SPCC Psychology Enthusiasts' Circle - Newsletter#2 - Memory

MARCH 2020

MEMORY SPCC PSYCHOLOGY ENTHUSIASTS' CIRCLE NEWSLETTER #2

INTRODUCTION TO MEMORY

BY RACHEL LEE If you have a bad memory, you might get bad grades because you cannot remember the knowledge required. you might forget about a lesson and end up missing it and get scolded by the teacher. you might forget where you put your things and lose them forever.

But to have no memory, it would be a completely different concept. Without memory, there would be no time, because we could not recall the past, not even the past few seconds.

Without memory, there would be no ideas, because nothing could be sustained in mind.

Episodic and Semantic memory

2

Long term memory

5

Forming sustainable 7 memory

It is not that you would forget everything right at the moment, but that your mind would not even be able to receive anything.

Sleep and memory

10

Without memory, there would be no way to live, because everyone is controlled by his or her own mind.

Memory test

11

No one would live.

All would just exist.

There would be no meaning in life.

False memory

12

Now that we see the importance of memory, let’s learn more about what it is and how it works.

EPISODIC & SEMANTIC MEMORY

Encoding

BY LARAINE KWOK Have you ever heard of episodic memory and semantic memory?

Consolidation

They are the two types of declarative memory, and psychologists often make distinctions among them. For those who don’t even know what this is, let me kindly introduce you to episodic memory and semantic memory and their importance to our life.

Recollection

WHAT IS EPISODIC MEMORY? Episodic memory is a person’s unique memory of a specific event, and everyone owns a different memory even though it is the same event. Examples of the differences may be the feeling, time and place of the event. It is one of the major mental capacities enabled by the brain. Forming an episodic memory involves three unique steps. The first step in the process is called encoding, a process that your brain goes through each time you form a new episodic memory. The next step is called consolidation, which is baking the event into your long-term memory. The final process involves recollection. Sometimes a recollection from long-term memory is retrieved almost effortlessly, and other times it may need something to bring it on, such as a word, an image or even a smell. It is believed that emotions play a major role in the formation of episodic memory.

WHAT IS SEMANTIC MEMORY? On the other hand, semantic memory is a portion of long-term memory that processes ideas and concepts that are not drawn from personal experience. It includes common knowledge and facts, such as the meaning of words, the sounds of letters, the history of countries and other symbolic units that constitute formal communication systems such as language or math. Both concepts were introduced in 1972 by Endel Tulving in the collaboration between the University of Toronto and the University of New Brunswick. Many people always mix these two concepts up, so let’s take a look at the difference.

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EPISODIC MEMORY VS SEMANTIC MEMORY Episodic memory and semantic memory are both an independent module of the declarative memory, which is explicit memories that can be recalled consciously. The difference between them is one is the recall of personal facts, and the other one is the recall of general facts.You often recall episodic memories by emotions. For example, the good times you spent with your family, or the first time you fell off a bike, these are personal events. On the other hand, semantic memory is the recollection of facts gathered from the time we are young. They are indisputable nuggets of information not associated with emotion or personal experience, for example, knowing that 1+1 is 2, remembering what a panda is. An example demonstrating the difference is, "1+1 is 2" is semantic memory, but "1+1 is easy" is resulted by personal experience, which is episodic memory.

Another difference is that we all have a different memory for episodic memory, but the same for semantic memory. For example, the first time having a speech in front of the whole class. You may remember being nervous, awkward, and how awful is it for having shaky bones. But your friends may remember that you actually did a great job, your speech was fluent, and they feel proud of you. But semantic memory is just facts. Everyone gets the same message. 1+1 is always 2.

HOW DO EPISODIC MEMORY AND SEMANTIC MEMORY CONTRIBUTE TO EPISODIC FORESIGHT Memory gives us the ability to learn from past experiences. It shapes personality and makes us who we are, not just about the past, but also the future. The human mind always wanders forward in time to imagine what the future will be like, or backwards to recall the past experience.

Mentally projecting ourselves backwards (i.e. episodic memory) or forwards (i.e. episodic foresight) in time are crucial characteristics of the human memory system.

For episodic memory, it does not only keep the past memories, but also fosters our decisions on the future. For example, I remember feeling embarrassed and tense during public speaking because I didn’t memorize my script well. So next time, I would prepare myself well enough to present in a casual way in order to prevent embarrassing moments.

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Episodic memory has been argued to be involved both in our capacity to retrieve our personal past experiences and in our ability to imagine and foresee future scenarios. However, recent findings suggest that semantic memory also plays a significant role in imagining future scenarios, projecting ourselves forward. Â For example, a group of patients with episodic amnesia(a loss of memory only for certain significant events, following the inability to access the memory), but normal semantic knowledge, were able to succeed in future decision-making tasks even though they could not imagine themselves in future events.

SUMMARY Wrapping it up, episodic memory is a personal experience of events associated with a particular time and place. Semantic memory is the memory for general factual knowledge and concept. We have also covered how episodic memory and semantic memory are important in our lives by helping us make future decisions.

Memories are the architecture of our identity

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LONG TERM MEMORY

BY MATHEW KWOK In society nowadays, knowledge is easily accessible through the internet, one touch of a button and most answers are immediately available. With near infinite knowledge at our fingertips, there is less of a need to memorise information due to its ease of access. As students however, most tend to focus on short term memory, opting to remember information for a specific task in the near future, such as examinations. However, some information that may be useful in future careers are lost because of this, and have to be studied a second time. What is the key to long term memory, and how much more effort does one need?

To start, let’s break down the differences between long term memory and short term memory.

Generally speaking in long term memory, the idea is that information in your cerebral cortex will decay at a slower rate and remain rooted in your memory for a longer time. To understand how to manipulate long term memory, one must first understand the different forms of memory, the most common being implicit memory, explicit memory and episodic memory.

Implicit memory refers to usage of items and movement of one’s body, such as riding a bicycle.

This type of memory is largely based on the striatum in a brain, independent of the hippocampus.

Explicit memory refers to the memories that are consciously available at any given time.

These types of memories are often related to memorized information and facts that can be instantly brought up, and are encoded by the hippocampus. Episodic memory refers to memory for specific events in time, an example would be remembering your last interaction with an individual. Similarly to explicit memory, the hippocampus plays a large role in the processing of episodic memory.

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Now how does one effectively tap into their long term memory and utilise it to their benefits?

There are mainly two types of information one can perceive, one that requires body movement and one that does not. Memory that taps into body movement, or implicit memory is more deeply rooted in one’s mind, and is scientifically proven to decay slower than ones that do not.

As an example, it is much less likely for a person to completely forget how to ride a bicycle or swim than to remember complex math problems or vocabulary. This is largely due to the independence of implicit memory with the hippocampus, which is a heavily used part of the brain. The constant stress and workload on the hippocampus is part of what causes short term memory, as we perceive more things everyday, the hippocampus has to filter out information.

OR ?

As such, by linking information to body movement and specific movesets, it is much easier for one to remember information in the long term. The involvement of movement or items greatly assists the hippocampus in retaining information, as the workload is spread out among different parts of the brain, in this case the striatum. Interestingly enough, body movement also includes vocal movement. It is proven that reading out information when studying greatly benefits your memory for this reason. The added benefit of being able to hear information also adds to long term memory.

Thus, when studying or memorising information, it is often smarter and more beneficial to read out the information. As students, it is always important to recognise and utilise effective studying methods to maximise working efficiency, and I encourage everyone to explore and use the most effective revision methods that work for you.

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FORMING SUSTAINABLE MEMORY

BY TIFFANY MAO Here’s a little challenge for you. Try to recall all the meals you’ve eaten in the past 7 days. If you still remember, that’s great! You have a really strong memory. But if you don’t, don’t feel bad either, as pieces of unnecessary information like these tend to get stored in your short term memory. It is believed that you can hold between five to nine items in your short-term memory, and they will stay there for 20 to 30 seconds. These memories that are probably not of much importance don’t get stored into your long-term memory, and are ultimately forgotten.

But what if you need to remember something that will be useful in many situations, like a math concept? How do we form a sustainable, long-term memory? In this article, I will teach you some of the ways to do that, starting off with some rather widespread techniques.

One of the easiest ways is to create a mnemonic, which is creating a sentence out of the first letter of the words you have to remember. For example, “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos” is short for the names of the planets in our solar system. This helps us simplify complicated information, making it easier for our brain to remember.

The saying ‘Practice makes Perfect’ can be applied in this situation too. Repetition, which is saying or writing out what you need to remember over and over again, also works for most people.

This is because your brain is used to the repeated information, and you might even subconsciously carry out those tasks.

In addition to that, getting adequate sleep is crucial. Psychologists recommend at least 8 hours of sleep per night in order to form a healthy memory system in your brain. Sleep helps your brain to commit new things to memory and consolidate any new memories created. A tip is to avoid using electronic devices before sleep, as the blue light emitted from screens can keep you awake.

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Just as sleep is important for your mental health, so is exercise! Exercise brings oxygen to the brain and enhances helpful brain chemicals.

This helps your brain stay sharp during the day and remember information easier.

Moving on to lesser known ways and techniques, the first one is all about your diet. Researchers have proven that if you eat more foods that contain more Omega-3 fatty acids, like fish, seafood,

and

algae,

your

brain

will

be

strengthened. Omega-3 is abundant in the cell membranes of brain cells and is essential in preserving cell membrane health and facilitating communication between brain cells. It is also good for your heart and can improve your mental health.

Eating more berries, especially dark ones like blackberries, blueberries, and cherries can also boost memory function as they are a rich source of anthocyanins and other flavonoids.

Berries can strengthen existing connections in your brain, which is beneficial to long-term memory storing.

The second way is rather intriguing. Chewing gum can help with your memory! A group of psychologists from the UK conducted an experiment based on this hypothesis. One third of the 75 adults in the experiment chewed gum during the 20 minutes of memory and attention tests, while one third mimicked chewing movements, and the remainder did not chew. The scores of the people who chewed gum was 24 percent higher than the other people who didn’t, or pretended to on tests of immediate word recall, and 36 per cent higher on tests of delayed word recall. They were also more accurate on tests of spatial working memory. One reason that chewing gum might affect our memory recall is that it increases activity in the hippocampus, an important area of the brain for memory. Therefore, chewing gum helps with focusing and paying attention.

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The last way I would like to recommend to you is slightly more complicated than the rest I mentioned above. What you need to do is to find out which type of learning suits you best: auditory, visual or experiential. If you feel like the most effective way to grasp information is by hearing it, you’re an auditory learner! Similarly, visual learners are people who favour seeing something in order to learn it, while experiential learners learn better through learning from events and experiences (or doing something with the material). Once you find out your learning style, I’m sure you can absorb information more effectively, thus making forming sustainable memories easier!

OR

OR

I hope you’ve learnt a thing or two from my article. Do try out all the ways and find out which way suits you better!

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SLEEP AND MEMORY

BY CHERYL YUNG You must have been in this situation before: it’s one in the morning, you’re seated at your desk and multiple books surround you. There’s a test tomorrow - technically today, in approximately nine hours - and you’re desperate, but not one piece of information sticks in your head. You’re trying every trick in the book, writing it down, saying it out loud, reading it over and over again, nothing’s working. Well, have you ever thought of sleeping instead?

MEMORY Memory is the retention of information over time in developing personal identity, future relationships, other parts of our personality and shapes our culture and society. Here, the three main steps of forming memories will be introduced.

Firstly, the encoding process is the conversion of the information into a construct that can be stored in the brain. There are many types of encoding, such as visual, elaborative, semantic and acoustic encoding, which involve our five senses.

Secondly, the consolidation process is the stabilization of the information, how short-term memory becomes long-term memory. It is split into two processes, synaptic and systems consolidation. The former occurs a few hours after learning, while the latter takes up to one to two decades, allowing memories to be reorganized and moved to a more permanent region of the brain.

Thirdly, the retrieval process is the ability to recall that information. There are three types of memory recall, namely free, cued and serial recall. Free recall is the process in which a person is given a list of items to remember and then asked to recall them in any order. Cued recall is when a person is given a list of items to remember then asked to recall them with cues to aid them. Serial recall is the ability to recall items or events in the order in which they occurred. All three types of recall are used frequently in our daily lives.

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HOW SLEEP AFFECTS MEMORY As mentioned, creating memories involves three steps, and sleeping affects the consolidation process. Our neural connections are strengthened during sleep, allowing the brain to retain memories. When we don’t get enough sleep, the neural connections in our hippocampus are not as strong, and as a result, learning becomes harder and the retention rate of memories are lower. One of the primary functions of sleep is thought to be the improvement of consolidation of memory, as several studies demonstrated the dependence of memory on sleep. Furthermore, sleep deprivation can lead to the formation of false memory, leading to inefficient learning.

HOW TO IMPROVE MEMORY Consequently, one of the methods in improving your memory is getting a good night’s sleep. Studies have been carried out where people are taught new skills and their brains are scanned after a period with or without sleep. The group of people who had the chance to sleep showed a more active control speed and accuracy in their brains. Hence, researchers have

concluded

that

brain

regions

shift

dramatically during sleep, and memories are transferred to more efficient storage regions of the brain, so that tasks can be performed more accurately with less stress and anxiety. Our bodies can interpret our surroundings more automatically and with less conscious brain regions.

Getting a good night’s sleep can also help us synthesise new ideas, as pieces of knowledge can be pulled together from different parts of the brain to create eureka moments, helping us to solve problems or make advancements in our work. In conclusion, despite the constant evolution in the science of sleep, it is clear that our brains need sleep to process our daily experiences so as to remember and function properly the next day. So, the next time you have a test, instead of staying up all night studying, consider sleeping earlier - maybe you’ll have a higher chance in acing it.

Let's take a break!

Short term memory test (Click me!)

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FALSE MEMORY

BY CHARMAINE WONG We all might have forgotten things once or more. However, when it comes to remembering important things, like a cherished childhood event, our memories are accurate and trustworthy, right?

Surprisingly, people with exceptional memories are still likely to make things up without even realizing it.

In an experiment carried out in 1994, the memory expert Elizabeth Loftus was able to get 25 percent of her participants to believe a false memory that they were once lost in a shopping mall as a child. Another 2002 study revealed that half of the participants led to wrongly believe that they had once taken a hot air balloon ride as a child simply by showing them manipulated photo "evidence."

Most of the time, these false memories are centred on things that are fairly mundane or inconsequential. However, sometimes these false memories can have serious or even devastating consequences. False memory can be a serious problem, but why exactly do these incorrect memories form?

1. INACCURATE PERCEPTION Sometimes the problem begins while the original event is still occurring, that is, while the memory is being encoded. If the perception of an event is inaccurate, then it cannot be remembered accurately. Here is an example: in a study, 30% of undergraduate students exposed to a graduate student’s office for several minutes later remembered seeing books when there were none.

Studies such as these suggest that people often remember events, not exactly as they happened, but partly in line with previous experiences they’ve had in similar situations.

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2. INFERENCE False memories may also arise from inferences made during an event. In a simple but highly reliable demonstration, people hear a list of words like cross, offended, annoyed, furious, enraged etc. Later on, people claim “angry” was on the list, even though it was not presented . Humans are biased to extract meaning from events (e.g. that the list contains angry-related words), and this may lead to confusions about what was inferred versus what actually happened. It may also lead to forgetting of non-semantic details, since people typically attend more to meaning than to perceptual and phonological details.

3. EMOTIONS If you've ever tried to recall the details of an emotionally-charged event (e.g. an argument, an accident), you probably realize that emotions can wreak havoc on your memory. Sometimes strong emotions can make the experience more memorable, but they can sometimes lead to mistaken or untrustworthy memories.

A study found that negative emotions, in particular, were more likely to lead to the formation of false memories. A 2007 study found that false memories were significantly more frequent during periods of high arousal than during periods of low arousal, regardless of whether the mood was positive, negative, or neutral.

4. MISINFORMATION Sometimes accurate information gets mixed with incorrect information, which then distorts our memories for events. The serious potential impact of this misinformation effect can be easily seen in the area of criminal justice, where mistakes can mean the difference between life and death. Brainerd and Reyna (2005) suggest that false recollections during the interrogation process are the leading cause of false convictions.

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5. MISATTRIBUTION False memories can also arise when subjects misinterpret why new items on a recognition test feel familiar. Misattribution is to combine elements of different events into one cohesive story, misremembering where you obtained a particular piece of information, or even recalling imagined events from your childhood and believing that they are real.

6. FUZZY TRACING When forming a memory, we don't always focus on the details and instead remember an overall impression of what happened. Fuzzy trace theory suggests that we sometimes make verbatim traces of events and other times make only gist traces. Verbatim traces are based on the real events as they happened, while gist traces are centred on our interpretations of events. How does this explain false memories? Sometimes how we interpret information does not accurately reflect what happened. These biased interpretations of events can lead to false memories of the original events.

While researchers are still learning more about the mechanisms behind how false memories form, it is clear that false memory is something that can happen to virtually anyone. These memories can range from the trivial to the life-altering, from the mundane to the potentially fatal.

References:Â https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-false-memory2795193 http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/False_memory https://albertellis.org/inaccuracies-in-perception-and-memory/

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