Week 9_Shook

Response blog: Memory Loss

Memory is the central intersection of verbal language, writing, reading, math, consciousness, feeling, emotion, learning in general, and everything in between. Memory also plays a key role in everyday cognitive activities such as basic arithmetic, language comprehension, decision-making, and complex reasoning. Learning and memory go hand-in-hand. You cannot have a conversation about one without the other. Metaphorically, the two are as inseparable as the two hydrogen atoms that compliment the one oxygen atom in the molecular compound that gives us water. Memory's complex equation can be broken down into three basic stages: acquisition, retention, and retrieval. 

Acquisition is thought of as the gaining of new information or knowledge. It is the initial stage of learning. This is the first process of memory. People acquire new information and it is stored for a brief period of time. This new information is quickly disregarded by the brain if it is not thought of as important new knowledge in an attempt to keep the most important information on the forefront of our brains for the retrieval process. The brain cannot remember everything and must dissect what is and what is not useful for the future.

Retention is the second stage of memory. It is where new knowledge is being used over and over again until the brain stores it as being useful for the future. The persistence of new knowledge over the passing of time is the transition from the initial stage of acquisition, to the middle stage of retention. Being able to retain information takes many attempts and actually retaining new knowledge will facilitate a very easy retrieval process. If the retrieval process is not easy, full retention may not have occurred.

 Retrieval is the last and final stage of memory. Retrieval is the act of pulling the previously learned information from deep within the brain to the forefront of the brain. In layman's terms, it is known simply as remembering. These neurological pathways can be faulty, however. If the retrieval process is difficult, either the pathway was not fully formed or retained to begin with or because lack of use for possibly years has resulted in harder retrieval process. This is why people forget parts of a language they haven't spoken in years. The brain attempts to prioritize what is and isn't important and this allows for the faulty memory pathways mentioned earlier.

Memory is a very complex topic that is probably even more perplexing than scientists know currently. Acquisition, retention, and retrieval attempts to conceptualize the theoretical stages and processes of memory. 

Crowder, R. G. (1976). Principles of learning and memory. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.