Cognitive Function Inquiry
Growing up in an era so blessed with technological improvement makes it very easy to have a fascination with computers: we see, interact with, and use computers almost every day. They have influence on everything from the brewer that makes your coffee, to the street lights that control the overflow of cars during rush hour. By the way, those cars are controlled by computers, too. We know a significant amount about computers today, more than we did ten years ago, and in ten years from now we will know exponentially more than we know today. Yet the greatest computer of all still eludes us in how it functions- the human brain.
Believe it or not, your brain is a computer just like the one I’m typing this paper on.They both take meaningless data, process it, display it, and store it, making it all coherent and understandable. But as with every computer, there are certain limitations to what the human mind can do.
What are the limits of the human brain? How much can one truly know in their lifetime? These are the things we hope to discover, for if humans can understand the most powerful computer, then maybe they can find a way to use it more efficiently. But before one could begin to fully understand the limits, the concept of memories themselves would have to be introduced.
Presumably, memories are very complex, so complex in fact, much is still unknown about what exactly the process of making a memory is. What is known is “The process of memory begins with encoding, then proceeds to storage and, eventually, retrieval” (“How Human Memory Works”). Due to the fact these three stages must take place for something to be memorized, there are many factors that can limit one’s ability to remember. Adding even...
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...st for everyone. If there is anything we still need to learn, it is what we can do and what our own minds are capable of. However, it is one thing to simply know this information and another thing entirely to apply it to our own lives, in order to better ourselves and our futures.
Works Cited
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Mohs, PhD Richard C. "Effects of Aging on Memory." HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks.com, 08 May 2007. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
Mohs, PhD Richard C. "How Human Memory Works." HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks.com, 08 May 2007. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
"Short and Long Term Memory." HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks.com, 08 May 2007. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
"What Is the Memory Capacity of the Human Brain?" Scientific American Global RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
The modal model of memory is one of the most basic models that describes memory today. It involves the three stages named sensory memory, short-term memory, and Long-term memory and how each stage transfers information from one to another (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2012). Healy and McNamara (1996) explained how the original modal model of memory, developed in 1890, consisted of only the primary and secondary memory. The primary memory was defined as, “…that which is held momentarily in consciousness…” and the secondary memory was defined to be, “…unconscious but permanent [memory].” As time progressed, the primary memory was then referred to as “short-term memory” while the secondary memory started to be called “Long-term memory”. In 1968, Atkinson and Shiffrin added what is now called “sensory memory” to the list, which consists of sensory registers for sight, sound and even touch. This new modal model of memory that is currently used also explains the transitions between short and Long-term memory.
The brain has many functions in which it helps process and understands information. One aspect of the brain is its memory. Memory is there so information can be used to understand what is happening around someone. The function of memory is somewhat of an enigma to many scientists. How does the brain store and retrieve such information and at such high speeds? Although it is hard to conceive the actual machine working behind memory scientist have been able to figure out the physiology behind this process. The brain is composed of millions of neurons. Communication between these neurons is by using nerve impulses from the axon of one neuron to the dendrites of another. This is called a synapse. All impulses are transmitted by a chemical substance, which is called a neurotransmitter. Scientists have not been able to explain the actual processes that occur within memory. They cannot explain why people can remember something's and not other or why some learning strategies are better then others. It turns into more of a guessing game using analogies to explain what happens. Memory has been compared to the way " we rummage our house for a lost object." That is the way the brain works in terms of memory. The confusing part is how one can store it retrieving it and even use it to decipher harder more complex problems. In one early theory memory is broken down into two areas. These areas are primary memory and secondary memory. Primary memory is said to not have to be retrieved. It was never lost and it is what is seen in present time. Secondary memory is a place where everything can be stored, but the difference is secondary memory has to be retrieved and cannot be used like primary me...
Do you ever wonder how our brains can remember so many things? Our minds are a lot like computers “we can draw on our past experiences in order to use this information in the present” (Sternberg, 1999). “Memory is a group of related mental processes that are involved inacquiring, storing, and retrieving information” (Psychology, page 228). “We have 3 main stages of memory our sensory memory, short- term memory, and long term memory.” I will be stating some interesting facts about each one. Beginning with our sensory memory, one of the facts I found from the book was that “The very brief time information is held in our sensory memory you “select,” or pay attention to, just a few aspects of all the environmental information that’sbeing registered
Human memory is flexible and prone to suggestion. “Human memory, while remarkable in many ways, does not operate like a video camera” (Walker, 2013). In fact, human memory is quite the opposite of a video camera; it can be greatly influenced and even often distorted by interactions with its surroundings (Walker, 2013). Memory is separated into three different phases. The first phase is acquisition, which is when information is first entered into memory or the perception of an event (Samaha, 2011). The next phase is retention. Retention is the process of storing information during the period of time between the event and the recollection of a piece of information from that event (Samaha, 2011). The last stage is retrieval. Retrieval is recalling stored information about an event with the purpose of making an identification of a person in that event (Samaha, 2011).
When we asked the question of how we remember, forget, and learn has been the topic of lots of discussions. Examining how importantly the successes and fails of our memory skills affect our lives, this interest seems exceedingly justified. We count on our memories for lots of what we do like whenever we do identifying, appreciating, and responding right according to the objects and persons we interact in our environment and to the actions in which we take part in writing, speaking, reading, or else communicating in thinking, reasoning, and problem solving, and also to recall the past about our experiences. That is our memory, which holds, and allows us to use, the knowledge we have get about ourselves and the life and that catches the ways in which we have configured to the world so as to better cope with it. There is so much we de...
For years philosophers have enquired into the nature of the mind, and specifically the mysteries of intelligence and consciousness. (O’Brien 2017) One of these mysteries is how a material object, the brain, can produce thoughts and rational reasoning. The Computational Theory of Mind (CTM) was devised in response to this problem, and suggests that the brain is quite literally a computer, and that thinking is essentially computation. (BOOK) This idea was first theorised by philosopher Hilary Putnam, but was later developed by Jerry Fodor, and continues to be further investigated today as cognitive science, modern computers, and artificial intelligence continue to advance. [REF] Computer processing machines ‘think’ by recognising information
Atkinson, R.C. & Shiffrin, R.M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control process.
Sternberg, R. J. (1999). Cognitive psychology (2nd ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers
...pporting details. At the conclusion of the article, the authors share their thoughts on how it might be virtually impossible to determine when a memory is true or false. I also like their willingness to continue the investigations despite how difficult it might be to obtain concrete answers.
Memory is the tool we use to learn and think. We all use memory in our everyday lives. Memory is the mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experiences. We all reassure ourselves that our memories are accurate and precise. Many people believe that they would be able to remember anything from the event and the different features of the situation. Yet, people don’t realize the fact that the more you think about a situation the more likely the story will change. Our memories are not a camcorder or a camera. Our memory tends to be very selective and reconstructive.
The traditional notion that seeks to compare human minds, with all its intricacies and biochemical functions, to that of artificially programmed digital computers, is self-defeating and it should be discredited in dialogs regarding the theory of artificial intelligence. This traditional notion is akin to comparing, in crude terms, cars and aeroplanes or ice cream and cream cheese. Human mental states are caused by various behaviours of elements in the brain, and these behaviours in are adjudged by the biochemical composition of our brains, which are responsible for our thoughts and functions. When we discuss mental states of systems it is important to distinguish between human brains and that of any natural or artificial organisms which is said to have central processing systems (i.e. brains of chimpanzees, microchips etc.). Although various similarities may exist between those systems in terms of functions and behaviourism, the intrinsic intentionality within those systems differ extensively. Although it may not be possible to prove that whether or not mental states exist at all in systems other than our own, in this paper I will strive to present arguments that a machine that computes and responds to inputs does indeed have a state of mind, but one that does not necessarily result in a form of mentality. This paper will discuss how the states and intentionality of digital computers are different from the states of human brains and yet they are indeed states of a mind resulting from various functions in their central processing systems.
Tulving, E. and Craik, F. (2000) The Oxford handbook of memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Central idea: Memory is a process of the brain which is prone to certain failures, although specific steps can be taken to guard against these failures.
Memory storage is concerned with where information is stored, the extent of time the memory lasts for, th...
In the past few decades we have seen how computers are becoming more and more advance, challenging the abilities of the human brain. We have seen computers doing complex assignments like launching of a rocket or analysis from outer space. But the human brain is responsible for, thought, feelings, creativity, and other qualities that make us humans. So the brain has to be more complex and more complete than any computer. Besides if the brain created the computer, the computer cannot be better than the brain. There are many differences between the human brain and the computer, for example, the capacity to learn new things. Even the most advance computer can never learn like a human does. While we might be able to install new information onto a computer it can never learn new material by itself. Also computers are limited to what they “learn”, depending on the memory left or space in the hard disk not like the human brain which is constantly learning everyday. Computers can neither make judgments on what they are “learning” or disagree with the new material. They must accept into their memory what it’s being programmed onto them. Besides everything that is found in a computer is based on what the human brain has acquired though experience.