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Importance of learning through experience
What is the hippocampus role in learning
Cognitive psychology memory
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the hippocampus function in the brain is related to memory retention and in particular long term memory. It isn’t easy revealing the function of certain parts of the human brain. Findings usually come from accidental damages which people have encountered which in turn provide information on what was damaged and how this has then affected the person. . The hippocampus is responsible for a number of different types of memory, these being semantic and episodic, recollection and familiarity. The experiment conducted, especially the test which incorporated the videos beforehand could definitely fall into the category of familiarity. Some of the videos had been seen by some of the participants before undertaking the test, this could have either
Hippocampus is a small, curved region, which exists in both hemispheres of the brain and plays a vital role in emotions, learning and acquisition of new information. It also contributes majorly to long term memory, which is permanent information stored in the brain. Although long term memory is the last information that can be forgotten, its impairment has become very common nowadays. The dysfunction is exemplified by many neurological disorders such as amnesia. There are two types of amnesia, anterograde and retrograde. Anterograde amnesia is inability in forming new information, while retrograde refers to the loss of the past memory. As suggested by Cipolotti and Bird (2006), hippocampus’s lesions are responsible for both types of amnesia. According to multiple trace theory, the author suggests that hippocampal region plays a major role in effective retrieving of episodic memory (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). For example, patients with hippocampal damage show extensively ungraded retrograde amnesia (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). They have a difficult time in retrieving information from their non-personal episodic events and autobiographical memory. However, this theory conflicts with standard model of consolidation. The difference between these theories suggests that researchers need to do more work to solve this controversy. Besides retrieving information, hippocampus is also important in obtaining new semantic information, as well as familiarity and recollection (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). For instance, hippocampal amnesic patient V.C shows in ability to acquire new semantic knowledge such as vocabularies and factual concepts (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). He is also unable to recognize and recall even...
Seahorses are a prime example of species whose atypical biology and unusual global distribution leads to a series of evolutionary questions. Seahorses (genus Hippocampus) are a marine species that have extensively been studied because of their abnormal behaviors in the marine environment compared to other marine creatures. Many of the seahorse species have large ranges, both longitudinally (over a great horizontal distance across the ocean), and latitudinal (great vertical distance within the ocean), regardless of the fact that they are characterized as weak swimmers and lack any large structural fins for efficient swimming (Lourie et al., 1999a). Although they do have these large range environments, seahorses
Organized in the class Actinopterygii, seahorses, Hippocampus spp., are marine dwelling organisms found in bodies of water which span from tropical to temperate zones around the Earth. As cited by Foster in Life History and Ecology of Seahorses, research by R. A. Fritschze suggests that the genus Hippocampus diverged at least 20 million years ago from its ancestral origins. Research pertaining to organisms organized under the genus Hippocampus are conflicting in regards to the number species contained within it, although a general figure places the number at around fifty discovered species(website source). These odd-looking organisms reside at shallow depths of less than 30 meters and can be found in habitats containing seagrass beds and coral reefs(Foster 10). Hippocampus spp. are all predatory organisms, their main sources of food consist of small crustaceans and fish, as well as other organisms which are small enough to be consumed(lourie 10). Although Hippocampus spp. are predatory, their size and restricted mobility capabilities place them at risk of being prey for other carnivorous organisms.
Various clinical and psychological studies have shown that the hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe is responsible for important learning and memory. In the majority of studies, many researchers propose that the hippocampus is responsible for long-term memory (LTM). LTM impairments occur when damage to bilateral hippocampi are present and can result in anterograde amnesia (difficulty in forming recent memories), retrograde amnesia (difficulty in retrieving memories from the past), or both. However, in this paper, the relationship between the hippocampus and fear memory will be explored explicitly. Understanding the reasoning behind amnesia and the hippocampus is of critical importance in neuroscience.
Through studies performed on sleep-deprived rats, experimental results have shown a decrease in cellular activity in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is responsible for most of the brain’s memory processing. When entering into sleep deprivation, the brain will experience consequences such as a failure for the hippocampus to encode, consolidate, or retrieve signals powering memory processing. As a result, researchers are looking for cellular characteristics that could lead to further details into the relationship between sleep deprivation and memory impairment. There are several different ways memory can be disrupted, one suggested in being an imbalance of neurotransmitters in the hippocampal region of the brain. Both hormonal and oxidative stress are also factors that are observed to play major roles of memory impairment in the hippocampus. These
In the article “Brain Gain: The Underground World of “Neuroenhancing” Drugs” (Yorker 2009) Margaret Talbot discusses the misuse of prescription drugs that enhance academic performance at the college level. First Talbot introduces readers to a young college history major at Harvard University named Alex who receives a description of a demanding, busy life which seems impossible to control without the safety unapproved adopted use of a drug named Adderall. After that Alex’s dependency on the prescription drugs cognitive enhancers is described when he asks his doctor to increase the amount of intake and the listing of his daily routine on using Adderall during a week that required him to write four term papers. Next Talbot describes a personal
According to these two cases, these inspire us to understand that the hippocampus is an important brain region that is used for converting short-term memory into long-term memory.
In contrast to the concept of reconstruction, there is an argument that crucial experiences are vividly remembered (Buchsbaum et al.2012). To find evidence in support for this idea Buchsbaum and colleagues conducted an experiment to see neural activation patterns across the brain in both scenarios. That is while watching the video and mental replaying of it.The experiment was designed in such a way that first, participants were made to watch video clips and then over a period of 2 to 3 months, they were trained to rehearse memory we call mental replay. During the process particip...
An adult person who is illiterate and tries to read shows profound changes in deep brain. It came from a study where researchers helped illiterate woman from North India to read. In addition, the illiterate woman had scanned their brain before and after learning to read. The researchers found a big change in the brain after the women learned to read. They conclude that the brain of an adult is not flexible. The plasticity still actives in adult age.
The activity is artificial. However, the findings can be used to help improve the memory. The study is well controlled, so it is unlikely that there are any other factors affecting the findings. However, some participants may guess the aim, and may either try to help the experimenter or hinder. As I am using an independent groups design, there will be no problem with order effects, but individual differences may have an effect on the results.
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...
Research has shown that even though information may be committed to memory, what is retrieved can be altered during the encoding process. It has been said that, “the recollection of memory can be manipulated and or large aspects of the event can be confabulated.” (Cain,1997). Moreover, the recollection of past experiences can negatively affect future decisions, opinions, and more significant outcomes such as an eyewitness. This type of impact is due to something called, “false memories.” False memories can be defined as “an recollection of an event that never actually occurred.” False memories are said to be normal occurrences and have little impact on lives. However, Loftus and Palmer argue something different. In 1974, Loftus and Palmer conducted an experiment to test out the theory behind “false memories.” Their aim was to show that language used in eyewitness testimony can alter memory. People in this experiment were asked to estimate the speed of motor vehicles using different ways of questioning. Loftus and Palmer asked questions in regards to vehicle speed because typically that is something that most people are bad at estimating. Therefore these people would be more vulnerable and open to suggestions. The procedure of this experiment involved participants watching a video of cars. Participants were asked what they had seen in regards to how that car came in contact with the other car. Loftus and Palmer used words like “crashed, collided, hit, and smashed.” Their findings concluded that the estimated speed was affected by the verb used to describe the cars’ contact with one another. It seem as if participants saw that the verbs as clues of the speed the cars were going. Loftus and Palmer also came to the conclusion that there could only be two reasons for their findings. Those reasons were Response- bias factors or the fact that the memory representation is alter.
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).
Hippocampus plays an important job in the formation of new memories about experienced events such as the episodic or the autobiographical memory. It is also a part of larger medial temporal lobe memory system responsible for general declarative memory. General declarative memory is a type of memories that can be explicitly verbalized. If damage to hippocampus occurs only in one hemisphere, our brain can still retain near-normal memory functioning. But even so the hippocampus is damage; some types of memory such as abilities to learn new skills will not be affected. The reason is because, some abilities depends on different types of memory and different regions of the brain such as procedural memory. Hippocampus also plays role in spatial memory and navigation. Many hippocampal neurons have “place fields” and the discovery of place cells in 1970’s led to the theory that hippocampus might act as cognitive
Learning to tie shoes and ride a bike requires the encoding, storing, and retrieving of past observations of the procedure. With a lot of practice, children master these skills so well that they are able to remember them the rest of their lives. Memory is the storing of information over time. It is one of the most important concepts in learning; if things are not remembered, no learning can take place. As a process, memory refers to the "dynamic mechanism associated with the retention and retrieval of information about past experiences" (Sternberg 260). We use our memory about the past to help us understand the present. The study or memory in psychology is used in different ways, as well as there are many different ways to study how memory works in humans. In psychology there are many tasks used to measure memory, and different types of memory storages that human's use, such as sensory storing, or short term storing. There are also a lot of techniques that humans use to improve their memory, which they can use to learn, such as mnemonic devices. All these things can be classified as important issues in the study of human memory and ways of learning.