Unlimited RAM: Types of memories

What truly makes you YOU? It’s your experiences, your emotions, and your details of events… All of this is then made into memories. These are like RAM in a computer but it is unlimited!

The first studies of memory were by Ebbinghaus. He studied himself seeing how he could memorize random letters being put together. His results then became the forgetting curve. This estimates the decline of memory over time.

There were then studies by Hasher and Zack. They studied how aging affects memory capacity. Another study was done with Molander and Bäckman and they discovered how older people are less able to shut out potential distracters compared to younger populations.

Memories aren’t just called memories. They are also put into special categories and sorted into types. Some are even stored in different parts of the brain.

Semantic Memories are general information and facts you know like the United States contains 50 states.

Episodic Memories are specific events or moments in time like a really fun Christmas party when there were fireworks at the end and you got the game you always wanted. These start to decline at age 60.

Implicit Memories are non-explicit, effortless, non-conscious memory like riding a bike.

Autobiographical Memories are where you were during certain events like a lot of people remember where they were when 9/11 happened.

Prospective Memories are future intentions like “I’ll call them in thirty minutes”.

Flashbulb Memories are details of things that just happened like that the driver was a man.

Traumatic Memories are self-explanatory. This and flashbulb memories are the least accurate.

According to the studies of Loftus, you can also create false memories. It was called “imagination inflation”.

There is also a man that remembered everything. His name was Solomon. He was studied often because he had a perfect memory of each day of his life.

Some interesting facts about memory:

1. It’s good to study an hour before you go to sleep
2. In a study where the participants had to memorize a list the best memorized thing was said in the beginning
3. It’s best to study in 30 minute intervals (this is why the high school system sucks)
4. Stress affects memory since adrenal gland is at work while encoding happens in the hippocampus
5. Hippocampus means seahorse in Greek because the shape is similar to one.
6. Alcohol is bad for memory since it shuts down the cortex.

Sources:

1. Cowan, Nelson. “What Are the Differences between Long-term, Short-term, and Working Memory?” Progress in Brain Research. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web.
2. Lovelace, Eugene A. Aging and Cognition: Mental Processes, Self-awareness, and Interventions. Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1990. Print.
3. Mastin, Luke. “Types of Memory.” The Human Memory. N.p., n.d. Web.
4. “Memory.” SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web.
5. Reid, Lilly. “What Is Memory?” Psychology of Aging. Baltimore. Lecture.