Memory

The reading discusses factors affecting memory. The reading states that stress is one of the biggest impediments to memory and may make us unlikely to remember events accurately. In my own experience, I have noticed that stress can actually make a memory more vivid and longer lasting, but also inaccurate. For example, a few years ago I had to take one of my family members to the emergency room. We did not know how serious the problem was and thought it could be life threatening. Some of my most vivid memories are of that day. However, when I returned to the hospital later and walked by the emergency room, it looked very differently than I remembered it. Everything seemed smaller. My memory had magnified the size of the room (and probably the number of people waiting in it), the distance from the parking lot and the length of the hallways.

The reading also suggests that, when studying for a test, you should study only a single subject area to avoid retroactive inhibition. The reading also suggests visualization and other mnemonic devices to aid memory. I have used these techniques to study for tests and they have worked well for a test the next day. After a test I had forgotten everything. I did not create vivid or long term memories like I did with the emergency room. I have found that revisiting the material over a longer period of time gives me a longer term memory. Things that I really learn, I have heard over and over or have used many times. If I study in a relaxed environment and reinforce the materials over a longer period of time, I also tend to be accurate and avoid retroactive inhibition even though other events have occurred in between. On the other hand, if I learn material quickly in a stressed environment before a mid-term, it is difficult for me to accurately recall the information for the final exam without studying all over again.