Memory:Are forgotten memories lost forever?

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Cognitive Psychology PSY 504

Lesson 32

Memory

Long Term Memory

Recall versus Recognition

Eye witness testimony or expert witness

When we recognize others we make our own ways. For example we see Chinese and recognize

them as Chinese because of their small eyes and foreheads. We also perceive black farm people

same. This is just because of the things that we see common in all black farms. So, false

testimony can be made by people. For example a white man sees a black farm man at night then

he thinks other black farms are same like that black farm.

Our memory is inference by our contextual clues that are saved in our long term memory. We use

these clues or information from our memory to fill our gap.

Activation in network

The following figure is showing the activation in a network. The word penguin has two links, one

is bird and other is swimming. Bird and swimming have their links as well. If we think about

swimming the activation model will become active and we can recall penguin because of its

connection with swimming. So the words are linked with other so many words. By remembering

one word we can recall others as well.

So, in our daily life if we want to learn things if we make links of this information then it become

easy to remember or recall. For example we want to learn an essay of parents, we make different

links like father, mother, love, affection, help, sacrifice, food, help etc. so, students should make

links among information they can easily recall information in exams.

Even in the case of historical memories if we make links it become easy to recall. For example

you want to recall who made or discovered Sulfuric Acid? If we have learnt it and make a link with

it that sulfuric acid was made by Muslim scientist. Then we can recall it easily.

When the students are learning the lessons if they make a network of all material than they can

easily recall it. If they make picture of material and learn it then it will also help in recalling.

Because the memory of pictures is better and has deeper quality to recall than for words. Memory

for smells is long lasting than all other memories. For example you take just one drop of perfume

and put it on the page where you are making network. Then it will help in remembering the

information. Because, the association between interesting and boring things makes remembering

easy and fast. It is called elaborate networks

Cognitive Psychology PSY 504

In all kind of material sciences, like physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, all kind of

information becomes easy because of these elaborate networks. Different pictures or figures are

also given in books because these figures help in remembering things easily. Even in subjects of

History or Islamiyat different hierarchies and tables are also given.

Another example of memory for smells is that mostly the females use diaries that have smell.

Some females or people put some perfume on their notebooks.

Are forgotten memories lost forever?

An important issue to consider while talking about the memory is that whether or not the forgotten

memories are lost for ever.

An interesting possibility is that we never do really lose our memories that forgotten memories are

still there but are too weak to be retrieved. Penfield (1959) conducted an experiment to report this

notion.

In that experiment as a neurosurgical procedure, he electrically stimulated parts of patients'

brains and asked them to report what they experienced (patients were conscious during the

surgery but the stimulation technique was painless). In this way Penfield was able to determine

the function of various portions of the brain. Stimulation of the temporal lobes led to reports of

memories that patients were unable to report in normal recall, for instance, events from their

childhood.

It was as if Penfield's stimulation activated portions of the memory network that spreading

activation could not reach. Unfortunately, it is hard to know whether the patient's memory reports

were accurate, since going back in time to check on whether the events reported actually

occurred was nearly impossible. Therefore, although suggestive, the Penfield experiments are

generally discounted by memory researchers. Even so, the question of forgotten memories and

its importance remains the same.

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