Memory Reflection

Introduction

The function of memory has fascinated psychologist throughout history when studying the brain. Psychologist have studied how we perceive information and translate that into our memory in order to understand how to counteract some diagnosis that effect memory such as Alzheimer. During this blog, I will be talking about memory related disorders, forgetting, and ways to improve memory.

Memory Related Disorders

A memory related disorder refers to the deterioration of the brain and loss of brain cells that causes difficulty in remembering information. The main disease that is related to this is known as Alzheimer Disease. This disease causes neurons to stop functioning and lose connection to other neurons connected to parts of the brain that is responsible for memory such as the hippocampus. This causes memory loss since the neurons that are connected to the hippocampus give the information taken in from the surroundings are unable to transfer the information, the hippocampus is unable to store the memory which causes the forgetfulness According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, over 5.5 million people have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease across the United States as of 2016.

Ways to Improve Memory

They are two main strategies to improve memory. One strategy is the block method which mainly refers to remembering long list of numbers. For instance, memorize this list of numbers: 1,7,7,6,1,8,1,2,1,8,6,2,1,9,1,4,1,9,4,2. It is a struggle to remember 20 numbers by themselves isn't it? So to use the block method, memorize the numbers in blocks as listed: 1776,1812,1862,1914,1942. It makes it easier to remember 5 dates rather than 20 unrelated and individual numbers. The next strategy is the peg word mnemonic. This strategy takes the ability to memorize a sequence or information by relating the information to something to any outside object or something similar. This allows for one to think of a memory by also thinking of something else that relates to the memory you are originally trying to think of.

Conclusion

Study and research is still being done in order to strengthen our understanding of something so easy to know but yet so difficult to explain. This research has helped me to understand what research is being done to test where memory is stored within the brain and the entire process of how the brain takes the information give to us about our surroundings and store them in our brain as a memory in a self constructed library of memories.

Sources:
https://www.dshs.texas.gov/alzheimers/qanda.shtm
http://www.learner.org/series/discoveringpsychology/09/e09expand.html