REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING

REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE MD 1 SEMESTER 1 24TH JANUARY 2016

PRESENTERS: • JIMMY MCHALANGE • HONEST MUNISHI • RESPIQUOUS TARIMO • LUPYANA LAITON • ILINDE KALINGA • LISA MAGETA • RILLER SWAI • LIGHTNESS CHUWA • GLORY MDENDEMI • IRENE SHILIMA

OUTLINES: • Introduction • Definition of terms • Specific objectives • Main Presentation • Summary • Conclusions • Recommendations • References

INTRODUCTION • Human beings have knowledge about many things; mathematics, physics, biology and other subjects about life. For these knowledge to be retrieved, they must be remembered however sometimes people forget things that had happened. • The ability to store and recall previous experiences is fundamental to effective human functioning. This process of recall need not be conscious; many of our current activities are based upon habit and habit itself maybe considered a form of memory. • Habits are acquired by the process of learning, and they are derived entirely from previous experiences. For example reading these lines requires skills from primary school.

The learning and recall of experiences is a cognitive process that has value in enabling an individual to modify his environment. It is not possible to function solely in this instant of time • The nervous system is said to have been altered as a result of experience, and the resulting modification of behavior controlled by the altered nervous system is a demonstration of the aspect of memory. • Memory maybe thought of as a measure of the effectiveness of the learning process. If something is to be learned and retained for later recall then reinforcement must be present. • For example social approval, status, money, acquire qualifications.

DEFINITION OF TERMS: • Cognitive process: the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge through thoughts, experience and the senses. • Memory: The mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experience. Or the act or an instance of remembering; • Habit: A recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition. • Déjà vu: the experience of thinking that a new situation had occurred before • Rule: a memory technique in which one tries to understand the underlying principles or logic of the stored information. • Rote: a technique to memorize material by repeating it mechanically without regard to its logic or structure. • Phonetic: Representing the sounds of speech with a set of distinct symbols, each designating a single sound • Semantic: It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words phrases, signs, symbols, and what they stand for.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES • Understand the concept of conscious learning • The attempt to acquire knowledge, or to store information with the purpose of retaining it for reproduction at some later time. • To be able to explain the process of memory and recall • To be able to explain the process of forgetting • To understand memory, how we remember and why we forget.

MAIN PRESENTATION: THE ACT OF REMEMBERING This act presumes previous learning and involves 3 main steps: • Recognizing the request to recall and preparing to search the memory files • Going to the correct file, reviewing relevant memories or associations and selecting it • Reproducing the memory through the same medium of communication, speech, writing, gesture.

The quality of learning is affected greatly by the material to be memorized: 2. Intrinsic factors include: • Meaningful material • Part vs whole learning • Massed vs spaced practice • Interference from previous learning • Sense modalities involved • 1. Extrinsic factors include: • Age • Intelligence • Motivation • Physical state e.g. fatigue, cold • stress

Several aspects of the act of remembering include: • Recognition • Recall • Reproduction • Performance memory 01. Recognition: • this activity results in a positive or negative response that a particular stimulus has been perceived before. Although there are many reports of false recognition that lead to mistaken ideas or belief. E.g. the phenomenon of déjà vu. 02. Recall: • this process represents an active search of stored material upon demand. It usually involves longer term memory store where there is a tendency to file experiences or previous learning under a general heading/ gist.

03. Reproduction: • this calls for an accurate presentation of previously learned material. This occurs when over-learning is done, unless the reproduction follows a very short time interval after the initial perception of the material. Sometimes due to the short time interval, accurate retention is difficult. In these cases repetition and rehearsal of the material is resorted to, and after use deleted from memory. E.g. telephone number read from a directory On the other hand though, we can reproduce nursery rhymes, arithmetic tables or prayers after years without turning to the aspect of rehearsal. It can be noted that the more effort to make a recall conscious, it can have the effect of blocking the memory so that one has to repeat the entire passage again without thinking too much about it. 04. Performance memory: • this is the re-enactment of previously acquired habits. It is similar to reproduction except no language or conscious thought processes need to be involved. E.g. knowing and remembering how to ride a bicycle even after a few years.

The process of memory and recall Stage 1: perception of the stimulus material If anything is to memorized the experience first needs to be recognized. Recognition involves recall, which gives the experience meaning. Recognition is whereby lingering traces of information is sent to the brain by the senses. The stimuli experienced is never single isolated but in series against a background of other sensory experiences. E.g. when reading a book. This process is instant and occupies a very short period of time. Factors that affect the perception include: • The degree of complication. • Speed of presentation of stimuli. • Interference of extraneous stimuli like outside noise or frightening equipment on view.

Stage 2: Short-term memory • This stage is the storage of information normally requires the material to be turned into symbols for easy filling. In children there is evidence that they can store detailed visual information, this phenomenon is referred to as eidetic imagery and is an ability that disappears as the superiority of linguistic symbols for retention becomes more apparent in adult life. In adults though this is usually achieved through language but intense experiences maybe retained directly from the sensory store. E.g: recollection of strong odours. For short term memory, there is a limit to the amount of material that can be held. Information can be lost due to continuous presentation of more information. The limit varies from one person to the next and also the type of material being held in the shot term memory store. For example from a list of items, we are likely to remember the earlier and later portions rather than the middle items, this is called primary and recency effects in short term memory. To overcome this problem, techniques like repetition, rehearsal and cutting out extra non required material, while retaining the gist of the information that is required. Example: a doctor giving instructions to a patient will remain in the patient’s short term memory store, reinforcement can be given by repeating or writing down the instructions.

Stage 3: transfer to long-term store It involves the use of symbols, usually language when the material to be retained is filed. The permanency of the store is related to: • Number of associations attached to the information • Amount of learning that has gone into the memorizing process Almost any new experience of significance can interfere with the long term retention. Example: when the doctor gives instructions to a patient, when the patient goes back home with only sketchy memory of what had been said. He makes a conscious effort to remember only when the situation demands it.

Stage 4: retrieval from store • The way in which efforts are made to remember depends on the kind of task being set. It may be a matching task, whereby in a police station, one might be called to recognize a criminal. This can be very unreliable though the persons trying to recall may feel quite confident of their decisions. Practice and over learning often improve retrieval. This is a fairly automatic process as the stimulus material, the request to recall serves to trigger associations and the relevant files seem to become more active and available.

Factors that have effect upon retrieval include:01. The time interval between learning and process of recall02. The more aids that are available to trigger associations, the better the recall03. The less extraneous stimulation between effort to memorize and the act of recall, the better the recollection. The activity with least interference with memory is SLEEP.04. There is some evidence that in sleep, memories are put into files of some permanence where they are associated with relevant past experience. This process is called CONSOLIDATION.05. The activity of over-learning which is the continuing to practice the acquisition of material by repetition long after it can be reproduced with total accuracy from short term memory stores, serves to aid retrieval. E.g. learning to ride a bicycle even after a few years have passed.

Very important to note, is the concept of memory trace. This partly depends on the brain’s neurotransmitters. Example acetylcholine, which it appears to be decreased in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease. (progressive deterioration or memory and other intellectual fns) • Vivid recollections exist because memory is closely tied to the limbic system, the brain's seat of emotions. This phenomenon has been given the name flashbulb memory. There is evidence that neurotransmitters released during emotional arousal enhance learning and memory.

FORGETTING • Is the gradual loss of memory even after the initial learning has been adequate and retention might have been expected to be relatively permanent. Example: remembering a word list, immediate recall id 100%, after 24hrs reveals a loss of information and as time passes, more information is lost. Models of memory The following theoretical models have been put forward in the account to explain forgetting. • The decay theory • The interference theory

01. The decay theory: This theory believes that as an individual ages so his memory stores being to degenerate and a lot of material is lost, at the same time new learning is not retained because an adequate storage system is no longer available, so the material has to be packed into existing files where it gets lost.

02. The interference theory: States that forgetting was the result of interference with new learning with old and vice versa. It was suggested that childhood experiences were well remembered because the stores were large, empty and available at that time. As us humans’ age, the stores get filled up and new material is retained only after competing with existing stored information. For example; being able to remember a certain past experience is explained by saying that careful checking reveals that the details are inaccurate and the recollection is in fact a composite event made up of many experiences derived from similar experiences often spread over several years.

SUMMARY: The act of remembering involves stages in the memorizing and recall process and the problems associated with the process. These problems maybe due to factors associated with the material memorized intrinsically and extrinsically, the environment as well as in the remembering and retrieval processes. Hence these problems intensify the process of forgetting.

SUMMARY CONT……

CONCLUSION • Human memory function is limited as the result we forget easily, however different techniques have been developed to overcome this problem. • Long term memory store is coded in a manner that facilitates retrieval through a system of cross references or associations. Phonetic similarities lead to confusion while semantic relationships facilitate storage and retrieval. • Made-up stories are a method of clustering items of information that would not otherwise hang together. They are particularly helpful if you form an image of the event. • Imagery is helpful since we have an extraordinary ability to remember visual information. Also Mnemonic devices greatly help. • Also we can note that examining the process of forgetting it is not the quality of the memory storage in question but difficulties in retrieval. • Example: The phenomenon whereby words seem to disappear off the tongue.

RECOMMENDATIONS • This study is clinical important in the specialties of neurology, counselor and psychiatry but may indeed be a significant issue in all aspects of living. Because difficulties maybe experienced at any stage in the memorizing and recall process. • Finding meaning and organization is useful in forming associations. It is more effective to learn by rule than by rote. • The law of over-learning should also be considered; which states that after you have learned something continuing to work at learning it tends to increase the length of time you remember it.

REFERENCES • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantics • http://www.thefreedictionary.com/phonetic • http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deja+vu • http://www.thefreedictionary.com/habit • http://www.thefreedictionary.com/memory • A.C.P. Sims & W.I.Hume lecture notes on Behavioral Sciences. • Psychology an introduction by Jerome Kagan and Julius Segal

“THANK YOU FOR LISTENING..!”

REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING