Alzheimer's Disease- Video Response

It is fascinating to see how the disease was gradually changing as the time passed by, watching how sad it is for a person to have such disease. The first interview didn't seem that bad, the lady seemed to have a little trouble remembering names of people and minor details. The second case was more sadder, knowing that the old woman was stripped from her freedom to be able to drive. She also seemed to be frustrated easily and didn't seem as the person who would forget it right away, I guess this is what our teacher meant by a mild case. The next case seemed to be very sad,  as seeing how one of the greatest minds of his time, grew up to have Alzheimer's. The man wrote blogs on how each day passed by. If I would guess on which stage he was, I would have guessed on the dangerous, critical stage, where this man started to get distracted easily for large periods of time. He keeps thinking on how he imagines to daydream again and never to wake up again.

Articles on memory

Article #1- New understanding of how we remember traumatic events
Basically this article explains how emotional events can lead to disturbing long term memories. Which means that having these traumatic events is necessary for us to survive. These events can be seen as being part of a major car accident, being in combat or abused repeatedly again and again for the rest of your life. Scientists have uncovered that a part of the brain known as the amygdala, a part associated with processing emotions, which scientists discovered the cell mechanics under the emotion formation process. The article also made a huge discovery about the noradrenaline, the brain's adrenaline, is capable of "affecting the amygdala by controlling chemical and electrical pathways in the brain responsible for memory formation."

Article #2- Early scents really do get "etched" in the brain
  This article explains that our childhood has a repercussion on our adulthood. To prove this, your appetite, even your inspiration was able to affect the adulthood by simply liking or disliking a smell. The experiment was tested with several different subjects and with an MRI to study in a more deeper way.

Article #3- Some Short term memories die suddenly, no fading
As an experiment, scientists experimented on how accurate visual short term visual memory really is and if the memory actually existed. This was tested on 12 adults. The test consisted on memory based on repeating a fast paced test for 150 times. When the memory was fresh, the results were pretty accurate, but when the memory faded, the results started to appear as if they were picked randomly.

What is memory?

Explain the concept of sensory memory?

-This is known as the 1st level of memory. Sensory memory is the ability to retain impressions of sensory information after the original stimulus has ceased.

Give an example of sensory memory?

-You lose concentration in class during a lecture. Suddenly you hear a significant word and return your focus to the lecture. You should be able to remember what was said just before the key word since it is in your sensory register.

What is the capacity of our sensory memory?

-Your brain can take in a lot of information fairly accurately, but this information is not processed much at all, and it does not remain in sensory memory very long. There are 2 types of retaining this memory: Echoic and iconic meaning auditory and visual sensory memory. iconic lasts less than 1 second and echoic lasts less than 4 seconds.

Describe the concept of short term memory?

-Less than 99% of sensory information is passed on to short term memory. Two encoding processes by which we transfer information from sensory to short term memory are selective attention and future extraction. Selective attention occurs when we notice important information necessary to meet our basic needs or our own interests. Feature extraction would be observing things as unusual or out of the ordinary.

 What is the "magic number" as it relates to short-term memory and who conducted the experiment which established this measurement?

-Short Term Memory contains information that we are actively using. For example: remembering a friend's number in your mind, using short term memory by constant repetition for a short period of time and then  forgetting it. Loftus conducted an experiment related to this theory.

What is chunking? 

-Chunking refers to joining bits of information and turning them into a larger piece of information. 

What has been determined to be the ideal size of "chunks" for both letters and numbers?
  -about 7letter or 7 numbers.

Which mode of encoding does short-term memory mostly rely on, acoustic or visual?

- Acoustic

Explain the duration and capacity of long-term memory.

- In order for information to be stored in long term information, it must be encoded, which means processed or manipulated.

Explain in detail the Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of memory.

-Memory starts as stimuli, that we sense some of it goes into short term, if hold on to it,  then we can move it to long term, so once it gets there that information stays.

 Identify three criticisms or limitations of the Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of memory.
-The sensory stores are sensory systems, not memory systems as most people think of the term "memory." 
 Memories can be "warmed up" but outside of attention. In other words, intermediate levels of activation are possible.
The three-box model implies that there is just one short-term system and just one long-term system. In reality, there are many memory systems operating in parallel (for example, different systems for vision, language, and odor memory). 
Each has short-term and long-term operations.
The Atkinson-Shiffrin model does not give enough emphasis to unconscious processes. Unconscious activation is shown with a tentative, dotted arrow. Modern researchers find that unconscious and implicit forms of memory are more common than consciously directed memory processes.

Explain the Levels of Processing Model of memory.

 -According to a "levels of processing" theory, the more meaningful the rehearsal makes the material, the better the material will be remembered.

What is maintenance rehearsal - give an example.

-Keeps info in short-term, long enough to evaluate content. Examples: reading, repeating phone number.

What is elaborative rehearsal - give an example.

-Required for transferring information from short-term to long term memory.

Who developed the Levels of Processing Model and the concepts of maintenance and elaborative rehearsal? 

-F. Craig and R. Lockhart.
 

Memory video: Resoponse

After watching the video and its characters, my response is that having too much memory is a burden to its host, and having too little memory is not as bad as having too much memory. After analyzing both conditions, i have aroused with a simple question: Which condition is more difficult for its respectful host? It has been difficult to come up with the answer because both conditions are tough to live with. But having too much memory is definitely the worst, because no matter how much you try to forget something, you cant. Rethinking the answer, the beautiful memories also come up and never forget. But having limited or almost no memory is also a burden because memory is what makes a person, the experience. Having no memory makes a person struggle in knowing who he is. So the answer to this question is still undefined.