The Various Methods Of Memory Storage, Improvement And How Memory Ties In With Academic Success, Aging And Decision-Making
Memory is one of the major domains of cognition. This domain is concerned with how the brain encodes, stores, and retrieves information when required—the ability to retain information influences many aspects of human action. The purpose of this paper is to examine the different ways in which memory is stored and improved. Additionally, the paper evaluates how memory relates to different aspects of human action, including academic success, aging, and decision-making skills.
Critical Analysis
There are three main types of memory storage; short-term memory, long-term memory, and sensory memory. Short-term memory, also referred to as working memory, is the memory that stores only a small amount of information. The information in the working memory lasts only approximately 20 seconds (Chang, Jo, & Lu, 2011). However, the process of rehearsal enables the transfer of data from the long term to the working memory and vice versa.
On the other hand, long-term memory refers to memory that holds a larger pool of data for longer periods of time. Long-term memory holds a vast capacity of data. This capacity holds everything that a person has learned throughout their life (Chang et al., 2011). There are many types of long-term memory. For instance, there is information that is consciously stored; hence, it can easily be transferred to the working memory for one to remember it. However, some information may be subconsciously stored in long-term memory, such that a person cannot remember it (Chang et al., 2011).
Lastly, sensory memory is the memory storage that enables the retention of sensory information. This memory storage enables a person to remember sensations after the stimulus has ceased (Sligte et al., 2010). Sensory memory stores information just long enough for sensory information to be moved to short-term memory. This form of memory enables people to have sensations through the five main senses of taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight.
Different types of memory storage have different influences on human behavior. Some of these influences occur in spite of human awareness. Therefore, it is important to understand the types of memory storage to comprehend the different influences that are covered in this paper. The paper examines how memory types interact with different factors such as memory improvement, academic success, aging, and decision-making.
Memory Improvement
Memory improvement is the practice of improving one’s memory. Several research studies have been done on strategies to improve memory capabilities, such as the ability to retain and retrieve information when needed. Morris et al. (2005) conducted a study on the ability to expand memory retrieval. The study conducted two experiments evaluating the effectiveness of retrieval practice and semantic association strategy as techniques for remembering proper names. The results of the study found that proper name recall was 250% better when retrieval practice was used and 200% better when semantic associations were used to remember proper names. Another third experiment examined the effectiveness of the imagery mnemonic strategy for name learning. The mnemonic strategy only had a 50% increase in name recall. This experiment showed that the best way to learn and recall new names is through memory retrieval practice, semantic associations, and mnemonic imagery. However, this study is limited by the fact that it does not define the sample used in these experiments. There is a possibility that individual sample factors may have affected the results of the study.
The Link Between Memory and Academic Success
Memory is closely linked to academic performance. Academic success is mainly determined by a person’s ability to recall information and present it in a test. Therefore, memory plays an important role in this success. The type of memory that has the most influence on academic performance is working memory. Student success is determined by the ability to transfer information from long-term memory to working memory. Christopher and Shelton (2017) studied whether working memory capacity is linked to student success. They argued that working memory capacity regulated the negative effect of music on academic performance. They studied undergraduate students working on math and reading comprehension under conditions of silence and with music. They found that music led to a significant performance decline. However, working memory capacity helped students control the effect of the music by remembering more information. Therefore, working memory capacity can improve student success capabilities. Nonetheless, there is a gap in this study’s exploration of the factors that influence working memory capacity. This information would help students determine how they can improve their information retrieval capabilities in academic tasks.
Gado and Almeida (2013) studied the connection between working memory and academic performance. The study hypothesized that different visual stimuli affected college students’ memory, attention, and anxiety. They conducted a study on 145 male and female participants between the ages of 18 and 69. The participants were exposed to neutral, pleasant, and no stimuli to determine how it affected their memory, attention, and anxiety. The study found that exposure to a stimulus that affected emotion affected memory. Emotion influences students’ ability to remember key information. However, other factors such as personal history, culture, and the environment were found to influence memory.
Memory and Aging
Memory also closely relates to age, with memory performance changing as people age. Geraci et al. (2016) examined memory changes with age. Aging stereotypes cause people to assume that older people automatically have lower functioning memory capabilities. These stereotypes lead to poor performance on memory tests for older adults. Geraci et al. (2016) conducted an experiment showing that elderly adults can improve memory performance if they engage in prior cognitive task completion. Two experiments were done to prove this; first, the elderly adults engaged in verbal and visual cognitive tasks or no tasks (control group) before the memory test. In the second experiment, the participants completed a motor or no task (control group) before the memory test. The results showed that visual and verbal prior tests improved memory test performance. Individuals who engaged in verbal and visual cognitive tasks prior to the memory test performed better in the test compared to those in the control group. On the other hand, the second experiment showed that motor tasks (non-cognitive domain) prior to the memory tests had no impact on the results. This experiment successfully shows that memory in elderly adults can be trained with prior task engagement, particularly if the prior task was in the cognitive domain. However, the article fails to address the factors that make it necessary for elderly adults to engage in prior tasks to pass memory tasks. There is a need to study memory deterioration in elderly adults that increases their chances of doing poorly on memory tests.
Cherry et al. (2013) examined the relationships between memory aging knowledge and memory self-appraisal in college students and community-dwelling older adults. Memory aging knowledge refers to awareness of normative, age-related memory changes and non-normative age-related memory deficits. In the study, a Knowledge of Memory Aging Questionnaire (KMAQ) was administered across diverse populations and age groups, including health professionals, community-dwelling individuals, undergraduate students, and very old adults. The study examined whether there is a relationship between awareness of normative, age-related memory changes, and non-normative age-related memory deficits and memory appraisal among college students and elderly adults in the community. A quantitative explorative design was used to research these relationships. The focus of the study was mainly on the KMAQ stereotype scale, with the score indicating the level of ageist response bias on the respondent. The study found that knowledge of age-related memory changes created an ageism bias that, in turn, increased memory self-appraisal for both students and elderly adults. This study is successful in demonstrating the existence of ageism bias that affects the assessment of memory in adulthood. However, the study is limited by the small age range that was included in the sample. The younger participants were in their 20s and 30s, while the older ones were between their 60s and 70s. A wider age range could have yielded different results.
Conversely, Jackson et al. (2008) found that knowledge of memory aging and Alzheimer’s disease reduced ageism. This study investigated the impact of knowledge on aging and memory deficits in aging in mental health professionals and college students. The study utilized the Knowledge of Memory Aging Questionnaire (KMAQ) used by Cherry et al. (2013), an Alzheimer’s Disease Knowledge (ADK) test and the Fraboni Scale of Ageism. The participants completed these tests after attending a lesson on pathological issues in old age that affect memory. The results of the survey showed that better knowledge of age-related memory issues causes less ageist attitudes in mental health professionals compared to college students, and the response measure for both groups significantly improved following the lecture on pathological issues in old age that affect memory. This study is important in demonstrating the importance of education on age-related memory issues in the treatment of older adults with memory deficits. Memory education programs can help to improve the treatment of older people with mental health issues that affect their memory capabilities, such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Memory and Decision Making
Memory also plays an important role in the decision-making process. The memory system influences the processing of information to examine decision-making alternatives. An example of a study that has been done associating memory and decision-making is Portorles et al. (2018), which examined the specific processes of sequencing steps that are associated with different cognitive tasks such as decision-making. The study confirms that distinct patterns connecting different brain networks are involved during decision-making. The same processes are involved in associative recognition memory. This study confirms that memory plays a key role in processing information, leading to making decisions.
Proposal for New Research
This analysis shows a diversity in the studies that investigate different aspects of memory. Most of the studies confirm a link between memory and academic performance, issues relating to aging, and decision-making. However, a consistent limitation in the results of the evaluated studies is their lack of consideration for individual factors that affect memory. There should be a study investigating the impact of individual factors such as cultural background, environment, and gender on aspects of memory, such as academic success, aging, and decision-making. The expected results of this study would show a positive effect of personal factors on memory. For example, some studies have confirmed positive sex differences in memory (Loprinzi & Frith, 2018). Therefore, there is a chance that gender differences will influence the impact of memory on several aspects of human activity.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this analysis shows that memory is an important domain of cognition. This domain affects a lot of human activities and behaviors. This analysis specifically focuses on the types of memory storage, memory improvement, and the relationship between memory, academic performance, aging, and decision-making. Several studies have been done in each of these areas, as evident in this analysis. Studies that have been examined in this paper confirm a relationship between memory and all the variables that have been examined. However, there is a need for further research to determine how individual factors affect the areas of memory that have been studied. There is a chance that individual factors such as cultural background, environment, and gender on aspects of memory, such as academic success, aging, and decision-making. This is a hypothesis that is worth investigating to have a full picture of the effect of memory on the examined areas of human activity or behavior.
References
Chang, T., Jo, S. H., & Lu, W. (2011). Short-term memory to long-term memory transition in a nanoscale memristor. ACS nano, 5(9), 7669-7676. https://doi.org/10.1021/nn202983n
Cherry, K. E., Brigman, S., Reese-Melancon, C., Burton-Chase, A., & Holland, K. (2013). Memory aging knowledge and memory self-appraisal in younger and older adults. Educational Gerontology, 39(3), 168–178. https://doi-org.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/03601277.2012.699838
Christopher, E. A., & Shelton, J. T. (2017). Individual differences in working memory predict the effect of music on student performance. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 6(2), 167-173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2017.01.012
Gago, D., & de Almeida, R. M. M. (2013). Effects of pleasant visual stimulation on attention, working memory, and anxiety in college students. Psychology & Neuroscience, 6(3), 351–355. https://doi-org.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/10.3922/j.psns.2013.3.12
Geraci, L., Hughes, M. L., Miller, T. M., & De Forrest, R. L. (2016). The effect of prior task success on older adults’ memory performance: Examining the influence of different types of task success. Experimental Aging Research, 42(4), 365–381. https://doi-org.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/0361073X.2016.1191860
Jackson, E. M., Cherry, K. E., Smitherman, E. A., & Hawley, K. S. (2008). Knowledge of memory aging and Alzheimer’s disease in college students and mental health professionals. Aging & Mental Health, 12(2), 258–266. https://doi-org.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/13607860801951861
Loprinzi, P. D., & Frith, E. (2018). The role of sex in memory function: considerations and recommendations in the context of exercise. Journal of clinical medicine, 7(6), 132.
Morris, P. E., Fritz, C. O., Jackson, L., Nichol, E., & Roberts, E. (2005). Strategies for Learning Proper Names: Expanding Retrieval Practice, Meaning and Imagery. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 19(6), 779–798. https://doi-org.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/10.1002/acp.1115
Portoles, O., Borst, J. P., & van Vugt, M. K. (2018). Characterizing synchrony patterns across cognitive task stages of associative recognition memory. European Journal of Neuroscience, 48(8), 2759–2769. https://doi-org.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/ejn.13817
Sligte, I. G., Vandenbroucke, A. R., Scholte, H. S., & Lamme, V. (2010). Detailed sensory memory, sloppy working memory. Frontiers in psychology, 1, 175. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00175
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Question 
The Various Methods Of Memory Storage, Improvement And How Memory Ties In With Academic Success, Aging And Decision-Making
The research paper is worth 16% of your grade. You will select a topic in the area of cognition (preferably based on some theoretical issue discussed in your textbook) and conduct a library search (using the PsycInfo database) to find research evidence supporting or refuting this theory, and then present a cohesive summary of your findings in APA style.
The majority of this evidence must come from “primary source” journal articles in which the details of the experimental procedures are spelled out so that you can critically evaluate the conclusions reached by the authors. You should not rely heavily on “secondary sources” such as textbooks, review-type articles, or those articles already discussed in the text. In other words, you’ll need to find several new articles relevant to your topic on your own.
You are also not allowed to use general internet sources (such as Wikipedia or other internet sites). You will summarize and critically evaluate the scientific sources in your paper, discussing how they support or refute the theory in question. Your paper should discuss a minimum of 3 or 4 primary source articles but can include secondary source articles or articles discussed in your text as additional support for your position for or against the theory.
Memory
“A” papers do more than just appropriately summarize recent findings as stated above. To earn an A grade, your paper must also take the form of a research proposal by doing the following:
- Critically evaluate the research articles, emphasizing flaws in the research methodology, gaps, or discrepancies in the research findings.
- After your critical evaluation, the last portion of your paper should be a proposal for a new research study (a new experimental design) that will help provide additional evidence for or against the theory in question. It should give the details of the procedures, and you should make clear the purpose of the study and why you think the results of this study will help resolve the issues involved.
- Finally, you should indicate your “expected results” (hypotheses) incorporating an explanation of the reasons for that prediction.
- Review and use at least six primary source articles.
Length and Style: The paper should be between 7 and 14 pages long and written and formatted in APA style (double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1-inch margins). You must submit to the Assignment box by the end of module 7. (This Assignment box is linked to Turnitin.) You should begin working on the paper early in the term.
You should use the “PsycInfo” system located on the library website. Make sure you proofread your paper for grammatical, typing, and spelling errors because they will reduce your grade.
Here is my topic: The various methods of memory storage, improvement and how memory ties in with academic success, aging and decision making.