Is Everything Hard to Remember???

Readers Digest
"Memory Tricks You Won't Forget, New Ways to
Retrain your Brain"
Issue: March 2008 p. 96-101.

This article explained the multiple ways to "Retrain your brain" into remembering the everyday things that we as human beings forget. The article explained ways to remember things such as: shopping lists, peoples names, or where we left something. The following techniques that they used were: paying attention, visualizing a name, creating memorable associations repeating where we left something, making mnemonics and a host of other techniques. The article also talked about why women never forget certain events and men never remember certain events. The reason for this is because for women there is a better blood flow to the brain, along with estrogen that helps women remember better. When it comes to remembering traumatic events, estrogen and neurons play a role in women being able to recall the horrible experiences that they may have endured.
This article relates to our Psychology class in many ways. The multiple techniques were all related to Psychology in some way. In our Psychology class I learned that the reason why we forget is because of the Decay Theory, which is the act of forgetting something over any amount of time. I also learned that the simple act of paying attention takes effort, is limited, and improves the mental process. If a person would make an effort into remembering something, then they could improve their mental process overall. Paying attention is a product of reticular formation in the hind brain. This type of formation particularly deals with attention and arousal. Another technique, which is creating memorable associations relates to Psychology because when we create memorable associations we use the sensory memory senses to use sights or sounds to remember something. We also can relate uncommon things to remember things. For example, we can relate the color "Red" to remembering someone named "Ruby". Another technique that many people use, and was described in the article was repeating something continuously until processed. This is called maintenance rehearsal (method that involves repeating information in order to remember it). Mnemonics are used when trying to organize information in order to remember it. For example, "Every Good Boy Does Fine" and "FACE" are mnemonics usually used to remember the 5 lines (E, G, B, D, F) and 4 spaces (F, A, C, E) on a musical staff.
This article covered many ways to remember all sort of things. Many of which can help people in all different areas of life. Whether it be from day-to-day or special tests of some sort.

Child Development- Molestation

Essence Magazine Issue: October 2008 p. 136

The particular article that I will be analysing is about a form of abuse used against children. The abuse is called sexual molestation. In my article, famous comedian/actress Monique revealed that when she was just 7 years old, her older brother started the horrible act of molesting her. She went on to explain that he would lure her into the family bath room with candy, and then proceed to molest her. He ended up doing this 4 times over a course of 4 years. Finally, when she was 15 years old, she revealed to her parents what had been taking place for the past 4 years. If the torment of her brother was not enough, the fact that her parents did not believe her did not make it any better. They said that if it really happened then it would surface again. Now that Monique is an adult, she felt that she could not and should not hide the secret anymore. She does not want people (particularly children) who have been through her same predicament to suffer any longer.
This article relates to my Psychology class because Monique had to go through a mental process of whether to reveal that her brother was molesting her. I feel that many children are traumatized by horrible experiences like this and ultimately suppress their feelings (Repression- excluding uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, and desires from consciousness) because they feel that they aren't able to tell anyone what is going on. This could lead to unhealthy behavior such as Self-Inflicted abuse, Depression, and abuse against others. This also causes ample amounts of stress to children, which can cause weakening of the immune system, and over time they can become sick. Another way that this article applies to our Psychology class is because the parents went into denial by saying "if it really happened then it will surface again". Denial is the act of refusing to acknowledge a painful or threatening reality, and Monique's parents did just that when she had said that it was their son that had done the molesting. The knowledge of their own son inflicting so much pain on their daughter was just too terrifying to believe. When Monique briefly explained how her brother would molest her this was an example of her Episodic-Memory because this was an event that she could vividly see from her past.
There are many ways that molestation can cause harm to children. Not just physically but mentally, and spiritually. There can be bodily harm, self-esteem problems, and many trust issues. With or without treatment, acts like this can affect children years after the event occurred. Children may have flash backs about a particular event in there life that can cause emotional distress (they may act out or become very anti-social). We can help by listening to children and have them talk about things that are going on in their lives. Our children should not have to stand alone in this fight. We must help them in all ways that we can. Children are our future, and we should.