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COGNITION, NEUROSCIENCE AND CONSCIOUSNESS

AN ASSIGNMENT ON ‘MEMORY’

Tanya Karen Rodrigues

PSY MSC 1955
AIBAS
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INDEX

Sr. No. Topics Page No.

1 Introduction 3

2 How do we research memory? 3

(i) Tasks used to measure memory 4

(ii) Technologies used 7

(iii) Studies involving humans 8

(iv) Studies involving animals 10

3 Past studies into memory 11

4 Applications and importance of memory 18

5 Critical Evaluation 20

6 References 22
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Introduction

Throughout the ages, various analogies have been used to describe memory. It has been
compared to making impressions on wax, an empty cabinet that we can fill up, a process that
requires exercise, etc. But in reality, memory is a much more complex process than that.
Advancements in neuroscience has revealed that memory is a process that takes place in
various regions of the brain, in the form of encoded neural connections.

Memory can be defined as our ability to encode, store, retain and subsequently recall
information and past experiences in the human brain. It is the use of past experience to
influence current behaviour.

Memory consists of three basic operations; encoding, storage and retrieval. Encoding is
transforming sensory data into mental representation. Storage involves keeping this data
encoded in memory. And retrieval pertains to using this encoded information that is stored in
memory.

How do we research memory?

Memory can be assessed through a variety of methods. Psychologists have been developing
various tests to measure memory in form of tasks that participants need to perform in
laboratory settings. This, combined with the methodologies borrowed from neuropsychology,
such as brain imaging, has helped to give us a better understanding of how memory
functions. Studies of human participants that have sustained brain damage has also helped us
to identify how various structures of the brain are utilized in memory processes. Research
involving animal subjects has also helped us to explore memory, while circumventing various
ethical concerns associated with studies using human participants. The various methods
researchers use to study memory are detailed in depth below.
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Tasks used to measure memory

A variety of tasks that involve remembering strings of letters, words or numerals have been
designed in order to measure memory. Depending on the type of memory these tasks
measure, they can be categorized as tasks that involve recall or recognition, and tasks that
involve implicit or explicit memory.

Recall Vs. Recognition

Recall is said to be the process through which we produce a fact, a word or other information
from memory. There are three main types of recall tasks used to measure this type of
memory; serial recall, free recall and cued recall. Recall tasks require the participant to
produce an answer, and it involves something known as expressive knowledge.

Serial recall is the technique of recalling items in the exact order in which they were
introduced to the participant. Free recall is the process of recalling items in any order that the
participant may choose. Cued recall is the type of task wherein participants are shown items
in pairs first, and later, they are cued with only one member of the pair and are asked to recall
its mate. This type of recall task is also called as ‘paired-associates recall’ (Lockhart, 2000).

Recognition on the other hand involves selecting or identifying an item as the participant was
exposed to beforehand. In recognition tasks, the participants respond to the stimuli introduced
to them and state whether you have seen it before or not. These tasks involve receptive
knowledge, where receptive means how responsive to stimulus a participant is.

Studies show that individuals fare better on recognition tasks compared to recall tasks.
Standing and colleagues conducted a study in 1970 which required participants to recognize
almost 2,000 pictures in a memory recognition task. In comparison, it was harder for the
participants to try and recall 2,000 images that they were asked to memorize. The best
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measured recall, even with training, was found to be around 80 items, thus showing us the
differences between expressive and receptive knowledge.

Relearning is a concept that researchers have also attempted to measure. It is said to be

number of revisions it takes an individual to learn again items they have studied in the past.
Relearning is also known as ‘savings’ and can be studied in adults and children, as well as in
animals.

Explicit Vs. Implicit Memory

Researchers have also theorized the concepts of explicit and implicit memory and have
attempted to distinguish the two.

Explicit memory can be said to be the conscious recollection of information. The tasks
discussed above involving recall, recognition and relearning make use of and measure
explicit memory.

Implicit memory can be said to be the process of unconsciously using information from our
memory. Many everyday tasks such as driving a car or typing on a computer keyboard
involve the unconscious recollection of information that pertains to implicit memory. In
research settings, we measure it by using tasks that involve the concepts of priming and
procedural knowledge.

Priming can be defined as the facilitation of an individual’s ability to utilize missing

information and can be measured in studies by having participants perform word-completion
tasks, where they receive a fragment of a word, such as the first three letters and are then
asked to complete it with the first word that they think of. Participants have been seen to
perform better when they were shown the word on a list that was previously introduced to
them, even if they were not specifically told to memorize the words from that list (Tulving,
2000). Priming also works in situations where the word was presented for a fraction of a
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second or if the participant is unaware that they have seen the word before.

Procedural memory can be called as the long term memory that used for unconsciously
completing various processes, such as walking, talking or riding a bike. It is tested by using
two implicit memory tasks, the rotary pursuit task and the mirror tracing task.

The rotary pursuit task requires participants to track a small rotating disk on an L-shaped
stylus that has been placed on a rotating platform. Then the participants were asked to repeat
this task with either the same disk and rotational speed, or a new sized disk and a different
speed. Verdolini-Marston and Balota (1994) noted that when a new disk or speed is used,
participants do relatively poorly, but when redoing the experiment with the same disk and
rotating speed, the participants do as well as they had after learning the task.

The mirror tracing task involves a participant reaching beyond a barrier to draw an image on
a plate that is placed out of direct view of the participant, but they are able to see the image
on the plate through the use of a strategically placed mirror. The participant is then required
to trace out the shape that is on the plate with the help of a stylus. Results from studies show
that they have difficulty staying on the outline of the shape when first performing this task
and that it takes a long time to trace out the entire shape. However, with more trials and
practice, the participants are able to learn how to do it and have been seen to trace out the
shape more accurately in later attempts. Their retention of the skill of tracing the outline is a
way of studying procedural memory.

The methods mentioned above make the assumption that implicit and explicit memory are
two separate types of memory. However, some researchers have questioned this, and have
proposed that both these types of memory work together in completing processes, further
stating that only one task is required to measure both explicit and implicit memory.

The process dissociation model proposed by L. L. Jacoby (1991) works on these assumptions.
Jacoby tested this by using process dissociation method in his False Fame experiment, where
participants were first introduced to a list of non-famous people and were later given the
same list, with a few more non-famous names as well as names of famous people added to it.
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They were informed that the list contained some famous people, although they were obscure
celebrities. The participants were then asked to identify between the famous and non-famous
names. The results seen from this study are that participants usually misidentify the old
non-famous names as names of famous people.

Technologies used

Biological processes have an impact on what we experience, how we behave, and what we
remember. Cognitive neuroscience attempts to reduce various cognitive processes such as
memory to the very basic of neural connections by using methods of brain imaging such as
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Positron emission tomography (PET),
repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and Magnetoencephalography (MEG) as
well as older methods such as and Electroencephalography (EEG) studies.

EEG

An electroencephalogram (EEG) helps to detect brain waves of an individual during different

stages of consciousness. Researchers then use this information to make generalizations about
brain function. They provide clinicians with a continuous measure of brain activity by
positioning metal electrodes all over an individual’s scalp. Recently, the University of Oregon
conducted a study using (EEG) electrodes attached to the scalps of 25 student subjects and
captured synchronized neural activity while they held a simple oriented bar located within a
circle in short-term memory.
A newer technique called magnetoencephalography (MEG) has been developed, which
measures changes in magnetic fields generated by electrical neural activity. It has been called
the magnetic equivalent of EEG, but it gives a more accurate localization of brain regions as
compared to EEG.
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PET scan

The positron emission tomography (PET) scan helps researchers see which areas of the brain
are most active during memory tasks. It measures how much of a certain chemical or which
parts of the brain are being utilized. This imaging technique involves the injection of a
radioactively labelled compound to measure the blood flow to various areas of the brain, thus
allowing for an electronic reconstruction of an image of the brain which shows which areas
are most active during a particular time. Studies using PET scans have found that the left
hemisphere of the lateral frontal and inferior parietal lobes as well as the temporal lobe are
involved in the processes of maintaining speech-related information.

fMRI scan

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) combines the elements of the MRI and PET
scans. It can show us details of the brain structure while giving information of the blood flow
in the brain, thus showing us the activity in the brain while performing memory tasks. fMRI
relies on the fact that blood has magnetic properties.These scans provide clinicians and
investigators with a noninvasive, nonradioactive means of assessing blood flow to various
brain regions. Research using fMRI scans has shown how the hippocampus and other parts of
the brain, such as the amygdala (in the case of emotionally based memories) and the
cerebellum (in the case of procedural memories) function to enable us to remember what we
need to know.

Studies involving humans

Human beings are able to describe their experiences and are capable of performing complex
and indirect tests of memory. Therefore, they make suitable participants for research studies
into the field of memory. We develop the ability for memory at a very young age. In children,
studying memory has its benefits as memory is displayed in simpler ways than in adults.
Compared to adults, children have a lack of verbal communication and mental capabilities,
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but testing methods can be modified to suit age specific memory abilities. Researchers
measure a child’s memory by documenting its physical actions, its facial and emotional
responses as well as its attention and focus, by using observational and experimental
methods. Older children help to provide produce more accurate data since they are capable of
answering to verbal and non-verbal tests that range to more complicated tasks. Memory
ability further develops as stages of childhood progress and is also influenced by a variety of
biological and environmental factors. Therefore, it becomes necessary to utilize different
methodologies or tests depending on the age of the child.

The APA has a strict ethical code that needs to be followed while conducting research on
humans so that there are no adverse effects felt by the participant. They must express consent
to be a part of research and their rights must not be imposed upon. Only those that have
already sustained brain damage can be studied, as intentional lesioning of the brain of a
healthy participant is illegal.

Lesion studies however have proved vital in helping us to understand how memory functions.
Past lesioning studies have shown us how specific behavioural deficits that are associated
with specific areas of brain damage. The famous case of HM made major headway in
uncovering how brain damage can help inform us regarding the inner workings of memory.
HM was a man who experienced profound amnesia after he had both his medial temporal
lobes. Lack of experimental control is one of the main problems associated with studying
human patients who have already acquired brain damage. Comparisons usually have to be
made between individuals, and the exact location of lesioning and other individual
differences cannot be controlled for.
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Studies involving animals

Animals are a good substitute for humans in memory research because the principles that
underlie the basic mechanisms of human brain function are also found in animals. We use
cross-species comparisons as a tool in neuropsychology to fully understand human memory.
Psychologists that work with animals assume that the things they learn can be applied to the
human brain. There is no perfect, ideal animal that perfectly resembles human functioning
that we can conduct our research on, but for each problem we encounter, we can specifically
choose an animal that best suits the criteria of what the problem is that needs to be addressed.

Animals brains can be studied by selective lesioning using surgical, or neurotoxic methods
while providing the added benefit of being able to assess them before and after the
experimental lesioning. In recent times, technology has allowed us to genetically manipulate
mice so that we can create ‘knockout mice’. These mice are genetically engineered by
scientists to lack some functional or behaviour, or have missing or altered gene sequences.
The careful observation of animal behaviour may help us to discover neural substrates of
memory and thus prove to be an essential tool for studying the gene-behaviour interactions
involved in memory.
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Past studies into memory

The study of human memory began at least 2,000 years ago, way back to Aristotle’s early
attempts to understand memory. In his work “On the Soul”,One of the earliest attempts to
study memory was by Aristotle, where he compared the human mind to a blank slate, and
stated that all humans are born free of all knowledge and are merely the sum of our
experiences. He used the analogy of making impressions in wax to describe memory. This
was at least 2,000 years ago. Since then, there have been a number of research studies
conducted in an attempt to better understand the inner workings of memory. A rough timeline
of landmark studies is noted down below.

Timeline of key studies

1870’s and 1880’s:

The two founding fathers of modern psychology, William James and Wilhelm Wundt, both
conducted early studies into how human memory functions.

William James, an american psychologist distinguished memory into two types; primary and
secondary. Primary memory handled immediate concerns and short lived memory functions
while secondary memory managed a storehouse of relatively permanent information that
accumulated over time. The terms short term memory (STM) and long term memory (LTM)
have since been used in more recent times by researchers to describe these same types of
memory that James first identified.

Wilhelm Wundt rarely used the term ‘memory’, but he referred to it as the 'general ability for
the renewal of ideas' and that it serves as ‘a shorthand expression for certain highly complex
products of association and of active apperception' (1887). While he didn’t research memory
directly, he studied a number of problems that are today often addressed under the concept of
‘memory’. He conceded that memory had its place in practical applications of psychology,
especially in education (1909).
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1881:
Théodule-Armand Ribot, a French psychologist, worked to study memory loss as a symptom
of progressive brain disease by analyzing various abnormalities associated with memory in
terms of physiology. In his Diseases of Memory, he stated that that recent memories are more
likely to be lost than the more remote memories, thus theorizing that amnesia has a
time-gradient. This came to be known as Ribot’s Law.

1885:
Hermann Ebbinghaus is one of the most influential psychologists in this field for his work in
pioneering the experimental study of memory, for his discoveries of the learning and
forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He did this through the experimentation he conducted
on himself to measure his own ability to memorize lists of randomly arranged nonsense
syllables. He recorded a variety of factors, such as how long he took to memorize the list, as
well as how long it took for him to forget it and measured these factors at different times of
the day and under varying circumstances. With all the data collected, he traced a learning
curve and a forgetting curve. The term forgetting curve denotes how the ability of the brain to
retain information decreases in time, while the learning curve denotes a graphical
representation of the rate at which you make progress learning new information. These
concepts as well as his classification of the three distinct types of memory: sensory,
short-term and long-term remain relevant in the field of psychology to this day.

1900:
The early German experimental psychologist, Georg Elias Müller, and his student Alfons
Pilzecker worked on the theory of retroactive interference. Retroactive Interference is when
unrelated material makes it difficult to learn new material.

1904:
The German biologist Richard Semon proposed the idea of an engram. He theorized that
experience leaves a physical trace on specific webs of neurons in the brain. In modern
psychology, an engram can be defined as a unit of cognitive information that exists inside the
brain, which could be said to be the means by which memories are stored in response to
external stimuli, as biophysical or biochemical changes in the brain and other neural tissue,
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1932:
Sir Frederick Bartlett conducted research in the 1930s into the recall of stories. He is
considered to be one of the founding fathers of cognitive psychology as his work influenced
later ideas on how the brain stores memories. His most innovative study was the ‘War of the
Ghosts’ experiment from Remembering (1932), where he demonstrated the constructive
nature of memory. A memory is said to be constructive when a person gives their opinion
about what had happened in the memory, along with additional influences such as their
experiences, knowledge, and expectations. In the experiment, participants were asked to
remember the story ‘War of the Ghosts’ at extended intervals numerous times. Results from
his studies showed that at longer intervals between reading the story and remembering it, the
participants were less accurate and they had forgotten much of the information from the story.
In places where the elements of the story failed to fit into the schemata of the listener, these
elements were omitted from the participant’s recollection, or they had transformed them into
more familiar forms. For example, some of the participants remembered ‘canoes’ from the
story as ‘boats’.

1960:
George Sperling, while a graduate student at Harvard University, discovered the existence of
the iconic store in his doctoral dissertation (1960). He did this in his experiment by showing
participants an array of letters and numbers for 50 milliseconds and then asked them to recall
the identity and location of as many symbols as they could. He found that the participants
were only able to recall about 4 symbols. Sperling attempted to answer the question of how
much information the human brain can encode after the brief introduction of a set of stimuli.

1940’s and 1950’s:

The Wilder Penfield was a Canadian neurosurgeon who first tried to search for the causes of
epilepsy by studying the human brain under stimulation with electrical probes. This research
allowed him to devise maps of the sensory and motor cortices of the brain which are still in
use today. By probing parts of the temporal lobe of the brain, he also managed to gather
memories or flashbacks, including some which the patients couldn’t consciously recollect.
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1949:
Donald Hebb said that “neurons that fire together, wire together”. This gave us the notion that
repeated use build up the connections between neurons which are involved in the process of
encoding of memories.

1950’s and 1960’s:

This period is known as the cognitive revolution as there was a change in the paradigm of the
study of memory to the information processing model. This era saw the rise of many new
theories on how to view memory, put forth by the likes of Eugene Galanter, Karl Pribram,
George Sperling and Ulric Neisser.

1956:
George Miller theorized that short-term memory has a capacity that is limited to what he
called “the magical number seven, plus or minus two”.

1963:
Jean Piaget conducted research studies around the topic of object permanence, where very
young infants believed that an object that was introduced to them beforehand, ceased to exist
once its taken away. But in older infants that are 8-12months old, they would try to search for
the missing object, thus showing that they had memory of the object and could comprehend
that the object doesn’t cease to exist just because it is no longer in view.

1940’s and 1950’s:

The Wilder Penfield was a Canadian neurosurgeon who first tried to search for the causes of
epilepsy by studying the human brain under stimulation with electrical probes. This research
allowed him to devise maps of the sensory and motor cortices of the brain which are still in
use today. By probing parts of the temporal lobe of the brain, he also managed to gather
memories or flashbacks, including some which the patients couldn’t consciously recollect.
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1949:
Donald Hebb said that “neurons that fire together, wire together”. This gave us the notion that
repeated use build up the connections between neurons which are involved in the process of
encoding of memories.

1950’s and 1960’s:

This period is known as the cognitive revolution as there was a change in the paradigm of the
study of memory to the information processing model. This era saw the rise of many new
theories on how to view memory, put forth by the likes of Eugene Galanter, Karl Pribram,
George Sperling and Ulric Neisser.

1956:
George Miller theorized that short-term memory has a capacity that is limited to what he
called “the magical number seven, plus or minus two”.

1963:
Jean Piaget conducted research studies around the topic of object permanence, where very
young infants believed that an object that was introduced to them beforehand, ceased to exist
once its taken away. But in older infants that are 8-12months old, they would try to search for
the missing object, thus showing that they had memory of the object and could comprehend
that the object doesn’t cease to exist just because it is no longer in view.

1968:
Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin gave us the modal model of memory, which used to
be the prominent paradigm for viewing memory. Also known as the multistore model of
memory, it consists of three main components; sensory memory, short-term memory and
long-term memory. Sensory memory store is the ability to store limited information for short
periods of time, whereas short-term memory store is able to retain information for slightly
longer periods but it has a limited capacity as well. Long-term memory store has the largest
capacity for storing information, which it does for very long , extended periods of time.
This model states that information enters our senses, then moves to our short-term memory
store, where information is then encoded to the long-term memory store.
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Information can be lost forgotten from any three of the memory stores. Information in the
short term memory store can be recalled, but for it to move on to the long term memory store,
this information needs to be repeatedly rehearsed. Recalling information from the long term
memory store involves bringing it back to the short term memory for recall.

1972:
Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart proposed the levels-of-processing model, which improves
the multi-store/dual-store model by detailing the process of encoding. It emphasises the depth
at which information is processed, rather than the capacity of the processes. Craig and
Lockhart believed that information is encoded more deeply if it is analysed in a meaningful
and elaborate manner, by comparing it to other data and compounding it with preexisting
knowledge. This model has two levels of processing; shallow and deep processing. Shallow
processing involves processing sensory and perceptual features like visual and auditory
features. Shallow processing includes structural and phonemic processing. It is called
maintenance rehearsal because it stores information in the form that it was perceived in.
Deep processing involves analysing information for its meaning, context, semantics,
relationship to other information, etc. It is called elaboration rehearsal.

1974:
Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch proposed the model of working memory, which consists of
the central executive, visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop as a method of encoding.
It accounts for the manipulation of information that sometimes occurs in working memory.
The phonological loop is the process through which auditory information is stored, whereas
the visuospatial sketchpad is how they described information like location, arrangements,
shapes, sizes, etc. is stored in memory. A new concept at the time that they introduced is that
of the episodic buffer which integrates various perceptual and semantic features so as to form
holistic units. These three processes work together under the supervision and coordination of
the central executive. The central executive consists of attentional and other cognitive
resources required for working memory.
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1970’s:
Elizabeth Loftus carried out research on eyewitness memory, the misinformation effect,
memory biases and the nature of false memories. Testimony from an eyewitness is generally
considered by others to be what actually happened if the eyewitness recounts their memory of
the event with confidence. The misinformation effect is defined as the effect that happens
when a person's recall of episodic memories becomes less accurate because of post-event
information. A false memory is said to be a psychological phenomenon where a person
recalls something that did not happen or that something happened differently from the way it
actually happened.

1972 and 1983:

Endel Tulving proposed two distinct kinds of long-term memory, episodic and semantic, in
1972 and he also devised the encoding specificity principle in 1983. His serial-parallel
independent model improved upon the previous models of memory by introducing two
primary systems of memory representation; the cognitive representation system and the
action system. The cognitive representation system consists of the content aspect of memory
and is responsible for remembering facts, life episodes, trivial and significant experiences,
thoughts, conversations, faces, etc. The action system involves learning based memory
aspects such as dance moves, driving and swimming skills, musical sequences, barista
protocols, etc. While the previous models of memory focused on structure and function as
two separate aspects of memory, this model attempts to combine both elements into a more
holistic theory/model of memory. A key feature of this model is that it states memory forms
at multiple levels.
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Applications and importance of memory research

Memory has many applications in our day to day life, the first uses that might come to mind
probably are studying for exams, or remembering the directions to certain places or important
phone numbers. But memory has a vital role to play beyond these basic applications.
Procedural memory for example helps us to unconsciously remember and perform a variety
of every day tasks like driving a car or brushing our teeth. Research on procedural memory
using the mirror tracing task has shown that sleep has a positive effect on our procedural
memory.

Various brain imaging techniques borrowed from neuropsychology have helped us to prove
many psychological theories relating to memory. It has helped to pinpoint various structures
that are used for memory processes, such as the hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus, basal
ganglia and the cerebellum. Brain imaging has also helped us to identify which
neurotransmitters are vital for memory function, like acetylcholine and serotonin.

These techniques are also used to study more about memory related disorders, like amnesia
and Alzhimer’s disease has helped us to understand how these disorders work. Studies on
amnesia victims has helped us to distinguish between various types of memory, such as
explicit vs. implicit memory, long-term vs temporary forms of memory, etc. It has also shown
us how effective functioning of various brain structures occurs. PET scan studies have
revealed how cognitive activity in the brain decreases over time in patients of Alzheimer’s
disease, when compared PET scans of a healthy brain. This disease is currently not curable,
but with the help of research studies in this field, are able to learn about the biological
structures and impaired cognitive functions associated with it. Thus we are able to formulate
treatment plans to help patients cope with the disease in a structured environment. Lesioning
studies have helped us to understand how normal memory processes work through observing
dissociations in memory functions.
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Memory research involving animals has also been very helpful in understanding about
cognition in the human brain. Rats display complex behaviours and their brain is structurally
similar to that of humans. Slugs can be utilized for researching the neural basis of behaviour,
due to their simplistic organization. Even fruit flies have proven to be useful for studying
gene-behaviour interactions in the laboratory. Primates that have large brains and higher
intelligence like monkeys, are used to study complex processes such as motor learning, object
recognition, working memory, short term memory, etc.

Memory research has also had its application in legal processes. For example, research into
false memory has been utilized for adults who have claimed of child sexual abuse after
developing false memories. Elizabeth Loftus’ research into eyewitness memory revealed
much about the nature of eyewitness testimonies. Another concept of memory that has its
usage in other fields, is the concept of priming. Priming is used in marketing as branding is
based on forging connections in the mind of the consumer in order to turn them into a loyal
customer. If a consumer has been primed via a marketing campaign of a product, then
perhaps they are more likely to buy the product the next time they are shopping in the
supermarket.
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Critical Evaluation

A majority of research involving memory is conducted using experiments on participants in a

laboratory setting. As a result, this might be a good indicator of how human memory
functions in real life settings. Studies have shown that stress and other emotional distress can
negatively impact memory, and these factors are generally not taken into consideration in
these laboratory experiments.

A term that often comes up when evaluating memory research is the concept of ecological
validity, which is the measure of the extent to which results from research findings can be
generalized and applied to in interventions used in the target population. Experiments in these
laboratory settings are often not realistic enough to simulate real life settings, thus the
ecological validity of many of these studies is often questioned.

Another criticism is directed at the tasks psychology researchers have developed to measure
memory. People don’t often memory strings of random numbers or nonsense syllables, so we
can question the use of recall and recognition tasks and their actual application in improving
an individual’s everyday life.

Children are often used in memory studies due to the fact that it is easier to understand how
memory works in children compared to adults, but we cannot account for the accuracy of a
child’s memory. Children are more susceptible to suggestion and developing false memories.
Thus we can also question the validity of the findings from studies using very young children
as participants.

A final criticism is that the studies conducted so far have not answered all our questions
pertaining to memory. While we have a vague idea of brain structure and processes, there is
still much to demystify regarding the brain and how it conducts its cognitive processes. While
practical experiments have proven some theories, a good number of principles that we take
for granted as facts, are still just theories we have regarding memory. We cannot be 100%
confidence about which model of memory is the one that best describes how the brain
encodes and stores information, nor can we state whether explicit and implicit memory are
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two discrete processes or whether they are combined, as in the process dissociation model.
We can’t tell if false memories are actually false or if they really are repressed memories of
traumatic events. Thus, we still have much left to learn about human Memory.
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