Procedural Memory: Dementia In The Movie The Notebook

Memory is an important aspect of life as you are able to remember old memories and create new ones as well. In this paper, the focus is primarily on dementia. Declarative memory, procedural memory, and recall are various topics that are used to understand the roles they may play in dementia. Each topic is discussed in a paragraph. In each paragraph I introduce and explain the topic, then provide an example from the movie, The Notebook (Emmerich, Harris, Johnson, Kaplan, & Cassavetes, 2014). As I discuss each example, I will also explain how it demonstrates and links to the concept. The paper concludes with a brief discussion about the struggle between portraying accuracy of psychological topics in movies, as it was confusing for me to understand some of the connections. Keywords: Memory, Dementia, Declarative Memory, Procedural Memory, Recall

The Lost Memory: Dementia in the Movie The Notebook Have you ever imagined not remembering anything about yourself? Well, this is one of several symptoms that people with

Procedural memory is the memory of how to do things (Myers, 2014). It remains rather robust or intact in people suffering from dementia (Lunde, 2013). During the movie, elderly Allie was asked by a nurse to play the piano while she waited for Noah to come back and Allie seemed confused as her reply was “I like that?” (Emmerich, Harris, Johnson, Kaplan, & Cassavetes, 2014). So Allie sat down and started playing the piano, yet she had no memory of liking the activity. So the shocking part is how is someone able to play the piano if they are unable to remember their past experiences, she is able to play the piano perfectly fine due to her memory as well. Procedural memory must have been intact as she was able to play the piano from having learned and practiced it so well from before that it is a naturally occurring skill for her even though she suffers from