Psychology

Human memory can be equated to a tape recorder in that it stores key information which is to be used now and again. Human memory is involved in recalling images and sensations that we may have experienced in the past. The memory is subdivided into sensory, short term and the long term memory.

The sensory memory act as a safeguard to any form of stimuli received through the senses. The sensory memory is further subdivided into iconic memory, echoic and haptic memory which are responsible for visual, touch and aural stimuli respectively. The sensory memory passes any information of interest at a given time to the short term memory.

Short term memory is responsible for temporary storage and recall of information under process. It has limited capacity and any form of disturbance interferes with its retention capacity.

The long term memory is responsible for storing information for a long period of time. It is divided into episodic and semantic memory. The episodic memory helps us in recalling events and experiences in a serial form (Wagner, 2009). On the other hand, semantic memory is responsible for restructuring some events that we may have gone through in our lives.

Memory is important to every human being. Personally, memory enabled me to acquire motor skills in my childhood and has also not failed me through my academic life. In addition, memory enabled me to interact with fellow beings and recall the past experiences that I have been through.

The next important aspect is how information is retrieved once it has been stored in the memory. There are four ways of retrieving information from the long term memory. First, the retrieval process involves recalling.This involves the ability of one being able to access information without being cued with any part of the memory. The other process of retrieval is recollection (Wagner, 2009). It is effected through the construction of logical structures and partial memories. Recognition is the other way of retrieving information from the memory. Through recognition one is able to identify some information on experiencing it for a number of times. The last way of retrieval is through relearning. Through re-learning one is able to retrieve information which was previously learned.

In life, some memories are easier to remember than others. The scenario is that individuals are aware that they stored some information in the memory but they have difficulties in retrieving the same. This can be explained using the decay theory which explains that information or memories are bound to get lost if they are not preserved through practice and reiteration. Another explanation to this is through the theory of retrieval failure. The theory explains that if information is not accessed using the right cues then it is often difficult to access it. A cue is defined as the prompt that is used to trigger retrieval from the memory.

Interference theory also explains why some information is not easily accessed. The theory explains that when similar information is stored in the memory then interference is bound to occur. For instance, in proactive interference, old memory makes it difficult to remember new memory.

More often, we have memories which may or may not reflect the accurate reflection of reality. In my opinion, my memories are not the accurate reflection of reality. In that, in my childhood I had always dreamt of being a pilot or a neurologist but this has so far been a pipedream which I still think is not achievable even in the long run.