Chapter 8

The memory chapter really stood out to me. I considered myself to have really good memory, that is until we did that experiment in class. I found myself struggling big time. As the test went on it became harder for me to remember. It came to me that memory, much like personality, is what defines us as who we are. We store certain memories in our bank by how much they affected us or touched us. By taking down those things, we become who we are. A child who suffers abuse may remember that struggle as a child and as an individual, has a hard time connecting to others in a relationship. Someone may struggle with the death of a loved one and later on becomes unattached to those near to them for fear of hurt. By the memories those two individuals had it affected them later on in their life. That is why memory is so important to us because it has a greater effect on us than we are to realize.

The memory has different levels as far as long term and short term. after that activity i realized i was very good at the short term! as you are younger your memory is stronger than those who age because your memory begins to weaken with time. However, older people are still very good at select long term memory subjects compared to short term ones such as paying the bills, losing their keys, or where they put the paper. I think im a throw up in between because i find myself forgetting alot of those things quite often. i can only imagine what its going to be like for me when i really do get old!

I really liked the concept of forgetfullness in this chapter. I always find myself questioning myself why i forget things that i was told to remember jsut earlier that day, but yet we still forget. The memories fade after storage known as the forgetting curve. sometimes the past interferes with what we recently learned. Or something recently learned interferes with something learned in the past. These were called proactive interference and retroactive interdference. Both working in opposite ways explaining why we often go blank minded from time to time!