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Essay On Long Term Memory

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“If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't”. (Pugh) . The brain is such a long-lasting mystery in every medical profession in the way it operates, commands and stores information. One of the main reasons I am interested in studying the human brain other than it being a mystery is because there is a lot of research potential and my main interest is in memory. There are two types of memory of the human brain, long term memory (LTM) and short-term memory (STM) or as many people call it working memory. The definition of short term memory as defined by Oxford dictionary is “The phase or type of memory responsible for the temporary storage of information” The average capacity of STM is about 7 items plus or minus 2 according to Millar’s …show more content…

Recall: Is remembering a fact, object or event that is not currently present. It is more complicated than Recognition because it is actively reconstructing the memory and that requires the activation of all the neurons involved in the storage of that memory e.g. answering an essay question requires you to recall all of the information about the topic of the question. (Pearson, pg.452) One of the main reasons why distractions are thought to affect STM is because this type of memory is very fragile and with the slightest change in subjects the whole memory would focus on the changed subject and the previous idea would be lost. This is why sometimes when you are in class and you have a question to ask the teacher but she picks someone else and they ask their question, after they finish asking you would have forgotten your own question because you paid attention to theirs. The reason that STM has a smaller capacity than LTM is because this is an evolutionary survival advantage. It enables us to pay attention to a small number of important things when we are in danger like fastest escape route etc., rather than a plethora of things that would otherwise distract us from

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