Flash Memory Essay -- essays research papers

Flash Memory PSYCHOLOGY TERM PAPER Memory is the main faculty of retaining and recalling past experiences. A repressed memory, is one that is retained in the sub conscious mind, in which one is not aware of it but where it can still affect both conscious thoughts, memory, and behavior. When memory is distorted, the result can be referred to what has been called the "False Memory Syndrome"(Thomas Billing Publishing 1995) : a condition in which a person's identity and interpersonal relationships are entered around a memory of traumatic experience which is obviously false but the person strongly believes that it isn't. However, the syndrome is not only characterized by false memories alone. We all have memories that are inaccurate. Instead, the syndrome may be diagnosed when the memory is so severely disoriented that it changes the individual's entire personality and lifestyle, therefore, disrupting all sorts of other behaviors. The means of personality disorder is on purpose. False memory syndrome is especially destructive because the person carefully avoids any confrontation what so ever with any evidence that might challenge the memory. So this syndrome takes on a life of its own, keeping itself to be alone and resistant to correction. The person may become so focused on the memory that he or she may be effectively distracted from coping with real problems in his or her life. There are many models which try to explain how memory works. Nevertheless, we do not know exactly how memory works. One of the most questionable models of memory is the one which assumes that every experience a person has had is "recorded" in memory and that, "some of these memories are from traumatic events too terrible to want to remember"(Thomas Billings Publishing 1995). . These terrible memories are locked away in the sub conscious mind, (i.e. repressed, only to be remembered in adulthood when some triggering event opens the door to the unconscious). Both before and after the repressed memory is remembered, it causes physical and mental disorders in a person. Some people have made an effort to explain their pain. Even Cancer, was known to form in some through repressed memories of incest in the body. Scientists have studied related phenomenon such as people wh... ...he victim had been shown, there is no way of knowing whether the victim is remembering the assailant or the picture. Another interesting fact about memory is that studies have shown that there is no connection between the result feeling a person has about memory and that memory being accurate. Also, opposed to what many believe, hypnosis does not aid memory's accuracy because subjects are unconscience while under hypnosis.(Copeland Publishing 1989) It is possible to create false memories in people's minds by suggestion. Why would someone remember something so horrible if it really did not happen? This is a haunting question, but there are several possible explanations which might shed light on some of the false memories. A pseudomemory, for example, may be a kind of symbolic expression of troubled family relationships. It may be that in such a position people more readily believe things happened when they didn't. When people enter therapy, they do so to get better. They want to change. People also tend to look for some explanation for why they have a problem. Victims come to trust the person they have chosen to help them.