Memory Techniques Essay, Research Paper

Psychology 345Research paperObjective: I will associate three memories from my experiences at Texas A & A ; M University to three different memory techniques discussed in the book. One memory that I will retrieve occurred this semester. It involved a miss who was killed in a auto accident. One memory technique that will help in my remembrance of this event is & # 8220 ; Memory for Personally Relevant Information & # 8221 ; method. This process says that personal relevancy of information has a pow-erful consequence on memory Rogers, Kuiper, and Kirker ( 1977 ) . This memory is per-sonally relevant for me because the miss that was killed in the accident was a junior, and she was a psychological science major. I am besides a junior psychological science major, hence I can associate to her in several different ways. One manner is the fact that she was a junior and was likely traveling to graduate in 2000 ; moreover, I besides was on path to graduate in 2000. The other manner I can associate to her is being a psychological science major. More than probably I have had her in a category over the past cou-ple of old ages. I besides know how difficult some of the psychological science classes she has had to take over her college calling. Personally relevant events have more process clip devoted to them than do events which are non-personally relevant. This extra processing influences memory, but it is the personal relevancy that attracts the extra processing. Another of import memory technique that will impact my recalling of this incident is the: & # 8220 ; Flashbulb ( vivid ) Memory & # 8221 ; method. Flashbulb memory is defined as the callback of really of import, graphic, and frequently emotionally eliciting events. In Brown and Kulik & # 8217 ; s ( 1977 ) research, they found that topics reported a really graphic and personal remembrance of several striking events ( President John Kennedy & # 8217 ; s blackwash ) . I was siting the coach to school when the accident occurred ; moreover, our coach passed by right after the accident had occurred. I could see the miss still stuck in the auto. I can still visualize her in that auto and how smashed up the auto was. I think that seeing the auto she was in and seeing her trapped in the auto are flashbulb memories and therefore will be easy recalled with vivid and emotional responses.Another memory that I will discourse is the door to room 103 in the O & A ; M edifice. The specific characteristic that I am concerned with is which manner the door opens- by forcing it or drawing it. Over the past twosome of old ages I have had sev-eral categories that meet in room 103 ; hence, the characteristics of this door are par-ticularly relevant to me. The text edition states in a similar experiment that many people report that they visualize the room, Iraqi National Congress

luding the door. To get the an-swer, you need information from long term memory and the visual representa-tion reported by many people suggests that long term memory stores images. The recalling of whether the door opens by push or pull is affected by two very important questions. One issue is whether or not some representations in long term memory are functionally equivalent to visual perception (Solso, 1991). In other words, was the visual information retrieved from memory or, alternatively, was the information retrieved in nonvisual form and then converted to a subjective visual experience. The second question that is raised is the func-tional equivalence of images and visual perceptions. The research strategy to determine directly if a representation in memory is identical to a visual percep-tion is to establish conditions under which imagery theoretically should be a fac-tor and then determine if performance is comparable to what would happen if the person actually were seeing the event. Given this, arguments can be made that the image functions equivalently to visual perception. Some memories that I will probably forget over time are who I went to sporting events with when A&M lost the game. Because A&M didn’t win, I think the personal relevance that I had in other memories mentioned would not occur in these memories. My basis for this is Rogers, Kuiper, and Kirker (1977), when they showed that personal relevance of information had a powerful effect on memory. Another factor in my memory of these people is memory and aging. Leah Light (1991) came up with four general hypothesis about age-related memory deficits: 1. Failure to use effective strategies for remembering due to insufficient knowledge about memory, 2. Defective encoding of experiences due to deficits in comprehension, 3. Deficiencies in deliberate retrieval, 4. Encoding deficits due to reduced cognitive processing capability.Conclusion: The memory of the student dying in the car wreck will be stored as a flashbulb memory for future recollection. The fact that she and I both were junior psychology majors, and the visual picture I have of her trapped in her car will reinforce this memory, and therefore be recalled with much emotion and vividness. The memory of the door to room 103 at the O&M building will remain in my mind as a visual representation, because I have had several classes in that room. The recollection of this image in my mind is under debate because of the issue of whether or not the representation in my long-term memory is equivalent to visual perception. The other question is whether or not a representation in memory is identical to a visual perception.