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Memory and Learning 1: A Reflection on my university course on Cellular Basis of Learning and Memory

I entered university as a general biology major three years ago. At the time, I knew I want to learn something about biology, but I was certainly unsure of a specialization that I would like to go into. Nonetheless, toward the end of my freshman year, I happened to enroll in this psychology/neuroscience course with a focus on the biological aspects of human psychology. As I learned more about the human brain and our nervous systems, I ended up becoming more and more interested in neurobiology. Guess what! By the end of my freshmen year, I switched my major to neuroscience & physiology. As I am trying to recall some of the things I learned from that particular course, one of the first things that pops into my head is memory formation and storage. I remember vividly that my professor said something like “ although short-term/working is limited, the capacity of our long-term memory is theoretically unlimited.” This was such a novel idea to me at the time, and honestly, I still find it hard to believe. How is possible that we can keep so much information in our brain while accumulating more and more new experiences with each passing day! Nonetheless, my interest in learning about how and where our memory is stored grew day by day. After taking this course on the biological mechanisms behind learning and memory, I think I have finally found answers to many of my questions. I would like to share with you my knowledge and understanding of memory in the form of short popular science journals. By doing so, I hope I can gain a deeper understanding in materials that I have learned in class and present to my readers some of the most fascinating ideas about memory and neuroscience. 

Note: I will try to avoid using terminologies as much as I can, and I will make sure to give additional explanations if I deem it necessary for your understanding.  

Some Foundational Questions To Be Addressed

To start the discussion, I would like to introduce a few foundational questions that I had as a beginner to memory study and neuroscience in general. (Q1) What is a memory? (Q2) Where and how is our memory stored? (Q3) What is the mechanism behind the retrieval of a particular memory. (Q4) What are some intrinsic properties of memory? It is important for me to always keep these questions in mind, as it provides me a direction while navigating through a sea of research data and literature. I highly encourage you to keep these questions in mind if you are interested in learning about the memory related studies. 

What Have We Learned About Memory? 

To begin our discussion, I would like to define generally what a memory is. Memory is an ability that allows us to retain learned experiences or information across time. Learning and experiences create new knowledge, and this knowledge is in turn stored in our memory. In this sense, learning and memory becomes intricately linked. 

Now, I would like to direct your attention to a memory experiment conducted by German scientist Herman Ebbinghaus, one of the first researchers who employed the scientific methods in the study of memory. Ebbinghuas was particularly interested in the processes of learning and forgetting, and he developed an interesting experiment that allows him to gather some empirical evidence on these processes. His experiment consists of three parts: Learning a list of items, waiting for a precise amount of time while retaining just learned information, and a test on recalling. His list of items contains made up nonsense syllables (e.g NIQ or SSS) that are completely meaningless. In this way, association method cannot be used to help him memorize the list of words. After learning the list of words and being able to successfully replicate all the words, Ebbinghaus would wait for a period of time (the retention interval), which requires him to retain the learned information, and an assessment on memory strength is followed at the end of the retention interval. He would then test his memory by relearning the same list of nonsense syllables. Next, Ebbinghaus compared the time it takes him to relearn the list of words to the length of his first learning period. He used the time saved in the second learning period as a measurement for the strength of his memory. He performed multiple experiments with varied length of retention interval: 20 minutes, 1 hours, 2 hours, 9 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 6 days, and 31 days. The end results of this experiment lead to Ebbinghaus’ famous forgetting curve: 

The vertical axis shows us the amount of information retained while the horizontal axis at the bottom illustrates different time intervals used in Ebbinghaus’s experiment. One of the most interesting results from this diagram is that it shows us that forgetting occurs most rapidly right after learning (as indicated by the sharp drop in percentage retention in the first hour) and slows down over time. Nonetheless, Ebbinghaus also found that it is possible to reduce the initial rate of forgetting by repeating learned information at different time intervals: 

The first black curve shows the amount of info one can retain over the period of 31 days. The forgetting curves after each repetition is colored in red. It is not difficult to see that even with just one repetition immediately after the initial learning, the amount of information still remained in our memory on the 31st day increased almost by 20% in comparison with learning without repetition. As illustrated by the diagram, with each additional repetition or relearning, our memory can become more and more resistant to forgetting. The result of this study shows support for the idea that learning is most effective when spaced over a period of time. Thus, if you want to study something more effectively, space out your study sessions instead of learning everything at once. 

What Are Some Other Conclusions From Ebbinghaus’s Study? 

By performing the memory experiment, Ebbinghaus learned that it is much harder to memorize meaningless information than meaningful ones. He found that it is much easier to memorize a list of actual words than the nonsense syllables that he made up himself. Additionally, he also noticed that increasing the amount of information to be learned would significantly increase the learning time. 

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Free Write 2: A Reflection on Complexity Management Theory: Motivation For Ideological Rigidity And Social Conflict by Jordan B. Peterson and Joseph L. Flanders

Ideological rigidity, a tendency in people to denounce and discredit all competing belief systems other than his or her own, is engendered and maintained at large by our human aversion to unexpected and complex events happening in the physical world. This tendency is rooted deeply in human’s evolutionary instinct to survival. As in primitive societies of our ancestors, people were always under threats from predatory entities lurking in the forests and unexplored territories. As a consequence, the biological instinct to survival forced our ancestors to react strongly to emotions like fear or anxiety so that they could act in time to avoid dangers in the wilderness. Although the development of modern technology has eliminated most threats faced by ancient men, our fear for the unexplored possibilities in life still remains intact. Thus, “our essential existential problem [or existential anxiety] can thus be more accurately conceptualized as vulnerability to complexity” (Peterson & Flanders 431). As a desperate attempt to cope with the overwhelming magnitude of reality, simpler and low-resolution ideologies about the real world are developed by people of modern time. Although these belief systems help to shield us from the complexity of life, we put ourselves in a immensely dangerous situation if we just thoughtlessly and stubbornly rely on our oversimplified perception of the world. 

To trace the fundamental cause of ideological rigidity, we first need to bring our attention to how human perception actually operates. There is a general agreement in the limitations of our perceptual power and cognitive processes as we are only consciously aware of a small portion of all the information being constantly presented to us. For instance, when performing a simple task like the action of picking up a cup of tea, we seldom pay any attention to the reflection on the cup or even the set of mechanical motions required to lift up the cup from a surface. Information that is not essential or relevant to our task at hand goes entirely unnoticed unless we consciously direct our attention to them. This is essentially the “frame problem” encountered by many computer scientists who work in the field of artificial intelligence. It was a challenging task for AI researchers to teach the robot how to ignore irrelevant information to the task, as sensors on the robot will non-selectively pick up stimuli from the external environment. Human intelligence only primarily concerns with goal-oriented actions, and much of the reality is reduced and ignored in order for us to perform necessary tasks for our survival. Having goals can effectively reduce the complexity of life, as all components of life beyond the task at hand will be temporarily ignored. Since human life is really essentially goal-oriented, it is reasonable to conclude that a huge portion of an individual’s life operates without his or her conscious perception (Our actions reveal a lot more things about us than what we are consciously aware of, and this is also the reason why we have so many academic studies on sociology and human psychologies). Nonetheless, this ability to simplify the reality and to work with reduced model of the physical world is really a double-edged sword, which may either facilitates the development of our societies or leads to massive destruction of civilizations.

What is it about ideology that makes it so dangerous? and Why do people go so far and even resort to violence in order to defend their ideologies? What is the fundamental cause of a highly polarized society? In order to answer these questions, it may be beneficial to look beyond mere political phenomenon and locate their biological and psychological origin. Ideologies, as low-resolution and oversimplified models, help humans to reduce the complexity of life to a few tangible rules to follow so that we may live our life without being paralyzed by our constant anxiety and fear of unexpected irregularities. However, it is crucially important for us to realize that these ideological representations of the world are highly restricted due to the immense variability of life. When a truly unexpected and tragic event occurs in our life, the false sense of security derived from our oversimplified belief systems will collapse instantly and render us completely defenseless against the magnitude of life. It is not hard to imagine the level of anxiety one may experience when one loses all control of his or her life. These unpleasant feelings and emotions are the exact same kind of reactions our ancestors harbor against unpredictable threats in the forest. In this context, when an unfamiliar stimulus or a different belief system is introduced to our lives, it will inevitably raise our anxiety level due to the fact that our fundamental belief system is under direct attack. It is a lot easier for people to just reject other forms of perceived realities because the mere ackownlgedgment of the existence of “others” can dramatically expand the domain of life that people have to operate within. Thus, it is not surprising to see people who passionately seek to deny the validity and existence of opinions that oppose to their worldview. This point is so well demonstrated if you just listen to the verbal exchanges between people, who have different opinions, in any protests or public demonstrations. What people frequently do at these rallies is that they would demonize the opposite side and try to shut them down instead of creating an environment where different opinions can be shared and openly discussed. It is sad that so many people have become so obsessed with their ideologies and group identities that they would sacrifice opportunities for constructive dialogues just for the preservation of their illusory sense of security provided by their pitiful and insufficient understanding of the world. As a result, nothing meaningful is likely to emerge out these public demonstrations because they are, at its core, motivated by fear and cowardice. 

In order to prevent ourselves from being a puppet of our ill-informed belief structures, it is of paramount importance for us to take up our courage to willingly tread upon unknown territories and exam unfamiliar ideas. We must realize that both dangers and opportunities can co-exist in those possibilities that we have yet to explore. By stepping out of our comfort zone voluntarily, we empower ourselves as we realize that those serpents and dragons lurking in the darkness are simply creations of our mind. People will no doubt become a lot stronger and stable as they make voluntary and conscious effort to organize the chaos that surrounds each every one of us. Additionally, in order to combat ideological rigidity, I think it is also necessary for us to see people as individual beings instead of mere representations of their group identity or ideology. As I have mentioned in the previous paragraphs, ideologies are insufficient models created by people to deal with the complexity of the world. They will never be able to provide us a full and objective representation of our reality; therefore, we risk to neglect different possibilities that lie beyond our perception if we entrap ourselves in a particular way of seeing the world. People are more than their ideologies and group identities. We must listen people as if the speaker knows something that we don’t (and it is almost always the case) in order to start a constructive and meaningful conversation. The great person-centered psychologist Carl Rogers put forward the idea that, in order to develop a meaningful and growth-promoting relationship between individuals, people must try to accept the existence of multiple realities as perceived by different individuals. This is not an absurd idea and I do believe that any sensible people would agree with the fact that we all see and understand the world in our unique ways; however, in reality, it is so difficult for people to even want to  understand the reality as how others would see and feel about it. I think part of the reason that this is so hard for people is because, by fully accepting the experience of someone else, it is likely that changes will be made to ourselves and our perceptions of the world. Therefore, this process of opening up ourselves to other people directly provokes the existential fear in all of us. Nonetheless, we have to realize that those changes occurring in us can be constructive and beneficial. If we just give people a chance to be themselves and speak forward their beings, we can create a safe place where the opinion of every single individual is valued and appreciated. This sense of security, grounded in mutual understanding and respect, can elevate the spirit of every individual and truly unleash the hidden potential in each one of us. 

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Free Write 1: A Reflection on Dr. Carl Jung’s Book: The Undiscovered Self

Although today’s education system constantly emphasizes and praises the value of individuality, the significance and the power of an individual is seldom discussed. Schools and universities, instead of encouraging students to become creative and independent thinker, often times have merely preached a standardized set of values and norms that are of little value for the advancement of humanity. The soul of an individual, which always and naturally seeks its unique expression, becomes corrupted and suppressed. Of course I do not deny the contribution of various social institutions in their efforts to create stability and a sense of security within our society, but it is crucially important for us to recognize the well-being of the mass should not be achieved and maintained at the loss of the individual. After all, as stated by Dr. Carl Jung, “happiness and contentment, equability of souls and meaningfulness of life --- these can be experienced only by the individual and not the state” (Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self: the dilemma of the individual in modern society). Thus, the danger of losing one’s sense of true self in face of a normalizing collective group consciousness should never be neglected. 

Dr. Carl Jung attributed this dramatic shift of attention, from individual consciousness to group consciousness, to the increasingly scientific outlook of our time. As a result of rapid development in physical science and technology, people of modern time started to place unprecedented belief and trust in the idea of cause and effect. This is in sharp contrast to earlier men’s belief in various religions and supernatural powers. Our predilection for uncomplicated and all-encompassing scientific theories that seek to establish statistical truths has further promoted this tendency of using the mere average to account for every individual instance. However, it is essential for us to recognize that individual instance may vary largely from the statistical truth, as the average lacks the power to explain variations observed across individuals. It is in this sense our modern scientific outlook “displaces the individual in favor of anonymous units that pile up into mass formation” (Jung, The Undiscovered Self). In today’s context, the state has taken control over the needs and development of individuals by devising and emphasizing public policies in welfare, and the society, through various means, preaches a set of socially desired moral values. The responsibility in moral differentiation and moral development is thus deprived from the individual, and the individual has now become a passive being that no longer knows how to act from his own will. Consequently, a person, as an individual unit of the society, must suffer greatly from repression and suppression of the self in order to maximize the well-being of the state. The rise in numbers of neurotic and psychotic individuals seems to be the direct consequence of excessive focus on large group consciousness. The power of the state, then, keeps on growing at the expense and the loss of integrity of the individual consciousness. The sense of assurance and security, derived from identifying with the mass, inevitably become instruments for the higher-ups to manipulate the will of the mass in order to realize their own limited and biased wills for power and control. 

How do we preserve our sense of self in modern society now becomes a pressing issue that requires imminent solution. Unlike people in the past, whose beliefs were grounded in each individual’s unique relationship to extramundane factors (God, ghosts, and spirits), finding justification for the existence of the individual modern man is a much more difficult task. Toward the end of the book, Dr. Carl Jung seems to propose the idea of self-knowledge as one way to address the gradual dissolving of individual consciousness in the mass consciousness. To gain a thorough understanding of the self, it requires us to look beyond the ego-consciousness, as the self is composed of both conscious thought and unconscious natural impulses. One must be willing to look into the unknown territories of the unconscious psyche in order to realize oneself as a whole and complete being. By unconditionally accepting one’s impulses and making those repressed thoughts conscious again, the individual will experience the full life force that seeks to improve conditions of life. By unfettering oneself from his fear of judgment from others and himself, a significant amount of psychic resources is freed up for one to fully engage with life activities. He, who unifies both the conscious and unconscious sides of his psyche, thus, not only gains a strong sense of self but also allows for and creates possibility for others to become coherent beings. As one gains further understanding of oneself and recognizes equally in himself the capacity for good and evil, one is no longer going to project undesirable traits and evil thoughts onto his neighbor. He knows that he can accept others because he understands that fact that other people are just like himself. Through self-knowledge, ultimately, a more acceptant society which prizes the experiences and values of each of its participant will become possible. As a whole and complete being, each individual in the society will be able to unleash all of his or her hidden potentials and creativity to make not only his or her life better but also exert positive influences in their immediate social environment. In conclusion, although public policies and group identities may introduce stability and security to our modern society, it’s through the elevation of individual being that the advancement of humanity as a whole is made possible. 

Here is one of my favorite quote from the book: “I can therefore see it only as a delusion when the churches try---as they apparently do---to rope the individual into a social organization and reduce him to a condition of diminished responsibility, instead of raising him out of the torpid, mindless mass and making clear to him that he is one important factor and that the salvation of the world consists in the salvation of the individual soul”.