Memory is a very important aspect of our lives. Without memory we would have to relearn everything we do on a daily basis from eating, to brushing our teeth, to talking, to driving and so on. It would be practically impossible for us to accomplish anything! Besides our existing memories it is also important for us to be able to form new memories so that we can learn information and be productive. Michael seems to have an issue forming new memories and gaining information. He is forgetting a lot of small things such as the grocery list and in learning material such as at the conference. From the information given, though, it seems that he has a lot of stress in his life right now. He is concerned about the security of his job, upset about the fact that he may be too old to make the career change to his own practice, and because of his job he may be facing a divorce. These are all significant concerns at this point in his life. I believe that in Michael’s case there are two things going on. The first is that he is being distracted by the problems in his life and therefore unable to concentrate.
The second thing that I believe is going on is that because of his distractions his mind is not able to stay in a state of directed attention and instead is frequently switching back into flowing consciousness. Directed attention is when “attention is deliberately focused on the present stimuli or inner thoughts” where flowing consciousness is a “dreamlike attention that is focused more on inward thoughts.” (Donnelan, 2011, pg 13-14) working memory can be described with a formula “working memory = short term memory content + process for remembering (attention).” (Donnelan, 2011, pg 2) In other words, working memory is comprised of the information being input into our short term memory such as in a lecture and of our directed attention. Both of these are required because without the content in our short term memory we would have nothing to work with and without the attention then there isn’t any focus to put the information to use. It is required that information goes through the working memory before it ever reaches our long term memory.
The Term Paper on Short Term Memory
... an attention system rather than a storage store as information not attended to is lost. In comparison the working model describe information as short term memory ... has an unlimited capacity. Long term memory is acquired by rehearsal of information from short term memory which remains over a life time unless brain injury ...
Since our brains can only hold seven items (give or take two) in our short term memory it is necessary that the information be encoded into our long term memory for later retrieval. Since Michael has a lot of stress in his life, those stressors are taking up a lot of his time, emotions, and attention making it difficult to concentrate on anything else or devote his attention to another matter. When it came to the grocery list, his wife gave him the information and he was able to repeat it back to her so the information had entered his brain but because he was most likely distracted and therefore not giving his full attention to the list, it didn’t get to go through a rehearsal loop enough times to be encoded into his long term memory. Since the items on the list were not in his long term memory he also totally forgot about the store at all. With the conference, he was most likely hearing all of the information in the lecture but was in a state of flowing consciousness instead of directed attention so any information his brain took in was immediately forgotten.
This state of flowing consciousness was most likely brought on by concern for his job and personal life. The notes he had are probably a result of the instructor making important points obvious so Michael was brought back to directed attention long enough to jot down a few things and then went right back to flowing consciousness. There are a lot of things that Michael could do in order to improve his memory. The first two things I would recommend are marriage counseling and having a second job lined up in case the current one falls through. I suggest these things first because they are obviously the issues that are causing his preoccupation and therefore his lack of attention to other important matters at hand. Lining up a second job will help with his current work situation because he will be less stressed about the idea of losing his job and not being able to provide for himself or his family. Right now he has all of his eggs in one basket and he needs to separate them a little bit. The marriage counseling is obviously to help with his relationship with his wife. Maybe through counseling she will see what kind of stress he is under and will be more understanding.
The Term Paper on Cognitive Psychology False Memory
Theoretical and Applied/Practical Perspective of False Memory The human memory is subject to a multitude of errors, including source misattributions, distortion and creation of false memories. In order to do justice to this paper one must first determine what is “False memory”? False memory is memory for an event that did not occur or distorted memory of actual events (Gleaves, Smith, Butler, & ...
Once he has his wife backing him up again I’m sure he will be less stressed. Those things are not going to happen immediately though so it is also important to work on memory strategies until his stress is lessened or gone. The first thing I would suggest doing is taking notes of the smaller things in his life so that he will be less likely to forget. For instance with the grocery list, if he had had a physical list he most likely wouldn’t have forgotten to go to the store because he would have had something tangible to remind him. He certainly wouldn’t have forgotten the items his wife asked him to retrieve. This will also help with his to do list throughout the day. I’m sure if his memory problems are severe enough then he is forgetting other things that need to be done. With a to do list he will, again, have something tangible that he can check off and make sure he has gotten to everything. Another option I might suggest to him is journaling. Through journaling he will be able to relieve some of the stress that he is going to and be able to work through his emotions. If his wife is threatening divorce then he may not have anyone that he can turn to and getting his feelings and thoughts out on paper should be good for him.
I also think journaling will help his memory because he may have something hidden in his mind that he wasn’t able to retrieve but in the process of writing down the day’s events and emotions he may be able to recall extra things from his day. The last thing I would suggest is to work on puzzles. With a puzzle such as a crossword a person is required to use the working memory, short term memory, and even long term memory. Michael would be required to focus his attention and read the questions. While searching for an answer he would be pulling information from his long term memory and running it through his short term trying to find a solution. I think this would be a great exercise for him to complete. As shown here by Michael, our memory is very important in our day to day lives. It is important that we keep our brains working in order to be able to retrieve all of the information that is stored there. Everyone has experienced a time in their lives where they were extremely stressed and were unable to concentrate and constantly felt like they were just floating through life. During those times we must remember that no matter what our mental state is, there is still information being presented that needs to be processed. We have now learned multiple tools for keeping the stress at bay and working our memories when that simply isn’t possible.
The Term Paper on Memories One Day
Memories I forced the door open and was blinded by sunlight and choked from all of the dust that had settled in the room. As I entered, the wooden floors slightly give way. Rusty nails poked out of the floorboards and old water stains have made designs on the walls. Woods were really rusty and at any given day this house would collapse. There was reading table against the wall and top of it there ...
References
Donnelan, E. (2011).
PS-200. Unpublished manuscript (-4).
