Author Archives: Wendi Wright-Davis

Clean up on isle 2…I think

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 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/sp14/psych256/001/content/13_lesson.html

Where Am I Going Again?

Every 3 months, I drive my son to his doctor appointment. The first time I used direction that I printed from the Google map. Easy. The second time I figured that I could easily remember how to get there…not so easy. There were no multiple turns or freeway driving, so I tried to remember without the directions. I had to call to find my way there. I felt like an idiot. The third time I thought for sure I can find it, again couldn’t remember where to turn. It has been one and a half years now and just last Saturday was the first time I could remember my exact route. I have a good memory for most other things but for some reason, not for this particular memory (PSU Campus, 2014).

This would be an example of memory shifting from sensory to short-term to it’s final resting place in my long-term memory. My problem was that because I didn’t frequent this particular route on a daily basis, there was no rehearsal. So as soon as we left the appointment, I didn’t think about these driving directions again for 3 months.

Modal model of memory, or also known as the Atkinson-Shiffrin (1968), model of memory, explains that there are 3 different systems that memory passes through sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Each system has a limited amount of time that a memory is held, except for long-term.

Sensory memory is the earliest stage of memory. In this stage, sensory information from the environment is stored for a very brief period of time, generally for no longer than a half to 5 seconds. We only pay attention to certain aspects of this sensory memory, allowing some of this information to pass into the next stage, short-term memory (PSU Campus, 2014).

Short-term memory (working memory), also known as active memory, is the second stage according to Atkinson-Shiffrin (1968). It is the information we are currently aware of or thinking about. Paying attention to sensory memories or rehearsal of particular information generates that information in short-term memory. Most of the information stored in active memory will be kept for approximately 15 to 30 seconds. While many of our short-term memories are quickly forgotten, attending to this information allows it to continue on the next stage, long-term memory (PSU Campus, 2014).

In long-term memory, there is a limitless amount of storage for information. This information is largely outside of our awareness, but can be called into working memory to be used when needed. Some of this information is sometimes easy to recall, while other memories are could be more difficult to access (PSU Campus, 2014).

In all, our memory is an amazing system filled with many memories, thoughts, and to-do lists. How we choose to recall certain information depends largely on how we perceive it, file, and store it. So when driving to a destination that you will need to remember at a later time, pay visual attention to where things are and what the street sign say. That way, you’ll never (hopefully) get lost.

 

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2014, 2 17). Lesson 06. Retrieved 3 14, 2014, from PSYCH 256 Introduction to Cognitive Psycholoy: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp14/psych256/001/content/06_lesson/04_page.html