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Essay on long term effects of trauma
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On the morning of September 11, 2001, exactly at 9:22 a.m., I woke up to start my day and turned my television on. Instantly, Fox News had reported that a commercial plane had smashed into the Twin Towers of New York City, just minutes earlier. While the story was certainly shocking, I wanted to know more and watched the horrific aftermath unfold, as it continued to happen. I remember an incredible feeling of sadness that I could do nothing to help the people in these buildings, as well as a great concern that more attempts could be made to create further tragedy elsewhere.
As time went on that morning, sketchy pieces of information about rescue plans and other efforts came to light; screen shots of the downtown devastation permeated the air waves and it instantly appeared that we, as a nation, were never prepared for such an event. Why was this happening? Will there be other attacks? If so, will they be near me or my family? These were some of the questions I asked myself before many of the facts became known over the days, months, or even years ahead.
To this day, I can remember laying back and watching the coverage of the buildings burning and massive clouds of debris dust overpowering the streets and sky. Especially, I recall the news anchor announcing that New York City was under attack, and how this day would forever change our ways of life, from that day forward. The most memorable part of all, however, had to be watching the video of the second plane hitting the last tower, which occurred minutes after the initial attack. This image, along with the empathy for the people who were in the towers at the time and their families, will definitely last a lifetime.
How vivid is this memory today?
Although the terr...
... middle of paper ...
...These specifics recalled consist of things which, under normal conditions, we probably would not have ever remembered. The number of detailed facts retained about a particular situation is usually commensurate to the intensity of involvement or proximity to the action in question; therefore, it can be reasonably concluded that while these memories are not always perfectly engrained into our minds, interesting arguments exist which support the possibility of substantial and long-term recall of these matters.
References
Perina, Kaja. (2002, Mar 01). Hot On The Trail Of Flashbulb Memory
Retrieved June 05, 2010, from http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200203/hot-the-trail-flashbulb-memory
ScienCentral Archive. (2007, Sept 07). 911 Flashbulb Memories. Retrieved May 27, 2010 from http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218392994
Introduction On September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center buildings one and two were attacked. However, who we were attacked by and even if we were attacked is a hard decision to make. There have been many different claims about how everything on that fateful day happened. There are facts that we know are true, though; Flight 11 flew into the North Tower at eight forty- six in the morning.
The plane had held 767 passengers including crew members it spilt all the gas including the plane in the building, the 80th floor trapping people.18 minutes after the first crash another plane appeared in the sky to its new destination the world trade center.The new plane with complete shock sliced into the 60th floor of the south building which had caused a huge explosion that went all over the the streets of New York City. It took us long but we figured out that America was under attack. It turns that not just citizens got hurt over 343 of New York’s firefighters were killed.
9/11 was a tragedy that will remain in everyone's hearts possibly forever. On the morning on September 11 a horrific attack was carried out that left thousands of people dead and millions of dollars in damage done. The authors of 102 Minutes Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn provided most of the information in this essay, however numerous other equally as credible sources were used. After sifting through all the sources there is one big issue with 9/11 that contributed to the loss of life. The biggest factor to loss of life on 9/11 has to be the immense lack of preparation done by the city, the workers, and the first responders.
The film emphasizes on the power of our long-term memory and our episodic memories. Would we be happier if we forgot about traumatic past experiences? Or are our long-term memories so tangled up with emotions and sensations that our brain is unable to truly let go of long-term memories? The film also looks at the difference between explicit and implicit memories.
The day of 9/11 is definitely an event that I will never forget, even though it occ...
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).
The idea of whether a memory can be forgotten and then remembered, and the thought of suggesting a memory and then have it remembered are at the heart of the childhood abuse issue. Most clinical psychologists believe recovered memory is rare, although laboratory studies have shown that the memory is usually not accurate and can be influenced by outside factors. This issue has not been directly studied since researchers have not subjected people to traumatic events to test their memory of them. Therefore, it has not been determined if a traumatic event is encoded and stored differently in memory compared to a non-traumatic event. (American Psychological Association, 1995).
In the last half century several theories have emerged with regard to the best model for human memory. In each of these models there was a specific way to help people recall words and images. The first model of memory is the short term and long term memory. In this model information is temporarily stored in the short term memory. Over here it is easily and quickly recalled and it can stay in short term memory and be recalled if the person rehearses it. When information leaves short term memory it goes into long term memory. While long term memory has a much larger storage capacity it is harder to recall items from long term memory. It has been proposed that items from long term memory are recalled by having large part of it placed in short term memory where it is examined to see if it has the necessary piece of information. If it doesn’t then either the person gives up on recalling it or takes another large set of information from long-term memory to examine. (Atkinson & Sciffrin 1971).
Across the country, and essentially the world, September 11, 2001 has gained recognition as the day of a series of terroristic attacks on the United States. Yielding the death of thousands from the four hijacked planes at the sites of the World Trade Center ambush, crash in Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, these attacks have left a momentous imprint on American soil. Every year on the anniversary of the attacks, millions pay their respect for the lives lost. One of the most noted occurrences of 9/11 was the immediate response of New York City police officers, firefighters, and EMTs to help victims in the Twin Towers. While the heroism of these men and women’s actions to save lives will always be respected every year, the actions taken by the United States after the
According to Sternberg (1999), memory is the extraction of past experiences for information to be used in the present. The retrieval of memory is essential in every aspect of daily life, whether it is for academics, work or social purposes. However, many often take memory for granted and assume that it can be relied on because of how realistic it appears in the mind. This form of memory is also known as flashbulb memory. (Brown and Kulik, 1977). The question of whether our memory is reliably accurate has been shown to have implications in providing precise details of past events. (The British Psychological Association, 2011). In this essay, I would put forth arguments that human memory, in fact, is not completely reliable in providing accurate depictions of our past experiences. Evidence can be seen in the following two studies that support these arguments by examining episodic memory in humans. The first study is by Loftus and Pickrell (1995) who found that memory can be modified by suggestions. The second study is by Naveh-Benjamin and Craik (1995) who found that there is a predisposition for memory to decline with increasing age.
...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.
In this essay I shall discuss the work and research contributed by Bartlett, and Loftus as to whether accuracy plays a vital role in eyewitness testimony compared to other aspects of memory use. Retrieval failure is an everyday experience for many of us. We also often experience problems with storing new information. This usually occurs because simply the person concerned is not paying attention. Perhaps more importantly memories can become scrambled, in the process of retrieval; as a result the scrambled memory is recalled-along with mistaken details instead of your original memory.
Remembering an event, a situation, or a person can evoke a shiver of excitement, the heat of anger, or the anguish of grief. Although emotion that is activated by a memory may not be felt as intensely as the actual experience, the recall can be enjoyable or painful nonetheless. Emotional memory adds credibility to the notion that thoughts can trigger emotion just as the activation of emotion can create cognitions (Lerner & Keltner, 2000; Lewis, 2008).
We store memories of everything we see in our lives, both consciously and unconsciously. We store memories of things we would like to remember, and sometimes store things that will deem to be utterly useless but have been stored anyway. In the grand scheme of things, our memory is constantly working to remember things that are happening around you – like smells in certain places or the sounds of the surroundings. The important memories that you try to tell yourself to remember, as well as big events that take place that you know you will remember, are the memories that you like to think are locked in place in your memory. For example, think of a major event that took place this past year. Maybe it was a Super Bowl party you attended, or possibly a large faculty dinner that you attended. Thinking about this memory in the future, you would think that in 10 years you would remember the memory just like how you are thinking about it now. However, new research on reconsolidation, or the state of mind where memories are susceptible to modification, has shown evidence that memories tend to be distorted with each recollection of that memory. More specifically, every time in the future you go and recall the memory about the Super Bowl party, there will be some aspect of that memory that may be altered with each recollection. This is not to say that you are creating a lie, but more so that small details may be changed or missing the next time the specific memory is brought up. It is this change in memory that this paper will delve into, attempting to figure out why these changes take place.