Memory and its importance

1097 Words3 Pages

Memories can last minutes, hours, months or years but sometimes we forget. Some memories we keep and some we repress. We tend to repress bad memories or insufficient ones and remember good ones or memories of importance to us. There are many ways to improve memory but first of all you must understand what memory is.

“Memory is the internal recording of a prior event.” (Corwin, Elizabeth J. 2008) It lets us know where we are each morning. You could think of memory as a storage house for everything we know. Memory allows us to recall good and bad memories, daily functions, and skills. There are 3 different processes of memory which include encoding, storage and retrieval.

Encoding is the process of transforming information to a form that can be stored in memory. “For example, a visual experience is broken down into discrete attributes of color, shape, and size, and these attributes are stored separately.” (Corwin, Elizabeth J. 2008) We are continuously bombarded with a variety of sensory information. The storage process consists of keeping or maintaining information in memory and forgetting inefficient information. The encoded to storage phase is called consolidation. The last process is retrieval. This occurs when information from stored memory is brought to mind. (Samuel E. Wood, Ellem R. Green Wood, Denise Boyd, Eileen Wood, Serge Desmarais, 2008) But what happens if you can’t bring that memory to mind?

“In the age of Google, with limitless information at our fingertips, it is tempting to think that a good memory is obsolete. Of course anyone studying for exams or learning a new skill, or just trying to remember their passwords, knows otherwise.” (Robson, D. 2011) Memory is so significant we take it for granted when it f...

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...ng to begin implementing organization, over learning, and active learning. Memory is a delicate process and shouldn’t be taken for granted. Without memory I would have forgot to write this paper!

Works Cited

Coon, D., John O., M., Patrick, B., Malik, B., & McKenzie, S. (2010). Psychology a journey. (3rd ed.). Thomson Wadsworth.

Corwin, E. J. (2008). Handbook of pathophysiology. (3rd ed.). Philadelphia PA : Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Wood, S. E., Wood, E. G., Denise , B., Wood, E., & Desmarais, S. (2008). The world of psychology. (5th ed.). Pearson Education Canada.

Foster, J. K. (2011). Memory. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=p3h&AN=69611567&lang=en-ca&site=pov-can

Robson, D. (2011). Pimp my memory. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=p3h&AN=61021182&lang=en-ca&site=pov-can

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