Memories - Good and Bad - StepRead1

Memories - Good and Bad

by ReadWorks

A person can have many, many memories. You may think back to some of these memories often. Or
you may go for many years without thinking of a certain memory. As you get older, some of your
memories may change, and you might remember things differently than how they actually happened.
In other cases, the memories might stay the same, but you might not be able to remember them
easily. It can almost seem like these memories have become locked. It might seem that sometimes
they can only be unlocked if you find a special key. Some of these memories might be nice to unlock
and think about. With other memories, you may just wish you hadn't unlocked them at all.

One of the keys that can unlock a person's memory is a specific sensory input. A sensory input is
something that you see, smell, touch, taste, or hear. A famous example of someone who remembered
something because of a sensory input is the author Marcel Proust. Marcel tasted a kind of cookie
called a madeleine, and it caused him to suddenly remember a huge amount of his childhood. Before
he tasted the cookie, these childhood memories had been locked away. Marcel went on to write a
very long book, in which he studied those memories and what they meant to him. He might not have
written his book exactly as it is if he had not eaten that important cookie.

We can think of certain memories on purpose. For example, if you try to think of your mother's face,
you can most likely do it. However, as Marcel's story shows, other memories come to us
automatically, without us trying to remember them. This has to do with how the human brain works.
Scientists have figured out that the part of the brain that makes and stores memories is closely
connected to the part of the brain that controls and understands your senses. Because of this, a
certain sensory input, like Marcel's cookie, may cause both the sensory part and the memory part of
your brain to react and respond.

Your five senses are a way for your brain to keep track of what's going on around you. When you
receive a certain sensory input, it means one of your sense receptors saw, heard, felt, tasted, or
smelled something. That sense receptor will send a signal to your brain. This signal tells your brain
the sensory information that the receptor just received. For example, when Marcel tasted his cookie,
the sense receptors on his tongue sent a message to his brain. Such messages are passed along
nerve cells, which eventually connect to the brain. When the brain receives these signals, it figures
ReadWorks.org · © 2013 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Memories - Good and Bad - StepRead1

out what they mean and then controls how the body reacts to whatever it sensed. Sense receptors
react to many different types of inputs. In Marcel's case, his tongue was sensing the way the cookie
tasted. It was probably also sensing how the cookie felt against Marcel's tongue.

When a sensory signal reaches the brain, the brain can react in a number of ways. Often, the signal
will cause an immediate behavior or will pull up memories automatically, without you purposefully
making a decision about it. For example, imagine that you're barefoot and you step on something
sharp. You probably won't take the time to think, "Wow, that really hurts. Should I pick up my foot?
Yes, I think I'll do that." Your brain has already received the pain signal, and reacts by picking up your
foot for you. Just as your brain receives signals from your sense receptors through nerve cells, it can
send out a command through nerve cells. In this case, your brain sent a signal to your foot telling it to
move away from the sharp thing.

Your brain does not always tell you to react in the best way. Let's say you're walking in the woods and
you see a bear. Your sensory receptors send a signal to your brain, letting it know that you've seen a
bear. In response, your brain may start making chemicals called hormones. These chemicals can
affect your mood and the way you act. In this case, the brain will probably make a hormone that
causes you to feel scared. It may also make a hormone called adrenaline, which causes your body to
gain energy and get ready to act quickly. It may also send a signal to your legs that says, "Run!"
That's because your brain has learned from experience and memory that it is a good idea to run from
danger. However, in this case, running from a bear is a bad idea. Instead, experts say that you should
slowly back away from the bear. If you run, the bear is more likely to chase after you. Hopefully, you
will remember this fact. That way, the next time you see a bear in the woods, your brain will access
this memory of what to do, instead of telling your legs to run.

The way the brain reacts to what it senses often has to do with how it has learned to react in the past.
For example, think about a soldier who goes to war. When the soldier is in battle, he or she usually
feels unsafe. The soldier may believe that the enemy could strike at any time. As part of his or her
training, the soldier has learned to look for any signs of danger and, if he or she senses one, to react
immediately. This is often very important, since waiting to react could bring harm to the soldier or
other soldiers. Good soldiers often learn to react automatically to certain kinds of danger, just like you
would react without thinking if you stepped on something sharp. For example, if soldiers hear a
gunshot, they may react immediately by dropping to the ground to avoid getting hit.

If a soldier stays at war for a long time, his or her brain can become used to reacting in this way. The
soldier's senses may start to pay attention to certain inputs they never paid attention to before the
war. For example, his or her nose may become alert to odors that signal danger. And the soldier's
ears may become alert to certain sounds. If the soldier stays out of danger by using his or her senses
like this, then the soldier's brain may tell him or her to keep reacting in the same way. The brain may
also become quicker at making hormones, such as adrenaline, if it thinks the soldier is in danger.

While these reactions may be very useful to the soldier during a war, they may not be as useful when
he or she is at home. In fact, the soldier may have to spend some time getting used to being in a
place out of danger. This is because the brain has become used to reacting to certain inputs in a
particular way. It may need some time to train itself to react in a different way. For example, while at
war, the soldier's brain may have learned to react to the sound of an airplane by making adrenaline to
prepare the soldier for action. However, if the soldier is back at home and hears a plane, this
adrenaline won't help much.

ReadWorks.org · © 2013 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Memories - Good and Bad - StepRead1

Soldiers may become flooded with memories when they receive certain sensory inputs. While some
of these memories may be good, others may be upsetting. A movie called Saving Private Ryan had
scenes of a very famous and important battle in world history. In that battle, many soldiers were killed.
When the movie was released, some former soldiers became very upset when they saw the battle
scenes. The movie had included the sights and sounds of war, which may have unlocked some
painful memories for these former soldiers.

Sometimes, though, unlocking memories can help people heal from their upsetting experiences.
Every year, many former soldiers visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The memorial is a long wall
with the names of the U. S. soldiers who died during the Vietnam War. Former soldiers visit the wall
for many reasons. Their visits almost always stir up many emotional memories. Seeing the names
and touching the wall can make a former soldier feel sad and hurt. However, the wall can also remind
a soldier of a good friend who died during the war. Without the wall, these memories might stay
locked away forever.

ReadWorks.org · © 2013 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Memories - Good and Bad - Comprehension Questions

Name: ___________________________________ Date: _______________

1. What is sensory input?

A. something that a person can see, smell, touch, taste, or hear

B. an electric shock
C. a memory
D. a message from the brain that produces hormones

2. The passage describes ways that sensory input can help people access or "unlock"
forgotten memories.

Which of the following describes evidence that sensory input can unlock a memory?

A. Your brain produces a hormone that tells you to run when you see a bear.
B. Marcel Proust ate a madeleine and recalled a large portion of his childhood.
C. You automatically move your foot away from a sharp object after stepping on that
object.
D. You can remember what your mother's face looks like.

3. Behaving a certain way for an extended period of time can affect the way that our
brains react to sensory input in the future. What evidence from the text supports this
conclusion?

A. writing a novel and remembering things from a long time ago

B. moving away from something that causes you pain automatically
C. feeling scared when you see something dangerous
D. a former soldier hearing a plane overhead and automatically producing adrenaline

4. Why are sense reactors important?

A. They tell your body to run away from bears.

B. They help make your memory stronger.
C. They are the way that your brain processes what's going on in the world around you.
D. They let your brain know which parts of your environment to ignore.

ReadWorks.org · © 2023 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Memories - Good and Bad - Comprehension Questions

5. What is this passage mostly about?

A. the life of Marcel Proust

B. the way that our brains respond to sensory input
C. how soldiers acclimate to life at home after returning from war
D. how to unlock the hidden memories in your brain

6. The author uses a metaphor to compare human memory to something else. What
does the author compare human memory to?

A. a mansion with many rooms

B. a maze
C. a locked door
D. Marcel Proust'sIn Search of Lost Time

7. Choose the answer that best completes the sentence below.

Soldiers develop reactions that serve them extremely well in combat, ______, they
may not be as useful when the soldiers return home.

A. instead
B. however
C. therefore
D. consequently

8. Sense receptors respond to a number of different types of inputs.

Use evidence from the text to support this statement.

ReadWorks.org · © 2023 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Memories - Good and Bad - Comprehension Questions

9. Describe how soldiers may need to adjust their behavior when they are no longer in a
combat zone.

10. Explain how sensory input impacts the ability to remember past experiences by
using information from the text.

ReadWorks.org · © 2023 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.