Learning failure leads to memory loss

When I met my long-lost friend - Jayasinghe - in the Colombo Fort, he looked at me quizzically. "How are you Jaye?" I casually asked him. He hesitated for a moment and said, "Sorry, I can't remember your name". Even while he was working in a Government office, he used to complain that he had a poor memory.

Forgetting the names of your friends and dates of certain events is quite natural. Psychologist Gordon H. Bower of Stanford University says, "It is the nature of the mind to forget - and the nature of man to worry about his forgetfulness."

Some people have good memories. They can remember facts and figures quite easily. However, most of us are worried about our capacity to remember. So, some of us are prone to take memory enhancing drugs and go for counselling. If you look at it objectively, all these can be frustrating. Then what are we to do for memory loss?

According to psychologists, our memory is prodigious. The brain can store much more information than a large and modern computer. One research study says that the brain's storage capacity is one quadrillion bits of information - that is million times a billion! John Merritt of Harvard University says, "No one has ever filled the pitcher to overflowing." If you can store so much of information in your brain, there is no need to worry about temporary memory loss.

Not only psychologists but also neuroanatomists, molecular biologists and biochemists are probing the awesome process of the memory.

There are at least two types of memory: short-term and long-term. We use our short-term memory to remember a telephone number or an address. After a short time you forget it and it is quite natural. Long-term memory is probably for life. For instance, a doctor will remember the names of various drugs he is going to prescribe without having to consult a book on pharmacology. Although short-term memory is severely limited, if you repeat something regularly, it will automatically pass on to the long-term memory. That is why we remember our own residential and official telephone numbers without much effort.

Human beings, unlike other species, should be proud of their long-term memory. If we are not gifted with it there will be chaos in the world. Imagine a student sitting an examination and forgetting all the important facts. Sometimes, even the long-term memory can be dormant if you are not using certain parts of it. For instance, a Sri Lankan who had lived in a foreign country for a very long time might forget his mother tongue to a certain extent. However, if he comes back to the country and stays there for some time, he will be able to recall what he had forgotten.

Hypnosis and brain surgery may be able to bring back past memories to the surface. A hypnotised subject may recall how he attended school for the first time. Experiments have been done by brain surgeons to stimulate certain areas of the brain with mild electricity discharges. Dr Wilbur Penfield, the great Canadian brain surgeon, was able to bring back long forgotten memories through this way.

Neurologists have not been able to find a particular area of the brain where memory is stored. As such, each memory appears to be stored in different places of the brain. A sudden shock or electrical discharge may activate the memory. Most adults cannot remember what they studied as children. This does not mean there is a loss of data. You can recall them in certain situations as mentioned above.

Much psychological research has been made on hypnosis and memory. As most of us are aware, hypnosis is a trance-like state brought about through suggestion. The method is used as a therapeutic technique in psycho-therapy to explore the memory processes and bring to the fore the forgotten material.

People have resorted to various methods to remember important facts. The usual methods are tying a knot in a handkerchief, categorising and other mnemonics, which may be verbal or symbolic. Some people memorise whole speeches and poems. The method is known as 'loci'. Sometimes, we use this method to remember items in a shopping list.

Memory loss can occur due to certain psychological factors like stress or emotional crises. Brain damage can also cause amnesia.

It is strange but true that sometimes we are unable to recall certain material even after learning it thoroughly. This happens in examinations. Sometimes your mind goes blank and you cannot recall a single word of the memorised material.

You may have undergone the experience of scratching your head, pulling your hair or feeling frustrated when somebody wishes to gather some information. It may be a formula or a grammatical rule of which you are fully conversant with. Sometimes, you might say, "I have it at the tip of my tongue but I cannot recall it!"

The good news is that a person's ability to remember and perform memory tasks can be improved using psychology. Psychologists have evolved a number of training programs to suit different categories of people. However, the extent to which we can remember depends on how we learn a subject. In other words, what passes for memory loss, often in reality, turns to be learning failure.