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Importance of human memory
Importance of human memory
Memory and its importance essay
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The human memory contains some of our most treasured values. It allows us to remember the past, present, and store information we may need for the future. Memory provides a guidance for us. It influences our behaviors, decisions, and defines our character; our identity. Although, not all memory is created equal and some are less favorable than others. Most would think of memory as a precious gift that we can hold onto forever, but there are also memories we wished to forget. Regardless of the type of memory, without memory we have no direction in life and no purpose. Thus, to understand the human memory, let’s explore how it works, what may affect it, how to maintain better memory, and some current issues with memory. The human memory is an interesting and complex system. Not all human memory …show more content…
It gives us a purpose and a way to recall our past. It’s a book written in our minds with the pages all over the places. It may not be as accurate but it gives us an insight. It takes many parts of the brain working together to create memory. Memory than is stored away in various types of stages such as the sensory, short term and long term. The more important ones stay longer and the least important ones eventually fade away like the ink on a written paper. Sometimes we are robbed of our memories by a fatal disease such as Alzheimer’s or by personal choice of drug usage. However, there are tools and techniques we can use to help us maintain memory. Although not all memories are wondrous and sometimes we want to erase these painful ones. There are current drugs being studied which may be available in a distant future that will help erase those painful memories for some. But until scientists can truly understand all the mysteries of the human memory, there are no such drugs available for purchase. Perhaps it’s better to maintain our current memory for it is who we are and influences our decisions and
= Memory is the process of storing information and experiences for possible retrieval at some point in the future. This ability to create and retrieve memories is fundamental to all aspects of cognition and in a broader sense it is essential to our ability to function properly as human beings. Our memories allow us to store information about the world so that we can understand and deal with future situations on the basis of past experience. The process of thinking and problem solving relies heavily on the use of previous experience and memory also makes it possible for us to acquire language and to communicate with others. Memory also plays a basic part in the process of perception, since we can only make sense of our perceptual input by referring to our store of previous experiences.
Discounting old and useless information help the students in daily basis wherein it is difficult for a students to remember everything happens in a day like where it parked the car, it brings in the mind all the car parks that the students seen. Slater states that, “Normal human brain built within it mechanism that allows for forgetting" (219). Thus, human brain has the capacity to delete memory that is less relevant or inaccessible especially that caused them trauma like terrible events, plane crashes, or personal attacks that strongly needed to forget. However lost memories can be revived by recalling memories because brain has the ability to construct past experiences like to recall names and faces, skills like riding a bike or smoking cigarette. However, remembering memories matters at age, a young children for example has no idea how their memory works and that they will not remember everything they are told, but for about seven to eight years of age children come to have an understanding of memory. As children grow older they learn to recall their memories which starts to develop and improve for better understanding. She notes that, “Memory are the footprints we live in our lives; without them we look back and see just a blank stretch of snow, or someone else's signature entirely"(Slater181). Therefore, recalling pasts creates a huge impact for it is a part of a students memories that will
“Holding onto past memories helps humans avoid pain in the future. These experiences also help them make better decisions in the future.” (Kenny) Many people advise others to learn from the past and apply those memories so that you can effectively succeed by avoiding repeating past mistakes. On the contrary, people who get too caught up with the past are unable to move on to the future. Memories are the foundation of a person's mindset because what you make of them is entirely up to you.
The past is the most important thing now in the future. Memories of the past created the today’s future, which we now call the present. Modern times learned from the past and what memories has offered. In the novel, The Giver, written by Lois Lowry, it shows the most important theme developed throughout the novel. This theme shows and explains how important memory is and for it to not be forgotten to the reader and audience. Memory can be defined as something that someone remembers in the mind. This theme is important throughout the novel because if an individual makes a specific mistake and forgets it, that memory will be lost and they will never learn from what they have done wrong. People have to learn from what is wrong from right. If that so called mistake is repeated again, it could take an effect
Human memory is flexible and prone to suggestion. “Human memory, while remarkable in many ways, does not operate like a video camera” (Walker, 2013). In fact, human memory is quite the opposite of a video camera; it can be greatly influenced and even often distorted by interactions with its surroundings (Walker, 2013). Memory is separated into three different phases. The first phase is acquisition, which is when information is first entered into memory or the perception of an event (Samaha, 2011). The next phase is retention. Retention is the process of storing information during the period of time between the event and the recollection of a piece of information from that event (Samaha, 2011). The last stage is retrieval. Retrieval is recalling stored information about an event with the purpose of making an identification of a person in that event (Samaha, 2011).
The first issue that needs to be addressed however is what exactly is memory? “ Without memory we would be servants of the moment, with nothing but our innate reflexes to help us deal with the world. There would be no language, no art, no science, no culture. Civilization itself is the distillation of human memory” (Blakemore 1988). The simple interpretation of Blakemore’s theory on what memory is that a person’s memory is at least one of the most important things in their life and without it civilization itself could not exist.
Definition of memory and it's functions is difficult to illustrate by a single sentence. Consequently we use several metaphors to describe memory implicitly. Our beliefs, perceptions and imagination influence memory. The fact gave rise to memory being described as a reconstructive process, explaining that memory is not an exact record of a particular experience. Instead we bring various components together and fill in the blanks with our predisposed schemas while recalling. The metaphor building "an entire dinosaur skeleton from fossils" is the indirect way to describe memory as cognitive reconstruction. Remembering includes using schemas which are the mental representations of a concept, person or an event.They rejuvenate an incomplete memory such that it is perceived to be an undiminished one. Of course there are errors experienced when recalling which supports the idea of imperfect memory. These can be errors of commission, adding details which were not a part of the experience and errors of omission, which is excluding some aspects of the experience. In this paper I will support the selected metaphor and will provide evidence approving it.
Memory is defined as “the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information” (“Tmesis”, n.d.). Memory is purely mental. Everyone has memories, either pleasant or unpleasant, but they are still there. They are an essential part of who we are and without them, we would struggle to establish our identity. Memory is not only images of the past, but emotions too. They are the main reason a memory is either stored or forgotten.
As I have been reading memoirs about memory for this class, each essay made me recall or even examine my past memory closely. However, the more minutely I tried to recall what happened in the past, the more confused I got because I could not see the clear image and believe I get lost in my own memory, which I thought, I have preserved perfectly in my brain. The loss of the details in each memory has made me a little bit sentimental, feeling like losing something important in my life. But, upon reading those essays, I came to realize that remembering correct the past is not as important as growing up within memory. However, the feelings that were acquired from the past experience tend to linger distinctly. The essay that is related to my experience
What is memory and how its work. It is usually link with the ‘thinking of again’ or ‘recalling to the mind’ of a thing learned or memorized before. Definitions of this sort imply conscious awareness in the remembered that they are recollecting something of the past. For instance, we may remember our first day of school or some information like who is the president of the country. Basically, this is just tiny part of our capacity when we check out the full human memory capabilities.
The reason people exist is because of two important things: memory and language, which have been vital in the evolution of humanity. (Our ancestors needed language to explain how to light a fire to keep them warm and a memory to remember how to do it). So we have a memory because if we did not we would never have evolved far enough for you to ask this question in this place. So how does it work? The process involve in the human memory are very complex… I will present you the neuralgic and biologic part then Aurelie will talk about the characteristics of our human memory and then Sebastien will explain the troubles of the memory…
Memory is the tool we use to learn and think. We all use memory in our everyday lives. Memory is the mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experiences. We all reassure ourselves that our memories are accurate and precise. Many people believe that they would be able to remember anything from the event and the different features of the situation. Yet, people don’t realize the fact that the more you think about a situation the more likely the story will change. Our memories are not a camcorder or a camera. Our memory tends to be very selective and reconstructive.
Long-term memory is how humans process in the present, recall information from the past, or think about the future. Without long-term memory one cannot remember past memories, today, or what we may plan to do in the future. On top of that, there is no learning without long-term memory and the progress that we see today in our fast pace driven world would not exist. This is why the study and understanding of long-term memory is important for further knowledge of human nature. The long-term memory itself takes in many different forms of information including images, sounds, and meaning. The orientation of memory encompasses three important stages and the first is encoding. Encoding takes places in different locations inside the brain and this
According to Sternberg (1999), memory is the extraction of past experiences for information to be used in the present. The retrieval of memory is essential in every aspect of daily life, whether it is for academics, work or social purposes. However, many often take memory for granted and assume that it can be relied on because of how realistic it appears in the mind. This form of memory is also known as flashbulb memory. (Brown and Kulik, 1977). The question of whether our memory is reliably accurate has been shown to have implications in providing precise details of past events. (The British Psychological Association, 2011). In this essay, I would put forth arguments that human memory, in fact, is not completely reliable in providing accurate depictions of our past experiences. Evidence can be seen in the following two studies that support these arguments by examining episodic memory in humans. The first study is by Loftus and Pickrell (1995) who found that memory can be modified by suggestions. The second study is by Naveh-Benjamin and Craik (1995) who found that there is a predisposition for memory to decline with increasing age.
The sites of memory tell that we must create archives, preserve memories because the memories will not occur again naturally. Memory becomes a history with each passing moment. In modern societies today, memory is archival through recording, taking pictures. With the advent of modern technology, people are creating memories and preserving them as well. As today it is very difficult to draw a line of distinction where we can say what to remember and what not to. The prediction is impossible what we should therefore remember. “Memory transforms from historical to psychological, social to individual, from repetition to creating re-memories.”(Nora: 15)