Memory :: essays research papers

Memory is defined as the faculty by which sense impressions and information are retained in the mind and subsequently recalled. A person’s capacity to remember and the total store of mentally retained impressions and knowledge also formulate memory. (Webster, 1992) â€Å"We all possess inside our heads a system for declassifying, storing and retrieving information that exceeds the best computer capacity, flexibility, and speed. Yet the same system is so limited and unreliable that it cannot consistently remember a nine-digit phone number long enough to dial it† (Baddeley, 1993). The examination of human behavior reveals that current activities are inescapably linked by memories. General â€Å"competent† (1993) behavior requires that certain past events have effect on the influences in the present. For example, touching a hot stove would cause a burn and therefore memory would convey a message to not repeat again. All of this is effected by the development of short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). Memories can be positive, like memories of girlfriends and special events, or they can be negative, such as suppressed memories. Sexual abuse of children and Memory 3 adolescents is known to cause severe psychological and emotional damage. Adults who were sexually abused in childhood are at a higher risk for developing a variety of psychiatric disorders, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and mood disorders. To understand the essential issues about traumatic memory, the human mind’s response to a traumatic event must first be understood. The memory is made up of many different sections with each having different consequences on one another. Can people remember what they were wearing three days ago? Most likely no, because the memory only holds on to what is actively remembered. What a person was wearing is not important so it is thrown out and forgotten. This type of unimportant information passes through the short-term memory. â€Å"Short-term memory is a system for storing information over brief intervals of time.† (Squire, 1987) It’s main characteristic is the holding and understanding of limited amounts of information. The system can grasp brief ideas which would otherwise slip into oblivion, hold them, relate them and understand them for its own purpose. (1987) Another aspect of STM was introduced by William James in 1890, under the name â€Å"primary memory† (Baddeley, 1993). Primary memory refers to the information that forms the focus of current attention and that occupies the stream of thought. â€Å"This information does not need to be brought back to mind in order to be used† (1993). Compared to short-term memory, primary memory Memory 4 places less emphasis on time and more emphasis on the parts of attention, processing, and holding. No matter what it is called, this system is used when someone hears a telephone number and remembers it long enough to write it down.