I have been told I should write a book about my life. It has had its share of ups and downs, emotional highlights and extreme tragedies. The “exceptional events” that have occurred throughout my life are permanently etched into my memory. They are emotionally associated with those particular moments of time. Most of these memories are super charged with emotion, highly vivid and are; unfortunately, easily recalled. One particular super charged emotional memory and heart stopping moment in my life, was when my best friend was murdered in front of me. I can recall almost every detail, from the temperature outside, the smell that filled the air, how many cars were in the parking lot, how they were parked, what color, make and model they were, how many people were there, what they wore and what their faces, clothes and hair looked like etc. Whenever I retrieve this memory, all of the emotions associated with it return. It feels as if I can’t breathe, my heart literally aches, tears rush down my face; a piece of me has been taken and will never return. I tried to disconnect myself from this horrible tragedy; I went to counseling in hopes of easing the pain, emotions and memory, I was medicated and self-medicating, nothing worked. I could not “forget” or “let it go” no matter how hard I tried. I now understand why this negative emotionally charged memory will not fade.

The brain region most strongly implicated in emotional memory is the amygdala. The amygdala is critically involved in calculating the emotional significance of events, and, through its connection to brain regions dealing with sensory experiences, also appears to be responsible for the influence of emotion on perception – alerting us to notice emotionally significant events. The amygdala appears to be particularly keyed to negative experiences. (Anderson, A.K., Phelps, E.A. 2001.) This memory gets encoded (filed) in my hippocampus and is stored in my LTM. When this memory gets pulled from my LTM, either by a trigger or cue, the emotional attachments to it return and my mood changes; automatically, to the state I was in when this memory occurred.

On a more evolutionary note, according to Elizabeth A. Kensinger from Boston College; she states that although emotional memories are susceptible to distortion, negative emotion conveys focal benefits on memory for detail. These benefits make sense within an evolutionary framework because a primary function of emotion is to guide action and to plan for similar future occurrences, it is logical that attention would be focused on potentially threatening information and that memory mechanisms would ensure that details predictive of an event’s affective relevance would be encoded precisely. So much of what we remember are events infused with emotional relevance, clarifying the nature of emotion’s modulation of memory should provide us with knowledge about how (and how accurately) we retain memories of those events that define our past. (Kensinger, Elizabeth A., Boston College.)

In summary, emotionally charged memories are persistent and resilient to forgetting. There’s reason for this. Evolutionary it makes sense to remember dangerous situations and avoid them for survival. When we face emotionally (physically) arousing situations, stress-hormones are released. These hormones enhance memory. (Schacter, Daniel L., 1996) Unfortunately, we can’t select the memories we want to forget. We can only adapt and move forward.

References

Anderson, A.K., Phelps, E.A. 2001. Lesions of the human amygdala impair enhanced perception of emotionally salient events. Nature, 411, 305-309.

Kensinger, Elizabeth A., Boston College. CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE, Negative Emotion Enhances Memory Accuracy Behavioral and Neuroimaging Evidence. https://www2.bc.edu/elizabeth-kensinger/Kensinger_CD07.pdf

Schacter, Daniel L. “Searching for memory: the brain, the mind, and the past”, (New York, 1996). https://www.evl.uic.edu/sugimoto/memEmot.html

The late nights, the skipped meals, the dry eyes, and the ever increasing stack of dishes building up in your room… if you know of these symptoms then you have likely succumbed to the effects of binge watching. For those of you who don`t know “binge watching is the practice of watching multiple episodes of a television program in rapid succession, typically by means of DVDs or digital streaming”- Google definitions.

I noticed a strange phenomena that occurs when I binge watch a show, I’m not sure if any of my fellow binge watchers also experience this, but ill explain what happens to me. I was talking to a coworker about Supernatural which is a show about two brothers dealing with paranormal situations and saving people’s lives in each episode. I, being the uber fan that I am, have finished all 9 seasons and have caught up with most of season 10. My coworker began to explain one of her favorite episodes to me and even though it sounded familiar certain things that she was saying didn’t ring a bell. Even though I didn’t remember everything 100% the familiarity of the plot and the fact that I truly believed that I saw every episode made me not only agree to loving the episode but also comment on scenes and things that happened. it was only until I got home and logged on to Netflix in search of that episode that I realized that I never even seen the episode!! I had fallen asleep and woke up to the episode after it never realizing. To be honest that wasn’t even the first time something of that nature happened, binge watching episodes tend to clamor in your head to the point where episode 4 and episode 7 seems like the same episode! I’m telling you there has to be research done on the adverse effects of binge watching.

So back to how Psychology plays into this, what happened to me is an example of a a memory error. Going in a different direction then eyewitness testimonies, I encountered an error due to familiarity because the events that take place in the show are so similar and familiar to me that my memory reconstructed itself, convincing me that i saw an episode that I never did. Our memory can be modified or created by suggestion, because of this we encounter source monitoring errors- misidentifying the source of a memory. False recall and recognition is common because of factors like schemas -a person`s knowledge about some aspect of the environment (in my case my knowledge about a typical episode in Supernatural) and also from scripts- our conception of the sequence of actions that usually occur during a particular experience. Supernatural has a storyline, but most episodes are pretty redundant, in the beginning someone dies from an unexplainable event, in the middle the brothers pretend to be some kind of cop or agent, hunt the monsters and get a  couple bruises, and in the end  some woman or child is forever grateful and the brothers are content at another job well done. Using my knowledge of a typical episode allowed me to create a false memory without discrediting my knowledge of the show. As trivial a matter as that may seem it shows how susceptible our minds are and how easy it is to trick ourselves into believing something that never happened.

Military Obstacle Course

Do you remember the last time you solved a problem? I recall back when I attended Military basic training in South Carolina, we did our shared of obstacle courses. We were a team and worked as a team to finish or get around the obstacles, and completing it which was our goal.

I remember trying to solve the problems we faced to get to our goals, and somehow we would stop and think because at first it all seemed so difficult. We would somehow get into the fixation stage of the problem. Fixation is the tendency of focusing on specific characteristics of problems which keeps the person from arriving at a solution, which is the goal of the problem. (Cognitive Psychology, Pg329).

As I was looking for videos on YouTube, I encounter a video which made me retrieve long term memories from 2003 while in South Carolina. I remember as my basic training company had to cross a “bridge” with about 3 long pieces of wood. There were 3 long sticks stuck on the grown where we could place the pieces of wood to build a bridge so all the soldiers could make it to the other side. We needed to do it in a way so the wood would not fall, and make sure all the recruits made it to the other side without falling or letting the pieces of wood fall. I remember we used creative problem solving, by convergent thinking.  Convergent thinking is thinking that finds a solution to a problem which has a correct answer. (Cognitive psychology,  Pg 349).

Another problem we encounter was when we were supposed to climb over(scale a wall ) this fence which was over 8 feet tall. No recruit was to be left behind. We employed creative problem solving, by helping one another jump over the fence. Having the recruits put their foot on each other shoulders. The last recruit was the tallest one. We recommended for the recruit to back away and start running while we made a pyramid on the other side, while having another recruit hanging to be able to pull the last recruit over the fence. By using Convergent thinking we made it to the solution which was for all the recruits to make it to the other side.

In conclusion, problems do not necessarily have to be numerical. There are words problems, numerical problems, and everyday problems. What problems have you encounter lately?

References:

Goldstein, E. Bruce. (2011). Cognitive psychology connecting mind, research, and everyday experience (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

When someone mentions problem solving, I think of a math problem or a major decision we make in life.  I never really stopped to think how we use problem solving skills in everyday life.  After reading the Gestalt approach to problem solving, I was really able to see how we use problem solving for a lot of our everyday tasks (Goldstein, 2011).

Solving some everyday problems is easier if they are able to be represented on paper and some problems are easier to just figure out in your mind.  For instance, some of the problems I face at work are easier to figure out in my mind verses seeing them on paper.  Those problems involve thinking about who may or may not be effected by software changes and trying to decide who will benefit from those changes.  It does help to brainstorm on paper if the problem is too complex but for the most part, no written representation is needed.

We do have times at work when seeing the problem on paper really helps figure out a solution.  There are two processes we use for problem solving.  One is called root cause analysis and the other is called Lean Six Sigma.  The difference in the two processes is that root cause analysis traces the problem in reverse to figure out where the system failure occurs where as Lean Six Sigma looks forward to figure out how to make the current processes better.  I enjoy working with both of these processes but I like the Lean Six Sigma process better because it uses different diagrams, charts, and graphs to help with the visualization of problem solving.

I feel that having diagrams, charts, and graphs really helps with the problem solving process.  Looking at those really helps me visualize a solution.  The examples that the Gestalt psychologists used in our readings not only had directions but also diagrams to show the problem or its components (Goldstein, 2011).  Those two things combined make it easier for me to try and figure out the problem.  I’ve always had to draw diagrams with word problems in math because I need the visual as well as the written piece to figure some of the problems out.  This is probably why I enjoy the Lean Six Sigma approach to problem solving.

These are just two examples of problem solving processes I use on a regular basis at work.  There are so many other ways I use problem solving techniques on a daily basis but these two are the most complex methods that I use.  Now that I’ve taken the time to sit down and really think about how many times I problem solve in a day, I am amazed at how often this happens.  I guess it’s just one of those things that happens in life that we don’t really stop to think about.

Work Cited:

Cognitive Psychology Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience.  Goldstein, E. Bruce. 2011. Third Edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

What do you remember from your childhood? Do you think your child will remember any experiences from being a toddler? These are questions that have crossed my mind as a parent. Will my child remember all the places we have lived or the places we have visited in her early years? Researching what exactly a child will remember, how they forget, and ways to influence childhood memories is important information to know as a parent.

Infantile Amnesia is a term used by psychologists that refers to memory loss in infancy and early childhood. The first few years of life has been proven to be an extremely important time period in one’s life. Early childhood contributes to personality, language skills, and social behaviors. Anecdotal evidence shows there are few to no memories that we can remember around 3 years of age. If you try to recall your earliest childhood memory, chances are they are not this early. Childhood memory recall tends to happen around 5 or 6 years of age. Emotion does play a role and children are over twice as likely to recall a memory when linked to a strong emotion, positive or negative.

There are several theories that help explain infantile amnesia. One theory presents that childhood memory loss is due to experiences not transformed into long term memories. The storage failure is because the neural circuitry of the brain is not fully functional at an early age. The other theory represents loss is due to a retrieval issue, meaning the memories exist but we are unable to retrieve them. This is because as we age, our perception changes, and therefore, retrieval cues are not presented. For example, building a tower of blocks as a child may be perceived as big as a small house. Looking at blocks as an adult, we know they are just a small toy. By not being able to look at something in the same way as a child, memory retrieval is difficult due to our perception.

According to Pediatrics for Parents, parents are able to help improve childhood memories. By talking to your children often about past events and allowing the child to thoroughly engage in the conversation is important. Providing additional information, using a two-way dialog, and discussing the past event are all extremely important in helping to retrieve childhood memories later in life. For example, I start telling a story from a past event to my soon-to-be 3-year-old from about 6 months ago about how she hid from me in a store. She will begin to add on to the story by telling me where she hid and starts to fully engage in the conversation about the past memory. She remembers certain details and I remember other details, and both details summed up together encourage childhood memories to be retained in the child’s brain. Culture proves that recall can make a difference. American culture recalls more childhood memories on average than China which results in earlier childhood memories. Showing a child pictures of past events also helps trigger and reinforce childhood memories.

In conclusion, childhood plays an important role in who we are as individuals. Either by storage failure or retrieval failure, we experience infantile amnesia and tend to forget all or most of infancy and childhood. By using different teaching and communication skills, we can help our children hold on to more childhood memories than the average person.

Peterson, PhD, C. (n.d.). Children Remembering-and Forgetting-Early Childhood. Retrieved November 22, 2015, from http://www.pedsforparents.com/general/102977/children-remembering-and-forgetting-early-childhood/

Schaffhausen, J. (2013, April 21). Gone But Not Forgotten? The Mystery Behind Infant Memories – Brain Connection. Retrieved November 22, 2015, from http://brainconnection.brainhq.com/2013/04/22/gone-but-not-forgotten-the-mystery-behind-infant-memories/

January 28, 1986.  If you were alive during that time, do you know what you were doing on that specific date?  I do, and I was only eight years old.  So how am I able to remember this date?  After all, it was nearly thirty years ago and I was only in the second grade.  The reason why I can still vividly remember this date is due to my flashbulb memory.

So, what is flashbulb memory? It can be a little confusing trying to differentiate among the different types of memory that make up our long-term memory.  Flashbulb memory can be easily be mistaken with episodic memory.  Episodic memory is described as memories that have taking place over time through one’s own experiences and encounters (Goldstein, 2011).  Flashbulb memory refers to the memory of the circumstances surrounding how a person heard about an event, rather than the memory of the event itself (Goldstein, 2011). I would like to share a personal memory that may help you understand the difference between flashbulb memory and episodic memory.

I grew up in a small town in Florida about 20 minutes away from Kennedy Space Center.  Living so close to the NASA program was very exciting, and many people in the community supported its efforts.  I remember that we would never miss a shuttle launch.  Whether it was at school, at night, or even getting tickets near the event itself, the space shuttle launch took precedent over all other activities that were going on that day.

January 28^th was nothing out of the ordinary… so we thought.  We heard for months leading up to this date that the space shuttle Challenger was going to be carrying a very special passenger, a school teacher.  Like always, the students and faculty gathered outside on the grassy fields and we waited anxiously to see the space shuttle rise again out of the trees from the distance, through the sky and up into space.  We were cheering as normal.  I remember seeing the large cloud suddenly appear with two lines of smoke exiting it on each side.  I turned to friend and said “That must be the boosters coming off.”  We all gathered afterwards and headed back into the classrooms.

Now this is more of an example of an episodic memory because I just shared with you a specific memory that I had about where I was during the Challenger explosion.  My flashbulb memory actually occurred once we were all back in our classrooms.  Usually we would continue watching the flight through our classroom television, but this time the television wasn’t on.  Next thing I remember was hearing a voice over our p.a. system telling us that the Challenger had exploded mid-flight.  I’m not sure if I grasped the entire situation or not, but I can remember that the class was very silent, and when I glanced around the room I saw that our teacher was crying in the corner of the room.

The NASA program and space exploration will always be something very near and dear to me due to so many childhood memories I have of things like shuttle launches and visits to Kennedy Space Center, but none are as vivid a memory as the one I have of sitting in my second grade classroom, listening to the p.a. announcement of the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986.

Reference:

Goldstein, E. Bruce, (2011) Cognitive Psychology; Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience.  3^rd Edition, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. United States

In today’s busy society where many people are trying to juggle family, work and social life with the distraction of electronic social media the idea of improving memory has gained interest among aging adults. This interest increases when that improvement can come through games that can be played on a phone or tablet device. There are many companies who have produced apps that promise the player will have improvements in their memory, attention, problem solving skills and other cognitive skills. According to an American Psychological Association article (Wier, 2014) the brain-health industry who creates and markets these games showed over $1 billion in revenues in 2012.
However, despite the claims and profits earned by these companies there is still a question of whether or not these brain games can actually help improve cognitive skills. As we age our ability to multi-task becomes more of a challenge, common items can be easily misplaced, names are forgotten and many other memory tasks decline; this is a normal part of an aging brain. The hope of the brain training companies is that the games will help to improve processing speeds and that will in turn improve other cognitive areas. Glenn Smith, PhD, a neuropsychologist at the Mayo Clinic and a member of the ABA Committee on Aging conducted a study using adults over 65 years of age to see if a computerized brain training program would show improvements in memory and attention. For eight weeks the participants of this study either watched educational videos or practiced computerized exercises designed to improve the speed and accuracy of auditory information processing. After the eight week study the group who were assigned to the computer exercises did show a significant improvement in memory tests and attention, as well as, reporting a reduction in difficulties in everyday life that were due to memory loss. The study also found that the participants had kept the processing speed benefits even after three months of no training but had other cognitive domains had decreased over the time.
In another study by National Institutes of Health, researchers, George Willis, PhD of John Hopkins University and Karlene Ball, PhD of the University of Alabama at Birmingham found the same type of results in a study using 2,800 older adults and a 10 year follow up. In this study the adults were randomly assigned training for either memory, reasoning or processing speed. The study showed that after 10-hour training sessions over five to six weeks the participants had an improvement in the cognitive ability they were trained in and they had fewer difficulties with everyday tasks. However, those trained for memory improvement showed smaller effects over time. This is believed to be due to the fact the brain cells become less placid as a person ages.
While there is much debate about how much these games truly help and there is still much to learn there are positive studies that can give hope to aging adults who find difficulties in everyday tasks that require cognitive skills. Not all games and apps have been studied for their effectiveness and the user must be sure they are challenging, not all fun and games, if they want to see cognitive improvement. However, with careful consideration and effort by the user positive outcomes can be obtained.
Works Cited
Weir, K. (2014, October). Mind Games. Retrieved from American Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/10/mind-games.aspx

My sister and I are very close and talk to each other on a daily basis. When we are at family gatherings, or especially on the phone, we speak so quickly that sometimes half of the word gets lost. To others listening to our conversations, it would seem as though we are speaking another language, but we both understand each other perfectly. In fact, my mother often comments about how we need to speak slowly and clearly. She doesn’t understand that we are engaging in the phonemic restoration effect at a high speed and effectively communicating with each other thoroughly.

Words are made up of different components. The two smallest units that make up a word are called phonemes and morphemes. A phoneme is a short piece of speech, usually produced as a sound, and if it were to be changed, the entire meaning of the work would change (Goldstein, 2011). An example of this would be the word cat. The phonemes that make up the word cat are /c/, /a/, and /t/. We can change the phonemes to make an entirely different word. For example, we could change /c/ into a /b/ and make the word bat or change the /a/ into a /u/ and make the word cut. Morphemes are slightly larger than phonemes, and are the “smallest units of language that have definable meaning or a grammatical function” (Goldstein, 2011, p.297). An example of a two morphemes that make up one word would be football. It is one word and can be broken down into two morphemes that mean something; foot and ball. We cannot break down foot any further (fo means nothing to us in the English language, and neither does ot!) so that particular word has only two morphemes.

The phonemic restoration effect is a phenomenon where individuals “fill in” a missing phoneme of a word by using the context of the rest of the sentence to understand what the person is trying to say. My sister and I constantly do this. We speak so fast to each other that there are many times where we leave out ends of words, or abbreviate to a ridiculous degree, that the other has to fill in the missing phonemes and use the rest of the sentence to grasp the meaning of what the other is saying. An example of this would be if I were to say the sentence (and trust me I have said this before) “I m gon go get the kid at schoo cause th bus will be too late n I have to go soon.” When my sister engages in the phonemic restoration effect, she automatically fills in the missing phonemes of /a/, /n/, /a/, /s/, /l/, /e/, /a/ and /d/ when the sentence is completed to create a meaningful sentence of “I am gonna go get the kids at school ’cause the bus will be too late and I have to go soon. She used “kid” and “bus will be too late” and “I have to go soon” to and fill in the missing phonemes and infer what I meant to make sense of the sentence. This phenomenon also occurs when we are on the phone talking and either her children or mine are playing in the background and block out some of the phonemes. We use the phoneme restoration effect constantly to communicate with each other and make sense of where the phonemes either get blocked out or left off.

Works Cited

Goldstein, E. (2011). Language. In Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience (3rd ed.). Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Imagine having cerebral palsy, being limited to spending a majority of the day in a motorized wheel chair and suffering from an accident. When the ambulance reaches you at the location that the accident occurred, you come to find out that the expensive and heavy chair will not make it to the hospital with you because there is nowhere to put it. This is a well-defined problem because the clear goal of this situation is the need to find an alternative form of transportation to transport the motorized chair to the hospital. Imagine all of the people in the world that have motorized wheelchairs and all of the problematic situations that they could encounter. How do these types of people get onto buses? How do they reach an upper level of a restaurant with only a stair case? How do they fit in a small section of a subway train cart that’s only made for standing room? These are just some of the instances that people who drive motorized wheelchairs could encounter in their daily activities.

One woman, Martha Mendez, 57 years of age who is restricted to driving a motorized wheelchair and suffers from cerebral palsy since she was a child, experienced a problem that she was able to identify a need to solve it. While exiting a public transportation bus, she and her motorized wheelchair crashed into a glass bus shelter. When the ambulance came around, they were unable to transport her chair to the hospital because there was no room to fit it onto the ambulance. Ms. Mendez understood the well-defined problem and wrote a letter to the Mayor’s office in her town in New York. By addressing the problem head on, she made the office aware of it and they were able to purchase $2,000 worth of trailers with ramps that can be affixed to the rear of the ambulances in the city. This response from the mayor’s office was a solution to the well-defined problem of being able to accommodate a disabled person’s wheelchair in the event of an accident. There can be several problems going on in the world at one time. Even though these problems we all face can present obstacles whether physical or mental, by using our understanding of the problem or that of others, we can create the necessary solutions to those problems. Ms. Mendez’s courage to voice the problem by writing a letter to the Mayor’s office is one example of exploring a well-defined problem. Once the problem was brought forth to those in charge of city regulations and operations, they were able to generate a solution to test to see if the trailer ramps will work. This is a way that the city can justify whether or not they plan to continue purchasing trailer ramps for the ambulances or if they need to come up with separate personnel who is in charge of keeping the trailer ramps up to city code regulations. Whatever becomes of this situation, it is nice to know that not all well-defined problems go untouched and the city was able to use problem-solving ideas to assist with the community.

References

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/nyregion/where-puzzles-often-persist-one-was-solved.html

Our textbooks introduce errors due to suggestion on page 228. They give an example of a transcript taken from a criminal situation where an eyewitness was led to believe (through the way the question was worded) that the criminal was, in fact, part of the line-up. This is only one example where suggestion created bias and false information. This blog is about the suggestibility in children; more specifically in criminal cases.
According to an article published on Umkc.edu, there have been studies conducted by social scientists regarding misleading questions in children’s cases. The case that brought about this concern for further study was the Case of State of New Jersey v. Michaels in 1994. The article discusses research on children’s suggestibility, like the effects of interviewer bias on children’s reports. It discusses child abuse cases where the wording of interview questions greatly influenced the responses from these children.
Not only does wording affect the response of a question, but it could also cause false memories that had never happened. Repeating a question, whether it’s worded differently or not, could create a false memory also. This could bias a later interviewing, even up to a year later, where children remember the suggestions (Umkc.edu).
Another approach that has been used in child questioning is using peer pressure, like stating that their friends have already told, so it’s okay if they tell too. Using an emotional tone, or bribes and rewards could greatly suggest certain outcomes from child interviews. Most children seek to please authority figures out of fear or approval, and are open to suggestion, especially if it provokes a positive response…like positive reinforcement.
It’s also quite common in child abuse cases that anatomically correct dolls are used in questioning. This causes suggestion by asking children to point to areas of abuse, whether or not a child was, in fact, sexually abused. This encourages sexual responses. Also, it is not clear as to whether or not a child’s curiosity of the novelty of the doll provokes certain responses as well.
In conclusion, children are more susceptible to suggestion for numerous reasons. There are many ways an interviewer, whether a child psychologist, police officer, etc., can use suggestion in questioning a child. These reports would prove unreliable in court and could also cause harmful implications to the child. Careful wording, questioning, and approach is needed when dealing with these highly sensitive matters.
Works Cited

Goldstein, E. (2011). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience (3rd ed., pp. 228-230). Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
The Suggestibility of Children: An Evaluation by Social Scientists. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2015, from http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcmartin/suggestibility.html