes not so important things. After reading the lesson on Visual Imagery, it became so clear to me that I was already practicing this in my every day life. Visual imagery is also known to serve as a powerful retrieval cue for memory. In fact, one method that has been used to improve memory is based on the relationship between mental imagery and memory (Pennsylvania State University, 2014 Lesson 12 P8).

I have a pretty good memory but as time goes on it does seem to falter, just a bit. The lesson notes explain the idea behind the method of loci is that we can relate items we want to remember (parts of a speech, grocery list, etc.) to a location that we know well (Pennsylvania State University, 2014 Lesson 12 P8). This is exactly what I do when preparing a trip to the store. Just recently the grocery store that I go to completely rearranged its store. The cereal wasn’t where it used to be or the bread, and the same with the paper towels. Before the overhaul, I could do my shopping with my eyes closed because I could visually see every item that I needed and it’s location in the store when I made my list. According to Roland & Friberg, they explain how the occipital lobe is involved with the processing of incoming sensory information and parts of the temporal lobe are involved with object recognition. They found that when we are mentally visualizing something, our perceptual system behaves as if we are looking at the real thing (Roland & Friberg, 1985).

Now I had to use a map of the store that the store manager handed out during the “Grand Re-Opening”. Re training my brain to remember how the new store was laid out was tricky and I still have trouble sometimes. But, I have trained my mind to find things that I use often as opposed to seldom items.

The notes explain an amazing way to remember things by creating a visual cue with a place that is familiar like my house, the street I live on or any cue that would spark my memory to an item that I want to remember. By visually imagining places of familiarity with what ever I want to remember will to put together a memory as to remember what ever it is I want to remember like my door as a box of cereal or my garage filled with eggs. So when I get to the store (say that’s my destination) I will imagine walking into my front door and remember that I need cereal or pulling into my garage and think, “eggs!”

This type of memory recall can have an extreme impact on the brain and creating some very significant cues for remembering. It will be fun for my next trip to the grocery store to think of my lawn mower when I need to pick up items for a salad.

Reference:

Goldstein, B. (2011). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience, 3rd Edition. Wadsworth, Inc.

The Pennsylvania State University (2014). Commentary. Lesson 12: Visual Imagery. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa14/psych256/001/content/13_lesson/08_page.html

The art of remembering had never been much to my advantage. It really depends on what I’m trying to remember and usually there are some kind of cues that unconsciously seem to help me. After reading chapter 7 in our text (Goldstein, B. 2011) about Long Term Memory, Encoding and Retrieval, I am thinking about various things that jog my memory. Retrieval Cues come forefront in my mind and the words, smells or other words that stimulate my senses and throw me back into a memory.

Tulving and Pearlstone’s experiment the use of free recall and cued recall aid in the retrieval of memory cues (Goldstein, B. 2011). Although they used words, one of my most memorable experience is with a smell. There are smells that remind me of my Mother’s cooking, my kids when they were babies, and other various times in my life.

I didn’t ever notice before how much I don’t like the smell of gardenias. I was 13 and it was summertime. The woman that lived across the street had her own music business out of her house and she gave piano lessons. I wasn’t old enough to have a real job but she had offered me a very part time job in her house stuffing and addressing envelopes. Of course I accepted because it was across the street and only a few hours a couple of days a week.

I didn’t notice the smell of gardenias at first, but it sure crept up on my. I think it was a few days into my new job that I noticed that she wore gardenia perfume, soap, air freshener, and cut flowers throughout her house.

Time passed and I moved on to college and a real job, never forgetting about my kind neighbor. I had no idea how much the smell of the gardenia had on me until one day one of my friends was wearing some perfume. Immediately, I was thrown back into my neighbors’ living room stuffing envelopes. It was the previously experience stimuli that I would swear I could actually smell the flower, see her dining room table, the color of the table cloth, the color of her soap in the soap dish, and hear a piano playing. It was a magicallexperience.

Retrieval cues can be such an amazing experience. The thought of a word, smell or even a song can trigger memories that might be thought to be long gone. Happily, they are all still there, just waiting for a cue.

Goldstein, B. (2011). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience, 3rd Edition. Wadsworth, Inc.

Cognitive psychology is about acquiring knowledge, storing this knowledge in memory, and retrieving it later to accomplish various tasks such as remembering events from the past, solving problems, communicating with other people, recognizing someone you met last week, and answering questions on a cognitive psychology exam. Without perception, it is unlikely that these feats of cognition would be possible (Goldstein, B. 2011).

Stimulating the receptors is the first step in perception. This process is called bottom-up processing; it’s the brains first response. When neurons respond to simple shapes initially this is called feature detectors. The example in the book is a tree. The brain will pick out the simple things about it like the straight lines of the branches or the rectangular shape of the trunk. Geon’s are the recognizable shapes that the brain puts together in order to recognize what the shape actually is.

There is a time when I dive my son to his doctor’s appointment. This only happens about every 6 weeks. My first time I used my navigation and it seem like an easy route.
The next time, I couldn’t remember what street to take but my receptors were stimulated by the familiarity of the area I was driving in. I didn’t remember the names of the
streets but the area looked familiar and the street signs sounded familiar to me. My brain was working overtime to put familiar objects together, or Geon’s to create a memory of the area.

Processing that begins with a person’s prior knowledge or expectations is called top-down processing. Top-down processing is also involved in our ability to recognize objects based on just a few goons (Goldstein, B. 2011). My brain had prior knowledge but it didn’t recognize anything.

As the weeks moved on and I traveled that same route to the doctors’ offices more and more, recognized more shapes, objects, and features while driving, my top-down processing started to kick in where eventually I was able to remember the route with ease.

Because the brain is able to recognize shapes, images and even faces of people, it’s the perception of cognition and the memories that are held in the brain that cause the neurons to fire at just the right time in order for people to recognize the world around them.

Goldstein, B. (2011). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience (3rd ed.). Wadsworth, Inc.