• Fundamentally, memory represents a change in who we are. Our habits, our ideologies, our hopes and fears are all influenced by what we remember of our past.
• At the most basic level, we remember because the connections between our brains' neurons change.
• Each experience primes the brain for the next experience.
• Memory also represents a change in who we are because it is predictive of who we will become.
• We remember things more easily if we have been exposed to similar things before.
• So what we remember from the past has a lot to do with what we can learn in the future.
• Scientists divide memory into categories based on the amount of time the memory lasts.
• The shortest memories lasting only milliseconds are called immediate memories.
• Memories lasting about a minute are called working memories.
• Memories lasting anywhere from an hour too many years are called long-term memories.

Computers don’t Work like Human Memory

Modern computers encode memory as digital bits of information that are "randomly accessible."

Functionally, this means that your computer can bring up your best friend's phone number without accessing any information about what your best friend looks like or how you met.

The human brain stores memory in a very different way; recalling your best friend's phone number may very well bring to mind your friend's face, a pleasant conversation that you had, and a vacation you took together.

While computer memories are discrete and informational simple, human memories are tangled together and informational complex.

Unlike computer memories, a human memory is an abstract relationship amongst thoughts that arises out of neural activity spread over the whole brain. 

Reinforcement

The process from both a biological and a behavioral perspective is critically dependent on reinforcement.

Reinforcement can come in the form of repetition or practice; we remember that two plus two equals four because we've heard it so many times.

Reinforcement can also occur through emotional arousal; most people remember where they were when they heard about the 9-11 tragedy because of the highly emotional content of that event.

Arousal is also a product of attention, so memories can be reinforced by paying careful attention and consciously attempting to remember.

The process of converting working memory into long-term memory is called consolidation, and again, it is characterized by the loss of distracting information.

From a practical perspective, that means that we can remember something best if we learn it in a context that we understand or if it is emotionally important to us.

1. Mnemonic strategies

2. Contextual learning

3. Repetitive rehearsal

4. Emotional arousal

• Are all good ways to ensure that we remember the things that are important to us.

• By focusing our learning strategies on the strengths of the brain's memory systems, we may be able to learn more information in a shorter amount of time in a way that is useful to our lives.

• The brain is not good at remembering long lists of unrelated numbers, dozens of nonsense words, or lengthy grocery lists.

• The brain has an extraordinary ability to remember many events in rich detail (Ashish Ranpura, Yale University).

The Changing Brain and Memory

• Suppose you learn a new manual skill, such as playing the guitar.
• After months of steady practice, you take a look at your hands---they have not grown or shrunk, except for maybe a new callus or two.
• But your brain has changed—it has been quietly recruiting new neuron populations to support your guitar-playing skill.
• In particular, the cortical maps of your hands have grown

Practice Makes Perfect

Why are attention, repetition, and intensive practice the prerequisites of brain plasticity?

Do we really have to listen to our teachers, go to class every day, and do homework every night?

In 1890, philosopher and psychologist William James offered his thoughts to those of us who might have preferred a lazier route:

"Millions of items of the outward order are present to my senses which never properly enter into my experience," he wrote. "Why? Because they have no interest for me. My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind - without selective interest, experience is an utter chaos."

When we approach learning casually, we're unlikely to become experts, and our brain is unlikely to rewire itself (James Zull).

References

Ahissar, Ehud, Eilon Vaadia, Merav Ahissar, et. al. 1992. Dependence of cortical plasticity on correlated activity of single neurons and on behavioral context. Science 257:1412-1415.

Buonomano, Dean V. and Michael M. Merzenich. 1998. Cortical plasticity: From synapses to maps. Annual Review of Neuroscience 21: 149-186.

Elbert, Thomas, Christo Pantev, Christian Wienbruch, et. al. 1995. Increased cortical representation of the fingers of the left hand in string players. Science 270:305-307.

Kaas, Jon H. 1995. The reorganization of sensory and motor maps in adult mammals.

Gazzaniga, Michael S. (ed.) The Cognitive Neurosciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Merzenich, M.M. and W.M. Jenkins. 1993. Cortical representation of learned behaviors.

In P. Andersen, O. Hvalby, O. Paulsen, and B. Hokfelt (eds.) Memory Concepts. Elsevier Science Publishers.

Ratey, John.  Users Guide to the Brain (New York: PantheonBooks, 2001)

Rose, Steven., The Making of Memory (New York: Doubleday, 1993)

Schacter, Daniel., Searching for Memory (New York: Basic Books, 1996)

Singer, Wolf. 1995. Time as coding space in neocortical processing: A hypothesis.

Spitzer, Hedva, Robert Desimone, and Jeffrey Moran. 1988. Increased attention enhances both behavioral and neuronal performance. Science 240:338-340.

Sprenger, Marilee. Learning & Memory The Brain in Action (Alexandria, Virginia, 1999)

Zull, James. The Art of Changing the Brain (Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Press, 2002)

Faculty wanting further information about any of these topics are encouraged to contact Terry Doyle at doylet@ferris.edu



Check back for updates!
Website comments?  Contact danielsl@ferris.edu