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My speech: "Memory Mechanics"
Like the massive biodiversity of Earth’s life forms, so are there a great variety of machines. Certain species could be easily recognized by the general public, such as the lion, and so are there the simple mechanisms, such as the lever that the
workings of could be easily comprehended. Yet, as there are the simple, so are
there the little-understood-of, and more complex structures, that no sole
person can grasp the entire mechanics of such as: rocket ships, the global telecommunications
system, and our own bodies. Upon that subject, memory is one of the bodily
functions that make up who we are, yet so little of this major constituent of
our identity has been understood.
There are two categories that any remembered information could fall into. These are “explicit” and “implicit” memory, better described as “conscious” and “unconscious” memory.
Most would describe explicit memory as “thinking” memory, because this is
information that usually comes in the form of imagery that our mind generates.
As for implicit memory, this is a type that could be considered as an almost
“instinctive” bodily response. An
example would be a reaction to seeing that guy you lost a fight to, your blood
pressure, breathing and muscle tension may increase; preparing yourself for
another brawl.
Enhancing these memories are emotional factors. Some of our most profound memories, maybe all, are those that have an underlying emotional impact to them, as quoted from How to become a Memory Champion (Part 2), “You will recognize , that the best memories in your head are always full of
emotions, like birthdays, Christmas, your first day at school, your first kiss
marriage, the birth of your children.” Not only does emotion affect the brain,
it affects the rest of the body: if sad, one may cry, or a happy person may
laugh. Emotions activate different parts of the brain, from the hippocampus
that process memories, to the amygdale our emotional warehouse. With more
sections working in unison, a stronger link, called a “synapse” is created. Due
to this, we recall memories with an emotional impact to them faster than a
plain and insipid one.
Now, there has to be places to store these memories, and there happens to be three: the sensory information, short-term, and long-term store.yes""> The first two stores have an input limit, old information generally being discarded when such boundary is about to be breached.
Every second, we’re receiving millions of information, which can come in five forms: visual, aural, olfactory, gustatory and tactile. yes""> When it comes to sensory information, the new is always interfering with the old. Our
brains decide what to ignore, and what to focus our attention to. Less than 99%
of the sensory information that enters our brain will be further processed to
enter our short-term memory. When watching an exciting movie, our attention is
to the movie, a piece of visual information, not to the tactile information of
how your clothing feels.
The short-term store holds memories that we may be currently “working” with. What we focus on enters our short-term memory, which requires more complex processing from our brain, than sensory information. Points of our focus may be an old memory we
retrieved from the long-term reserve, or some important source of sensory
information, such as the voice of the person speaking to you.
Long-term memory consists of held information that can be stored, and then retrieved, even if we’re not constantly thinking about it. The long-term store is believed to have an unlimited storage capacity
and from this point, many believe that all information that enters this
depository will permanently remain there. Any “forgotten” information will
still be there, but cannot be accessed due to a weak link. Others believe that
forgetting memories is due to its aging and deterioration over time.
Experiments to test these hypotheses accurately are near impossible to conduct,
due to the fact that the full workings of memory have yet to be fished out of
the endless void of unknown knowledge.
The journey that every memory takes, is one that may last from seconds to minutes, with varying factors that either boost or reduce the speed of memorization. From the ultra short-term memory of the sensory information store to the lifetime memories
that will go to the grave with the each of us, it is not hard to imagine that something,
which uses a communications system far more complex yet, more compact than the
globe’s, has still yet to be fathomed. If we could understand what lurks in the
murky abyss of our minds, we could understand everything about ourselves.
Like the massive biodiversity of Earth’s life forms, so are there a great variety of machines. Certain species could be easily recognized by the general public, such as the lion, and so are there the simple mechanisms, such as the lever that the
workings of could be easily comprehended. Yet, as there are the simple, so are
there the little-understood-of, and more complex structures, that no sole
person can grasp the entire mechanics of such as: rocket ships, the global telecommunications
system, and our own bodies. Upon that subject, memory is one of the bodily
functions that make up who we are, yet so little of this major constituent of
our identity has been understood.
There are two categories that any remembered information could fall into. These are “explicit” and “implicit” memory, better described as “conscious” and “unconscious” memory.
Most would describe explicit memory as “thinking” memory, because this is
information that usually comes in the form of imagery that our mind generates.
As for implicit memory, this is a type that could be considered as an almost
“instinctive” bodily response. An
example would be a reaction to seeing that guy you lost a fight to, your blood
pressure, breathing and muscle tension may increase; preparing yourself for
another brawl.
Enhancing these memories are emotional factors. Some of our most profound memories, maybe all, are those that have an underlying emotional impact to them, as quoted from How to become a Memory Champion (Part 2), “You will recognize , that the best memories in your head are always full of
emotions, like birthdays, Christmas, your first day at school, your first kiss
marriage, the birth of your children.” Not only does emotion affect the brain,
it affects the rest of the body: if sad, one may cry, or a happy person may
laugh. Emotions activate different parts of the brain, from the hippocampus
that process memories, to the amygdale our emotional warehouse. With more
sections working in unison, a stronger link, called a “synapse” is created. Due
to this, we recall memories with an emotional impact to them faster than a
plain and insipid one.
Now, there has to be places to store these memories, and there happens to be three: the sensory information, short-term, and long-term store.yes""> The first two stores have an input limit, old information generally being discarded when such boundary is about to be breached.
Every second, we’re receiving millions of information, which can come in five forms: visual, aural, olfactory, gustatory and tactile. yes""> When it comes to sensory information, the new is always interfering with the old. Our
brains decide what to ignore, and what to focus our attention to. Less than 99%
of the sensory information that enters our brain will be further processed to
enter our short-term memory. When watching an exciting movie, our attention is
to the movie, a piece of visual information, not to the tactile information of
how your clothing feels.
The short-term store holds memories that we may be currently “working” with. What we focus on enters our short-term memory, which requires more complex processing from our brain, than sensory information. Points of our focus may be an old memory we
retrieved from the long-term reserve, or some important source of sensory
information, such as the voice of the person speaking to you.
Long-term memory consists of held information that can be stored, and then retrieved, even if we’re not constantly thinking about it. The long-term store is believed to have an unlimited storage capacity
and from this point, many believe that all information that enters this
depository will permanently remain there. Any “forgotten” information will
still be there, but cannot be accessed due to a weak link. Others believe that
forgetting memories is due to its aging and deterioration over time.
Experiments to test these hypotheses accurately are near impossible to conduct,
due to the fact that the full workings of memory have yet to be fished out of
the endless void of unknown knowledge.
The journey that every memory takes, is one that may last from seconds to minutes, with varying factors that either boost or reduce the speed of memorization. From the ultra short-term memory of the sensory information store to the lifetime memories
that will go to the grave with the each of us, it is not hard to imagine that something,
which uses a communications system far more complex yet, more compact than the
globe’s, has still yet to be fathomed. If we could understand what lurks in the
murky abyss of our minds, we could understand everything about ourselves.
