StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

(one of the senses and memory) - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The Creator’s intricate and impressive work in the making of man is beyond understanding. The way the human body operates, the way the organs all function together to maintain homeostasis is a feat man can and will never be able to accomplish. Within this web of ingenuity, the human senses stand out…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96.8% of users find it useful
(one of the senses and memory)
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "(one of the senses and memory)"

Download file to see previous pages

They are all equally necessary and without one, the others would have a difficult time functioning. Together with providing inputs for perception, senses also help in bringing back memories that we often have difficulty remembering. Certain senses are more dominant than others in this aspect for some people, but the general population has reported that it was the smell of a certain object that brought back the memories in a more vivid way. I have discovered that whenever I catch a certain smell, it brings back memories associated with it.

Hearing and tasting also help, but none of them come close to smell. Sometimes I even find myself tracking a scent I may have caught. Once I catch it, I just feel like staying there all day. These smells remind me of my childhood mostly, and places that I went with my parents while a kid, memories I deeply treasure. When I was a preschooler, my family was fond of visiting our grandmother’s home in the country. This was far from the city. We would find life there completely different. In contrast to the fast, noisy city life, the country was quiet, relaxed, and peaceful.

I enjoyed it there. My brother and I would run around in the big plantations together with our cousin and play near the river. The scents of nature all around together with the sound of birds singing was so soothing. We would then walk through the forest of tall trees in the late afternoon before going home. The smell of these trees is strong at this particular time. And I have never seen or smelled these trees in any other place I’ve been to except my grandmothers compound. Now that I’ve been away from my country for over a decade, I had completely forgotten about it, until recently when I was able to go back and visit again.

After eleven years of absence the sight of those trees surprised me and brought back old memories of my innocent childhood, but that was nothing compared to the smell they produced. The moment I caught it, a flood of memories just swept me back which left me in tears. Since then, I terribly miss my grandmother’s house because I have linked that smell with it. You may ask why smell is considered the most dominant in bringing back memories. The answer is not so simple. Because the olfactory bulb is part of the brain’s limbic system, an area so closely associated with memory and feeling, smell can call up memories and powerful responses almost instantaneously.

That’s why it is sometimes called the “emotional brain”. Inside your nose, about the level of your eyes, is a small patch of tissue containing millions of nerve cells. The odor receptors, or senses, lie on these nerves. Each receptor recognizes several odors, and likewise, a single odor can be recognized by several receptors. The process that takes place is quite complex. After an odor molecule enters the nose and is recognized by the olfactory sensors, the signal is eventually sent to the olfactory bulb that is located right above the eyes.

The signals only go to two areas in the olfactory bulb, and signals from different areas are targeted to different spots that then form a sensory map. From there, the signals reach the olfactory area of the cortex, which is also responsible for sensing smell. The limbic system, considered the primitive part of the brain, includes areas that control emotions, memory, and behavior. So it is no surprise why this particular sense defeats the others in this

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“(one of the senses and memory) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/english/1423477-one-of-the-senses-and-memory
((one of the Senses and Memory) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words)
https://studentshare.org/english/1423477-one-of-the-senses-and-memory.
“(one of the Senses and Memory) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/english/1423477-one-of-the-senses-and-memory.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF (one of the senses and memory)

Cognitive Psychology: Perception and Memory

The paper "Cognitive Psychology: Perception and memory" critically analyzes and investigates the importance of perception theory and underlining its major roles in the current situation.... Perception is shaped by learning, expectation, and memory as an active signal of passive receipts.... nbsp;According to Larsen (1989), perception is a discipline that involves human and animal physical senses....
10 Pages (2500 words) Research Paper

The Minds Eye

By using different rhetorical strategies in describing and analyzing stories, Sacks (2003) showed that the ability to perceive the world is inside the mind, and that blindness changes the mind by enabling the brain to develop differently because the brain is “metamodal” and synesthesia happens when people choose to perceive the world with fuller use of all their senses and develop different new skills because of their heightened metamodal use of their brains.... Instead of relying on visual images to perceive the world, for instance, Hull illustrated how his other senses compensated for his blindness, such as how listening to the rain gives him an “acoustic experience” that “presents the fullness of an entire situation all at once” (Sacks, 2003, p....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Psychology Thought: Sensory Adaption, Memory, and False Memory Syndrome

one of these needs identified by the theorists was an individual's need for affiliation.... The author of the "Psychology Thought: Sensory Adaption, memory, and False memory Syndrome" paper examines REM Behavior Disorder, David McClelland's need for affiliation, David McClelland's need for power, moral development -Kohlberg 3 levels of morality/criticisms.... memory memory is a component of the human body that comprises three processes including encoding, storage, and retrieval....
4 Pages (1000 words) Assignment

How Memory Works

In the following paper “How Memory Works” the author reviews two pieces about human learning and memory.... It may even be termed as the process that occurs prior to short-term or working memory.... Engrams are the semi-permanent changes in the nervous system that are the physical representation of memory in the body (Schacter 168).... This essay appeared in About this Life: Journeys on the Threshold of memory in 1977....
3 Pages (750 words) Assignment

Mourid Barghouti's I Saw Ramallah

In his book I Saw Ramallah Mourid Barghouti reflected significant facts and thoughts of one of the most tragic and difficult periods of his life - the period of his exile which starts in 1967 from his leave from Ramallah where he spent his childhood.... The aim of this paper is to answer the following questions: what key personal and public events shaped Barghouti's account To what extent in Barghouti's personal life affect his memory of public events Can historians use memoirs like Barghouti's to understand the past In addition to that, my personal opinion about possible chances of resolving the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians will be reflected....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Dorothy Allison and Tim O'Briento

This job would be easiest if I compare your work with that of some fiction and memoirs written by Dorothy Allison and Tim O'Brien. I will begin with your first statement that you set out to write with your memory and "supporting documents such as medical records, therapists' notes, and personal journals" (2006).... To an ordinary individual it seems that the true way of dealing with a difficult situation is ensuring that it is deleted from your memory.... In her memoir, Two or Three things I know For Sure she states "Behind the story you hear is the one I wish I could make you hear" (39) A line like this is provoking for the reader because it is the motive of every writer to win over their audience....
5 Pages (1250 words) Book Report/Review

The Concept of Human Memory

Learning is the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, and memory is the retention of this knowledge.... “The memories for taste and smell, sounds and shapes as well as the feel of things are directly related to the senses”, and can trigger off a flood of nostalgia (Samuel, 1999: 49).... “memory is the knowledge of an event or fact with the additional consciousness that it has been thought of or experienced before” (James, 2001: 58)....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Reflections on Memoirs

The essay "Reflections on Memoirs" tells about memoirs on the example of Persepolis that further shows how artistic creation can reflect memory in new and interesting ways.... It is said that memory and the way in which a memoir are constructed connect the personal perspective to the events of time.... The remembrances of an individual can open the heart and soul of a memory, rather than just state the facts and list the events.... Perspective is drawn from the way in which a memory is remembered and the revelations of how that memory had an effect....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us