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Habit and Memory In honor of AP exams being over, I will be sharing some healthy habits that help boost both memory and cognitive function The first habit is obvious, but sleeping is extremely important in maintaining a functioning brain, as “Sleep strengthens connections between brain cells and different brain regions, and moves information into areas of the brain that are more efficient for storing it,” according to sleep expert Richard Shane, where “Dreaming sorts and words to reach word count organizes information, makes connections, and even solves problems. All of this strengthens memories and improves recall.” Throughout my years of high school and middle school, I've grossly underestimated the power of sleep, sleeping an average of four to five hours a night. I would spend nights before tests cramming information and getting poor sleep. In reality, you can't turn your 2 into a 5 the night before the AP exam, but you can bring your 5 down to a 2 if you don't rest wel

  Riddhika Parmar Week 16 Memory and the Five Senses Everyone has probably experienced how our five senses can impact memory. For instance, eating a familiar food, hearing a favorite song, or smelling a particular aroma can surface a significant memory. Sometimes the memory can recount a detailed scene, while other times we experience déjà vu, unconsciously recognizing similar stimuli. The hippocampus and sensory centers work together to create these memories.    Sensory memory is divided into subsystems (or sensory registers): Iconic (seeing) — like seeing an ant walking on a wall Echoic (hearing) — like hearing a barking dog Haptic (touching) — like feeling a raindrop on your head Gustatory (tasting) — like tasting your mom’s food Olfactory (smelling) — like smelling chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven Our iconic memory is important, and to take care of it , the 20-20-20 rule (20-second break from your screen every 20 minutes, focusing on an object 20 feet away) has been prove

Horrible Memory and Human Society What would change if everyone had a horrible memory? You may think that your memory is awful—especially after the pandemic—but human memory is excellent compared to other species. According to Magnus Enquist , a researcher at Stockholm University, humans have a “superior capacity to deal with sequential information” relative to other species. Our memory capacity allows us to do many things, from creating large, organized societies to engineering highly complex computationally-powered devices that have led to the destruction of every other species.  Our memory gave us a competitive advantage compared to other primitive hominids. Hunting, the only effective form of acquiring food until the Agricultural Revolution, is heavily memory-dependent. Remembering which snakes are the least dangerous, which bison areas are the best place to shoot arrows, and when the best time is to find the highest masses of fish was vital to early hunter-gatherers. A lower-capac

Carolin Pan Benedetti APENG 18 May 2022 How Memory Ties in with Murder Recently I listened to a podcast which discussed the case of Hae Min Lee, a Korean girl who was murdered at 18 years old in 1999. The case was well forgotten until the podcast in 2014. Though the case is still not completely solved, Hae Min Lee’s ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed was a primary suspect and convicted for first degree murder.  When Adnan was asked what he did the day of Hae’s murder, he claimed to have not remembered as it was just a “normal day” for him. However, when Adnan’s friend Jay Wilds was questioned, Jay confessed saying that Adnan had strangled Hae and he helped Adnan bury her in a shallow 6 inch grave. Later on, another one of Adnan’s classmates, Asia McClain, stated that Adnan was at the library with her at the time Hae was said to have been killed. The three alibis did not match up and the investigators were truly confused.  Not only does truthfulness play an important role in this case, but memory

 Manipulating Memories smithsonianmag.com          In some of my past blogs, I discussed the detriments of remembering too much and the importance of forgetting selectively. However, there is a middle ground between completely retaining or losing a memory. In fact, almost all of our memories suffer from either abstraction or distortion, and the manipulating of memories, inadvertently and not, can occur almost every time we attempt to recall a memory.       Dr. Roy Dings and Professor Albert Newen from Ruhr-University describe the remembering of past memories as an "episodic memory system," split into exposure to the stimulus, processing of the memory with background knowledge or predilections, and the processing and association of the final memory recalled. Each of these three steps has significant room for manipulation that can affect not only individual memories, but general perceptions and correlating memories.      The first process in recalling a memory is often a stimul

For all this quarter, we have discussed the ins-and-outs of human memory, computer memory, and memory disorders. So, for my very last blog of this year, I wanted to talk about something not mentioned—plant memory. Yes, you read this right. Plant Memory. If you are not researcher Monica Gagliano (the researcher who discovered this phenomenon), you likely thought plants could not remember anything, like me. Robert Krulwich, the author of this National Geographic article , thought the same thing. I was stunned reading his article, when I realized that in one case, plants could remember.    This plant is called the Mimosa Pudica , or “the sensitive plant.” Krulwich attached this YouTube video (which has 4 million views as of writing this), and it was just phenomenal to watch. Basically, this plant curls up at any touch or contact. Whether it is a small nudge or a large jerk, the plant, including its leaves and stem, curls up. Researcher Monica Gagliano did a test using this plant. Gaglian

An Unforgettable Memory                Memories. The first thing I thought about when I saw the word ‘memories’ was when I got lucky, my dog. The struggle that came with getting my dog made the efforts so much more worth it than simply just getting a dog handed to me when I asked for it.                 It all started off in 6th grade when my teacher brought two of his dogs to school on a regular basis. We would have so much fun with the dog, playing with it, dressing it up and just staying back during our breaks and after school to play fetch with the dog. The smile his dog gave me was something I wanted to feel every minute of the day. That couldn’t be the case if I didn’t have a dog though. I always found dogs fascinating and dreamed of having one when I grew older but I never imagined getting one until I graduated high school and was living by myself. That being said, when my teacher brought his dogs to school, it just gave me a sudden urge to get a dog as I feel like it gave me a

           Reality From Memory In my last blog, I discussed two innate behaviors present in animals and began researching whether humans have exhibited similar unlearned algorithmic behaviors. When a baby is born, its instinct is to cry as response to new outside stimuli which the brain may perceive as harmful. Being unable to run or change its surroundings, babies innately verbalize their distress instead                Without the warmth, comfort, and attention of an adult, newborns would not be able to support themselves. The brain and body are not synced perfectly, leaving nothing but survival instincts to control their emotions and behavior. However, as humans have evolved to value learning over brute survival of the fittest, we have been able to adapt our surroundings to fit our needs. We no longer need to hunt, compete for mates, migrate, or focus our entire lives on such purposes. Our unlearned behavior may simply be intuition and a unique ability for pattern recogni

Memories of Memorial Day?  https://www.calendarlabs.com/holidays/us/memorial-day.php   I, as you also probably are, am very much tired of this school year and have reached my maximum capacity of burn out. To redevelop a sense of purpose in my life, I decided to look at what national holidays are soon to arrive that can provide me with the necessary relief I so strongly desire. To my delightful surprise, Memorial Day is coming up on May 30th this year. It is a day to commemorate the US soldiers who lost their lives fighting for our country.   Memorial Day is obviously not the only national holiday. We also observe Veterans Day, Presidents Day, Labor Day, and Independence Day, which are all holidays marking monumental events that we also gratefully have no school on.   To be honest, I have never personally celebrated these holidays in the form of actually commemorating and remembering the events that occurred in the past, but rather I just use it as an excuse to not go to school. Obvious

  After the Beloved Socratic seminar, I asked my friend how he was able to do so well even when he did not finish reading the book fully. My friend enlightened me that as long as you speak confidently a lot of people will believe what you are saying. This conversation reminded me of the biotechnology entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes who fooled investors and pulled a nine billion dollar fraud with her company Theranos. To give you a bit of context, Holmes dropped out of Stanford at nineteen and sought to change the world; however, she failed to change it positively. Holmes started her company in 2003 with the help of one of her professors and claimed they could create revolutionary healthcare devices. These devices only needed 1% of the blood other products required while still “[administering medication, monitoring the patients' blood, and changing the dosage” (How it Happened). These are some pretty large claims, so how did she convince large Silicon Valley investors to pour money in