Why Does Our Memory Fail Us

Dawn Warner

PSY1103 Introduction to Psychology

Stephanie Brazzle

Course Project Rough Draft

May 2, 2016

Miller-Motte College

        Why does our memories fail us? Why can’t you remember where you put things? Can you still remember things from when you were a child? Our brain has so many memories that causes our brains to be crammed. When you think about forgetting your memories you think you forget it all. But the truth is that you won’t forget it all just parts of it.  So how can you measure forgetting? One way it to recall. Trying to remember a list of things and see how many you can get right. Recognition is another. This is like taking a test, trying to remember answers but associating with what you have read.

We have two different types of memory details. They are short term memory and long term memory. With short term memory you have a sharp details about things you’re thinking about. Whereas with long term memory things are a little fuzzier. Which means you can remember things from the past but not in great details. You may think your remember a lot, but when you’re at the store to buy a toy and you can’t remember what your child wants. If someone would have shown you a picture before you went shopping you would have remembered it.

        If you’re stressed, pressured or anxious can make your memories fail. When you’re feeling pressured your body responds with the fight or flight response. This can make you forget what you were thinking. Your mind may go blank. With fight of flight your brain is looking for another way out of the situation. So whatever you were doing your mind puts that in the back and starts looking for another solution. When your brain feels aroused by stress or anxiety it puts off hormones called cortisol. Cortisol helps the body prepare for fight or flight. But when your mind calms down your memories will come back to you. This is why when you try to think of something but you can, then two hours later it comes to you.

        You’re not stressed or under pressure when you place your keys, shoes or purse. So why can’t you remember where you put them? This happens because you were distracted when you put them down. If you were pay attention when you put them down your more likely to remember. Just like if you meet someone on the street you used to know. Say you have a baby in your arms that is crying. This will distract your mind and make it hard to remember. This is known as interference theory.  There is two types of interference that may occur. Retroactive interference is when new memories interfere with old memories. For example a teacher cannot remember all of her students from last year because she have to learn all the name of her students this year. The other is Proactive interference when the old memories makes it hard to you to remember the new memories. For example, you get a new locker each year at school, so you remember the old combination and it is hard to remember the new one. This happens because you have used the old one for a year so you have to train yourself to use the new one. The best way to overcome interference is to over learn the new information.

If your stressed or under pressure try to relax your muscles and trick your body to think the threat has passed. Breathing deeply can help in the same way. If you’re going to give a speech get to know the room first. This can calm you enough that you won’t forget what you want to say. You can also try mnemonic strategies. Associate a visual image with a part of your speech. Make up a sentence that each word starts with a letter to remind you what you want to say. Use acronyms to help you remember more words in your speech. Use jokes of rhymes to remember words or sentences. Try chunking your speech in to smaller parts to help you.

To sharpen your memory or thinking you should repeat it several times. Makes sure you take notes. Try to stay organized with what you need to know. Take the notes you wrote and read then thought out the day. You can visualize and image to another word. Like the name Sandy you could think of a beach. Give yourself cues. If you can’t remember a word, try talking around it. You can set timers to remind you of things you need to do. Last you can group things together. If you’re doing a list for groceries try grouping things that are similar to help you remember them.