Memory

Memory is something that everyone wants to maintain throughout their lifetime. Growing up paretns like to play the game "Memory" with their children to enhance memory skills young. I was never very good at this game though I felt as if I tried just as hard as other kids to remember where the matches were. This week in psych I think we explained why. I learned that memory can be affected by different factors and that people have short-term and long-term memory. I learned that some memories are automatic while others are take effort. Reading for understanding takes effort as does remembering where a handful of cards in a Memory game are. I learned that immediate,  brief, recordings are stored in sensory memory which is a temporary state. We then process information into a short-term memory where we encode through rehearsal. i.e. finding a memory card twice in the same spot after a turn has passed. Information goes into our long-term memory by experiences and connections that can be processed later. However, stages can be modified. Working memory is a second stage modification that picks-and-chooses what attention is drawn to in incoming stimuli and processes what it senses. I believe my problem as a child occured between my sensory memory and my working memory. According to http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep05/workout.aspx "In fact, working memory could be the basis for general intelligence and reasoning: Those who can hold many items in their mind may be well equipped to consider different angles of a complex problem simultaneously." I do not think I had a very good working memory because I found myself getting distracted from the game and my "pick-n-choose" method did not pick up the right information and therefore my memory of where i had chosen cards and what cards I chose did not implant itself in my mind.