Memory

the persistence of learning over time through the storge and retrieval of information, is called memory. Or Memory is the capacity to record, retain and retrieve information. Without memory, learning would be impossible; people could not build on past experience or adapt their knowledge to new situations Research on memory has helped us in understanding how memory words. For example, at age of 92, a person suffered a small stroke that had but one peculiar effect this genial personality was intact . he was as mobile as before. He had lost most of his ability to lay down new memones of conversations and everyday episodes. He could not tell what day of the week it was. Told repeatedly of his brother in laws death, he expressed surprise each time he heard the news at other extreme, the people who would be medal winners in a memory Olympic, such as Russian journalist shereshevskil , he had merely to listed while other reporters scribbled notes. He could repeat up to 70 digits where as you and I could parrot back a string of Unarqued I sall obey (Eve) Renaissance is also form of classical age embedded. About 7 maybe even 9 - digits. Moreover, he could recall digits or words backward as easily as forward for example.:

Imagine viewing more than 2500 slides of faces and places, for only 10 seconds each. Later you see 280 of these slides, paired with others not previously seen. If you are like the participants in this experiment by Ralph haber (1970), you would recogning 90 percent of those you had seen before. I human has his own capacity for remembering countless voices, sound, and songs; tastes, smells, and textures; faces, plces, and happenings. if you lose the ability to recall your old memories them you have no life. It is suggested by a memory researcher James McGough (2003). It is our memory that accounts for time and defines our life. It is our memory that enables us to recognize family, speak our language, find our way home, and locate food and water.

Memory Process
The process of memory depends on three steps. i. ii. iii. Recording or encoding (Learning) Retaining or storage (Retention) Retrieval (recall and Recognition)

Explanation
Recording or encoding (Learning) The process of information into the memory system is called recording or encoding.

For example:By extraction meaning. When information comes into our memory system (--------------- input), it needs to be changed into a form that the system can cope with, so that it can be store (think of this as similar to changing your money into a different currency when you travel from one country to another). A word which is seen (on the white board) way be stored if it is changed (encoded) into a sound or a meaning. This stage encoding consists of a process of identifying the stimulus. In the human, this process may be accompanied by naming the stimulus, and short term memory for words or numbers can often be supplemented by a process of verbal rehearsal.

Retaining or storage
the retention of encoded information over time, is called retaining or storage. Memory specialists speak of placing information in storage, the location in the memory system in which material is saved. If the material is not stored adequately in the first place, it cannot later be recalled. When items of information are placed in the long term store, they are put into organized categories where they reside for days, months, years or a lifetime.

Retrieval or Recall (Recognition)

The process of getting information out of memory storage is called retrieval or recall (Recognition).

Memory depends on this process. In retrieval, material in memory storage is located, brought into a awareness and used. When we remember something a copy of the item is with drown or retrieved from the long term store- Imagine yourself asking someone for a telephone number you do not know. (It is in the ot her persons long term store but not in yours. The person tells you the number. (It was retrieved and resulted in a output), and off you go to dial it.

Three Types/Stages of Memory

According to one famous theory, information processing, there are three kinds types of memory that vary in terms of their function and length of time information is retained (Atkinson & Shiffrih, 1968). As shown in Fig: 9-1 sensory memory refers to the initial momentary storage of information, lasting only an instant; it is recorded by the person's sensory system. Short-term memory holds information for fifteen to twenty-five seconds; in this phase the information is stored in terms of its meaning rather than mere sensory stimulation. The third type of memory is long-term memory. Here, information is relatively permanent, although it may be difficult to retrieve.

Sensory Memory
Sensory memory stores large amounts of information for very short period of time (one second or less). All of the information that gets stored in our memories first enters through our senses. For instance, to be able to recall what a lecturer says, you first must be in class to hear that lecture. The basic idea of a sensory memory is that information does not pass directly through our sensory system, instead, it is held in sensory memory for a brief period of

time. Sensory memory has very large capacity. Although a few studies have examined other senses, most have focused on visual and auditory sensory memory. Actually, the term "sensory memory" encompasses several types of sensory memories each related to a different source of sensory informations There is an iconic memory, which reflects information from our visual system, an echoic memory, which stores information of the other senses. Sensory memory in general is able to store information for a very short time, and if material does not pass to another form of memory, that information is lost for good.) For instance, iconic memory seems to last less than a second, although, if the initial stimulus is very bright, the image may last a little longer (Long & Beaton, 1982). Echoic memory fades within three to four seconds (Darwin & Crowder, 1972). However, despite the brief duration of sensory memory, its precision is very high: it is able to store an almost exact replica of each stimulus to which it is exposed. coming from the ears, as well as corresponding memories for each

Short Term Memory

As the information stored briefly in our sensory memories consists of raw sensory stimuli, it is not necessarily meaningful to us. In order to make it sensible.

Short Term Memory

As the information stored briefly in our sensory memories consists of raw sensory stimuli, it is not necessarily meaningful to us. In order to make it sensible and long-term retention, the information must be transferred to the next stage of memory, short-term memorys Short-term memory, sometimes referred to as working memory; it is the memory in which material initially has meaning, although the maximum length of retention is relatively short. The specific process by which sensory memories are transformed into short-term memories is not yet clear. What is, however, clear is that short- term memory as a level of storehouse of human memory with limited capacity, and without the benefit of rehearsal, a brief duration. To encode information .into STM requires that we pay attention to it. Information can get into STM directly from sensory memory or it can be retrieved. The capacity of STM is limited by our attention span. /There are several limits on the amount of information to which we can attend in a short period.

Encoding in STM
Encoding involves placing information into the memory system. Do we encode into memory everything we see? We intend only to encode and remember information that we have an interest in and are motivated to learn. For example, in textbook we

most easily remember practical material or information that is interesting to read. Two important variables-in encoding information are meaningfulness and chunking.

Meaningfulness
Meaningfulness refers to informational value of the material. High meaningful material is encoded more easily than low meaningful material. Read the following letter and then, without looking, try to recall them in order; T HEDOGSAW THECAVT. How well did you do? This string of letters had very little meaning for you. However, we can increase the meaningfulness of these letters dramatically by rearranging the grouping. Here are the same letters again. THEDOGSAW THECAT. This time you should have not trouble remembering the letters, because they are arranged in meaningful, units (words). Whenever possible, we should try to remember information in a meaningful way.

Chunking
Another reason you did better second time is a phenomenon called chunking. Chunking means that information is represented in meaningful units. The above example represents the five chunks. When "fifteen words are arranged into five meaningful chunks, it becomes easy to remember them.

Capacity of STM
The storage capacity of STM is severely limited. As. researches show, most people can remember 7 (plus minus 2) items of information for a short time. This" is why

we can easily remember a telephone number of seven digits for the short time it takes to place the call after looking up the number. The digit-span memory test is often used "to test short-term memory. Following is the list of numbers. Read it once slowly and then write down as many of the numbers as you can remember: 18 791931492 Most people remember about five to nine numbers.

Rehearsal
There is a way to, keep information in the short-term memory store for a much longer time. The Atkinson shiffrin model of memory (1971) includes a rehearsal buffer in the short-term memory store. Rehearsal may take two forms maintenance or

elaborative rehearsal Craik and Watkins, 1973. Maintenance rehearsal is/simply repeating the material Phone and over again without thinking about it. We would use it if we wanted a phone number long enough to make a call. One the other hand, if the information in short-term memory is rehearsed using a process called elaborative rehearsal, it is much more likely to be transferred into longterm memory. Craik & Lockhard, 1972. Elaborative rehearsal occurs when the material is considered and organized in some fashion. The organization might include expanding the information to make it fit into a logical framework, linking it to another memory, turning it into an image, or transforming it in some other way.

By using organizational strategies called mnemonics, we can vastly improve our retention of information. Mnemonics are formal techniques for organizing material in a way that makes it more likely to be remembered. For instance, when we learn the rhyme "Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November; all the rest have......" we are using mnemonics.

Long-Term Memory:
The way information enters long-term memory is not completely understood. The process depends partly on the amount of time we rehearsed things: the longer the rehearsal, the more likely is long-term storage. But even more important is the type of rehearsal. If we simply repeat something to ourselves without giving it thought, that information seldom becomes part of our long-term knowledge. In contrast, if we take a new piece of information and mostly do something with it-from an image of it, apply it to a problem- it is most likely to be deposited in the long-term memory. Evidence of the existence of long-term memory comes from a number of sources. For example, people with certain kinds of brain injury have no long-term recall of new information following the injury (Milner, 1966). Because short-term memory following the injury appears to be operative, new material can'be recalled for a brief period, and because information from before the injury is intact, we might infer that there are two distinct memories, one for short-term and one for long-term storage.

Retrieval in LTM
As defined earlier, retrieval is the process of pulling information out of memory system. There is a difference between episodic and semantic memory in retrieval

success rate: episodic material is more difficult to retrieve than are semantic memories. There is usually no need to remember all of the details of our personal life. What did you eat for dinner last week last Tuesday? It was probably more important then, so you wouldn't eat the same thing the next day, hut now more than likely it is not of any great consequence. When we retrieve any event, we are also concerned with law of association. The importance Of association is shown in what Brown and McNeil (1986) call the tip of the tongue phenomenon; the closer you come to recalling a name or a word, the more accurately you can remember the number of syllables and some of the letters (often the first or last). What was the name of your primary school teacher? If you cannot recall it, you might say, "I can picture her, but I can't get the name yet. It is on the tip of my tongue, I know it. Mary, no it's Maria. Yes, I remember her well." In short, tip of the tongue phenomenonis exemplified the difficulties that can occur in retrieving information stored in long term memory.

Flash Bulb Memories

Flash bulb memories are memories centered on a specific, important, or surprising event that are so vivid as if they represented a snapshot of the event. Several types of flash bulb memories are common among college students. For example, involvement in car accident, meeting a roommate for the first time arid the day of high school graduation are all examples of flash bulb memories (Rubin, 1985). Sometimes when we attempt to retrieve information from long term memory, we cannot remember all of the details. So we reconstruct information. Reconstructive

memory involves combining the actual details of an event with other information that tends to fill in the gaps.

Models of Memory
Most research now suggests that long-term memory is composed of several components or memory models. Each of these models is related to a separate memory system in the brain. These are declarative memory and procedural memory.

Declarative Memory
Declarative memory is a memory for factual information, names, faces, dates and the like. The declarative memory can be further subdivided into semantic and episodic memory (Tulving, 1993). Semantic memory is memory is memory for general knowledge and facts about the world as well as memory for the rules of logic for deducting other facts (Martin, 1993). Because of semantic memory we remember that 2

Semantic memory
This memory has the additional characteristic of. allowing the individual to develop mental models of the environment. Whereas procedural memory results in the. overt behavior, semantic memory can involve cognitive activities. Knowledge that is used in everyday experience, such as 2 plus 2 equals 4, it's dark at night, are examples of semantic memory:

Episodic memory:
This is the highest memory system characteristic and provides the additional

of retaining knowledge about personal experience (Tulving 1985).

Sometimes called autobiographical memory, it includes events that have personal meaning to us. Remembering that we had chicken for dinner last night or that we,saw a movie with our friends Fareeda and Fozia last week are examples of episodic

memory. Like semantic memory, this form involves cognitive activities

Procedural Memory
Procedural memory is the most basic type of memory involving the formation of association between stimuli and responses, as when animals or humans learn to respond behaviorally in adapting to their environment (Tulving). This type of memory refers to memory for skills and habits, such as riding a bike or hitting a baseball. In short, information about, things,,is stored in declarative memory whereas information regarding hoA' to do things is stored in procedural memory (Desimone 1992; Squire and Musen, 1993).

In short, if memories are transferred into long-term memories, they become relatively permanent. Long-term memories are composed of components or modules, each of which is related to separate memory systems in the brain. For instance, we can distinguish between declarative memory (memory for factual information: names, faces, dates, events in our lives, and the like) and procedural memory (memory for skills and habits such as riding a bike or hitting a baseball). Declarative memory is further

subdivided into episodic memory memories relating to our personal lives) and semantic memory (organized knowledge and facts Other Models of Memory

Other models of memory are as follows

i) ii) iii) Associative memory Priming Explicit and implicit memory

Associative Memory
Many psychologists using associative models of memory argue that semantic memory consists of associations between mental representations of various pieces of information (e.g. Collins and Litus, 1975) which shows some of the relationships in memory relating to "animal." Fig; (9-4) The basic notion behind associative models is that when we think about a particular concept, our semantic memory activates the recall of related concepts, bringing them more readily to mind. For example, thinking about a "robin" activates our recall or related concepts such as "eats worms" and "has a red breast." As a result, if we are trying to remember some specific bit of information (such as where we left our

sunglasses), thinking about associated material may'help us recollect it (such as where we were when we last wore the sunglasses).

Priming Model of Memory

In priming model of memory, prior presentation of information subsequently makes it easier to recall related items, even when we have no concise memory of the original information (Tulving and Sohacter, 1990) for instance. Studies have found that people who are anesthetized during surgery can sometimes recall snippets of information that they have heard during surgery, even though they have no conscious recollection of the surgery (Kihstorm et al, 1990).

Explicit and Implicit Memory

The discovery that people have memories about which they are unaware has been an important one. It has led to speculation that two forms of memory, explicit and implicit, may exist side by side. Explicit memory refers to intentional or conscious recollection of information. When we try to remember name or date, we are using explicit memory. In contrast, implicit memory refers to memories of which people are net consciously aware, but which can affect subsequent performance and behavior (Weldon and ChaMs, 1989). It is still too early to tell which of these modals /views will prevail in the memory research arena. Studies that support both sides of the argument are continuing to be conducted. In the meantime, research in several areas of psychology is demonstrating that the influence of implicit memories on people's behavior may be consequential. For

instance, social psychologists are investigating how we remember what others are like and how we consequently act toward them. Similarly, psychologists specializing in learning are investigating how we can use implicit memory to teach skills more effectively. Such work promises to have important applications.

Levels of Processing: Definition

How well the material is first perceived and considered. The level of processing approcf emphasizes the degree to which new material is mentally analyzed. When processing verbal information for storage, we usually encode its meaning, associating it with what we already know or imagine. Whether we hear eye-scream as ice-cream or I Scream depends on how the context and our experience guide us to interpret and encode the Sounds. Processing a word deeply by its meaning (semantic encoding) produces better recognition of it at a later time than does shallow processing by attending to its appearance or Sound 1. Preption 2. Structural analysis 3. Situation or meaning analysis What kind of encoding do you think yields the best memory of verbal information? Visual ancoding of images? Acoustic encoding of Sounds? Semantic encoding of

meaning? Each of these levels of processing has its own brain System and each can help

For Example:
Acoustic encoding enhances the memorability and Seeming truth of rhyming aphorisms. what sobriety conceals, alcohol reveals. Seems more accurate than What Sobriety Conceals, alcohol unmasks. To compare visual, acoustic, and sematic encoding, Fergus craik and Endel Tilving flashed a word at people. Then they asked a question that required the views to process the words at one of three levels (1) visually ( the appearance of letters) (2) acoustically (the Sound of the words) (3) Semaritically (the meaning of the words). In Cralk and Tulving experiment, the deeper, Semartic processing yielded much better memory than the shallow processing.

Shallow Processing
Information is processed meraly in terms of its physical and Sensory aspects; for Example we may pay attention only the shapes that makes up the latters in the word dog People aften ask actors how they learn all those lines. They do it by first coming to understand the flow of meaning, report psychologist- actor team Helga Noice and tony Noice. Once actor divided a half- page of dialogue into three (intentions). To

flatter, to draw him out, and to allay his. With this meaningful sequence in mind, the actor more easily remembers the lines. As memory research wayne wickelgren noted, the time you spend thinking about materal you are reading and relating it to previously stored material is about the most useful thing you can do in learning any new subject mater. (The point to remember) the amount remembered depends both on the time spent learning and on you making it meaningful. Asked how certain adjectives describe someone else, we often forget them; asked how well the adjective describe us, we especially those from individualistic western cutures remember the words well. This phenomenon is called the self reference effect.

Visual Encoding
Why is it that we struggle to remember formulas, definitions, and dates, yet we can easily remember where we were yesterday, who was with us, where we sat, and what we wore? One difference is the greater ease of remembering mental pictures, our earliest memories visualliest (imagery). Memory for concrete nouns, such as cigarette is aided by encoding them both semantically and visually, two codes are better than our memory of an experience is often colored by its best or worst moment the best moment of pleasure or joy, and the worst moment of pain or frustration. probably of something that happened at age 3 or 4 involve

Imagery is at the heat of many Mnemonic devices (so named after the Greek word for memory) ancient Greek scholars and orators developed mnemonics to help them retrieve lengthy memorized passages and speeches. Some modern mnemonic devives rely on both acoustic and visual codes.

For Example
The peg-word system requires you to memorize a jingle: one is a bun, two is a shoe; three is a tree; four is a door; five is a gate; nine is swine; ten is a hen. Without much effort, you will soon be able to count by peg words instead of numbers, bun, shoe, tree and then to visually associate the peg words with to be remembered items. Now you are ready to challenge anyone to give you a grocery list to remember carrots? Stick them into the imaginary bun. Milk? Fill the shoe with it paper towels? Drape them over the tree branch. Think bun, shoe, tree and you see their associated images: carrot, milk/ paper towels with few errors, you will be able to recall the items in any order and to name any given item. Memory whizzes understand the power of such systems a study of star performers in the world memory championship showed them not to have exceptional intelligence, but rather to be superior at using spatial mnemonic strategies.

Organizing Information for encoding

Mnemonic devices can also help organize material for our later retrieval when Bransford and Johnsons laundry paragraph became meaningful, we could mentally organize its sentences into a sequemce. We process information more easily when we can organize its sentences into a sequence. We process information more easily when

we can organize it into meaningful units or structures. We more easily recall information when we can organize it into familiar, manageable chunks.

Hierarchies
When people develop expertise in an area, they process information not only in chunks but also in hierarchies composed of a few broad concepts divided and suadivided into narrower concepts and facts. For example aims not only to teach you the elementary facts of memory but also to help you organize these facts around broad priniciples, such as encoding, subpriniciples, such as automatic and effortfull processing; and still more specific concepts, such as meaning imagery and organization.

Barlett Theory
As memory is a mental process of encoding, retaining and retrieving the information. When we retrirvr the information, the memory is affected not only by the direct experience we have had with the stimulus, but by our guesses and inference about its meaning as well. The memory was based on Constructive processes was first put forward by sir Frederic Bartlett, a British psychologist who suggested that people tend to remember information in terms of schemas, themes that contain relatively little specific detail he argued that such schemas were based on the information provided by our understanding of the situation, out expectations and our awareness of the motivation underlying peoples behavior.

In a classic experiment, Bartlett asked the subjects to read a rather bizarre folk tale. He then obtained successive recalls of the story several hours or days after the reading he found that the story were omitted.

Reproduction of forms
In another experiment on forms of memory Bartlett showed the subjects an original drawing and then removed it. The subjects were asked to reproduce what they have seen. He observed that the general features, or the themes of the drawing have been retained and details have been changed or omitted.

Reconstructive Memory
Involves combining the actual details of an event with other information that tends to fill in the gaps.

For example
Suppose you were asked to describe your 10th birthday party you probably can remember some details, but not everything. In an effort to reconstruct the event, you will perhaps remember ytour brother was sick that year and couldnt attend. Because he normally attended your birthday party, you might use that detail to reconstruct the rest of you party. Bartlett thought that themes affected recall at the time of retrieval of information had originally been entered into memory accurately. However, subsequent work has show that our expectation and prior knowledge, affect the way information is initially encoded in memory.

Measurement Of Memory
Memory cannot be observed directly but is inferred from the learner's performance. There are five commonly used methods of measuring memory. i) ii) iii) iv) v) Method of Recall Method of Recognition Releaming or Savings Method Reconstruction Method Qualitative Method

Method of Recall
In this method, the subject is required to make some previously learned response. For example, while appearing in an examination, a student is often required to recall material learned during study. Memory may be .measured and defined in, terms of unaided recall-the number of items the subject can reproduce spontaneously and without assistance of any kind. In another measure, aided recall, the subject is provided with cues, such as stimulus words for which he must produce the correct response words

Method of recall includes three sub-methods: free recall, anticipation recall, paired association. In free recall the order of presentation of the stimulus item is varied on each trial, and subject can read and remember the item in any order. An example of such a list would be the names of the people invited to the party. Free recall is often used to study how people organized their memory and what strategies are used to retrieve information. In anticipation recall the stimuli are always presented in the same order and the subject has to leam them in the order in which they are presented. We use anticipation recall when we learn the letters of alphabets and months of the year. A common finding is that the items at the beginning and end of the list are remembered better than those in the .middle. This is called the serial position effect. In paired association recall the subject is presented with a series of pairs of items (for example red-bike, girl-horse, tree-dog). In subsequent trials he or she is given any of the first items of the pair (stimulus) and attempts to produce the second item (response).

Method of Recognition
Another quantitative method of measuring memory is that of recognition. In using this measure, the subject is required to recognize the original items from among a number of mixed items of the same class or category. Multiple choice questions in the examination is one such example.

Relearning or Savings Method

The subject relearns certain material to the same level as in the original learning. For instance, suppose the original criterion of learning was five errorless runs through a maze. After a period of say, 24 hours, the subject relearns the maze to the same criterion. In other words, he practices until five errorless trials occur in succession. If the original learning required 100 trials and the relearning required only 20, the savings is 80 percent.

Reconstruction Method
This method involves rearranging the parts of a task as they were originally. For example, we might show a subject 10 separate pictures that, when arranged in proper order, tell a story as in a comic strip. Then after some intervals, the subject is again presented the pictures mi random order and asked to arrange them into the proper sequence.

Qualitative Method
Gestalt psychologists used Qualitative method to study memory changes. Other researchers found that our memories reflect constructive processes', in which, memories are reflected by the meanings given to events when we recall information, the memory is affected not only by the direct experience we have had with the stimulus but by , our guesses and inferences about its meaning as well. In a classic experiment, Bartlett showed the subject an original drawing and then removed it. The subjects were asked to reproduce what t.hey have seen. He observed that the general features and

themes, of drawing have been retained but details have been changed or omitted. He performed experiments with the pictures, stories and other material.

Memory disorder
Memory disorder is the result of damage to neuroanatomical structures that hinders the storage, retention and recollection of memories. Memory disorders can be progressive, including Alzheimer's disease, or they can be immediate including disorders resulting from head injury.

Memory disorders in alphabetical order Agnosia

Agnosia is the inability to recognize certain objects, persons or sounds, yet there are many more specific diagnoses of agnosia. Agnosia is typically caused by damage to the brain (most commonly in the occipital or parietal lobes) or from a neurological disorder. Treatments vary depending on the location and cause of the damage. Recovery is possible depending on the severity of the disorder and the severity of the damage to the brain. Some examples of specific types of Agnosia include: Associative visual agnosia, Astereognosis, Auditory agnosia, Auditory verbal agnosia,

Prosopagnosia, Simultanagnosia, Topographical disorientation, Visual agnosia etc.

Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive, degenerative and fatal brain disease, in which cell to cell connections in the brain are lost. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. Globally approximately 1-5% of the population is affected by

Alzheimer's disease. It is estimated that 747,000 Canadians currently suffer from Alzheimers disease or a related dementia. It is the most significant cause of disab ility among individuals aged 65 and above.[4] Women are disproportionately the victims of Alzheimers disease, with evidence suggesting that women with AD disp lay more severe cognitive impairment relative to age-matched males with AD, as well as a more rapid rate of cognitive decline.

PET scan of a healthy brain - Image courtesy of US National Institute on Aging Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral Center

PET scan of brain with AD - Image courtesy of US National Institute on Aging Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral Center

Amnesia
Amnesia is an abnormal mental state in which memory and learning are affected out of all proportion to other cognitive functions in an otherwise alert and responsive patient. There are two forms of amnesia: Anterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia,

that show hippocampal or medial temporal lobe damage. Anterograde amnesics show difficulty in the learning and retention of information encountered after brain damage. Retrograde Amnesics generally have memories spared about personal experiences or context independent semantic information. Nally, post-traumatic amnesia (PTA) may exist without any retrograde amnesia (RA), but this is often more common in cases of penetrating lesions. Damage to the frontal or anterior temporal regions have been described to be associated with disproportionate RA. Studies have illustrated that during PTA, head injury patients showed accelerated forgetting of learned information. On the other hand, after PTA, forgetting rates were normal. As noted in the above mentioned section on traumatic brain injury it can be associated with memory impairment, Alzheimers disease; however, as far as aging is concerned it poses other threats as well. There is evidence that supports a high incidence of falls among the elderly population and this is a leading cause of TBIassociated death among the population of people 75 years of age and older. When looking at the chart to the right on the page, it states that falls are only 28% of the total causes of TBI, so that would suggest that the elderly make up a good portion of that 28% overall. Another factor associated with TBI and age is the relationship between when the injury was sustained and the age at which it occurred. It is estimated that the older the individual, the more likely they would require assistance post TBI. In some cases, individuals have reported having a particularly vivid memory for images or sounds occurring immediately before the injury, on regaining consciousness, or during a lucid interval between the injury and the onset of PTA. As a result, recent

controversy has emerged about whether severe head injury and amnesia exclude the possibility of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. In a study carried out by McMillan (1996), patients reported windows of experience, in which emotional disturbance was sufficient to cause PTSD. These 'windows' involved recall of events close to impact (when RA was brief), of distressing events soon after the accident (when PTA was short), or of 'islands' of memory (e.g. hearing the screaming of others). Brain injuries can also be the result of a stroke as the resulting lack of oxygen can cause damage to the location of the cerebrovascular accident (CVA). The effects of a CVA in the left and right hemispheres of the brain include short-term memory impairment, and difficulty acquiring and retaining new information.

Huntingtons Disease
Huntington's Disease is an inherited progressive disorder of the brain that leads to uncontrolled movements, emotional instability, and loss of intellectual faculties." Because of the inheritability of Huntinton's each child born to a parent with Huntington's has a 50% chance of inheriting the disease, leading to a prevalence of almost 1 in 10,000 Canadians (0.01%). The first signs of Huntington's Disease are generally subtle; sufferers commonly note tics and twitching as well as unexplained fluctuations of mood. Clumsiness, depression and irritability are noted. What begins as a slurring and slowing of speech eventually leads to difficulty communicating and confinement to a wheelchair or bed.

Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease. PD and aging share a lot of the same neuropathologic and behavioral features. Movement is normally controlled by dopamine; a chemical that carries signals between the nerves in the brain. When cells that normally produce dopamine die off, the symptoms of Parkinsons appear. This degeneration also occurs in normal aging but is a much slower process. The most common symptoms include: tremors, slowness, stiffness, impaired balance, rigidity of the muscles, and fatigue. As the disease progresses, non-motor symptoms may also appear, such as depression, difficulty swallowing, sexual problems or cognitive changes.

Stress
It has become clear that aging negatively affects brain function and this can encompass a decrease in locomotor activities and coordination as well as affect in a negative way learning and memory. Certain responses to stress within the hippocampus can have negative effects on learning. In a study done by Mark A. Smith, it is demonstrated that exposure to continuous stress can cause age-related issues to the hippocampus. What then becomes more noticeable is that the aging brain is not as able to recognize growth, this is a symptom of hippocampal damage. Also noted within a study relating to age and anxiety and memory it was noted that lesions on the brain can affect spatial learning as well as sex presenting at a disadvantage. Dysfunction within the hippocampus can be a reason behind aging brain changes among the elderly.

Memory Disorder and Aging

Normal aging, although not responsible for causing memory disorders, is associated with a decline in cognitive and neural systems including memory (long-term and working memory). Many factors such as genetics and neural degeneration have a part in causing memory disorders. In order to diagnose Alzheimers disease and dementia early, researchers are trying to find biological markers that can predict these diseases in younger adults. One such marker is a beta-amyloid deposit which is a protein that deposits on the brain as we age. Although 20-33% of healthy elderly adults have these deposits, they are increased in elderly with diagnosed Alzheimers disease and dementia.

Forgetting
Forgetting is a common everyday experience, but why does it occur? What conditions affect the rate at which we forget? Or, to look at the question another way, what happens in remembering? How do our memories of past experiences change over time? These are some of the questions, which we shall try to answer in this section.

Ebbinghaus Theory
The first attempts to study memory and forgetting were made by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus in 1885. Using himself as his only subject, he memorized lists of three-letters nonsense syllables, such as FIW and BOZ. By measuring how easy it was to relearn a given list of words after varying periods of time, he found that forgetting occurred systematically; the most rapid forgetting occurs in the

first nine hours and particularly in the first hours. After nine hours, the rate of forgetting slows and declines little, even after the passage of many days. Ebbinghaus research left its impact on later researches as well. There is almost always a strong initial decline in memory, followed by a more gradual drop over time. Furthermore, relearning of previously mastered material is almost always faster than starting from scratch, whether the material is academic information or motor skill, 'such as riding a bike. Life-long experiments of Ebbinghaus led to the following principles of learning and training of memory:

1. Meaningful material is learned more easily than ' meaningless material. 2. Whole learning is usually better than part learning. 3. Distributed practice is more effective than massed practice. 4. Reciting a material several times durably fixes it in memory. 5. Repetition with reinforcement does not automatically teach us associations; we
must, actively participate in the learning process.

6. Learning is quicker when the right response is reinforced with a reward than
when the wrong response is followed by punishment.

7. Punishment has the effect of preventing a child from responding and thus
destroys the possibility of learning.

8. Association and rhythm1 aid the memory process. 9. Review is important soon after learning and again form time to time. 10.
Mentally picturing the performance of task or conceptualization plays an

important role in motor skill.

11.

A special form of guidance in learning which both teaches new material

and gives the student a continuing opportunity to check his learning is very important. The study of memory, begun with Ebbinghaus continued today to provide a rich area of information about human memory! His principles are very useful when applied to everyday life. You can only retrieve' information that you have properly encoded and stored. While' some people seem naturally to have better memories than others, research has clearly shown that memory can be improved through practice and utilization of the memory techniques. Can you now remember the name of your kindergarten teacher? How about the three measures of retention in memory? You will probably be able to find out shortly how much of the memory chapter you remember. Efforts at understanding the problem of why we have yielded two major

solutions. One theory explains forgetting in terms of a process called decay, or the loss of information through its nonuse."This explanation assumes that when new material is learned, a memory trace, or en gram 'an actual physical "change in the brain occurs. In decay, the trace simply fades away with nothing left behind, because of the mere passage of time.

Forgetting / Theories of forgetting

Sometimes we can remember things that happened to us as children, while at other times we seem to forget what happened to us yesterday. Are memories permanent, or do they tend to fade with time? And if memories are permanent, why can't Aye retrieve needed information whenever we want to? Forgetting refers to

apparent loss of memory. There are several major theories of forgetting, including decay, interference, and motivated forgetting (repression),

Decay Theory
Efforts at understanding why we forget have produced two major explanations. One theory i explains forgetting in 4erms of process called decay, or the loss of information through its nonuse. The theory assumes that when new material is learned, a memory trace and actual physical change in the. brain occurs. In decay, the trace simply fades away with nothing left behind, because of the mere passage of time. There is often no relationship between how long ago a person was exposed to information and how well it is recalled. If decay explained all forgetting, we would expect that the longer the time between the initial learning and its recall, the harder it would be to remember since there would be more time for the memory trace to decay.

Interference
Since "decay is not able to fully account forgetting, memory specialists have proposed an additional mechanism called interference. In interference, information in memory displaces or blocks but other information, preventing its recall. There are two sorts of interference that influence forgetting: proactive' and retroactive. In proactive interference, information learned earlier interferes with recall of newer material. Suppose, a student of foreign languages, first learned French and after sometime took Spanish. At the time, of achievement test in Spanish, he faces difficulty recalling the Spanish translation of a word because all he thinks of is its French equivalent. In contrast, retroactive interference refers to difficulty in recall of information

because of later exposure to different material. If, for example, a student has difficulty on a French achievement test because of his more recent exposure to Spanish, retroactive interference is the culprit. One way of remembering the difference between proactive and retroactive interference is to keep in mind that proactive interference moves forward in time--the past interferes with the present whereas retroactive interference retrogresses in time, working backward as the present interferes with the past.

Experiment
To test for the effects of proactive, interference in the laboratory, psychologists have subjects in the experimental group learn List A, while subjects in the control group rest (and thus do not learn1 the list). Then both groups are required to learn List B, a new list of items. Finally, after a given period of time, both groups are tested for retention of List B. If proactive interference took place, the experimental group that had previously learned List A will not be able to remember List as well as the .control group, because List A items interfere with remembering List B items.

Experiment
In retroactive interference, newly learned information interferes with the memory of previously learned information. After you have studied Spanish until you are fairly fluent, and have meanwhile neglected your French, you might find that when reaching for a French expression you only remember the Spanish translation. Psychologists test for the effects of retroactive interference by first having both the experimental and control group learn List A. Then the experimental group learns List

B while the control group rests. Finally, after a given period of time, both groups are tested for the memory of List A. If retroactive interference took place, the experimental group that had recently learned List B will not be able to remember List A as well as the control group. The newly learned material interferes with the earlier learned material (See Figure. ,...).

Ways of Improving Memory

All of us desure to possess an excellent memory system that is robust and dependable and all of us certainty would like to know, how our memony can be improned. There are a number of strategies called mnemonics to us improve our memory. Some of these involve images, where as others emphasize self induced organization of learned information.

Mnemonics using images

This technique requires that images of and around the material, we wish to remember. The two prominent mnemonic devices are shown below.

The keyword method

Suppose we want to learn words of any foreign language. In key word method and English word that sounds similar to the word of a foreign language is idenutified this English word will function as the keyword. For e.g:. if we want to learn remember the ------- word for duck, which pato, we may use pot as the keyword and then evoke images of keyword and the target word and imagine them as interacting so in this case, we might imagin a duck in a pond full of water.

The Method of loci

In this method, the items which are to be remembered are placed as objects arranged in a physical space in the form of visual images. This method is particularly helpful in remembening items in a serial order. For example, suppose you we want to term memony, chunking can be used to improve memony as well.

First letter technique

In this technique, we need to pick up the first letter of each word we want to remember and arrange them to form another word or a sentence for example, colours of a rainbow are remembered in this way (VIBGYOR - -that stands for Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, yellow, Orange and Red).

Some other suggestions to improve memory

In place of mnemonics a more comprehensive approach to memory improvement has been suggested by many psychologist.

SQ3R techniques:
Pauk in 1984 suggested SQ3R study technique which includes surrey, question, read, recite and review. The first step is to survey the material, if we are reading a chapter of textbook, remember bread, eggs, tomatoes and soap on our way to the market, we may visnalise a loaf of bread and eggs placed in our kitchen, to matoes kept on a table and soap in the bathroom recalling all the items of our shopping list in a sequence.

Mnemonics using Organization:

Organization refers to imposing certain order on the material we want to remember. Mnemonic of this kind are helpful because the framework we create while organization, makes the retrieval task fairly easy

Chunking
This technique can increase the capacity of short term memory. In chunking, several smaller units are combined to form large chunks. Therefore, apart from being a control mechanism to increase the capacity of short we should quickly glance through the entire chapter, noting the headings style length and general format. The second step is to make, questions about the chapter and its important points. This will motivate us to study the material carefully and repeatedly. A critical step is to read the material and record the main ideas. It will provide us with written outline to study later. The next step is to recite, which means recalling what we have read. The next step is to review the collected material which helps to keep it fresh in our mind and it also reflects the ideas which we have learned.

Meaningfulness
To built a network of retrieval cuss, we should take text and class notes in our own words. To apply the concepts to our own lives, form images, understand and organize information and put it in our own words. We must increase the retrieval cues by forming actuations and jog your memory by allowing one thought to cue to the next researches show that such a meaningful material is easy to encode store and retrieve.

Organization of information
It is a process of putting information into the memory system in an organized way to save time and retrieves easily. The key is to associate new information with the information already in the system we can organize and remember material by making words, sentences, or other connection out of the information.

Peg word system technique

The system in which we associate the non familiar and difficult things with the familiar things and memorize them is called peg-system word technique. This system is processed through the auditory and visual ways. For example, A apple B for Ball and C for cat. With the names of the things, the pictures of the things are also printed on the books, in order to memorize them for a long time.

Minimize interference.
Study before sleeping do not schedule back to back study times for topics that are likely to interfere with each other, such as Spanish and French.

Sleep more.
During sleep, the brain organizes and consolidates information for long term memory sleep deprivation disrupts this process. At some point in high school or college, almost everyone has tried to pull on all nighters before a big rest.but even if we left our cramming until almost the last minute, it is more beneficial to get a good nights sleep than to study until dawn.

Our brain is bombarded with stimuli when we are awake and it used the time, we are asleep, to process everything. Thats when it gets rid of unnecessary information and doubles down on remembering important things.

Teach what youve learned to another person

Educators have long noted that one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it to someone else. For this purpose, we have to start by translating the information into our own words. This process alone helps solidify new knowledge in our brain next thing to do is, to find some way to share what weve learned. Some ideas include writing a blog post, creating a podcast, or participating in a group discussion.

Use testing to boost learning.

While it may seem that spending more time studying is one of the best ways to maximize learning, research has demonstrated that taking tests actually helps us better remember what weve learned, even if it wasnt covered on the test. The study reveled that students who studied and were then tested, had better long term recall of materials students who had extra time to study but were not tested had significally lower recall of the materials.

Final thoughts
Becoming a more effective learner can take time, and it always take practice and determination to establish new habits start by focusing on just a few of these tips to see if they help you to improve your memory