Motivation and Emotion: short story response

There are several motivations that took place in the event and all of them are for the purpose of survival. The story is about the survivors of a plane clash incident and how they manage to stay alive in such harsh condition in the sub-zero environment. During the event, the survivors; motivations were to find food, water, shelter and all the physiological needs that are essential for survival. The group of survivors was motivated to survive instinctively because survival is organism’s first and most important priority.

Gregorc Style Delineator

Today, we did a test on learning styles by Anthony F. Gregorc. There are four learning styles Concrete sequential (CS), Abstract Sequential (AS), Abstract Random (AR), and Concrete Random (CR).
-Concrete learners are people who learn from actual, hand-on experience and abstract learners are those who learn better from theories and concepts.
-Sequential learners learn from bottom up, from minor details to major concept, while random learners learn from top down, from general concept to specific details.

The test result shows me that my learning style is quite a combination of all 4 styles. I scored

CS: 26
AS: 25
AR:22
CR:27

The scores are very close, indicating that I follow all four learning styles. I was put into the CR group because I scored the highest in CR. After the discussion, I found that some of the aspects of CR learner apply directly to me but some don’t. This is because I am also into other types of learning.

For the view of time, I am accurately a CR because I look at the present more than the past or the future. I always procrastinate on doing assignments just to make the present time more enjoyable. Another vivid evident that I am a dominant CR is that I find it very very hard to show or explain how I got an answer in Math question. My friends always complain at me when I did a math problem correctly and couldn’t explain how to do it.

Strangely, I also found my self to be very concrete sequential. I do things step by step, I have agenda for everything I do, and I find it hard working in group and following incomplete or unclear directions. From the score in each style, it can be concluded that I am a combination of all styles with CR as the strongest description of who I am.

Knowing my learning style will help me in the future. I will confidently confront the things I am good at and avoid the things I am not so good at. Compensating my weaknesses with my strengths will lay a foundation to success in life.

Extended Reading: “It’s Magical. It’s Malleable. It’s Memory”

What is the relationship between memory and selfhood?

Selfhood directly relates to memory as a sense of self stands firmly upon memory. Since our birth, we gathered information and put them in memory. Based on the memory of our experiences, we construct our feeling and our thoughts of who we are. Before Loftus’ understanding of this bond, we believed that selfhood comes from experience. Through experience, we formed a concept of who we are. Loftus argues that memory is not a bedrock, upon which selfhood rests, but shifting sands. She discovers that false memory can powerfully alter our sense of self.

What new discovery about memory do you find most interesting?

What I as the most interesting discovery about memory is that imagery and perception triggers the brain very similarly. From the article, a Harvard Psychologist, Stephen Kossyln did an experiment that shows the relationship between imagery and perception. "PET studies. have shown that, when subjects close their eyes and form visual images, the same areas are activated as if they were actually seeing." This line from the article suggests that the same part of the brain activates when we actually see an object, perceive, and when we see that same object in our imagination, imagery. This discovery concludes the same thing in the study of memory. It is that our memory is both what we perceive and what we imagine.

What is the homunculus crisis?

The “homunculus crisis” stated by Gerald Edelman is a mystery saying that there is a part of us that activates the work of neurons. The word “homunculus” means a diminutive person, which Edelman believed that it lives under our conscious, controlling our memory. Sitting in a car and memory of the past suddenly and automatically rush into the mind is an example of homunculus crisis. Edelman said that we do not have the control of triggering memory, but what and who is the question.

Which theory of dreams finds support in the experiments by Lynch?

Lynch’s experimnent follows the cognitive theory of dreams by Winson. Winson proposed that we dream to remember. Dreams are replay of daily experiences and dreams help us learn and consolidate information. In the experiment, a rat was planted electrodes in its hippocampus. The rat then explored a box. After that the rat slept, and during its rest, the rat fired the same cells that were activated during the learning process of the box.

How can some memories become indelible?

Memories that become indelible are those associated with strong emotions. When faced with an emotional event, our cells will be flooded with two hormones, adrenaline and noradrenaline, which triggers the amygdala. When another similar event occur, the same hormones will be released and follow the same neural path, tightening the memory until it becomes indelible. Although indelible memory will disturb you forever, it also helps us survive because when faced with another situation, the mind will differentiate between traumatic events and normal events.

How can amnesia and repression be explained?

According to Daniel Siegel, both amnesia and repression are due to the malfucntion of hippocampus. Amnesia is a lost of memory because the memory was never encoded into long-term memory, while repression is a lost of memory for a period of time and eventually the memory be retrieved. The hippocampus process the recall of explicit memory, so when it is impaired, the brain encounters a problem in retrieving explicit memory. Since other parts of the brain are still functional, implicit memory can be encoded. This explains why person with either amnesia or repression can still learn because implicit memory does not require conscious awareness.

Explain the following statement: "Memory is more reconstructive than reproductive."

“Memory is more reconstructive than reproductive” suggests that when a memory is to be recalled, some parts of it will be reconstructed because memory can not hold all the details. As time passes, details like time, date, and place will fade. So, when asked to retrieve the memory, the person recalls the main plot and reconstructs the less important details to complete the story. This is why memory recall is not totally a reproduction, but rather reproduction and reconstruction.

What new paradigm of memory is now emerging?

"We now have a new paradigm of memory," notes Loftus, "where memories are understood as creative blendings of fact and fiction, where images are alchemized by experience and emotion into memories." The new paradigm of memory declares that memory is the mixture of fact and fiction, reality and imagination. Memory of each person is created differently by his/her own perspective of the event with the aid of experinece and emotion. The article ingeniously compares the creation of memory to when two sticks rub and create fire. One stick is fact, what really happened and the other is imagination, what we perceived as an individual with unique background and emotion.

After reading this artice, what conclusions can you make about memory?

“Memory is malleable --- and so are we.” The last sentence in the article “It’s magical. It’s malleable. It’s memory.” sums up my conclusion. After reading the article, my interpretation of memory changed. I found out that I should not rely on memory too much for it is always shifting. Memory creates uniqueness. Two people facing the same situation will have different memory of the event. This is because memory is a combination of both reality and individual imagination. The last sentence also connects memory with selfhood. Without memory, we can not be who we are. Based on memory of the past, we construct our feeling and our thought of who we are. Memory is essential for it is a tool that enables us to use the past for the future.

Demonstration 5: Memory Is Often a Reconstruction

In the last demonstration about memory, the students were shown 8 geometric shapes and were asked to recall by drawing the shapes on the paper later. Each shape was shown with the same amount of time. Then we had to close our eyes to visualize what we saw, while Mr. Anthony gave out a paper with clue for each shape. The students didn’t know that there are two sets of paper containing different clues.

Comparison of two sets of clues:

Dumbbell – Eyeglasses
Stirrup – Bottle
Letter “C” – Crescent Moon
Hat – Beehive
Diamond in a Rectangle – Curtains in a window
Four – Seven
Sun – Ship’s wheel
Table – Hourglass

These clues were to change and reconstruct our memory. The person who received a dumbbell clue will draw a little different from the person who received an eyeglasses clue, showing that clues and questions influence the response, answers. This demonstration shows that memory is often a reconstruction. This idea can be used widely in the field of justice. Lawyers can use ingenious wording to alter the answer of the witnesses.

The experiment does not seem to work with me and my partner and some of the classmates because there were only 8 shapes for us to remember, so most of us remember them clearly. If there were to be 20 shapes, the experiment would show a more solid result.

Demonstration 4: The Rumor Chain Activity

In this activity, 4 volunteers are needed. Three of the volunteers went out of the room, while one stayed and listened to a story told by Mr. Anthony. The story was about a 747 Quantas airplane being hijacked by a terrorist. The story includes several names. After the first volunteer listened to the story, another volunteer came into the room and was told the same story by the first volunteer. The story carried on and changed until the last volunteer. Some part of the story got lost and some stayed until the last volunteer. There are 3 reasons that explain why some part stayed and some got lost.

First, leveling or simplifying materials. The volunteers left out some information and make the story simpler. From the story, the name of the hijackers' party was left out, the name of the pilot and some information that the story teller defined as irrelevant.
Second, sharpening or highlighting materials. This is because the information stands out; therefore, we have a higher tendency to remember it. In the story, the use of microphone stands out, magnum gun stands out.
Third, assimilation or changing story to better fit the background of the story teller. When a story teller encounters information that he/she had experienced, he/she would slightly change the information so that it fits what he/she understands. From the experiment, the information about the pilot is changed. The story originally has one pilot, but from the experience of the tellers, the story ended up with two pilots. Another example is that the word "terrorist" was used instead of "hijacker". This is because the story tellers feel more familiar with the word "terrorist".

Demonstration 3: Meaning Enhances Recall

Today in class we did another demonstration with the purpose of showing that meaning enhances memory recall. Our instruction was to look at 20 cards each with a word and a letter, A or B. If the card has a letter A, then we have to count the number of syllables in the word shown with the letter. If the card has B, then we need to judge whether the word is pleasant or unpleasant. After 20 words, we were asked to write down all the words that we can remember. The numbers of words remembered by each member of the class vary.

The most number of words remembered was 20 and the least was 10, with even distribution in between. This shows that each person’s ability to remember varies. As mentioned in the video “Remembering and Forgetting”, what we remember depends on who we are and our experiences. Some students used mnemonic devices while other did not. The modes of number of words recalled are 15 and 10, so the result is bimodal. The students who only recall little number of words experience interference. The new words, new information, interfere with the old words, old information, so the old words got lost.

Now let’s look at what words are remembered.
The class result shows that:
3 students recalled more A words and B words.
4 students recalled the same number of A words and B words.
9 students recalled more B words and A words.

This evidently illustrates that the tendency to remember increase when there is meaning to the input information. For the B words, we were asked to judge whether the word is pleasant or unpleasant, this creates meaning to our brain so we remember it better. For A words, we were asked to count the syllables, which makes no meaning to our brain, therefore, we remember the words less vividly. In conclusion, “meaning enhances memory recall.”

Video: Remembering and Forgetting

The Discovering Psychology video entitled "Remembering and Forgetting" teaches me several lessons about memory.

-We are capable of remembering 100 trillions things, which is fascinating, but despite the vast capacity, we do forget things.

-Motivation, concentration and rehearsal enhance the ability to remember. This is why we need to concentrate when studying for a test.

- The information comes in to the sensory memory then into short-term memory then eventually into long-term memory. When we want to retrieve information, the information will come from the long-term memory to the short-term memory and out.

-As mentioned in the video, the long term memory is limitless and the short-term memory can hold only about 7 pieces of information before losing them or before transferring them in to the long-term memory. To increase the capacity of short-term memory, the method of chunking could be used. Chunking is to group information together. Relating old memory with new input will also increase the tendency to remember new information. Using mnemonic devices will also increase the tendency to remember.

-The video also refers to Hermann Ebbinghaus as he was one of the earliest psychologists to study this aspect of psychology. In his experiment, Ebbinghaus studies nonsense syllables and tries to remember it. He found out that the more time he practice on Day 1, the less time it takes for him to relearn the syllables on Day 2.

- What we remember depends on who we are and our experiences.

- Lastly, there is no specific part of the brain that store memory; instead, the whole brain contributes to memory. When a neuron dies, we forget the information held by that neuron.

Demonstration 2: Short term memory: Words

The second demonstration deals with words. Mr. Anthony read out several words and the students listen. After all the words are read, the students were asked to retrieve as many words as possible. The mean number of correct words is, again, 7. This indicates that we can put only Secabout 7 pieces of information into our short term memory. From this demonstration, we learned 5 things about memory.

First, there is something called reconstructive memory. In the demonstration, 5 students out of 16 recalled the word "sleep", which, surprisingly, havent been said. This is because all other words have some kind of connection with the word "sleep" and that 5 students constructed the memory of the word from other words. This is also called "Dejavu".

Secondly, we tend to remember the first few words we hear and the last few words. The graph number of students who remember each word shows a curve in the middle of the graph. This is called a serial position effect.


Thirdly, most, if not all, of us remember the word "night" This is because the word "night" was said three times, while the other words were said once. This demonstrates that repetition plays an important part in memorization. Repetitions increase the tendency to remember.

Fourth, many students remember the word "pineapple" eventhough the word was said in the middle. This is because "pineapple" stands out as other words are all associated with "night".
Distinctiveness as shown in the pineapple example also increase the tendency to remember.

Lastly, chunking is, again, the key to memorization. People who remember the word "toss" also remember the word "turn" because they chunk "toss" and turn" together.

This demonstration of Sleepy words noticeably points out the mechanism beneath "memory"

Demonstration 1: Short Term Memory

This demonstration deals with our short term memory. I clearly indicates the capacity of our short term memory.

First, Mr. Anthony read out a three-digits number, then students would write that number down, showing that we remember the number. Then, one more digit will be added each time. The numbers went on to 12 digits. After the read out of numbers, the class compare what they wrote with the actual numbers that were read. All of the students can remember at least 5 digits and at most 9 digits, with the mean of 7 digits, the magic number "7"

This number 7 corresponds with the research that said that we can whole about 7 peices of information in our short term memory. the only way to imoprove this is to seperate the numbers into chunks. For example, chunk 19900730 into 1990 and o730. Then try to make sense of the numbers. 1990, my year of birth, 0730 my month and date of birth. This techniques of associating short term memory with long term memory will help improve our the capacity of short term memory.