Memory and Forgetting

http://www.radiolab.org/2007/jun/07/

Summary

 

This interesting NPR podcast is discussing the idea that animals and people remember and recall experiences based on senses.  A study was done where a rat was shocked at the same time that a high pitched beep was played.  This sent a wave of neurons through the rat's brain that would remind the rat, every time the beep went off, that it was about to be hurt by the shock on the bottom of the cage.  However, when the rat was injected with chemicals that stopped the neurons from sending messages to the brain, the rat did not remember that the noise meant something painful was about to happen.  Instead of freezing every time the noise went off, the rat would move out of fright and therefore get shocked.  This is the same for humans.  When a human knows that a smell or taste, for example, means something is going to happen, such as something painful, they will react in a way to try and avoid the situation.  

 

Personal Response

 

I have always heard that there is a large connection between senses and memory and how people react to the different experiences they have had according to their senses.  After listening to this podcast, I understood the reason as to why this happened a lot more than I did before listening to the podcast.  The reason is, that neurons are sent to the brain to tell it a message if a certain stimuli happens to a sense.  Once the brain knows that this stimuli will cause pain or something un enjoyable, the memory is released in order to avoid feeling that same un enjoyable feeling.  This podcast brought much more of an understanding to me about the reason certain tastes and smells bring up memories for me, whether they are enjoyable or un enjoyable.  The stimuli that cause the memories to be made does not just have to be something horrible, they can also be created in order to remind us of things that make us happy such as the smell of a mother's cookies, or the sound of your favorite childhood song. 

 

 

Connections

 

This is important in the field of education because there are many things that can scare and/or excite children when they are in school.  For example, the idea of having a test in school probably scares many children.  However, if those students know that something good comes after the test such as story time, they will always remember that after something bad comes something good.  There are many ways that teachers can create a stimulating environment for their students if they keep in mind the reason that certain stimuli to senses can cause memories, either good or bad.  If a teacher wanted the students in the class to become excited about something such as story time, they could use a song to remind the students that story time is coming.  Getting a story read to you as a child is usually something very enjoyable to children.  If the teacher were to play the same song before every story time, eventually the students would be able to recognize that when the song was played, story time is soon to follow and they should get themselves prepared.  This theory can be used for many different things such as this in education and teachers should be aware of that. 

 

 

Personal Opinion

 

This podcast was interesting to me, however, I was a little thrown off by the simultaneous talking of the broadcasters.  There were many times when ones of the speakers would be talking, but in the background there was another person talking about a different thing.  This was a bit confusing to me because I would try to concentrate on both and listen to what both were saying, but I was not able to do that.  Although I was not completely fond of the way the podcast was set up, I will say that the information I learned was very helpful, and would be especially helpful to teachers.  As I explained earlier, I think that teachers could use this information to help their students recognize when a certain time of the day is about to occur, such as story time.  I also think this would be useful information for many parents if they wanted a way to let their children know that it was a certain time of day, like bedtime.  In general, I found the information in this podcast to be very informative.