I noticed my writing gets better with age. Not my age, but that of my memories. When I pen an incident shortly after it happens, I am left with too many details of rhetoric and no clear point. However, after days or even years I can type it out with more clarity, decorated with the most salient particulars. One would think reporting an event shortly after occurrence is the best way to go, the specifics still fresh. But that is what make it worse: The abundant facts cloud the meaning, and not until the encounter is mulled over does its most significant parts shine through. It is by this design that our minds streamline the complexity of our experiences to consolidate them into teaching moments. From an evolutionary perspective, this purging of inscriptional clutter aids survival by helping us decide (Goldstein, 2015, pp. 193, 185).
Over time, long term memories (LTM) are remembered semantically as the jist of what we absorbed, more so than episodically when we are taken back in mental time (Goldstein, 2015, pp. 158, 162). Semantics have to do with meaning or facts and are often recalled independently of origin. Sensory nuances recorded as we perceive new realities comprises the episodic memory from which later springs a refined semantic meaning of those sensates, in order to retain the relevant, including critical emotion, for use in conceptual form (Goldstein, 2015, pp. 166, 199).
Often referred to as “groove” formation in the brain during learning (Nichols, n.d.), long-term potentiation strengthens memory storage through the synaptic consolidation of increased firing rate, neurotransmitter transmission and formation of new proteins at the neuronal synaptic level, with systems consolidation eventually adjusting the overall shape of our neural network to accommodate (Goldstein, 2015, pp. 192-194). The brain thus grows larger, its folds increased, as we learn new material (Nordqvist, 2004), and we become smarter in the miracle of limitless LTM. The hippocampus located in the temporal lobe is key to pruning the LTMs it functions to form, artistically shown as an ice cream cone of connectivity between itself and parts of the cortex which memorizes such perceptions as color, form, placement, emotion, and thought, with the cone subsequently fading and leaving intact the ice cream of its bonds made between these participating cortical zones. Some evidence has shown the hippocampus active during memory retrieval as well, but only the episodic (Goldstein, 2015, p. 196).
It is important to note is that retrieval is as essential as storage when it comes to memory – a supply useless without access. Retrieval is best achieved via cued recall by matching context, state of emotion, task method or conditions met during storage, to efforts when trying to recall (Goldstein, 2015, p. 188). No wonder I can write a paper after initial cluelessness, by jotting down cue ideas. At times though, cues can bring forth more past recollections than we bargained for; a forgotten someone invoked by signature cologne, a vacation summoned by a song. Perhaps this means that everything we ever experienced is stored between our ears, waiting for its prompt to come forward, an idea of interest to many.
Regardless, we remember what is most noteworthy through consolidation and retrieval – similar to the filtering of selective attention, while new episodic and then semantic enlightenment is translucently layered upon the old to enhance and associate before reconsolidation into new retentions (Goldstein, 2015, pp. 88, 199). The quartz of our memory grows more facets as it becomes an increasing definitive summation of who we are and where we are headed, helping us to write better essays.
References:
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Goldstein, E. B. (2015). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience 4th ; student ed.). Cengage Learning.
Nichols, B. K. (n.d.). Create new habits: Cut a new groove. Bryan Nichols and Associates Psychological Services, Inc. https://drnicholsandassociates.com/articles/new-groove/
Nordqvist, C. (February 1, 2004). Juggling makes your brain bigger. Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/5615#Use-it-or-Lose-it