Our Mind, Our Memory

Machines is an integral part of our lives. It provides us with knowledge, service and comfort and we are dependent on machines to prolong the Human Race. Our Memory works like a machine and has been key to our survival for the over the past 2 centuries. The function of memory dates to when there was no technology and we had to remember where the safest spot is away from the predators and it allows us to remember what we need to do for work and if we don't remember we can get fired then no money and suddenly, the life we worked so hard for goes down the drain. Memory prevents this negative chain of events and grants the positive chain of events like remembering to buy a gift for someone and you both have a happy and long-lasting memory of that day. Often, we take our ability to remember granted and we don't know how extraordinary our mind is at processing information, considering crucial variables and producing a result. Memory is the device that organises the world for you.

 

This blog post, we will travel deep into the science behind memory, learn how we can utilise memory to our advantage. 

 

 

Multi-Store Memory Model

Memory is broken down into a simple model

 

This model is developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968. For memory to go into storage (long term memory) it needs to pass 3 stages: Sensory Register; Short-Term Memory and Long-Term Memory. 

 

 Sensory Memory 

We constantly are receiving information. Our mind processes information which is received by stimuli from the environment via the senses. This can anything like a sound we hear or tiny movements detected by the retina. Then decides whether it is valuable enough or not- that is the main principle of it. If we find it valuable it moves into the short-term memory, if we don't then it gets discarded. All this process is non-stop and and information is held inside for a maximum of 0.5 seconds. This process happens so fast, it is unnoticeable. 

 

Short-Term Memory (STM)

Short-term memory is the processing section out of the three we have. It processes information from the sensory information and retrieves information from the long-term memory and connects with cognitive functions with the brain to allow you to do daily tasks such as swimming or recognizing if a car or motor bike's engine is on. It is integral in our lives as this allows us to utilize memory. Think of it as a word document, once you open it, then you can use its functions and information inside and if you don't save it, it's lost. Information in STM lasts for 18-20 seconds and can hold up 5,7 or 9 pieces of information and if we find it valuable, it will move to the long-term memory and we can use the information again or it will get discarded. 

 

Simple ways we can improve STM 

The reason why we may have poor STM is because of distractions, or lack of focus. This causes us to not focus on the thing we want because we are preoccupied on something else. There are unique ways to improve this:

1. Associate a memory with an action- with more memory connections, it tells our brain this information is valuable and stores it into long-term memory. This can be as simple of clenching a fist or tapping your heels twice. 
2. Chewing Gum while learning- this is proven to help with memory. Maybe we should be allowed to have gum around schools’ offices. 
3. Move your sides from side to side- this activates both sides of the hemisphere and maintains focus.

 

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

The final part of the Multi-Store Memory Model. Think of the long-term memory as OneDrive or Drive- anything with unlimited capacity. Whenever we want to use this information, Our Mind moves it back into the Short-Term memory to be worked. 

However you must be thinking if our LTM has unlimited capacity, how come we don't remember everything. This is because the memory isn’t as strong as each other. Things we find important or recited often will have a strong connection and will stick to in our LTM and memories that have a weaker connection, it will slowly go ahead if not addressed to. For example, you can remember facts like what the capital of the UK is but most likely find it more difficult to remember what you eaten a day ago. 

Weaker memories can be triggered by memory cues. It helps you remember memories. So if you want to know what food you had yesterday, you can start by remembering what you did before, what ingredients you bought, and this simple technique is used during interrogation when the investigator is trying to find information from the person they summoned. Small techniques will produce the bigger picture you are looking for. 

 

The LTM is divided into many sections. The 2 main sections are: Explicit and Implicit Memory. 

 

Explicit Memory 

This is known as the declarative memory and remembers facts and knowledge. We have to consciously recall this. Here it is further divided into 2 more sections.

Semantic	Episodic
·        Knowledge about words/concepts ·        Language based knowledge ·        Eg: What is democracy? Or What is the longest river? Or Who is the monarch?	Information about events personally experienced          The who, what, when, where, why of the event          Recalling of visual and feelings of it

 

Implicit Memory 

This is known as the procedural memory. Memories stored here are learned from behaviours and we retrieve it unconsciously. It is how we perform actions such as breathing or walking. It stores the mind to muscles connection. Another example is swimming (if you know how to swim), we will remember how to function arms, legs and how to breathe. You won't fail how to do it even if you don't swim for ages because there is the mind to muscle connection formed in your Implicit Memory which is in the Long-Term Memory. 

 

Simple ways we can improve Long-Term Memory 

The key to improving memory is strengthening the connections inside your brain. Like we said, the stronger the connection, it is considered valuable and gets stored longer. Often, we need memory hacks to help us study or remember essential information. There are ways to strengthen connections and help you retrieve information. 

1. Rehearsal- by actively recalling information strengthens the connection of the memory and embedding it inside your memory store. 
2. Relate information to things you already know- this creates more links to the memory, by establishing relationships between new ideas and existing memories can exponentially improve your memory. 
3. Read information outload- this is known as the production effect. By speaking and hearing oneself triggers more areas of the brain to be active and helps information to stick. You can do this by talking to yourself or teaching other concepts as it helps you understand what you have learnt and find ways to improve. 

 

Memory is an outlandish tool we have. We will never truly unlock our full capabilities because like everything else, it has its limitations. One way to go about this is thinking about the butterfly effect, if we didn't remember a certain piece of information, we wouldn't have used it and the chain of effects after would have been diametrically opposed. We covered how memory works and ways to improve it. We often take memory for granted and don't apricate how reliant we are.  

Remember- the butterfly effect 

Lockdown Doings

Right now, my future is in the hands of my teachers who will be deciding my GCSE grades in summer. Truthfully speaking, my teachers are not particularly fond of me, so I am sitting on my past tests and mock exams as a lifeline. As I have quite a lot of time on my hands, the current situation has got me thinking. From the past couple of weeks, I have been deeply surfing through the internet, researching psychology. It fascinates me how our own brain is the only organ that named itself. It fascinates me how a system made up of nerves so complex yet so simple have been programmed to ensure the survival of the human race. It fascinates me how even with the smallest signs, psychology can determine what kind of person you are after analysing how you react to different situations. Just by understanding how we operate, can assist us in becoming an overall greater version of ourselves as we know the reason why we tend to do things and master techniques to overcome and control situations. 

Here I am going to you can broaden your thinking to master control of your emotions and your thought processing.  

Daily Life Emotional Roller-coaster 

Every day is an emotional roller-coaster. In total we experience 27 different emotions with 6 basic ones: happy; sad; fear; disgust; anger and surprise. Sometimes we can let emotions get the better of us. We say things we regret, we might have failed in a task and demoralised ourselves or we can be so happy we don't even know what is going on around us. It is directly connected to our nervous system and can impact what you do and think. It is time we understand why we can be like this, so when you are hyped up in emotion you can still think rationally and not make rash decisions.                                             

  Here I am going to go over common ones that carries the most consequences.

Anger 

There are 3 types of anger which shape how we can react to a situation: open, passive, and assertive. 

 Open Aggression: This is when we express our hatred towards a person or situation in a direct manner. This can be you swearing, verbally or physically abusing someone, or even come down to bullying. We do this because we feel the need to take control of a situation. People will make you feel weak because they want an angry and direct reaction from you. They put you in a position of weakness and when you think you’re in control, you are not. This is the worst form of anger. Sometimes it makes sense for you to openly be aggressive such as if your partner cheated on you, it is so obvious why you should be angry.

 

Passive Aggression: This is when we don't accept, we are angry because we don't like the confrontation. It is better to take a stand and accept the situation so you can move on from it. Without this, it can lead to procrastination and not acting directly to what is going on. This can come from backgrounds and upbringings where a reaction to a certain situation isn't accepted. This is exactly when we shouldn't bottle up the anger because it will only explode the bottle. Give yourself time and you can even take out the anger on an object. We sometimes even take it out on other people unknowingly and this is where self-reflection is key in outlives.

 

Assertive Anger: This is when you are in control of your anger, thinking before speaking. This is when you are open to communicate and understand the situation. This can help with passive and open anger. 

 Anger comes in many shapes and sizes; however it can take a while for your anger to be assertive as it can help you and help other by not doing things that can be harmful to them. When experiencing anger, self-reflection is so fundamental as it can find solutions to your problems and help you master your brain, so anger can only be shown when you want it to be shown. 

 

Procrastination- Passive Aggression 

 

Procrastination is a side effect of passive aggression. We mistake it for laziness but its' not, it is an active decision we take.  When we don't attend to what we are feelings and disregard it, we reflect it. When we ignore what's going on inside of us, we will ignore what is going on outside of us. Procrastination leads us to avoid things and wasting hours. I am guilty of this. Hours where I have wasted, I could have been productive and done my homework or revise instead of free styling a test. This is where I gave myself a nickname - clutch master- because somehow, I wouldn't fail my tests. 

Speaking from personal experience, procrastination has led to overestimate how much time I had or overestimate how motivated I will be in the future or even underestimate how long certain activities will take to complete. If you have these false signs of time, it is likely you have been procrastinating. We all have at, but the real question is how often do we do it? 

Recently, I have been improving. I have no choice, especially during online school where it feels like an option so I must maintain focus. I follow some basic steps that has helped me:

1) Recognise that you are Procrastinating- once we acknowledge it, then that's how we can progress  

2)Minimise distractions- so I can remain focus all the way through 

3) Mini reward after completing task-so I can stay motivated.

 

Sadness linking to depression 

We are on the next phase of the roller-coaster and every day I say to myself how do I deal with sadness. The feeling of loss I have or the disappointment I receive from a situation. At the end of the day, we move on from that feeling. We find a way to take to move on, however if we don't it leads to major consequences such as depression. Depression is more than what you think. It is more hidden, and we must discover ourselves of what our brains are capable of and what we can do to prevent it. 

 

The 2 most common types of depression 

Major Depression 

The one everyone heard of. When you constantly fill a balloon with water, at some point the balloon is going to burst. When we bottle our emotions, it's all going to come crashing down one day. These long periods of unhappiness may be the reason. It could be because constantly your stressed, or your too self-critical to the point your self-esteem is shattered. As a result, you lose the energy to do anything, and your patterns of food and sleeping has no consistency. Suicidal thoughts constantly pop in and out of your head while anxiety lurks at the back of your head. This effects the way you think, how you perceive things and your ability to do anything in a negative way. 

 

Bipolar Depression 

The one not many people heard off. You’re in luck then! It is in the name. You go through episodes of moderate depression then after you go through periods of high energy. With the inconsistent pattern leads to a cruel amount of stress. This can be caused by life changing events, stress, or sentimental things. All of this leads to major changes in our unique brain. Our unique system that can create the problem can also solve it. 

 

How can split open such a discreet matter? The matter was created within us, so it is up to us to solve it. Sadness is a sensitive emotion that leads to frustration. With more emotions involved, it becomes harder to solve so we must be aware of this issue. 

Firstly we must be aware of how we are feeling, then it allows us to overcome it. Then it's time to get away from the problem and do things that boost yourself such as going outside to get fresh air or reading a book- anything you like! With you separating yourself, you can rediscover yourself and then think of solutions on how to do it. Remember, your part of the ride, there will always be ups and downs 

 

We can tick of covering the two main emotions of the list. Let's go over a topic where we can be guilty of being part of but often don't realise it. It is a topic where this isn't only about us, it involves society and the people around us. The key themes of sadness and anger can bring us into Conformity.

 

Conformity 

It is type of Social Influence. It is changing your behaviour to go along with the people in a group, even if you don't agree with them.  There are three types.

 

How and why does this happen?

Many variables can cause but we are going to look at the two main emotional variables: Anger and Sadness. For example, you may want to fit into a group because your angry you don't fit in a group or sad that that your being judged of having a unique view compared to everyone else. An influence of a group majority influences your judgment and thinking. In simple terms- following the herd. Following the herd is a fickle matter, it can be beneficial as more brains are involved in the thinking, however you can lose yourself, your identity and own thought process in the activity.

 

Internalisation 

The truest and strongest form of conformity. When you accept belief or behaviour both publicly and privately. It is a slow and unnoticed process and has long term effects. This type is when you lose your identity, because now your own thoughts and opinions aren't yours, it is only what majority of people are saying. Examples are Religion. You are surrounded with people that follows a certain religion and gradually you may start to 'see things their way'.

 

Compliance

When you go along with a public request or behaviour while disagreeing in private. We do this because we want public acceptance, we don't want to be the one that is left out. Examples are when a friend may ask you to do something and that could be for you to do something you don't want to do but it may make you look cool, professional etc... eventhough you don't want to do that favour they are asking. Once we start doing this, we are trapped in that endless cycle for public acceptance. 

 

Identification 

When you conform to the demands of a social role in society. This sounds wordy. Identification is when you follow a social norm of a particular role you have in society. This is temporary. For example this can be Army behaviour. We expect soldiers to be highly maintained, strict with themselves and people who doesn't play around. Soldiers would want to change from their day-to-day personality to an 'Army' one to fit in their group.  

 

We all know that society plays a huge part in our lives. The way we perceive the world, the way we think about people and how we tackle situations. Surrounding yourself with the right people shapes how you are. We are humanity that depends on other people for survival. We live in a fast-moving world powered by technology that increases our life-expectancy. The people we surround our self with, their purpose isn't about ensuring our survival, but it is about how they can add value to our lives and how they can positively influence it, because social influence isn't a terrible thing, it is about either it will give us a positive value to our lives or a negative one. 

Lockdown has opened my eyes, unravelled opportunities and I am happy to have had the opportunity to share what has lockdown done to me and how I can add value to your lives. 

What has lockdown done to you?