Memories and Apples.Doc
Memory and how it is formed. How smell can trigger memories.
Since time unknown, humans have tried to understand what memory is and how it works. Our memory is the most essential part of what makes us human and at the same times is the most elusive of our attributes. The study of human memory can be traced back atlases 2,000 years to Aristotle’s first attempts to understand memory. The 18th century English philosopher David Hartley was the first to hypothesize that memories were encoded. However, it was not until the mid-1880s that the young German philosopher Herman Ebbinghouse developed the first scientific approach to study memory.
The most popular image of memory is as a kind of tiny filing cabinet full of individual memory folders in which information is stored. Perhaps even like memory boxes, very similar to boxes in real life, where we put things for later use. Similarly we could say that we put away information in “memory boxes” for safe keeping and “take them out” when certain things trigger our memory.
What exactly is memory? Memory refers to processes known as encoding, storage and retrieval. In order new memories to be created information must be changed into usable form. It occurs during the encoding stage. Much of the information stored is outside of our awareness. The retrieval process allows us to bring stored memories into conscious awareness. There are two known methods of accessing memory: recognition and recall.
Recognition is associated with an event or physical object previously experienced or encountered. This involves a process of comparison of information with memory. Recognition is an unconscious process. Recall, on the other hand, involves remembering a fact, event or object that is not currently presented (in the sense of retrieving a mental image or concept); it requires the direct uncovering of information from the memory. Studies have shown that memory retrieval is more or less an automatic
Since time unknown, humans have tried to understand what memory is and how it works. Our memory is the most essential part of what makes us human and at the same times is the most elusive of our attributes. The study of human memory can be traced back atlases 2,000 years to Aristotle’s first attempts to understand memory. The 18th century English philosopher David Hartley was the first to hypothesize that memories were encoded. However, it was not until the mid-1880s that the young German philosopher Herman Ebbinghouse developed the first scientific approach to study memory.
The most popular image of memory is as a kind of tiny filing cabinet full of individual memory folders in which information is stored. Perhaps even like memory boxes, very similar to boxes in real life, where we put things for later use. Similarly we could say that we put away information in “memory boxes” for safe keeping and “take them out” when certain things trigger our memory.
What exactly is memory? Memory refers to processes known as encoding, storage and retrieval. In order new memories to be created information must be changed into usable form. It occurs during the encoding stage. Much of the information stored is outside of our awareness. The retrieval process allows us to bring stored memories into conscious awareness. There are two known methods of accessing memory: recognition and recall.
Recognition is associated with an event or physical object previously experienced or encountered. This involves a process of comparison of information with memory. Recognition is an unconscious process. Recall, on the other hand, involves remembering a fact, event or object that is not currently presented (in the sense of retrieving a mental image or concept); it requires the direct uncovering of information from the memory. Studies have shown that memory retrieval is more or less an automatic