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• A discussion about neuropsychology.
  

  The existence of anterograde amnesia proves that there is a difference between long-term memory and short-term memory. See, the condition affects long-term memory, but not short-term memory.
  
  The best model we have for short-term memory is the Working Memory Model, which separates short-term memory into three different groupings: central executive, phonological loop, and visuo-spatial functions.
  
  The phonological loop does two things: holds the data used to make words (-logical), and allows you to hold sounds in your head (phono-). We know that these functions are somewhat separate from looking at performance in tests where the subject is busy with something else before or during the test.
  
  Here’s an example: one study made some people say “bla bla bla” while memorizing a paragraph with some similar-sounding words, while other people did not. The people who did not ended up confusing the similar-sounding words, while the people who said “bla bla bla” did not. The logic here is that the people who said “bla bla bla” had a busy rehearsal process, and so they didn’t confuse the similar-sounding words because their ability to hold sounds wasn’t involved in the process in the first place. Instead, they used their ability to hold the words themselves in mind.
  
  Given that, I’m not actually sure why these functions were combined. I think perhaps that they’re related to SOME degree. That is to say, your performance at memorizing words would dip more when you’re also memorizing sounds than it would when you’re also memorizing images. I honestly haven’t looked into it, or even wondered about it before now.
  
  The visuo-spatial functions also do two things: allow you to hold what something looks like in your head (visuo-), and allow you to tell where something is (-spatial). The study that supports that these are two separate functions went like this: one of the subjected groups had to track a pendulum with a flashlight and do some other task related to tracking objects at the same time, while the other had to track a pendulum with a flashlight and do some task related to
  
  Finally, the central executive, as far as I know, is basically a contrivance to answer the question of how we put all of this together to work with it, and how we recall things from long-term memory. I’m not aware of any studies that focus on the central executive part of the working memory model.
  
  Then, there’s long-term memory; I don’t know much about its operators, but I know that there’s something called “chunking.” The long and the short of it is that repeated exposure to something makes that something easier to remember; for example, a chess novice doesn’t remember a chess game as well as an expert. However! A chess expert can only remember an impossible game as well as a novice. So your long-term memory does more than just store information; it also categorizes information in some way. So, the mind must ALSO somehow create the category of “chess games” in the first place.
  
  On top of this, there’s all the research out there that indicates the people come up with information to fill the gaps in their memory “on the fly.” Basically, it seems that memory is a constructive process, at least in part, and… you should really read about it, because it’s interesting but I can’t think of a convincing case for it off-hand.
  
  So, the memory tree:
  
  Memory
  -Long-term memory
  - -”Naked” storage of memories (May not exist. Perhaps memories are invariably built with links to other memories?)
  - -Chunking
  - - -Creating categories for memory-storage
  - - -Storing memories in those categories
  -Short-term memory
  - -Visuo-spatial functions
  - - -Keeping in mind what something looks like
  - - -Keeping in mind where something is
  - -Phonological functions
  - - -Sounds
  - - -Words
  - -Recalling long-term memories
  - -Making stuff up and believing it to be true
  - -Bringing all the short-term memory items together (?)
  
  And that’s all I can do for now.
  - written 9 months ago

• A discussion about neuropsychology.
  

  ¤¤ Đani ¤¤ : The big difference between “neuropsychology” and “brain psychology” is that neuropsychology involves the entire neurological system, rather than just the brain.
  
  For example, New American Atheist lists “sensory perception,” yet “brain psychology” would exclude the optic nerves from consideration in a discussion of sensory perception.
  
  New American Atheist: Well, before you combine anything from fundamental parts, you really need to know what the fundamental parts are. Two reasons: first, you want to make sure you have a definition of what you’re talking about. You want to be sure the definitions you use are meaningful and not arbitrary, and the best way to do that is to find the most fundamental operators involved in the mental process. Second, you want to make sure you don’t combine two separate things, or separate two congruous things.
  
  So, I think we should start by breaking everything we can down into their component parts until they can’t be reduced to other functions without going down to the cellular scale. To start, I can reduce sensory perception and memory down into a few functions.
  
  Memory’s longer, so I’ll start with sensory perception: there are actually two parts to this. One part of it is the actual reception of sensations, which is the basic stuff you take for granted. Eyes pick up the images, optic nerves take them to the brain, etc.
  
  But there’s actually another part to the story; for vision at least, there’s a part of the brain that makes the brain aware of the fact that you’re seeing something. If this part gets damaged, you THINK you’re blind.
  
  In one study, people with this condition were told that there is a light being flashed on the wall, and more-or-less told to make a guess at where it is; each time, they guessed correctly. So they COULD see the light, they just couldn’t gain any awareness of the fact that they could. They had to be provoked into reacting.
  
  Given the need to break things down to start with, the list needs to look a bit more like a tree.
  
  Sensory Perception
  -Reception of sensation
  -Awareness of sensation (for vision at least)
  
  Not too impressive yet, but memory is much more complicated.
  - written 9 months ago

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