Brain Blast! Factors Affecting Retention

Brain Blast! Factors Affecting Retention

Chapter I

Statement of the problem:
The different factors affecting retention of fourth year students of Bulacan Ecumenical School

Three Specific Questions:
Why do some people have a better memory than others?;
How do we remember?; and
Why do we forget?

Significance of the Study:
To widen the knowledge of the readers about retention;
Aims to show different ways on how one can have a better retention;
This study is to benefit students especially those from Bulacan Ecumenical School

Scope and Limitation
This study mainly focuses on the senior students of Bulacan Ecumenical School. The articles gathered here are a combination of local and foreign literature.

Chapter II
Review of Related Literature

Presented in this chapter is a synthesis1 of facts that support the topic the researchers would want to prove. Included in the chapter is the definition of memory, parts of the brain that are in charge on remembering and forgetting, connectivities of the brain, a deeper understanding on autobiographical2 and semantic memory3, long term and short term memory, how and why people remember and forget, the reason why some people have a better memory than others and some methods on how one can improve his/her memory.

Local Literature

1. Exploring Connectivities of the Brain

According to Alfonso M. Albano of Philippine star, the human brain weighing roughly one-and-a-half kilos, with a volume more or less half that of a medium-sized coconut, with its about 100 billion neurons, each with some 10,000 interconnections, is probably the most complex4 structure that we know. Yet, that structural complexity hardly begins to hint at the incredible variety and the enormity5 of its functions. Surely, this is a case of a whole that is vastly greater than the sum of its parts.
Albano said that the brain is the seat of our consciousness and of our emotions, the repository6 of our memories. It synthesizes and analyses our sensory inputs, decides what behavioural responses are appropriate or necessary to promote our continued survival. And when parts of it fail to perform properly, we are burdened with depression, or schizophrenia7, or Alzheimer’s disease8, or other such debilitating disorders. The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates put it well: “Men ought to know that from nothing else but the brain come joys, delights, laughter and sports, and sorrows, grieves, despondency9, and lamentations.”
No wonder the brain has been the subject of intense scientific scrutiny10 for a very long time. A currently active area of study concerns the “connectivities” of the brain. Physiologists distinguish “structural” or “anatomical” connectivity from “functional” connectivity and both from “effective” connectivity. The first merely means the physical connections between groups of neurons11. The second refers to correlated behaviours of different brain regions. The last involves the transfer of information from one region to another, possibly affecting the behaviour of the latter — a causal connection
2. Our Marvellous Brains
On one of the articles of Korina Sanchez she wrote that because of the amount of information that the human brain receives everyday, a sort of built-in filter kicks in to only allow those that seem important. Otherwise the brain would literally heat up and burn out faster than we would want it to. A good example was when a portrait of the famous Mona Lisa was shown to several persons, they all failed to notice a UFO in the background, which of course is not in the original painting. Because we know, or supposed to know what the Mona Lisa looks like, we don 't look at other details anymore.
Misdirection12 is another way to distract the brain. So many examples of misdirection were shown, which is the bread and butter of a good magician or illusionist, and yes, even con artists and criminals. Your brain is made to focus on something while ignoring everything else. Watching a basketball being passed several times among players while totally ignoring a gorilla that walks among them. And this is what criminals like pickpockets master. That little bump on the shoulder is enough to distract you while they go after your wallet or purse. Or using beautiful women to get the attention of gullible13 men. You know the rest.

Foreign Literature

Presented in this part are a collection of foreign articles

1. Definition of memory

According to lucid research.com, the human memory is a complex activity of the brain that allows us to store information and retrieve it again when we need it. There are two discrete14 memory systems:

A system that keeps a record of our personal life experiences is usually called Autobiographical memory.
A system that holds the knowledge about the world is called Semantic memory.

It is possible for one system to work better than the other because these two work in somewhat different ways. For example, a student might have a good autobiographical memory and recall in detail everything about an event, but a poor semantic memory so failing to remember things that need to be learned in school. Both memory systems can store information from all our senses – vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch – but in semantic memory visual and auditory-verbal modes of information usually predominate, unless another mode was particularly important. For example, a perfume maker would have a very well-developed semantic memory for odours.

2. Get to know your Brain
Parts of the brain that is in charge of remembering and forgetting:
The Cortex
As said by Dr. Paul Nussbaum, the Cortex15 is the outer covering of the brain. It is a word that translates to mean “bark of a tree”. This is one part of the brain that is responsible for your most complicated thinking abilities. Your memory, language, personality, intentional motor skills, spatial ability and visual perception are all controlled by the Cortex. The Medial Section of the Brain
This part tends to be older and more primitive. These are responsible for controlling drives, impulses, fears, instincts, emotions, reflexes, subconscious processes and automatic behaviours. Subcortex
The “Subcortex16” are the deeper brain structures. This permits a smooth integration of information processing in the brain.

3. Short-term Memory
According to Kendra Cherry, Short-term memory is also known as primary or active memory. It is the information that comes from giving attention to sensory memories.
Duration of short-term Memory:
Most of the information stored in this memory usually last for approximately 20 to 30 seconds. While many of our short-term memories are quickly forgotten, attending to this situation allows it to continue on the next stage – Long-term memory.
The Capacity of Short-term Memory:
The amount of information that can be stored here vary. In an influential paper titled “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two”, expert psychologist George Miller suggested that people can store between five and nine items. More recent research suggests that people are capable of storing approximately four chunks of information in short-term memory. 4. Long-term Memory
According to Kendra Cherry, Long-term memory refers to the continuing storage of information. The information is largely outside of our awareness, but can be called into working memory to be used when needed. Some of the information is easy to recall, while others are more difficult to access. Duration of Long-term Memory: Long-term memories can last for a matter of days to as long as many decades. Types of Long-Term Memory
Long-term memory is usually divided into two types – declarative17 (explicit) memory and procedural18 (implicit) memory.
• Declarative includes all of the memories that are available in consciousness. Declarative memory can be further divided into episodic memory (specific events) and semantic memory (knowledge about the world).

• Procedural memory involves memories of body movement and how to use objects in the environment. How to drive a car or use a computer are examples of procedural memories.

5. A deeper understanding about Autobiographical and Semantic Memory
According to human-memory.net, Autobiographical or Episodic memory is a memory system consisting of experiences recollected from an individual’s life. Individuals can see themselves as actors in these events, and the emotional charge and the entire situation surrounded by the event is usually part of the memory.
On the other hand, Semantic memory is a more structured record of facts, meanings, concepts and knowledge about the external world that we have attained.
As stated by Luke Mastin, semantic memory is generally derived from the episodic memory, in that we learn new facts or concepts from our experiences, and the episodic memory19 is considered to support and underpin semantic memory.
6. Why do we forget?
Lucid research.com says that the human memory is a system which is intended to remember information as well as forget information. Generally, we only retain the information we need for as long as we need it, and then it is forgotten. The human brain is constantly bombarded20 with huge amount of knowledge, and even though the information storage capacity of the human brain is very large, if we store every single item of information that ever reached our senses from the moment we were born, our memory would totally be overloaded before we started school. The fact is: we simply do not need to retain most of the information we receive each day. We only need to preserve some of that information and can safely forget the rest. The trick is to make sure that the information we do need is stored properly in memory ready for the time when we require it again.
We can hold a certain amount of information in memory for a short time provided we strive to keep it there (e.g. by thinking about it or by rehearsing it to ourselves). This process is called short-term memory21 or at times working memory22 because we use this when working on any activity, such as listening to a conversation. But unless we also make an active effort to store that information in long-term memory in a semantic form, it will be forgotten very rapidly. Once in long-term memory23, information is reasonably permanent. However, if we don’t use that information we are likely to find a difficult to access when we need it, and the information is not stored very efficiently, it will also be difficult to access. When we say we have forgotten some item of information what we really mean is either: (a) the information was never properly store in long-term memory in the first place, or (b) the information has been stored in long-term memory but we cant find it because it has been stored in an disorganized way and/or because we haven’t used that information for ages.

7. How do we remember, and why do we forget?
An article by Ashish Ranpura said that the notion of memory is so intriguing that we’ve come up with more metaphors for it than for any other mental phenomenon. Early theories predicted a memory “engram”24, a literal text written by the body to describe past experiences. Freud popularized descriptions of repressed memories, experiences physically buried in the depths of the subconscious. Modern descriptions are dominated by analogies to computers, in which the human brain is a hard disk that stores experience in electronic files and folders.
Our memory represents a change in who we are. Our habits, our ideologies, our hopes and fears are all influenced by what we remember in the past. At the most basic level, we remember because the connections between our brains’ neurons change; each experience primes the brain for the next experience.
8. How does the Brain process information
Chris McKee said that information processing starts with input from the sensory organs, which transform physical stimuli such as touch, heat, sound waves, or photons of light into electrochemical signals. The sensory information is repeatedly transformed by the algorithms of the brain in both bottom-up and top-down processing. For example, when looking at a picture of a black box on a white background, bottom-up processing puts together very simple information such as color, orientation, and where the borders of the object are - where the color changes significantly over a short space - to decide that you are seeing a box. Top-down processing uses the decisions made at some steps of the bottom-up process to speed up your recognition of the box. Top-down processing in this example might help you identify the object as a black box rather than a box-shaped hole in the white background.
Once information is processed to a degree, an attention filter decides how important the signal is and which cognitive processes it should be made available to. For example, although your brain processes every blade of grass when you look down at your shoes, a healthy attention filter prevents you from noticing them individually. In contrast, you might pick out your name, even when spoken in a noisy room. There are many stages of processing, and the results of processing are modulated by attention repeatedly.

9. Why do some people have better memory than other people
According to Joyce Ward, people vary in the efficiency25 of their long-term memory. Some have a good memory and some poor long-term memory. This is probably determined partly by heredity26. But research has shown that most of the difference between people with good and poor memory can be attributed to the methods they use to learn that information in the first place. By developing the appropriate memory strategies we automatically store information in a more organized and efficient way that makes it easier for us to locate when we need it.
Despite individual differences in memory, research indicates that in most people memory can be improved significantly by appropriate training. this does not mean that we can enlarge the storage capacity of our memory, what it means is that we can make our memory more efficient, so that it is more likely to absorb new information and hold that information in a way that makes it easy for us to find it again immediately when we need it.
In order for the brain to process information, it must first be stored. There are multiple types of memory, including sensory, working, and long-term. First, information is encoded. There are types of encoding specific to each type of sensory stimuli. For example, verbal input can be encoded structurally, referring to what the printed word looks like, phonemically, referring to what the word sounds like, or semantically, referring to what the word means. Once information is stored, it must be maintained. Some animal studies suggest that working memory, which stores information for roughly 20 seconds, is maintained by an electrical signal looping through a particular series of neurons for a short period of time. Information in long-term memory is hypothesized to be maintained in the structure of certain types of proteins. 10. Capacity of the Human Memory
According to Robert Gonzales, the comparison between the human brain and a computer is not a perfect one, but it does lend itself to some interesting lines of inquiry. The capacity of an average human head varies, depending on who you ask. Some experts estimates it in as low as 1 terabyte27 or approximately 1000 gigabytes28. The reason behind the 100-terabyte estimate still has its flaws. It assumes, for example, that each synapse store 1 byte of information. In reality, each one could conceivably store more or less than that.

11. Improving the memory

No. 1: Stay Mentally Active Just as physical activity helps keep your body in shape, mentally stimulating activities help keep your brain in shape. Do things that challenge your mind such as solving crossword puzzles and learning to play an instrument.
No. 2: Socialize regularly Social interaction helps ward of depression and stress, both of which can contribute to memory loss. Look for opportunities to get together with your loved ones, friends and other.

No. 3: Get organized You are more likely to forget things if your home is cluttered and your notes are in not in order.

No. 4: Focus

Limit distractions, and don’t try to do many things at once. If you focus on the information that you’re trying to remember, you’ll be more likely to recall it later.

Understanding – if we understand the information it will be easier for us to remember, and if we understand how memory works, it is easier to make it work well for us personally

- Practice – the more often one does an activity, the more likely he/she will remember it
- Memory Strategies – ways of processing information that will help a person remember well.

- Organization – this ensure that information is stored in a more meaningful and well-organized way which is easy for the brain to recall it.

12. Tips for enhancing your ability to learn and remember
According to helpguide.org, these are some ways on how one can enhance his/her ability to learn and remember.
 Pay attention - You can’t remember something if you never learned it, and you can’t learn something—that is, encode it into your brain—if you don’t pay enough attention to it. It takes about eight seconds of intense focus to process a piece of information into your memory. If you’re easily distracted, pick a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted.
 Involve as many senses as possible. Try to relate information to colors, textures, smells, and tastes. The physical act of rewriting information can help imprint it onto your brain. Even if you’re a visual learner, read out loud what you want to remember. Relate information to what you already know. Connect new data to information you already remember, whether it’s new material that builds on previous knowledge, or something as simple as an address of someone who lives on a street where you already know someone.
 For more complex material, focus on understanding basic ideas rather than memorizing isolated details. Practice explaining the ideas to someone else in your own words.
 Rehearse information you’ve already learned. Review what you’ve learned the same day you learn it, and at intervals thereafter. This “spaced rehearsal” is more effective than cramming, especially for retaining what you’ve learned.

Chapter III
Conclusion and Recommendation

Conclusion
The fourth year students of Bulacan Ecumenical School can best retain the details and important facts of any presentation/teaching if it is best organized and the presentor projects the personality best fit for a speaker/ teacher.

>Some people have better retention than others because people vary with the methods that they use to learn information;
>The act of remembering starts with the vision from the objects they see and their experiences everyday. The information that people receive each day are stored within so it is remembered; and
>most of the information people receive each day is forgotten because we simply do not need to retain most of the information we receive.

Recommendation
Focus your attention to the materials you are studying.
>Avoid cramming by establishing regular study sessions.
>Structure and organize the information you are studying.
>Utilize mnemonic devices to remember information.
>Elaborate and rehearse the information you are studying.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Albano, Alfonso M. “Exploring Connectivities of the brain”, Philstar, Mandaluyong city, (03/21/13) science and technology 922047

Sanchez, Korina. “Our ‘Marvelous’ Brains“, Philstar, Mandaluyong city, (01/22/14) Freeman section 1281631

Ward, Joyce.lucid-research.com/memory-development.htm, 2004.web. 19 January, 2014

Dr. Nussbaum, Paul. paulnussbaum.com/gettoknow.html, 2013.web. 11 February, 2014

Cherry, Kendra. psychology.about.com/od/memory/f/short-term-memory.htm, 2014.web. 10 February, 2014

Cherry, Kendra. psychology.about.com/od/memory/f/long-term-memory.htm, 2014.web. 10 February, 2014

Mastin, Luke.human-memory.net/types_episodic.html, 2010.web. 06 February, 2014

Ward, Joyce.lucid-research.com/memory-development.htm, 2004.web. 19 January, 2014

Ranpura, Ashish.brainconnection.positscience.com/how-we-remember-and-why-we-forget/ 2013.web. 19 January, 2014

Ward, Joyce.lucid-research.com/memory-development.htm, 2004.web. 19 January, 2014

Gonzales, Robert T.io9.com/if-your-brain-were-a-computer-how-much-storage-space-w-509687776, 2013.web. 11 February, 2014

Mayo clinic staff.mayoclinic.org/memory-loss/art-20046518, 2011.web. 11 February, 2014

Ward, Joyce.lucid-research.com/memory-development.htm, 2004.web. 11 February, 2014

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION
1Synthesis – the combining of separate elements or substances to form a coherent whole. Fusion; combination; mixture; blend
2Autobiographical memory – a memory system consisting of episodes recollected from an individuals life.
3Semantic memory – memory of meanings, understandings and other concept based knowledge.
4Complex – n. compound, intricate
3Enormity – n. horror; heinousness; wickedness
6Repository – n. storehouse; origin; warehouse
7Schizophrenia – a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion and behaviour, leading to faulty perception.
8Alzheimer’s disease – progressive mental deterioration that can occur in middle or old age, due to generalized degeneration of the brain.
9Despondency – syn. hopelessness; sadness; misery; depression
10Scrutiny- n. critical observation or examination
11Neurons – n. nerve cell; a specialized cell transmitting nerve impulses
12Misdirection – n. inaccurate air; incorrect instructions
13Gullible – n. easily persuaded to believe something; credulous
14Discrete- individually separate and distinct
15Cortex – the outer layer of the Cerebrum, composed of folded gray matter and playing an important role in consciousness
16Subcortex – the part of the brain that lies below the Cortex
17Declarative Memory – refers to memories which can be consciously recalled such as facts and knowledge
18Procedural Memory – is memory for the performance of particular types of action. It guides the processes we perform and most frequently resides below the level of consciousness awareness
19Episodic Memory – memory for episodes in your own life
20Bombarded – v. to attack; to assail persistently, as with request
21Short term memory – the small capacity for holding a small amount of information in mind, readily available state for a short period of time
22Working memory – a system that actively holds multiple pieces of transitory information in the mind, where they can be manipulated.
23Long term memory – memory in which associations among items are stored
24Memory engram – means by which memory traces are stored.
25Efficiency – n. the state or quality of being efficient
26Heredity – the genetic transmission of characteristics from parent to offspring
27Terabyte – a unit of information equal to one million or strictly 240 bytes
28Gigabyte – a unit of information equal to one billion or strictly 230 bytes

Bibliography: Ward, Joyce.lucid-research.com/memory-development.htm, 2004.web. 19 January, 2014 Dr Cherry, Kendra. psychology.about.com/od/memory/f/short-term-memory.htm, 2014.web. 10 February, 2014 Cherry, Kendra Mastin, Luke.human-memory.net/types_episodic.html, 2010.web. 06 February, 2014 Ward, Joyce.lucid-research.com/memory-development.htm, 2004.web Ranpura, Ashish.brainconnection.positscience.com/how-we-remember-and-why-we-forget/ 2013.web. 19 January, 2014 Ward, Joyce.lucid-research.com/memory-development.htm, 2004.web Gonzales, Robert T.io9.com/if-your-brain-were-a-computer-how-much-storage-space-w-509687776, 2013.web. 11 February, 2014 Mayo clinic staff.mayoclinic.org/memory-loss/art-20046518, 2011.web Ward, Joyce.lucid-research.com/memory-development.htm, 2004.web. 11 February, 2014 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION