This chapter discusses to the theory of information
processing, which deals with how the brain uses the senses to bring information
in, retain it, and recall what is important. There are three big concepts,
sensory memory, working memory, and long term memory. Everything that is seen,
touched, heard, felt, smelt, through the senses goes through the sensory
memory. It collects all the information at an unconscious level, which is
either discarded or used in the working memory. The working memory consists of
the active conscious that our mind brings attention to, or retrieves
information to recall it again. To keep this information, we go through an
encoding process that sorts the material into something that we can store in
the long term memory. The theory describes a conclusion of why when students
are presented with the same information, that each mind processes the
information, and takes attention to different topics differently.
If something awful happened to you in a specific
room or building that lead to a depression, would many years later the
retrieval cues be strong enough to sink you back into depression?
According to information processing theory,
learning take place through the senses that has a meaning, can be practiced,
and retrieved when desired. To determine what is “learned” there must be
retrieval of the information that was presented. As a teacher, one way a
student can retain information is using mnemonics, which connects a
relationship to something meaningful of prior knowledge, to the new information
that they want retained. While teaching new topics, it will be important to
keep the attention of the class, use relevant examples for the students to
relate what they are learning to something that they already know.
In
a crowded room, your sensory memory is taking in all the information around
you, tossing most of it away. But when something that is familiar, such as the
name you answer, it stimulates a response for your attention to shift.
In response to your question, I feel like it would bring back those bad memories. When a traumatic event happens such as a car wreck and you are able to remember specific events such as the weather, the smell of the airbags, what you were going to do, and what song was playing on the radio they might come back to you. I feel like if I was riding in a car and a scent reminded me of the air bags it would automatically remind me of the car wreck.
ReplyDeleteWhile the retrieval cues may not be so intense as to cause someone to sink back into depression, the cues would definitely bring back the memories and cause someone to feel distraught, angry, or upset. If you were robbed at an ATM outside of a bank, there could be many things that would trigger that memory. The sight of an ATM, walking on the same street, the smell of the robber. All of these cues would be enough to make you remember the traumatic experience of getting robbed. The memories would cause you emotional pain, and may even cause you to sink back into depression.
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