Alzheimer’s Disease

I learned that Alzheimer’s is a brain disease that affects memory, thinking , and behavior. I learned that the symptoms develop slowly over time and usually get worse too , becoming brutal enough to interfere with daily tasks. I learned that Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. I also learned that Alzheimer's is not a normal part of aging . Finally I learned that Alzheimer's has no current cure, but treatments for symptoms are available and research continues.

The greatest risk factor is increasing in age, and the majority of people with Alzheimer’s disease are from 60 and older. Alzheimer’s is not necessarily of old aged , like 5 percent of the people with the disease have early onset Alzheimer , that appears when you are in your 40s or 50s . Alzheimer is a progressive disease, where its symptoms get worse over years . In its early stages, memory loss is calmed but in the last stages of Alzheimer's, people lose the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to their environment. Alzheimer is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States . Alzheimer cant be cured , but can be slowly temporarily treated to slow the worsening of the symptoms and to improve the quality of life with those with Alzheimer .

Concluding I think that this disease , is a problem because it can appear to people like from nowhere . I say it’s a problem because its harsh and painful to some people , to have not only memory loss more than that . I am proud that scientists are keeping it up with the research in treating the disease .

Memory Articles

New Understanding Of How We Remember Traumatic Events

Neuroscientist at the University of Queensland called Dr Louise Faber conducted this experiment , the purpose of this experiment was to discover a way in which to explain how emotional events can sometimes lead to disturbing long term memories. This experiment was conducted by scientists that have uncovered a cellular mechanism underlying the formation of emotional memories . Which occurs in the presence of a well known stress hormone. Second Faber demonstrated how noradrenaline or the brains adrenaline , affects the amygdala by controlling chemical and electrical pathways in the brain responsible for memory formation. The result of this experiment was that it was a new way of understanding form long term memories in the amygdala .This experiments and its results can be applied to real life because it can help other scientists to elucidate new targets, leading to better treatments for conditions such as anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081028103111.htm

Some Short-Term Memories Die Suddenly, No Fading

To test the accuracy of short-term visual memory, Weiwei Zhang, a postdoctoral scholar, and Steve Luck, a professor of psychology. These two conducted two experiments in witch the could measure two things : the accuracy of a short-term memory and the probability that the memory still existed. Each test was given to 12 adults . The two test were similar , in the second one they used shapes instead of colors . The experiment was conducted first with three squares ,  with different colors , flashed on a computer screen for a tenth of a second . After four o ten seconds a full spectrum appeared that had all of the colors . Three squares repeated but now all of them were colorless and only one was highlighted . Adults were to recall the color of the highlighted square and to point on the wheel the area were the most closely matched is. Each adult repeated the test 150 times . When the adults retained in there memory the color they could click in the wheel near the are of the color they had projected , but when the color had disappeared from there memory they clicked randomly in the areas of the wheel . “either had the memory or didn’t have the memory,” Luck said, “and the probability of having it decreased between four and ten seconds. The memories did not gradually fade away.” This experiment can be applied to real life because it can provide a way to avoid a confusion that might come up if we might make decisions in our daily life .


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090429091806.htm

Early Scents Really Do Get 'Etched' In The Brain

Yaara Yeshurun and researchers of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel conducted experiment . In the experiment the researchers presented adults with a visual object together with one, and later with a second, set of pleasant and unpleasant odors and sounds while their brains were imaged by functional magnetic resonance imaging. A week later, the researchers presented the same objects inside the fMRI and tested participants' associations of those images with the scents and smells. The researchers stated that people remembered early associations more clearly when being unpleasant . The first olfactory associations revealed a unique activation in brain regions . Researchers stated that they could even predict what a persons memory would reveal later based on the test in the first day . The results show that theres something particularly special about early memories of smells .Yeshurun said. "In our paradigm, initial and later olfactory associations were remembered equally well, but only first associations had the unique brain representation." The results can help in real life because they can  suggest ways to strengthen particular memories.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091105132448.htm

Memory

1. Explain the concept of sensory memory.

Sensory memory is the earliest stage of memory . In this stage sensory information from the environment is stored for a very brief period of time , for no longer than a half second for visual information and 3 0r 4 for auditory information.

2. Give an example of sensory memory.

An example can be when a shooting star passes your sensory memory acts fast because when it disappears you have the image still. Thanks to your sensory memory.

3. What is the capacity of our sensory memory?

Our sensory memory can hold a large amount of unprocessed data but only for a short time because it fades away.

4. Describe the concept of short-term memory.

Short-term memory also known as working memory , is the info we are currently aware of or thinking about . Like first we have the sensory memory so if we think or recall that memory for 2o seconds it becomes a short term memory . 

5. What is the "magic number" as it relates to short-term memory and who conducted the experiment which established this measurement?

George miller conducted this experiment and it relates to short term memory because it describes that the human brain can only remember in detail 7 stimuli presented at a time.

6. What is chunking?

 It refers to a stradegy for making more efficient use of short - term memory by recoding information.

7. What has been determined to be the ideal size of "chunks" for both letters and numbers?

Two psychologists mentioned that there two , three, and six . Those are the ideal numers for chunking for letters as well as numbers .

8. Which mode of encoding does short-term memory mostly rely on, acoustic or visual?

Acoustic

9. Explain the duration and capacity of long-term memory.

The duration of a long term memory is that its stored permanently so in other words its stored for a lifetime , till you die. The capacity can be defined as infinite because theres no limit for what you can store in your mind. 

10. Explain in detail the Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of memory.

In 1968 Atkinson and Shiffrin made a theory that outlines three stage in memory : sensory,short-term, and long-term memory .

Sensory memory: Sense organs have ability to retain information in a sort of unprocessed way trough a stimulus for less than a second. 

Short term memory: Allows us to remember us information long enough for us to use it

Long term memory: is the memory that continues and never stops. You can store a lot of information and remember it whenever you want .

11. Identify three criticisms or limitations of the Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of memory.

The model contains shallow processing which leads to a fragile memory trace that is susceptible to rapid forgetting . In the case of sensory memory, the model does not acknowledge the neural activity. The model which consists of the "stream of memory" is said to lack internal consistency.

12.Explain the Levels of Processing Model of memory.

This theory rejected the idea of the dual store model of memory. This popular model postulated that characteristics of a memory are determined by it's location.

13. What is maintenance rehearsal - give an example.

Maintenance Rehearsal is the process of repeatedly verbalizing or thinking about a piece of information. Your short term memory is able to hold information about about 20 seconds. An example might be like when i have to remember the pizza number like for a short period of time so i repeat the digits a lot of time .

14. What is elaborative rehearsal - give an example.

 This involves deep processing of a item to-be remembered resulting in producing a durable memory , in other words to associate a unmeaningful thing with a thing that has meaning to you.An example might be , you need to remember the term "neuron." In order to permanently commit the term to your memory, you look up what it means , find out its purpose , look at a diagram and study its parts, and think about how it relates to things that you already know . If you do this several times , then you will be more likely to remember the term.

15. Who developed the Levels of Processing Model and the concepts of maintenance and elaborative rehearsal? 

Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart presented this theory .

Meeeeemory

Memory is when we can recall,retain , and store information and experiences . In more understandable words memory is the ability to travel back in time in your mind that develops during your lifetime. 

In the class of IB psychology we were given four videos of How is your memory . We were suposed to pay attention , by the way i didn't . So i had to watch them again , by the way more work . This doesn’t matter the most important thing is the information i learned. 

First I learned keywords that are key if learning memory like i am doing right now. First I learned what dementia meant , it means when you start to loose you're memory at a old age , and it never stops till you die . I learned a type of amnesia , it means when you loose part or total of your memory . I learned a new thing that I didn’t knew that there pills that manipulat your memory.

Second these three keys had to do with three persons , so for reall this videos are amazing because its amazing of how they could interview people with this memory distortions and conditions.

The Stroop Effect

The Stroop effect is a psychological occurrence first described by John Ridley Stroop in the 1935. The Stroop effect had been fascinating psychologists because it appears to tap into essential operations of cognition, thereby offering clues to fundamental cognitive processes. There were two great experiments made , Stroop first compared reading a list of words printed in black with reading the same list of words printed in incongruent colors. Stroop found that there was little difference in reading time for the two lists. Stroop then compared the naming of colors for a list of solid color squares with the naming of colors for a list of words printed in incongruent colors. Its 74% longer to name color ink of incongruent words. The results of this two studies is that people are used to read word rather than identify colors.

The Stroop Effect test consists : 1. A person is handed a list of words matching the colors the words are describing . 2. You are asked to name the color of the ink used on each word . 3. They are timed for this first test 4. The colors of the words change place , they didn’t match anymore 5. You are asked to name the color on the word 6. You get timed for the second test

Stroop found out that practice made the time in which the task was being done decrease. That naming colors result much slower than reading them. 

You stumble because the brain is trying to pay attention to more than one thing . The brain tries to read and visualize what color or word it is so its confusing . That’s why the second test , were the words didn’t match was harder .

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-stroop-effect.htm

The myth of multitasking

1.Why is multitasking considered by many psychologists to be a myth?

Multitasking is considered to be a myth because in reality we cant do two things at the same time . The only thing we can do is to change of task so fast that we think that we are multitasking . One example is texting while speaking , you are going to text or talk in stead because you are gooing to think in one better.

2.To what does the term "response selection bottleneck" refer?

Marois found evidence of a “response selection bottleneck” that occurs when the brain is forced to respond to several stimuli at once. As a result, task-switching leads to time lost as the brain determines which task to perform.

3.David Meyer has found that multitasking contributes to the release of stress hormones and adrenaline . Why is this important? 

This is important to know because stress hormones and adrenaline can cause long-term health problems if not controlled, and contributes to the loss of short-term memory

4.Explain what Russel Podrack found regarding multitasking.

His research demonstrates that people use different areas of the brain for learning and storing new information when they are distracted. Brain scans of people who are distracted or multitasking show activity in the striatum, a region of the brain involved in learning new skills . Brain scans of people who are not distracted show activity in the hippocampus, a region involved in storing and recalling information. 

5. What does  the author conclude could happen to our culture as a result of increased multitasking?

With crumbs of attention rationed out among many competing tasks . Their culture may gain in information, but it will surely weaken in wisdom.

Observations of the Bambuti Pygmies

The Pygmies are the nomadic hunting and gathering inhabitants of the Ituri Forest in Africa. The Bambuti are the most famous of the Pygmies and also the shortest with an average height of 4 feet 6 inches. The Bambuti hunt and gather food which they use for their own consume and for trading to their neighbors in exchange for goods and other material which are not available in the forests. The Bambuti show very little concern for afterlife and the dead are buried near the huts and the camp is abandoned.

Colin Turnbull was a Oxford-student Englishmen . Colin had an affair with the African Pygmies . He was a genius and a great anthropologist , but he was gay , he had found love with a poor African guy called Joe Towles . Colin described what happened in former Congo . When the Bambuti pygmy , went with him to the plains . Colin says “And then he saw the buffalo, still grazing lazily several miles away, far down below. He turned to me and said, 'What insects are those?' At first I hardly understood, then I realized that in the forest vision is so limited that there is no great need to make an automatic allowance for distance when judging size. Out here in the plains, Kenge was looking for the first time over apparently unending miles of unfamiliar grasslands, with not a tree worth the name to give him any basis for comparison... 
When I told Kenge that the insects were buffalo, he roared with laughter and told me not to tell such stupid lies.” This means that Kenge didn’t have experience of seeing distant objects and he saw them small at first . This observation Colin had is important for the study of perception because it lets you know that distant objects might get a different picture of what they really are .