starbug1

I think one of the problems within many memory studies is equating memorizing data and trivia with intelligence.

As far as I know, it's one of the only standarized and consistent methods, but yes, I don't like it much either.

The problem with memorizing trivia is what kind of the common sense results if it is forward integrated? Such data is scattered across the boards and does not really integrate to anything specific. Maybe the common sense of all this learning is knowing how to research and find the data at the library, internet, or personal records, if it is needed again.

This is why there are smart idiots. I believe it was William Percy who said, "You can get all "A's" in school, but still fail at life." This is that common sense or "street smart" way of learning rather than just memorization, which almost every person can do. Comprehension and problem solving should be the true tests of intelligence, which doesn't seem to be the case.

Females appear to have better long term memories. They remember all the birthdays, special occations, etc., better than men, over the long haul.

I'll need to see a link for this one. I think this is so not because females are programmed that way, but because it's just something they do for consistency. I do believe this would be an imperfect example because it's not an accurate average. I know men who have the same knack for birthday's and dates as women do, and even some with a better ability. Memorizing dates from history works the same way, and you can't necessarily that women are better at that; I, for one, think it's a false stereotype that women remember birthdays and special occasions and whatnot.

Before writing and books, females were probably the cultural memory capacitance who taught traditions to the children.

Women as teachers was more of a motherly thing, nothing to do with memory capacitance. And I always thought it was the wise elders who wrote the histories, most of which were probably men. Women taught because the men were busy providing for the family or tribe, in the simplest terms.

This stronger data based memory is an aspect of a female's need for perfection. The perfection need, in turn, is connected to providing security for herself and her children.

Not sure where you're getting your information...

A man's natural nature is based less on perfection but more on completeness. The sexual drive of men is less based on creating security as it is on satisfying desire. His brain is suppose to forward integrate a wide range of exerience to create wisdom and ingenuity from all his desire impulses for experience. This data provides the matrix for the ever changing needs of environmental adaptation and for progressive change. The lion's share of inventions stem from men because of this forward data integration working in conjunction with the desire impulse. Innovation removes the old and brings in the new.

you lost me, could you reiterate?

I'd rather be pensively knowledgable than blissfully ignorant

haven't you heard, ignorance is bliss.

Thermal pollution doesn't really mean global warming. Thermal pollution is a point-source (usually) pollution. Things like power plants that use water as a coolant dump the heated water back into rivers and oceans, where it effects the habitat of those dwelling in said river.

On a tangent, those sources for thermal pollution are emitting gaseous pollution into the air, which has a negative effect on the atmosphere, which is, in part, cause for global warming. It's all relative.

You mean sex? There's a multitude of outlets for that subject without pouring your heart out before strangers. I suggest you talk to your parents, preacher, or a respected community leader.

I don't think you heard me right. We were talking about truths, the BIG lie vs. truth.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen disappointed me. It's worse than what they do to the marvel and DC comics they try to make into movies. I'm probably the only person I know who would rather read the Moore book than go see the movie.

Another reason memories fade is that they become forward integrated into the wisdom of experience. The memory branchings can also increase from the narrow range of branching assoociated with the original memories into more complex orhanization. The carpender does not need to remember every nail he hammered or every job he did, but all these memories become integrated into the wisdom stemming from years of experience.

I think this is one we can all relate to. Also, I'm pretty sure this fits into an interference or grouping explanation of why we forget. In the case of the carpender, not much memory is used to remember a specific nail. Besides, this doesn't belong in an example of relative mundane everyday experiences, facts, or memorization. You'd be hard pressed to find any carpender who remember that he just hit his 476th nail in right before lunch, or when Jerome fell off the roof. But I see your point. *This example may fit under the displacement theory--as you move on to a new nail, the memory of hitting (usually the seventh) nail is displaced--the best example for this is the memorization of 7-digit phone numbers, and I think the carpender example works in the same way.*

One of the things that I do is on certain occations, like birthdays and near New Years, I try to review everything I can remember over the past year in terms of my life's experiences, trying to recreate the emotional valance along with the memories. I am essentially giving these memories a little extra dose of ego focus so they last a little bit longer.

Does this work for you at all?

especially because people don't really think of light as a form of pollution. Things like thermal and light pollution aren't taken seriously because they are not chemicals, when in actuality they can be effecting the environment in severe ways.

With global warming, I hope that people can start to see an effect by now.

I think hybrid cars are great. I would buy one if they made them look a little cooler, and not so ugly like they are now.

I'm having a bit of trouble with this one, I can't see anything new in the article. This stuff has been pretty well known and researched for at least the past 20 years now.

Regardless, the problem is growing, and it's more of a problem than it was 20 years ago. That's what the article was trying to show.

Initially, four billion seems the most ideal, for reasons laid out by JustStuit and YT. However, a higher population upwards of 8 billion would give societies a chance to evolve faster and outward toward new locations, such as the colonization of cities build on the oceans (like in waterworld). Technology would be propelled faster with more people working at it, and Space exploration as well as any other advancement in science or medicine. Overcrowding is a problem, but when technology is utilized to better the environment, such as better waste systems and fixing the ozone layer, including finding a more economical and cleaner-burning fuel much faster, and when all of the earth is utilized for a livable habitat, a higher population shouldn't be a problem, IMO. And it seems to be going in that direction.

There is a morbid enjoyment in the feeling like you know something that a lot of people don't realize, being different. You're not really trading happiness for truth, but rather one kind of happiness for another.

Right now, currently, I feel more frustration than enjoyment; truth has not been a substituion for another happiness, and probably I'm not the only one either that feels this way. Hopefully, time will change that...hopefully when I'm out of high school.

I daresay this will have both an adverse affect on nocturnal species population and be cause for a new evolutionary adaptation as well, if nothing is done to remedy the problem. Far as I know, urbanization is continuing to grow even into remote areas of the wilderness, but that comes given with the growing population, so the light polution problem seemed bound to happen from the start.

Where I live, we have light polution glow from cities up to fifty miles away, and even in the less populated places, street lights and house lights, even if there are only a few, make it almost impossible to see all but the brightest stars.

 

It seems ot make more sense to try and answer 'Why to we remember something?" What properties of a stimulus' date=' event ,etc., make it stay in memory for longer.[/quote']

 

Okay, why do you remember something?

Hopefully it will teach them that drinking alcohol (in moderation) isn't something to be ashamed of.

Ha ha

I found the 5 theories on why we forget. However, I was wondering if there were any more, either not scientifically accepted or pending. Are there any of you that have your own theories on why we forget?

The five I found are:

The Atrophy Theory

The Interference Theory

The Displacement Theory

The Neural Consolidation Theory

The Cue Dependent Theory

http://www.scism.sbu.ac.uk/inmandw/tutorials/memory/qu4.htm

There are 4 factors involved in forgetting:

Interference

 

The dominant approach to forgetting during this century was based on interference theory. The assumption that our ability to learn is disrupted by what we have learnt before and what we will learn in the future.

Interference can be divided in two:

Proactive interference: later learning is disrupting.

Retroactive interference: earlier learning is disrupting.

Interference theory can be traced back to Hugo Munsterberg during the 19th century. He had for years kept his watch in one of his pocket, when he started to put the watch in another pocket, he realised that he was still looking for the watch in the pocket where he used to keep it. The stimulus: "What time is it? ", demanded a new response, i.e. a different pocket from the one where he used to keep it.

 

Interference does not seem to be a popular factor anymore thought as first of all, it is not very informative about the process of forgetting and secondly and secondly, it demands special situations (same stimulus for two different responses).

 

Physical damage

 

This can be done in two forms: Amnesia and brain damage.

Amnesia are temporary damages to the brain, it affects long time as well as working memory. Regardless of lesion locations, seems to affect the storage of complex associations, this ability seems to come back to normal as the subject recovers.

 

Brain damage is a more serious case as it is permanent (one part of the brain stops functioning). In this case, the subject suffers from a loss of mental abilities. Alzheimer disease is a common form of dementia.

 

Emotion

 

This can be categorised as repressionist : the subject who has been shocked so deeply, traumatised about an event, experience, refuses (unconsciously) to acquire any facts; although the subject stored the facts, they are at an unconscious level and he/she will not be able to access these facts something can be done towards the cause (trauma), which might enable the subject to recover (psychoanalysis ) .

 

Trace decay

 

The underlying assumption here is that learning leaves a "trace" in the brain, there is a sort of physical change after learning that was not there before, and forgetting is due to a spontaneous fading or weakening of the neural memory trace over time.

 

 

4. How do we forget?

 

Answer from Nathan Williams, Bamidele Fasheyiku

There are a number of theories on how we forget. These are listed below with their descriptions:

Decay (or atrophy) theory

 

Basically this states that if information is not used(or rehearsed), with time forgetting may occur. Behind this lies the theory that in memorising something, a physical change takes place within the neuroanatomy, i.e. as Solso(1991) states, a "trace" is left. This trace will eventually dissolve through disuse/neglect. However, as Solso further states the decay theory does not explain the influence of activities between the initial learning and attempted recall. This leads to the following theory, interference.

 

Interference theory

 

This theory has been the dominant approach to forgetting for the majority of this century, hence much research has been undertaken on it which has been well documented. Eysenck and Keane identify the two types of interference:

 

Proactive - when previous learning interferes with later learning.

 

Retroactive - when later learning disrupts earlier learning.

The hypothesis is that associative connections are held in memory so long as other competing information does not interfere with them. Our third experiment described in the answer to question 2 demonstrates the effects of interference. After learning, the subsequent daily activities of waking subjects inhibited their ability to recall the nonsense syllables, this being an example of retroactive interference.

 

Sperling(1986) gives the following evidence in support of the interference theory:

 

The spontaneous recall of long 'forgotten' facts.

 

The invariably greater speed at which material can be relearned than newly learned.

 

When hypnotised, the ability to recall long forgotten facts and experiences.

 

After hypnosis, the ability to carry out instructions given during hypnosis and now consciously 'forgotten'.

Displacement theory

 

This is associated with short term memory, where the capacity for information is limited to seven chunks(usually +/- 2). The theory is that attempting to learn an eighth chunk will likely displace another. As Kellog(1997) notes, this theory cannot be associated with long-term memory because of its virtually unlimited capacity.

 

Neural Consolidation theory

 

This is explained by Dobson et al(1990). They state that it is a well known fact that brain damaged patients often report memory loss for events that have taken place immediately before their accident. This is known as retrograde amnesia. However as Banyard and Hayes(1994) observe, there may be many other factors going on in such a subjects life which might influence memory. These factors could be viewed as interference.

 

There is also a theory for infantile amnesia, meaning we are unable to recall events from the first two or three years of life. The reasons for this are still unclear. A number of theories have been put forward for this, the traditional one being the inability to store events in the first place. Kellog explains that the attentional and perceptual systems of the infant may not be sufficiently developed to encode the events.

 

Cue dependant theory

 

It is generally accepted that learning takes place within a context and that we encode information in relation to its perceptual environment. Forgetting here, is actually failure of retrieval cues to match the encoded nature of items in memory, because the cueing conditions are too remote from the thing we are trying to recall. Solso identifies an experience, we are sure we as students have all gone through:

 

"I knew the answer, but I didnt know what you wanted."

 

He explains that here retrieval and encoding cues are incongruent(lecturers please note and take pity!)

 

However, this final theory is not so much based upon actual forgetting, which implies memory is lost, as it is that memories remain but are perhaps very weak and waiting for the right stimulus to revive them. This is demonstrated in the description of our second experiment in question 2.

 

 

4. How do we forget?

 

Answer from Abi Tobun, Carmen Stanley

The two traditional theories of forgetting are

The memory trace simply decays or fades away, like a notice that is exposed to the sun and rain will gradually fade away until it is illegible.

Memeory traces are disrupted or obscured by subsequent learning. In other words, forgetting occurs because of interference.

Myers, 1996 states that

"Forgetting occurs when we fail to encode information and when our stored memories decay. Forgotten events are like books you cannot find in the library, some because you never acquired them, others because they are discarded".

 

Information sometimes enters our brain and though we know it is there, we cannot get it out. For example, a person's name may be "on the tip of the tongue" waiting to be retrieved. Forgetting problems lie behind the occasional memory retrieval failure.

 

Causes of retrieval failure (forgetting)

 

Proactive Interference - This is the disruptive effect of the prior learning on the recall of new information. For example, after receiving a phone number, the old one may interfere.

 

Retroactive Interference - This is the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information. For example, the learning of new students' names interferes with a teachers recall of names learnt in previous classes.

 

 

The diagram illustrates Proactive and Retroactive interference

 

 

Repression - In psychoanalytic theory, this is the basic defence mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings and memories from consciousness. In Sigmund Freud's concept of repression, he proposed that with more painful information our memory systems are self-censoring. That is, we supposedly repress painful information. Freud said that the submerged memory still lingers and can be retrieved with patience during therapy or by some later cue.

 

"A reported case involved a woman with an intense, unexplained fear of running water. An aunt solved the mystery one day by whispering, "I have never told." The words cued the woman's memory of an incident when, as a disobedient young child, she wandered away from a family picnic and became trapped under a waterfall - until being rescued by her aunt, who promised not to tell her parents." (Kihlstrom, 1990).

 

 

4. How do we forget?

 

Answer from David Allnutt [..]

There are three main theories regarding forgetting. These are as follows:

Trace Decay

 

This is based on the idea of producing a trace in the brain tissues. If you could imagine pouring hot water into a bowl of strawberry flavoured jelly. The water will produce patterns in the jelly. If the water is too cold then the pattern or trace will be weak. This is the same for traces in the brain, if the trace is weak then the information will not be remembered.

 

Interference

 

This theory maintains that memory is based on the formation of associations. An item might interfere the learning process of associating the same item with new associations. For example when I moved from Croydon to Tadworth, I kept on remembering my old post code instead of the new one.

 

Retrieval Failure

 

The expression 'It's on the tip of my tongue' is used at some point by people who know the answer or the item in question, but cannot retrieve it. This area of memory relates to storage and retrieval. Information is stored in memory, but sometimes fails to be accessed when required.

 

Tulving and Pearlstone found out that cues made information accessible. If an incorrect retrieval cue is used then forgetting occurs.

 

The above three theories hold true for their followers, and as per usual psychological research indicates that a theory fits best in different situations.

 

An old hypothesis stated that forgetting in Short-Term Memory (in seconds) is accounted for by trace decay. While longer intervals are due to interference.

 

Melton (1963) produced a paradigm. He stated that the distinction between Short-Term Memory and Long-Term Memory cannot be maintained on the old basis. Because interference explanations seem appropriate in many short-term tasks.

Is it possible to hear subliminal messages through an audio recording, such as the ones they supposedly use in Christmas music while you are shopping at the mall? Up till now my understood definition of "subliminal message" was something that only your brain picked up, not something readily processed by any of the senses.

Since we are sharing sex-ed horror stories' date=' I had three sources of information. When I was around 11, my dad took me and my brother underneath the house on the pretext that we needed to fix the plumbing. My brother was two years older than me and, I guess, had been asking about sex. Dad had the birds and the bees discussion there under the house where it was dank and dark and crawling with bugs. The positive side is that I was fairly clueless about what he was talking about so wasn't to scarred by it. Only later, did I realize what he had been talking about.

 

The second source of information was my brother, who knew next to nothing too.

 

When I was 12, we moved out to a 360 acre "ranch" complete with a bull, about 15 cows, a couple of pigs and three horses. Once a bull mounted one of the cows and my dad told me that was sex. I was fairly horrified and made all kinds of incorrect inferences.

 

Suffice it to say that I agree sex-ed should be taught but, of course, there are lines to be drawn there too.[/quote']

 

In school, I was refrained from any sort of sex-education, and I never did get to see the pregnancy video, and I never got the "birds and the bees" talk. I got a book, and therefore the indepth scientific approach, so by age 14, i had a better knowledge of it than did most of my peers. (most of the guys I know, learned what they know about sex from porn, I'd say about 95%)

The Nigerian scam is hugely successful. According to a 1997 newspaper article:

"We have confirmed losses just in the United States of over $100 million in the last 15 months' date='" said Special Agent James Caldwell, of the Secret Service financial crimes division. "And that's just the ones we know of. We figure a lot of people don't report them."

But this is a new scam, right? People are falling for it because they've yet to catch on?

 

Wrong. Very, very wrong.

[/quote']

 

This is the part that got me. I can't believe so many people bought into it. It's probably double or triple that since, adding in all the unreported incidences.

HA! great find herpguy. Keep in mind that the inset picture is not the only one capturing Nessie's profile. The others, for instance, this one, , don't match up with an elephant's trunk.

Anywho' date=' day 2.

 

Our homework? Unimaginably hard. "Bring in your copy of Ethan Frome tomorrow to be exchanged for Of Mice and Men." Funny thing is, half the class probably won't even do it. As for that vocabulary homework? Wasn't even collected, wasn't even checked. What if there were errors? Come to think of it, there won't be any -- the teacher actually ENCOURAGES you to just copy and paste from a dictionary website. How the hell is that teaching?

 

My question now is, with the apparent "goals" of the American public school system, what the hell are we trying to create? What are we trying to accomplish? Creating complete conformity that doesn't prepare for the future, and doesn't even try to teach critical thinking? No damn wonder we're chock full of fundies and creationists -- people can't even think for themselves now. If any of you have read the last few chapters of Carl Sagan's book The Demon Haunted World, you'd know what I mean when I say that we're raising a generation of idiots.[/quote']

 

I blame sparknotes. Sparknotes.com is solely responsible for why people can graduate without reading a goddamed thing. My graduating class is 47 people, 47. Out of them, approximately 8 have never read a book in their life.

 

Bleh. Get over it. Just because she's famous doesn't mean you should pay any more attention to it than if anybody else did it. I'm sure if you saw pictures of random 15-year-old person x you wouldn't care.

Imagine what it does to Hermione's fans, most of which are between 7 and 17, some role model.

kind of ironic, this game. I can't wait to hear the criticism from creationists.

From "Journals"

...Because a lot of people liked me the sides were even but I couldn't handle the ridicule so on a saturday night I got high and drunk and walked down to the train tracks and layed down and waited for the 11:00 train and I put 2 big pieces of cement on my chest and legs and the train came closer and closer.

And it went on the next track beside me instead of over me. So I rode the bus to Lakeside School from Jenkins Lane every day pretending to go to school and doing acid instead walking in the woods, so my mom would think I was going to school & the cops stopped me one night...

It was in his letters, so I think that constitues as a sucide attempt. I'm not going to look through the whole book right now to find them all. I'm sure though when I read it there were at least 3 or 4 more letters describing suicide attempts, and at least two of these were talked about in sources outside of his journaled accounts, and although one or two may have been accidental, he was most definately ODing intentially...I'll keep looking.

This was this one drug that made a small percent of people who used it have orgasms whenever they yawned.

do they still have it, and if so, where can i get it!

on the bright side, it's always refreshing to review words you already know, just in case there is any discrepancy.