Ayn's Multiple World

Today's Work on Memory Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval

Good morning. Just mi. I’m waiting a few minutes before calling Sweetie Pie. We’re getting a late start, but we had an incredible morning. More of that to come … not a whole lot, but a little 



This is our Sweetie face, until he said he had to go. Then …



We got this Dr. M. face 

See part of the being a multiple is that things never seem to stay the same, but we’re pretty sure most people would say things change.

It’s kind of a funny thing … we were just thinking how little we analyze our friend or V., but we just can’t seem to let go of our Dr. M. thoughts. We have to slow down again and refigure everything. I know, I know … sure be nice for everyone if I just wanted to show you a new recipe.

Dr. M. emailed when we were talking to our friend, but we didn’t read the email until after. We know we are going to want to look at it more slowly to get it half-way straight in our head. The first thoughts are that it seemed like hard thinking. The first issue is our battle back and forth on whether or not we need people, next comes of course our catastrophising, and then next we’re going to have to look at the black and white needs. I think he’s going to complicate my truths in having us deal with gray. And, the last part is in trying to understand care and needs between him and us. It might be something that takes time through the day to figure out. This might be a lesson on gray. Sure don’t like the sound of that at all.

Dr. M. thinks it is human nature to need people because it is built into us being a social species. It seems like something I knew in early college, but have been resisting. It was a time that we were learning what alienation meant. Hmm, think we’re going to need putting on our wrist braces. My finger joints specially on the left hand hurt. Ok, that’s maybe a little avoidant. BRB Sorry. +)(&%_() um, right. Might take an adjustment.

Anyway. Alienation. I never really thought of social species, until this period when I realized we could feel separate from society. It comes up at times, still now. Most likely you can see it most when we are pulling away from people like not going out to visit blogs. Hmm, is it possible to not need people and still want to be taken care of? Hmm, maybe not so much taken care of … like I don’t want people to do for me … well ‘cept our friend … we like him to do a lot. Hmm, that’s probably not good. Mostly what we feel we need from Dr. M. is that he talks to us. No one talks to us like Dr. M. He like knows everything. You all know a lot about me if you read with any frequency … you know there is not a lot we hold back. But, it’s different when you are talking to someone and they comprehend all your thoughts and feelings and can respond to them. Maybe some of you know that feeling because of the relationship you’ve held with parents or close siblings or sweetie pies.

There is always a certain tension between me and Dr. M., in that he is always always sitting there attentively, or standing somewhere in his office and he is waiting for my next thoughts or ideas or questions. I only remember feeling that strongly one other time in my life. Exactly 20 years ago, I spent a year of my life writing questions to the I Ching. I could write questions on absolutely anything my mind could think of. And, in its own way, the I Ching gave back to me. Not like Dr. M. though, but in some ways very much like the writing I do now in that I could do it whenever I had a free moment. The tension with Dr. M. and us might revolve around the 60 minute session. Each has a start and end. But, more so in the brief waits between one moment and another whether, we are talking or not. He is always patient and waits for me. Well, mostly patient … sometimes we get stubborn and won’t initiate conversation. We get sorta thorny. We pout a lot I think. Hmm, never thought of that, but we do. Sort of like the Dr. M. picture to start this section, but some time madder. He definitely knows when we don’t like something. But, if we haven’t done it as of yet, we’re going to God Bless his sense of humor, just in case.

Ok, back to the point … being a social creature with human connection needs. Hmm, hadn’t looked at it that way. Maybe the need to feel connected is somewhat different needing someone. Needing someone seems more vague. It’s not that Dr. M. gives our life a sense of purpose. Our friends, three boys and the kitties do that. And, maybe our work both at the office and school. He somehow makes all that ok. He is like a bridge between the rest of the world and us. Without him, everyone becomes like way out there. I think between our friend and V. we have a day to day life. And, then there are all of you … you give us a sense of normalcy. If that word could be said in more than a whisper. I know if I really want to be ground to reality I can talk to Deb, she can say, “No, how are you really?” And, we’re struck immediately feeling intimately connected to someplace important. But, we’re usually pretty far out, before it occurs for us to look around to refind our friends. Sometimes, because we do this people will drift out of our lives as easily as they seem to drift in. We lose that edge on what it feels like to be very social.

I feel at this point as if standing in quick sand. Not much progress, maybe more a progression of what Dr. M. claimed to be a struggle for me. I guess that part is going to continue being struggled through. Dr. M. says that my feelings of being social are associated with disappointment, danger, and other strong feelings. Off the top of my head, we’re already agreeing. Sometimes we look at people and are standing on such a distant ledge that it becomes like watching cars from the top of the Sears tower. Not that people are not important, but the cars down below just seem like ants going in and out between the buildings. I noticed yesterday when we were at school that sense of disappointment that Dr. M. spoke of. I recognize it from other courses as well. Sometimes, the people seem “ant-like.” I know they are important, and in most respects, I feel an honor when people relate to us. But, most often they don’t. We seem to think differently, we write our papers differently, we comment differently. Sometimes we carelessly put ourselves above “common talk,” not being able to understand that that dialogue going on between people where they are talking casually is more difficult than we can comprehend. We sometimes feel a sense of envy that they are saying things to each other and the other of the two, says, “oh yes, that’s exactly what I mean,” or “You know, you are just like me!” Mostly because we don’t seem to fit in. We’re in the background thinking … hmm, they are connected now … I might read over the dialogue between them and think, eh, but what did they say that was important?? They might both have dogs and all of a sudden people become like blood brothers. We’re thinking, hmm?

Yesterday, I read through all 75 posts looking for something I felt I could “relate to.” Most the thoughts written we were thinking along the lines … not close enough, not significant, or ok, this one is thinking along the right line, but shoot, he then takes a nose dive. We got somewhat excited at the beginning of the course, because it seemed there were a few people who could think complicated thoughts. By now … we’re back to disappointed. One guy I though must be pretty smart … because, I wasn’t understanding what he was saying and some of his words were complicated. So, I studied it for a while. Then I realized this was one confused person. He’s speaking a language that’s not understandable. It wasn’t profound like I sometimes feel reading complex psychology articles, it was that, he really couldn’t put words into sentences properly to carry one series of thoughts to the next. We did find a female peer who seemed to be doing better then the majority. She strayed off in stretching her thoughts by adding words that she wasn’t ready for, but as far as her general paper structure, I could see closer similarities between hers and ours. Her line of thinking was on the same track. So, I thought ok, this one I’ll come back to and comment on. And, I did, but after I took 10-12 minutes analyzing her work, it was like ok … we thought here alike, this is similar, but I can’t buy into this thought … really, not much differently than we communicated to you yesterday in going through our reading of that article. But, at least we maintained respect of what she’d done. I know that we are all beginner students really … we’re going to ignore the fact that most are doctorate students. At least the course material is usually new to us and we’re all playing around with the concepts we are learning trying to string enough truths together to give the appearance of making some kind of sense. There’s room to play.

I was really stuck though … 25 people in the room and I couldn’t find someone as decent as the last female had been. Finally, I chose another male student. I haven’t yet written to the same students, but one by one, we try to make it around the room. The guys good point was that he at least set out examples of what he was trying to learn, so we gave him credit for that. He had one very good example … simple, but the others were between fair and deteriorating. By that I mean he made a couple of lousy wife jokes. You know “the old lady was yelling at me again, and as always it goes in one ear and out the other.” Our thinking here was that was because he was an airhead! BUT, his paper had a couple substantial thoughts. In that respect, he gave something I could comment on. There were NO profound thoughts written!

The biggest disappointment was in the student that had excited us the most at the beginning. He is a lawyer taking psychology courses to double bill his clients. Hehehe well, that’s our take on it at least. By the fourth week, were plain down right tired of him. He has the most intelligent mind in the room, but he is just playing. He hasn’t yet looked at an outside resource, chats often about his practice, and he started quoting his poetry in response to the example we were supposed to give relating feelings to memory. I think he thinks he’s on a pulpit citing verse to pigeons. He hasn’t done anything credible yet! What the hell use do I have with that. But, one thing most of these people have over me is that they hand in assignments on time and most likely will beat me to the punch in getting in a final paper. No one in the room fairly challenged the minds of others. A few shot out blank questions showing ignorance in that their questions showed no relevance to the crux of any particular matter. And, they weren’t invested in knowledge, but more so that they be scored for leaving a comment.

See, this is the way it goes most often … One on one with any of these people, we do our best to communicate and feel literally attached to progressing relationships. But, if there is no response, or if it is generic, I go … eh! Don’t need people. I do seem to need to continue my watch on them, because I never know when someone is going to dash out at us. Usually, it doesn’t happen … we have been challenged before by a peer. But, it is not the norm. Unless, you consider being challenged like with the first guy in trying to pull together a coherent thought from his material. I’m probably offending all kinds of people well, a few … People have to have a lot of tolerance getting through my tangled web of thoughts. Hmm, thinking by now we’re feeling kind of bitter. I know at this rate, I’m going to have to choose next getting back into another paper, and I’m going to have to respond later to the next Dr. M. point. But, you see that is all part of the point. I feel challenged by Dr. M. every time I’ve ever met with him. There is not a day gone by in six years time that he disappointed me in conversation or have felt depreciative of his talent. I know it is usual for a patient to bolster her therapist and place him on a pedestal, but honestly, Dr. M. is about the most perfect person I’ve ever met. He’s got it all … intelligence, wit, humor, sincerity, common sense, patience, modesty, good looks, and interest. When we talk about whether or not I need people, it can’t be communicated without comprehending my sense of people depth. I don’t need all these qualities in my friends or family, but these are some of the most important things to me in the people I meet. Do I need people. Yes, in some sense maybe more than most. But, shoot … just not any person will do.  hehehe, us?? We’re umm crabby a lot. The rest seems to get balanced on that dime. Should probably mention here too before we forget. Our posts get very few responses at school either. Sometimes someone will come by and say something complimentary. But, it’s been probably 2 weeks now of no one saying anything … I just don’t know where I stand with people at all. And THAT, of course feeds our insecurities. In this respect were held at the mercy of people. Nope, nope … no gray yet. Everything is still black and white.

OHHHHHHHHHHKKKKKK Take a break

Pshwoo that was a good break … had brunch, a kitty pet that Chief won’t let end, and got our V-talk caught up. I was going to say that before … do you know that V and I got to watch the sunrise together? Well at least as far the distance between Philly and Chitown will allow  happy face! The only disappointment was that the kitties did not want to join us. Hmm, maybe next time we’ll offer them a little blankie too. It was an outstanding time. Can’t remember a time without our friend being here that we could step away from the computer so long. V’s got pretty nifty geese, but in case anyone’s interested, he doesn’t treat squirrels so good. Eh, you’ll have to ask him! Nice, just darn right nice.

We’ve already got our V warning that we’ve been lollygagging long enough. We’re both set up to get on with the day, and you know which direction I have to go …

School ----------------------------X>



Ok, we’re here … we can do this, right?

We need a plan here. What do we do first? I should get something out. I think we’re writing another paper. Like to have it done by tonight. It is already 11 am. Getting a late start. Ok, ok … this is on the docket today …

Evidence (Memory) …

• Describe and define distributed practice
• Describe and define recency effect
• Describe and define the nature of encoding specificity
• What is the evidence for encoding specificity?
• Cite at least three sources of supporting evidence
• Given this evidence, how could learners manage their study time so that they could maximally recall the material studied?

Paper …

Corsini (2002) states that distributed practice or distributed learning is a learning procedure of something broken between shorter timed intervals and is usually more effective than mass learning/practice. Colman (2001) further defines that the learning is sessions and that there are gaps of time “between trials or blocks of trials.” As an example, the situation that comes to mind was the running of races while I was a cross-country skier in Minnesota. During the meets at the individual school, region, and state levels, skiers would be lined up at the start point and released every 10-15 seconds. You would know if you were making progress by passing the skiers who started before you and if no one came behind you saying track, which meant he had beat your time and out of courtesy you needed to get off the track and let him pass. The time was again recorded crossing the finish line and the math adjustment made. However, I went to a 55K race after high school called the Birkebeiner. It was a shock. The officials started all the racers, several thousand, at the same time with a gunshot and each had to first get up to the top of a small set of downhill slopes scrambling in near panic every one for themselves. I have no doubt that the timed interval practice was much more effective and efficient than the mass start where people who had fallen were getting trampled.

“Recency effect is “a tendency in memorizing a list of items for the last item to be most easily recalled” ( 2002) and is the opposite of primacy effect where the items at the beginning of the list are most easily recalled in memory. Colman (2001) emphasizes the learning involves serial learning and the memory being recalled is enhanced. Recency effect reminds me of a wife standing in the kitchen with a phone to her ear telling her husband in the next room watching football that her mother was coming, dinner would be in 10 minutes, the kids needed to wash their hands, and would the husband say grace. She then says, “Did you hear me? Is that ok?” The husband yells back into the kitchen, “Uhuh dear, you want me to say grace.” To which the woman turns back to her mother on the phone and says “Phil said it was ok and that you could come.” Primacy effect then reminds me of Homer Simpson sitting in church. The minister pounds his hand on the pulpit stating that sin is bad, he then goes to explain how many men of God had fallen to pressures by quoting scripture, and how congregation members were following suit as evidenced by the number of people missing from church or sleeping. Afterward, Homer passes the minister as he is leaving the church, and holds out his hand to shake the minister’s hand saying, “Yes, good sermon. Sin is bad.” To which, Marge pokes him saying, “You slept through the whole thing!” But, the minister is still smiling, because his message had gotten through.

Encoding specificity is a principle or learning theory created by Tulving (but, traced back to Hollingworth, 1928) that states “the recollection of an event depends on an interaction between the properties of the encoded event and those of the retrieval information” (Corsini, 2002) and can be described as when we can remember somebody in a familiar place, like a cashier at the grocery store, but we cannot recall who she is when we see her in an unfamiliar place like at a kid’s soccer game. Colman (2001) describes in more detail that it is the effect on recall when learning is encoded with cues at the time of recall, that effectiveness of the effort is dependent on the cues nature at the time of recall, and those cues are based on encoding that took place previously. An example would be reading haikus and then later being asked to recall items in the verse where the cue could be rice paper for parchment, where the cue Chinese might not work, though if previously Chinese were cued to dinner it might be a great cue. If I were to say Phil or Homer, you might be following the principle of encoding specificity if you were able to the recall the meaning of recency and primacy effect.

Ok, ok … paper on hold …

We figured we better do some more reading. You know what we just found? There is something called, elaborated rehearsal. Apparently, it is when you’re integrating new material into old known material within long term memory for a better later memory retrieval. In a sense my joining the paper with the regular blogging, which is transcribing to other parts within ourselves and you it is helping me integrate the new knowledge in a familiar old form, which is then GOOD for us! YAYYYYY Hehehe actually I think its common sense application, but we’ll have to read further. Sometimes psychologists like to put fancy labels on phenomena and claim new theories! Hehehe

Shwoo Break break… It’s now 3 pm. I’m not sure how well we were doing with tracking the day, but it’s been going along just fine. A day or two ago, someone mentioned in am email to Dr. M. that we were indeed basically never going to leave the computer again. Sooo, we’ve been working on contradicting that effort by getting out at least to the balcony more often. We did twice yesterday, a big one with V. this morning, and now another nice one this early afternoon. WoooHOOO. It was a little breezier this afternoon than yesterday, but still nice WITH a lap blanket. AND there was another part in adding the extra blanket underneath us that has made all the difference in the world with amount of time felt as comfortable. I believe this is the second year with the bistro set out there, maybe third year, but we had never put together the thought of making it more comfortable. Hmm. This is your mind on computers. Don’t let it happen to you!

What we did out there was to actually read the chapter we’d started writing the paper on. Our need to know EVERYthing became priority over just look up the answers and get out. I don’t think this chapter left a big indention on my learning curve, but we finally relaxed enough to complete it. It was a pain in the neck one in that while the topics of encoding, storing, and retrieving memory is very interesting to me, I wasn’t real impressed with how far the field has gone. Eh, just the impression of a baby psychologist! It had a lot of nauseous tests like … we put people in a room and asked them to memorize 44 words that didn’t make any sense and then we annoyed them with a white lite between the encoding state and retrieval and we calculated that the ones who were wearing green slippers did better at recall than the one’s with pink slippers who were asked to only asked to recognize the words ending with “ng.” Well, obviously, no that wasn’t a real test, but it was similar. HMPF! Remind me never to work in a psych lab. YEEKS!

Ok, ok … we better get a move on if we’re going to impress the V-ster. Let’s get going!

Paper…

The evidence for encoding specificity is that what is recalled depends on what is encoded.

Fisher and Craik (1977) found that “there was a levels-of-processing effect- semantic better than rhyme-but, it was obtained only when the list cues were given at time of test.”

Schab’s (1990) “data showed that the subjects who received the odor on both learning and testing recalled significantly more than those who received the odor only once or not at all.”

Winter, Uleman, and Cunniff (1985) results suggested “that disposition inferences occurred at encoding, without intention, without interference by differential drain on processing capacity, and with little awareness.”

Given this evidence, one way a learner could learn to manage their study time more effectively in recalling material studied would be to consistently burn incense or scented candles while studying. In addition, while not a very healthy mode this learner has matched smoking and drinking coffee with writing for either school or pleasure while at home. So, advertently I know that one sure way to entice me to write, or get an assignment completed is to provide me with a clean ashtray, a full pack of smokes, and a cup of coffee.

References

Colman, A. M. (2001). Dictionary of psychology. NY: Oxford University Press.

Corsini, R. J. (2002). The dictionary of psychology. NY: Brunner-Routledge.

Fisher, R. P. & Craik, F. I. M. (1977). Interaction between encoding and retrieval operations in cued recall [Electronic ed.]. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 3, 701-711.

Schab, F. R. (1990). Odors and the remembrance of things past [Electronic ed.]. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16(4), 648-655.

Sternberg, R. J. (2003). Cognitive psychology (3rd edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

Winter, L., Uleman, J. S. & Cunniff, C. (1985). How automatic are social judgments? [Electronic ed.]. Journal of Personality and Social psychology, 49(4), 904-917.

End Paper YAYYYYY!!!

Woo Hooo … beat V coming back! Pretty good paper too, if I may add, perhaps one of the most fun. Hehehe. Hmmm, it wasn’t a very difficult chapter!

Ok, can’t sit on my laurels yet. I’m going back to school to read and place comments. If I were a really good girl … I would also consider doing a couple of labs.

Whoops … little side track break there … stopped for medicine, washroom, dinner/smoke, and a call to my Grandmother. She didn’t answer the phone. Think that usually means she’s gone out to visit people, or is visiting people out on her porch. We’ll try back in a little bit.

Ok, serious now … maybe a little coffee and we’re back to school. You all can take a break too?

posted by Ann Marie @ 5/05/2006 03:58:00 AM Comments: 3