Yerba
Mate Yerba mate stimulates the nervous system. It contains more than 24
minerals and vitamins. It is said to increase mental alertness and thinking
ability, and help boost physical energy. This was a list of herbs that are
considered to be of help in improving mental acuity. While some provide
temporary relief from stress and mental fatigue, some have long-term effects on
brain function. Before using any of these herbs as a remedy for health
concerns, the advice of a medical expert or Inteligen herbalist is essential. The human
memory system involves the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information. The
model for human memory suggested by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) includes three
components called sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. The
term 'sensory memory' refers to the first stage of memory that holds on to the
incoming sensory/perceptual information. Before the information enters the
short-term memory store, the data is acquired by our senses.
The senses of
sight and hearing hold on to the sensory input for a very brief duration. In
fact, the information is retained for the shortest duration in the sensory
memory. From the sensory information, only the inputs that you decide to pay
attention to, move on to the short-term/working memory. The sensory memory
associated with the sense of sight is referred to as the iconic memory, whereas
the memory associated with the sense of hearing is referred to as the echoic
memory. Sensory Memory In the first stage of memory, an exact copy of the
information gathered through the senses is stored for a very short duration.
Our senses are working constantly, which is why we focus on a limited amount of
information that we consider as relevant. The sensory memory has a large
capacity. It is believed that it includes systems that are associated with each
sense. In the encoding process, a substantial amount of information is gathered
through the sense of sight and hearing. Sensory memory, short-term memory, and
long-term memory differ from each other, when it comes to the duration,
capacity, and function. Sensory memory has a large capacity for information,
but it has a brief duration.
The short-term memory and long-term memory have
limited and unlimited capacity respectively. While the duration of sensory
memory ranges up to 4 seconds, the duration of the short-term memory is about
20-30 seconds. The information can be stored in long-term memory indefinitely.
An important function of sensory memory is to briefly store sensory impressions
or the exact copies of the sensory inputs (visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory,
and haptic), as a buffer memory till it is transferred into the short-term
memory. The element of attention is extremely important in case of sensory
memory. Out of all the sensory inputs, only the information that we pay
attention to gets transferred to the short-term memory. The rest of the
information is discarded or forgotten. The sensory information that is received
vanishes in a few seconds, which in turn prevents us from getting overwhelmed
by multiple sensory stimuli. Moreover, just within the brief duration for which
it lasts, one can decide the parts of sensory information that should be
retained and transferred to short-term memory. Since the mental images are
constantly being replaced with the new sensory inputs in the sensory registers,
continuity is maintained in the way we perceive our surroundings. Iconic Memory
vs. Echoic Memory The terms 'iconic memory' and 'echoic memory' were coined by
Ulric Neisser in 1967. Iconic memory is the sensory memory for vision, whereas
echoic memory is the memory for audition (hearing).
The term 'iconic' is
derived from the word 'icon', and refers to a fleeting mental image that is
formed after receiving the sensory input from the eyes. Lightning flash or
sparkler trails are examples of iconic memory. Even when we blink, the visual
inputs are held in the iconic memory, which is why there's no realization of
the fact that our eyes were completely closed. On the other hand, the term
'echoic' is derived from the word 'echo', and refers to the continuation of the
sound or the sensory input from the auditory system. For instance, if you are
engrossed in reading a book when someone says something to you, you might ask
the person to repeat what he/she said. However, you might be immediately able
to remember what that person had said, as the words would have been briefly
stored in the echoic memory. The major difference between iconic memory andechoic memory is regarding the duration and capacity. Echoic memory lasts up to
3-4 seconds in comparison to the iconic memory, which lasts up to one second.
However, iconic memory preserves 8-9 items, in comparison to 4-5 items in case
of echoic memory. George Sperling's Experiment It was in the 1960s that the
existence of iconic memory was proven with the help of a series of experiments
conducted by an American psychologist named George Sperling. In the experiment,
the subjects were asked to recall a set of 9 letters (three letters each in
three rows). The letters were projected on to a screen for a brief period
(one-twentieth of a second) with the help of a tachistoscope. It was observed
that most participants were able to recall four or five letters.
According to
Sperling, the participants were unable to recall all the letters even when all
of them had been registered, as the memory had faded too quickly. Another
Experiment In another experiment, a set of twelve letters were projected on to
the screen, but a tone was sounded right after the letters were flashed. The
subjects were given the instructions to recite only the letters in the top,
middle, and bottom row on hearing the high, medium, and low tone respectively.
It was observed that the participants had no difficulty in recalling the
letters in the row indicated by the tone. On an average, most subjects were
able to recall 3 out of 4 letters in the row. This proved that all the twelve
letters had been registered in the visual sensory store. Experiment by Guttman
and Julesz (1963) In 1963, Guttman and Julesz asked the participants to put on
headphones and listen to the repeated segments of white noise (noise produced
by a stimulus that contains all the audible frequencies of vibration) produced
with the help of a computer. It was ensured that a repeating pattern of white
noise was put together without any gap between repetitions. It was observed
that the participants were unable to recognize the fact that the sound was
being repeated, if the repeating segment of the noise lasted longer than a few
seconds.
All they could hear was a continuous sound with no pattern. On the
other hand, the subjects could realize that they were hearing a repeated sound,
when the segment of white noise lasted less than two seconds. Thus, the exact
pattern of sound was preserved in the auditory sensory store for a brief
duration. In a study conducted by Lu, Williamson, and Kaufman (1992), a
neuroimaging technique called magnetoencephalography was used for mapping brain
activity. This study revealed activity in the auditory cortex 2-5 seconds after
the sound stimulus. On a concluding note, the iconic memory, echoic memory, and
other components of sensory store decay rapidly, but the sensory memory acts as
a buffer and is an essential step in the storage of information in short-term
memory. Major problems can arise, if the relevant information doesn't get transferred
from the sensory memory to the short-term memory. You forgot where you parked
your car! You know you had something to pick up on your way home from work, but
you just can’t remember what it is! You keep trying the five passwords you
recycle for all the websites you have accounts on, but the site just isn’t
letting you in! If this describes you, then you might want to let technology
help you out. There are a whole lot of smartphone apps that come to the aid of
people who tend to forget things. So, you don't have to fret and get frustrated
at missing out on important tasks. http://www.dermayouth.org/inteligen-advanced-brain-formula
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