--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

Some memories are stronger than others, my theory behind incorporates the social clock and a biological theory which considers both neurological connections and physiological consequences of events.

The social clock could contribute to some memories being more powerful than others. Milestones in life are deemed part of the social clock when their happenings are determined by culturally preferred timing of social events. Examples include marriage, retirement, and parenthood. Since these events are seen as important and often are discussed among peers, it could contribute to those memories being stronger because the brain is frequently replaying those specific memories. Additionally, because one knows, consciously or unconsciously, the event is seen as culturally important, they may unintentionally create a strong memory of the event.

Another theory towards stronger memories could be that the brain’s neuron connections are stronger when more senses are engaged. This could be influenced by the body’s physiological aspect/condition and emotions that are attached to the event. Emotions and feelings that trigger chemicals and hormones such as adrenaline, fight or flight and dopamine, feeling happy, could create a stronger memory because the brain enacted a strong chemical sequence in the body.

To conclude, my theory behind strong memories is influenced by both the social clock and physiological and emotions experienced during the time of the memories’ creation.

--Original published at Isabella's Psychology Blog

When I study for an exam I do all of my class work in depth and with a clear understanding of the assignment. For every chapter assigned to read an in-depth chapter notes in made. My chapter notes are color-coded by vocab words, definitions, and important facts. Then the week leading up to the exam I reviewed the information Midterm study guide. Then I did the practice midterm exam with no notes and afterward compared it with the answer key. Then on the back of my completed practice exam, I wrote down the areas I struggled in or got wrong. Also when trying to memorize the psychologists I came up with memory devices and visuals. For example, Titchener and Wundt were important structuralists, who envied chemistry so I wrote their names out of chemical elements.
The negatives of my studying style are that most of my studying happens during the last week until the exam. Though the positives are that I write and type out the information in many different ways while studying instead of just reading the material.
For the second exam, I plan on using more flashcards and studying more in advance. Other than those two things I feel that my study methods were good.

--Original published at Gracie's Blog

Our memories are moments in life that we cherish or moments that we want to forget. Memories can be made with our friends and family but sometimes people remember moments that others do not. There are instances in life when we can remember specific details and exactly what happened. I can remember when I was around fours years old when my family lived at our old house. I remember digging holes in the sand and accidentally getting some in the neighbor boy’s eyes. I was frightened that I would get in trouble so I ran to my room and left him crying. I remember that I was wearing a purple Gap sweatshirt for some reason. Why do we remember certain times in our lives? I think the answer to that question is we remember how we felt at that moment. I remember feeling scared and thinking about what will happen next. We remember the times we felt happy, shocked, overwhelmed, or proud. Feelings may play a large role in what we remember and what we do not remember. For example, 9/11 and President Kennedy’s assassination caused people to feel scared, grievous, and shock. On the other hand, there are also memories from when you spent the day with friends, a result after a game with your team, things people said to you, etc.

Sometimes parents videotape their kids, and their kids may or may not remember what they were doing. Years later if the child that was videotaped watches the tape of a happy moment in their life, like a birthday party, they may remember that moment differently now that they are older. Sometimes it is hard to tell if our memories are accurate. One study that could be done is have someone record a child at certain celebrations and several years later have that child say what they remember happened at those certain instances in their life. After time it can be hard to know exactly what happened. Not every detail is remembered, like the weather, but it would be interesting to know exactly why.

--Original published at Sydney’s Side

My current study habits are not as good as I would like them to be because I get caught up in other classes so I only focus on one subject. One of the things I like about my study habits is that I find a room with a large white board and write out the things I need to know multiple times and repeat them to myself as I am writing. This seems to be the most effective way to study for me. But, I usually only start to do this a few days before the exam when I know I should be reviewing everyday after class. I used to rewrite all of my notes and make them into diagrams which helped me a lot but I rarely have time to do this now.

For the first exam, I took the study guide and made boxes and diagrams for each bullet point to get the information all in my head. Then I went down the list and quizzed myself on each one until I got them all correct. I should have started studying earlier before the test rather than a few days but I would hope my methods are pretty sound.

Another one of the issues I have with studying is I only focus on the class that I have the next test in, so after that test is over I have to study for the next one. What I should be doing is setting time aside each night to study for each class.

--Original published at Cecilia's Thoughts

Unfortunately, I do not have the best study habits because in highschool very few of my courses required me to study a lot in order to receive a high grade. The most effective way that I study is making flashcards and going over these flashcards numerous times. This worked in highschool because most exams and quizzes were memorization of words and their definitions. Now entering college-level exams, tests, and quizzes I have learned that it is mostly applying the vocabulary to scenarios and problems and only a small part is writing down the definition for words. I am very successful of memorizing words and their definitions, but I am not the best at then applying this knowledge to situations on a test. I memorize things one way and if it is worded differently I get confused.

For the first exam in psychology, I studied the only way I know how, which is making notecards. And for a lot of the exam it worked because I remembered the theorists and what they did, and what kind of parenting which with what characteristics, but when it came to writing my own hypothesis and evaluating strengths and weaknesses of two things. I also struggled using the flashcards for some portions because the definition or information on a person/concept was far too extineous to remember from the back of a flashcard. For the next exam I am going to still use flashcards, but I will also incorporate concept maps so I can see all the ideas and how they relate to one another and I will also complete more practice problems that resemble exam questions. I will also begin studying earlier for the exam instead of two or three days before like I did for the last exam.

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

Memories are made through every person’s lifetime, all are unique and possess a different meaning for each person. Though, like the prompt says, some of the memories are stronger than others, making some feel as though it just happened yesterday when it could have happened over fifteen years ago. I think that some memories are stronger than others because they contain so many strong emotions. For example, those that remember what they were doing when 9/11 occurred. The emotions that were probably occurring at the moment were strong, a strong sense of fear, a strong sense of loss, and a strong sense of anger. These emotions occurred so strongly that the memory that contained those emotions will be just as strong, making it something that they are able to recall nearly perfectly.

I believe that a way that we could study, if the reasoning for the strong memories is because of the strong emotions, is to gather a group of volunteers ranging in multiple ages, and randomly assign those people to two groups. One of the groups will be told about an event that may have had some significance to them, that would cause strong emotions, for example 9/11 or the Boston marathon bombing in 2013, and will be asked to describe the event, what they were doing when they found out about the event, what did they feel at the moment. The second group would be given less intense moments that won’t include as strong set of emotions. Such as a family members graduation or playing on the jungle gym in the fourth grade. They would then be asked to explain the moment, to give the emotions that they were feeling. The intensity of both groups would be ranged on a scale of 1(not vivid) to 10(extremely vivid).

Then, the results would be compared after the study. Comparing the mean scores of the two groups, which in return would give a good explanation on which group had a stronger memory and give a reliable conclusion that the stronger the emotions, the stronger the memory.

--Original published at Jayln's Perspective

For this first impression post, I have decided to choose option one, which consists of critiquing my own study habits. In particular, I will be unveiling how I prepared for our first Psychology exam.

Since our exam took place on Monday afternoon, I spend the majority of the weekend sitting in the library. The first key technique I did to review was printing out Dr. Macfarlane’s study guide. Once I had this printed out, I went through my notes and the book, and I completed the questions with very detailed answers. I made sure these answers consisted of key Psychological terms we covered in class, as well as important phrases from the textbook. A factor that I think contributed to my decent performance on the exam was instead of typing up the answers, I hand wrote them. In high school, my teachers always stressed the idea that when you hand write something as opposed to typing it out, your brain is more apt to recall the information in a testing situation.

The second technique I used to study was to take the practice quizzes many times with my notes, and then complete the practice test without any notes. These quizzes were helpful with narrowing down what book information was the most important. Now looking back on how I studied, I think the most influential part of the process was the practice exam. I allowed myself 50 minutes to take it, and once it was completed, I was able to see how I would do with the amount of time I had studied. After I viewed the results of the test, it was evident that I needed to put more time into reviewing.

After seeing my results on the first exam, I was not overly thrilled with how I did because I know I could have done better. Something I will do while preparing for the next exam is to work on applying knowledge instead of simply memorizing information. This will consist of me asking the questions “why” or “how” instead of just focusing on the “what.”  I have a tendency, especially in Biology 111, to memorize flashcards, and then once I get to the short response questions, I struggle to apply the definitions I learned. I think this bad habit I have stems from high school. When I was in high school, I was able to just rely on my memory because many of my teachers never required me to dig deeper. For the next Psychology exam, and for any other exams I have, I am going to improve my grades by not just stating the definitions when answering short responses, but connecting the terms to the “why” aspect. All negative things aside, something I do very well is staying focused. When I have exams or quizzes, I take studying very seriously. I always turn my phone off so I do not get distracted, and instead of studying for hours at a time, I take mini breaks in between so my brain does not shut down.