Types Of Memory Essay, Research Paper

Memory is one of the most puzzling parts of the brain. How can our brain store

more information and thoughts than an encyclopedia and weigh less then three pounds?

The brain gives us the ability to act on our own. To think, say, and do things we want to

do all occur because of our brain. The brain controls our movement, our thoughts, and our

memory. Memory, the process of storing and retrieving information in the brain, consists

of three main types, short-term, long-term, and ancestral all which can be comparred

between genders.

Memory is the process of storing and retrieving information in the brain. It has

three main functions: recording, storing, and recalling. One records information in the

brain by permanently putting it into memory for later retrieval. Most people decide what is

important to record and what is not. Storing information in the brain is conducted so

information can be retrieved and compacted for later use. Recalling is remembering the

stored information. Memory adapts to peoples needs and is a necessary for our way of

life (Yesavag 21). Memory decides how long to store something depending on the event.

The information it stores is called traces or chunks and is stored in the deep temporal lobe,

mid-brain, medial temporal lobe and other various places. Later these traces or chunks are

remembered.

There are four types of remembering. Recall, recollection, recognition, and

relearning. Recall is remembering something from the past. Recollection involves

reconstruction of events based on cues that serve as reminders. Recognition is

remembering that refers to the ability to correctly identify previous encountered stimuli as

familar. And relearning is material learned a second time. Relearning is the best evidence

of memory because when something is learned again it is familiar and seems like it was

known before. Relearning is having the information retaught to you a second time.

A type of memory that doesn’t have recall, recollection, recognition, or relearning

is Short-term memory. Short-term memory is memory that is “in use” and “active” and

located in the deep temporal lobe. Short-term memory is the ability to retain a limited

amount of information called chunks for seconds to a minute and to remember it for up to

an hour. Short-term memory has a limited amount of room to store chunks and is best

described and used when dialing a phone number. A user simply reads the number off the

phone book and then dials it. After dialing, the number is lost. Short-term memory is

memory that is “in use,” and does not get transferred to long-term and later stored unless

the person wants it to be and makes it happen. “Without short-term memory, our actions

would be slowed down with traffic jams of information just roaming around” (Fancher

51). For this reason, short-term memory is important to a way of life. The one recall that

short-term memory has is immediate recall. This is the ability to repeat a short series of

words, pictures, sounds, etc. after hearing or seeing them. “Immediate recall is

remembering for only a short time and the information retrieved is never permanently

recorded” (Pinker 115). Sensory memory is another type of short-term memory which

information enters and leaves immediately. Sensory memory is only seconds of memory.

Inoformation enters and leaves immediatly. An example is sight. Once an object is sight, it

is considered Sensory memory, once leaves, it leaves the memory. Short-term Memory is

still being studied by many psychologist and more and more is learned about it each day.

Like Short-term memory, another type of memory is Long-term memory.

Long-term memory is located in the medial temporal lobe and the mid-brain. It is memory

traces that have been transferred from short-term and is permanently recorded. Long-term

memory has two ways of recording, with and without depth of processing. (Lapp 14).

Depth of processing is the mental strategies and processes that are indispensable to the

recording of good memory trace. Long-term memory has an infinite amount of storage,

but the term “use it or lose it” comes into place for long-term memory. When recording

and storing information, sometimes traces get pushed out and temporarily forgotten to

store other traces. This is the case why someone might forget where they put their keys

when they get up and want to get to work. When your memory does get overloaded, it

saturates your mind. In this case, physical activity is the best to solve the problem. It gives

time for information to be compacted. The easiest thing to be recalled is an episodic

memory. An episodic memory is a big event in one’s life. It is easily retrieved after many

years. “The more feelings, the better stored and remember”.(Pinker 112) Loss of

long-term memory is the result of damaged lobes. When someone gets older, they can

better remember events as a kid then events that were a year ago. This is because the older

we get the more damaged our lobes become so information is not stored or recalled as

well. Over all, our long-term memory can store more thoughts, words, and information

then an encyclopedia.

Like short-term and long term-memory, there is ancestral. Ancestral memory is

memory that is like instinct. It’s in our genes and given from our ancestors. It’s built in

memory that controls our inborn gestures and behaviors. An example is a baby knowing

how to suck its thumb and cry when it’s hungry. For adults, it’s the way we greet each

other, give backslaps, hugs and the way we open doors.

Since memory is a puzzling part in the brain, it has been studied over the years.

Cyril Burt did a test between males and females seeing which gender had a better

short-term memory and long-term. After the testing, the results showed that the males had

a better short-term memory. For the test on long-term, the females ended up having a

better one. He only tested fifty males and fifty females. Burt also didn’t take notes on how

he did the experiment. He died in 1970.

W.H. is the initials of a man who had brain surgery in the 1980’s. He was having

constant seizures that were located in his temporal lobe. To stop the seizures, surgeons

removed his temporal lobe. After the surgery, he couldn’t remember any thing he had

done after it. Often forgetting where he was. But he could remember events that happened

before the surgery. This all happened because the temporal lobe controls short-term

memory. And since its removed he would never have any memories of what happened

after the surgery since he cant transfer any thing to his long-term memory. This surgery

proves that short-term memory is real and is located in the temporal lobe.