Month: October 2023

The course concept that I have selected for this blog is encoding specificity. This topic falls into our memory section and it basically says that we remember things better when we find ourselves in the same conditions that we learned those things. Being in the same conditions could mean being in a specific place, smelling a certain scent, or even hearing some kind of sound could result in triggering a memory. I found this concept to be very interesting and it also happens in my life every now and then. So, when I was tasked with choosing a concept I decided on encoding specificity. An example of encoding specificity that has happened in my life is sometimes when I smell a very specific scent it will immediately make me think of being at an old friend’s house. This is a friend I haven’t spoken to in a very long time and I almost never think about them, but sometimes when I smell that scent it makes me think of the memories we made at their house and it also just brings back some classic childhood memories I thought I had forgotten. This is not the only circumstance in which I have experienced encoding specificity. Another example I can think of would be when I listen to a certain song or sometimes even just hear a certain part of a song or sound. This can often make me remember old events in my life that I don’t seem to think about until I hear that song or sound. My experiences relate directly to encoding specificity because the memories I think about only come to me when I am in the same conditions where I either learned something or had a meaningful experience of some sort. When I experience those same conditions, the memories are unconsciously brought to light and it is a very interesting thing to think about. Encoding specificity is something most people have probably experienced during their lifetime and it is something I have definitely experienced before. This concept is truly an amazing psychological discovery and something that I found to be the most relevant in my personal life.

Sensory Adaption is diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation. My roommate and I have an air freshener plug-in device in our room. The first time we plugged it in, the room smelt amazing all day. Even though the perfume wasn’t as strong the following day, we could still detect it. Over time, as we smelled it less and less, we began to believe it stopped working or had run out of smelling juice. However, when we checked, it was still functioning and still had a lot of smelling juice left. One day when our friends visited, they instantly commented, “Wow, it smells really good in here, what is that.” My roommate and I couldn’t understand why they could smell it but we couldn’t until something clicked in my brain. Our senses had become so accustomed to the smell of the air freshener that it eventually seemed to vanish. This is an excellent example of a sensory adaptation that really helped me understand this idea. We were constantly stimulated by the smell of the air freshener, so over time our sensitivity to it diminished. Our nose’s sensitivity to this particular fragrance decreased as a result of the frequent stimulation that came from smelling it every time we were in our room. Other people’s sensitivity to that smell persisted because they weren’t always in our room and didn’t have that constant stimulation. Similar to this is how some people claim that your house might smell a certain way, but you don’t immediately recall any particular smell when you think of your home. There can be a specific scent you sense when entering a new place or an environment you don’t visit frequently. The “scent” of your home may start to fade if you spend a lot of time there due of the constant stimulus. Someone who visits your home might still smell the scent since they are more sensitive to it than you are because they aren’t continually in the house and smelling it. Those are examples of sensory adaptation in relation to smell. Here is an example of a hearing sensory adaptation. While riding the train with mom I said to her, “Wow, I would never want to live right near the train tracks; that would be so loud.” she responded with. “After a month or two in the house, you don’t really hear the train anymore, so it’s not really that horrible.” This mad no sense to me at the time, how could that loud sound just go away? Now I realize that once your sensory system has adapted to the continual stimulus of hearing the train for several months, you will no longer be impacted by its loud noises. Most of the time you don’t even realize that that sense has gone away, it just isn’t there anymore. This is the power of sensory adaption, its all in your mind, it doesn’t even click as to why these senses have just gone away. These examples have fully helped me understand this concept, and I can now apply it to so many things in my life.

Memory is a fundamental cognitive skill essential for learning, problem-solving, and daily living. Two ideas in the field of memory are proactive and retroactive interference. They are crucial to comprehending how our memories function and why we occasionally have trouble remembering things. I will provide examples in my life that correlates to these two retrieval problems and comprehend the complex connections between them and real-life examples.

When previous knowledge obstructs the learning and retention of newly acquired information, this is referred to as proactive interference. In essence, the previously learnt content hinders the recall or retention of more current information.

One of the hardest courses I’ve taken at Penn State is Physics. This course tested my ability to hold new information. One of the most challenging topics to for me was understanding the difference between mirror lens and camera lens. We learned about mirrors first and then about camera lens. These two topics are basically inverses of each other, so when I had to learn about camera lenses after I just learned about mirrors it was rather challenging. This retrieval idea of proactive interference was proven to be very difficult in my ability to learn a new topic. I was familiar with the principles of the mirror lens, and this previously learned information affected my ability to learn a similar topic of cameras.

Retroactive interference, on the other hand, refers to the disruption of memory retrieval by newly acquired information. Retroactive interference occurs when new information obstructs the recollection of previously learned material.

I have faced challenges with retroactive interference in many situations. One that stands out to me the most is the retrieval of my old home addresses. Throughout my life, I have lived in 4 different houses. Each time I move I find it harder and harder to remember the full address of the previous home. After I memorize a new house address, I lose the knowledge of the previous home addresses. I have vivid memories of trying to recall my previous addresses with my siblings. This is a perfect example of retroactive interference since this is a case of new information interfering with previously learned information. Our mind is a funny thing, and on a side note, I think it is funny that I can still remember my first house phone number but not the full address of that house.

In summary, both proactive and reactive interference are essential elements of the complex web of memory. These ideas clarify how we deal with the difficulties of learning and remembering knowledge, particularly while balancing several subjects or ideas. My experiences highlight the need for employing efficient memory strategies to reduce the impacts of proactive and retroactive interference. They also highlight the real-world relevance of these concepts and their direct impact on our cognitive processes.

The concept I chose for this blog post is encoding specificity, a fundamental aspect of memory formation and retrieval that we explored during our Storage and Retrieval lesson. Encoding specificity can be seen as a powerful memory phenomenon where the success of memory retrieval depends on the alignment between the conditions or context during retrieval and those present when the memory was initially formed. This alignment allows for significantly enhanced memory recall. To put it simply, when you’re in a situation where the cues and environmental conditions closely resemble those at the time the memory was created, your memory retrieval becomes more efficient and accurate. 

For instance, consider the scenario where you’re preparing for an upcoming exam. If you choose to study in the very room where the exam will take place, you’re setting the stage for a prime example of encoding specificity. When the conditions for studying closely match those during the exam, your brain essentially recognizes this as a cue. Therefore, being in that specific room will facilitate better memory retrieval compared to studying in a different location. It’s as if your brain forms a connection between the memory of studying and the physical environment, making it easier to retrieve that knowledge when you need it most. This phenomenon underscores the importance of not only what you study but also where and under what conditions you study, highlighting the intricate interplay between context and memory. Understanding encoding specificity can be a valuable tool for anyone looking to improve their learning and memory retention strategies.

I chose this concept because I had previously encountered a similar idea during a neurobiology course. In that course, we learned that if the conditions when you study closely match the conditions during the exam, you’re more likely to retrieve a greater amount of information. Although the neurobiology course primarily focused on brain anatomy rather than psychology, the core concept stuck with me. Our professor had an interesting approach to exams. She allowed us to listen to music during them, believing it could help alleviate exam tension. I decided to harness this allowance to enhance my exam performance. For each unit assessment in that course, I meticulously curated a playlist of music, which I listened to on a loop while studying. Come exam day, I continued to listen to the same playlist. Additionally, I made it a point to bring an energy drink since I’d studied with a substantial amount of caffeine in my system. With these two conditions, set the night before the exam, being fulfilled during the exam, I discovered that I was able to recall more information than I initially thought possible. I distinctly remember the first time I implemented this method, I achieved a significantly higher score compared to a previous exam where I had simply pulled an all-nighter, resulting in a mere 71. By realizing the concept of encoding specificity, and having just two conditions aligned, I managed to secure an impressive 94 on the subsequent assessment, signifying a substantial improvement. This method worked consistently for the subsequent exams, ultimately leading to an ‘A’ grade in the course. It’s worth noting that factors such as the time spent studying were essentially the same, as I had pulled all-nighters for both exams. The crucial difference lay in applying encoding specificity passively while studying. The transformation in my study approach, although seemingly minor, yielded significant improvements in my exam results. It goes to show that even small adjustments, guided by concepts like encoding specificity, can lead to remarkable enhancements in academic performance.

A few months after graduating high school, I ran into a girl from my class. Considering we were about to leave for college, we were feeling sentimental and began reminiscing. I was telling her a story from earlier that year. I remembered all the details but when I was about to say the name of one of our classmates, I completely blanked. I was in homeroom with her for four years and knew that I knew her name, but I just could not remember it. It was as if her name was “on the tip of my tongue”.

This feeling that I knew her name and that it was just out of reach is an example of the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is a form of retrieval failure, which is one explanation for forgetting memories. A retrieval failure is the inability to access a long-term memory until the correct retrieval cue, or trigger, is used. Tip of the tongue is the title placed upon the experience of being unable to remember a word but being able to say things about the word, such as its starting letter or how many letters it contains. A person will be able to describe specific details of the word, but will be unable to say the word out loud until something happens that cues their memory and allows them to retrieve the word. 

In my experience mentioned above, I knew the girl’s name started with the letter M, but could not remember her full name. This is because the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon occurs when some elements of the word are known, causing the false confidence, but ultimately, the entire word cannot be retrieved. When a retrieval failure occurs, the word being looked for is in long-term memory, but is not accessible for some reason. The word may come to the person several hours or days after trying to recall it, or it may be remembered sooner if something is mentioned that cues the memory. Memory storage and retrieval are very complex, so it is hard to know what exactly causes failures in retrieval, such as the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, to take place.