Improvement of Retrieving Information from Long-term Memory - Essay Example

Discuss studies that showed how we can improve retrieving information From long-term memory Introduction It is amazing indeed to realize how peoplemanage to remember their experiences that belong in the past, the ability to create new memories, store them and eventually recall them. For thousands of years, study of human memory has been a center of science and philosophy and has been major interest within cognitive psychology. Before continuing with the paper, it would be best to lay down first what memory is. Memory defines as the process that is used in acquiring, storing, retaining and later in retrieving information. Encoding, storage, and retrieval are the three major processes involve in memory. One of the main problems aging people faces is the forgetfulness and many questions arise regarding these problems. There are some reasons concerning forgetfulness like retrieval failure, interference, Failure to store and motivated forgetting. in types, Short term memory and the long term memory. The difference between the two is that the first type of memory store data in small span of time compared to the second one. The long term is also divided into types, episodic and semantic. Episodic memory refers to personal experiences of a person while the semantic refers to the general knowledge and factual information. Long term memory is also divided into two parts, explicit memory and the implicit memory. Explicit memory refers to the conscious memory of a specific event or fact while the implicit memory has no awareness and the actual memory is not recalled. Reasons why we forget Many people assume the complexity of the human mind and with regard to the memory, it is no exception. In spite of the vast amounts of research and studies for thousands of years, there is still no assurance about where the forgetfulness or how we remember things is based. There are some major reasons why people forget. Retrieval failure explains that of the causes is the inability to retrieve the memory. Decay theory explains that memory trace is created whenever new theory is formed and this traces fades and disappear. All the information are vulnerable to be lost totally if not enhance, retrieved and rehearsed. However, in long term memory some research claims that memories that have not been rehearsed or remembered are stable. Interference is another theory that claims that the reason for lost of memory is caused when the new memory competes with the old similar memories and interference occurred. There are two basic types of interference; pro-active interference and the retroactive interference. Pro active interference happens when old memories are hardly remembered by the new memories while the retro-active happens when the new information interferes with the ability to remember the previous information. Another reason for forgetting is the failure to store. This happens when the information never get into a long term memory. This is like you can only remember the basic features of those specific things like the shapes and the colors but not remembering the minor specific details of that certain things. The last reason for forgetting is the motivated forgetting. Although this is not accepted by most of the psychologist around the world, this is actively forgetting things and experiences from our memories. There are two basic forms with regard to this, suppression (conscious form of forgetting) and the repression (unconscious form of forgetting). In order to form new memories, information must be changed into a usable form, which occurs through the process known as encoding. Once information has been successfully encoded, it must be stored in memory for later use. Much of this stored memory lies outside of our awareness most of the time, except when we actually need to use it. The retrieval process allows us to bring stored memories into conscious awareness. Strategies in the development of memories Several attempts have been deliberately done in enhancing memory performance. These attempts of acquiring information have been made available through study skills learned from schools to retrieve informati0on from long-term memory. These strategies can be done in two ways, either by during the time of learning (at input), or during the time of retrieving memories (at output). The inputs strategies refers to the inclusion of rehearsals, repetition of certain information, organizations that refers to grouping of similar items together or the collaboration of both. Output strategies refer to simply retrieving strategies that involves accessing of lost information and bringing it back to memories and consciousness. These strategies are called mnemonics or memory strategies wherein purposeful and deliberate attempts are done to enhance memory performance. Memory strategies also differ and vary according to cultures of certain group of people from certain societies. Strategies such as the rehearsal, organization and collaboration are said to be more effective and useful for school-age children in the Western urban societies, and not useful in the unschooled children from more rural environments. The reason to this is that the task given to children from the rural environments is recalling the location of objects such as water, animals or some poisonous things around the area where they live. In this kind of society, rural areas, it is given more importance to recall the ways and means to survival and thus, it is given much more importance to be remembered especially by children. Later life memory Some research is done dealing with how the memory works during the ages 50 to 60 wherein demands for a bigger memory occur. These are the ages wherein people are on the peak of their career. Findings to some research show that during these ages, short term memory remains relatively intact. Although some evidences occurs and defines that older people access their memories slowly, their short term memory remains intact. Changes in memory with the aging people occur and the decline in the ability to recall things explicitly declines. However, as the explicit memory declines with age, implicit memory shows to be intact in aging people. The simplest explanation shows that increasing age shows manifestation of decreasing the ability to recall because of the lost of neurons that results to the reducing of the processing capacity. Conclusion It is therefore relevant to conclude that as the people are aging, the more they are prone to losing memories and with regard to dealing with these problems especially to aging people, enhancement must be incorporated along with the process of aging. As the people are aging, concentration to important things must be recalled to be able to keep the memory of useful things intact especially to aging people. References Davey, G. (2008). Complete psychology. London, UK: Hodder & Stoughton. Goldstein, E.B. (2008). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience. Belmont, CA: ThomsonWadsworth Goldstein, E.B. (2010). Sensation and perception. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth Read More