Neimark (1995) reports on memory. As stated by a neuroscientist, "memory is an ability to repeat a performance - with mistakes" (p. 87). Memory is needed for life to evolve, for genetic codes to repeat, for immune cells to remember how to defend against antigens, for the brain to send out a neuronal signal each time danger appears, and for the human being to adapt to the environment. Further, this adaptation needs to be flexible which requires the ability to make mistakes.
Scientists now understand some aspects of memory. For example, memory is not found in one place but includes a pathway of neurons and connections; multiple systems are involved such as the fact that memory is stored in one place with its corresponding emotion stored in a different part of the brain. There are from 200 to 400 billion neurons in the brain with each having around 10,000 connections. Thus memory is complex and a comprehensive understanding of how it works is lacking. Drugs can be used to block or enhance memory, the fight-or-flight response results in strong memories, and hormones are involved in the engraving of memory into cells. Positron emission tomography scans are used to record the firing of neurons which hold memories and show memory moving as a current across the brain during wake and sleep cycles.
Question 2: How can one help a child to remember?
Bjorkund and Bjorkund (1992) discuss how the memory works in a young child. A child must attend and perceive an event and make sense of it in order to tune into it and remember it. Once a memory is in place the child must retrieve it, translate it, bring it to consciousness, and then explain it. This complicated process can be assisted by giving the child a hint or a cue to help them remember.
The younger the child, the more hints they need to recall a memory. Memory questions can act as cues to help remember. In giving these cues, it must be remembered that a child's perspec...