Memory and language

Alma Dzib Goodin

When we talk about memory, in general is associated with the past and memories, however, memory has a lot to do with language, because while we structure a phrase, many temporal associations are carried out either at present, past or future. I don't think is necessary explaining too much this aspect, since everybody suffers with   verbal conjugation at the first years of formal education.

And this is because the brain is constantly influenced by spatial and temporal patterns across of all the senses (Hawkins and Blakeslee, 2004), and then we say, of course, I had read that!, or it tastes like ... and ate it at....

During a conversation, is important to pay attention if you are talking in present tense, past or future, since this depends on the structure and meaning of the sentence. Of course, this is not knowledge that a newborn uses from day 1, it's one of the many tasks to be learned over time, related with brain maturation, environmental demands and verbal skills, some of them imposed by genetics.

Then, how can a brain work with multitasks?. It does this primarily by electrical impulses that travel through the synaptic connections, that are fired every 5 milliseconds, which work  parallelizing tasks, I mean, it does many things at once and at different levels, it performs tasks consciously and others unconsciously and also pay attention to the environment and the details (Hawkins and Blakeslee, 2004; Glöckner and Witteman, 2009).

But if focus at the language, the maximum achievement of the neocortex is the grouping of ideas, which can occur in prospective, this is, think ahead. During a conversation, we can predict what the speaker will say or do, this is an important process not only for language, but when we are driving a car, or watching a movie, which is an aspect of memory (Brewer and Marsh, 2010).

And of course, it's not possible ignore the great speed with which it is possible to remember something when the stimulation and the conditions are right. This is called reaction time in laboratory experiments, but that is pure fun when we play table games that require a unique quick response, which of course is a process that requires an active memory and familiarity of stimuli (Brewer and Gimbel, 2011).

But I guess, you reader   know your strengths in aspects of memory. Despite what teachers say that we must remember everything they say, our brain has something else in mind (that is literally). And while some people have better visual memory, and can remember what they saw or read just once and remember the name of the author of the book or article they read, there are some others who remember much better if the stimuli are auditory, and they learn to read loud to retrieve information better. There are also those who remember motor tasks and they are able to remember things when they do a movement. And I can not forget to mention my deep admiration for those who can recognize flavors, or the aroma of fine wine or a good meal.

Tasks that seem simple become complex when we try to explain them, for example, the recognition of faces is a complex but essential aspect in life. This process begins in the first days of life; it depends on the maturity of the oculomotor muscles and provides assurance that the caregiver is always the same. But it’s not the only one, because the sense of smell provides protection while babies develop the ability to focus objects. Thus, little by little they are making a complex network of processes that, with no doubt, help  to let us to know that we talk to someone we  know.

So, How do you remember a face?, Is it remembered or recognized?, this will be  another topic, that I will take as a  excuse to write again, but the fact is that  process is complicated: it starts with the rapid identification of the face, if it has similar racial characteristics, this can be a first  kind of identification, if not, you will have to considerate many details: the color of eyes, its location, shape, distance between them, the characteristics of each one and then the shape of the face, color, contour, form hair, color of the eyebrows, lips, cheekbones (Ewing, Pellicano and Rhodes, 2010), thus intersect other details such as whether the person is attractive, if we recognize that person and then, maybe we will try to find a  name in the library of memory, making a comparison  between face, name and a location where that person have seen  before.... and all that will be done in millisecond,

Of course, sometimes the process is not accurate, and the identification finishes with no an idea who is speaking with us. And even in that case, you can try some  clues as: if the other person knows or not my name?, the topic of conversation?, If I talk about this then I know this place, other clues can be the tone of voice, familiarity ... the system continues the search until it can  finds a positive recognition ... but you don't have to feel shamed if all the process fails, it may be easier to recognize the voice, or other aspects, such as recognizing the other person car, bag, shoes? ... each person is inclined to recognize objects in the environment in a distinctive manner.

In general, though not exclusively, men are capable of distinguishing details between cars, a Porsche and a Lamborghini are not equal, a Prius and Acura are not similar at all, and Who can confuse a beetle and an MDX?. Personally, I only know that cars have wheels and need gasoline, sometimes.

But vision is not always the main form of recognition. I used to feel worry  the first few times I waited for him at the airport, for who is now my husband, I was not able to make a mental image of his face. I only remember he had blue eyes and red hair. So I just could wait for someone with these features, but it was a challenge. The only consolation was that maybe he could recognize me, and when that happened, his voice did not let me any doubt, he was the right person.

Of course, once the recognition is done, the face has a name ... the vision is related to language when is trying to tie a memory. When everything matches, it's not necessary more searching at the data banks, all features are tied, but the issue is more complex than it seems, because although all that is accomplished in a few seconds, the search for the information needs of different brain areas and all information is concentrated in the hippocampus (Ewing, Pellicano and Rhodes, 2010).

If a task as simple and everyday as face recognition takes so much work, just enough to imagine the process of recognition of words, tense, voice tones, volume, modulation and content during a conversation.

Starting from the idea that thought is private and language is public, and then speak is making public the private. (In so many years, I can not remember from whom I learned this in my first years at university). However, both processes are completely different. But this  is conceivable under the multi-tasking system, because while we feel good or bad with  the external temperature, we plan activities for the next few hours or the next day, make a to do list, we feel hunger, we make mental notes of what to say on the next business meeting, we try to remember if we fed the cat and locked  the closet door or if we turn off the light ... the tasks can be endless, but, language only accepts the execution of a letter at a time, to form a word that is part of a sentence, to form an idea, and is able to link with the following (Weimer and Palermo, 1974).

We remember  what it was said, what is being said and what we are going to say,  or we can predict the next sentence, in studies  of laboratory, researchers try to see  separate processes, but in everyday life, they  are seemingly inseparable.

And all this has been learned in daily interaction, even before a first word can be said, and when babies start practicing, of course they make verbal mistakes, because their memory is not consolidated yet. But nobody cares about these failed attempts; adults encourage toddler to try it again, and again.

Different brain areas are used depending the kind of speech, for example, if we are talking about colors, there is an isolated portion of the brain that needs to be involved, but if we are trying to do a voice recognition, or shapes, other areas must work together, because all processes are separated, and then re grouped into the brain, but yet it's not possible to understand how this is possible.

That's why learning in children, can not be based only in isolated memorization and meaningless, specially because there is a specific area where all information must be joined and summarized to give sense to the world. But on the other hand, remembering can be   too inconvenienced because when an area of the brain is over specialized, it means another area is compressed, and this can be the case of talented or gifted children for whom the neocortex is the raw material in exchange for neglecting the social skills (Herbert, 2005).

The clearest case of this are  people with a diagnosis of Savant Syndrome, whom are able to remember very little details of what captures their attention, but sometimes with an IQ less than 50 (Winner, 1998).

Remembering then, depends on the attention, of environmental stimulation and the hippocampal ability to recognize tasks (Brewer and Gimbel, 2011). Does it seem complex?, Well, if you  try to explain it using only electrical impulses, bio chemicals, neural connections and a little knowledge of neurophysiology, if it is, but it's an activity that every brain does every  day, every second each day of our lives ...

Alma Dzib Goodin 

If you would like to know more about my writing you can visit my web site:
http://www.almadzib.com

References

Brewer, G. and Marsh, RL. (2010) On the role of episodic future simulation in encoding of prospective memories. Cognitive Neuroscience. 1 (2) 81-88.

Brewer, JB. and Gimbel, SI. (2011) Reaction time, memory strength, and fMRI activity during memory retrieval: Hippocampus and default network are differentially responsive during recollection of familiarity judgments. Cognitive Neuroscience. 2 (1) 19- 26.

Ewing, L., Rhodes, G. and Pellicano, E. (2010) Have you got the look? Gaze direction affects judgment of facial attractiveness. Visual cognition. 18 (3) 321-330.

Glöckner, A. and Witteman, C.  (2009) Beyond dual- processes model: A categorization of processes underlying intuitive judgment and decision making. Thinking and reasoning. 16 (1) 1-25.

Hawkins, J., and Blakeslee, S. (2004) On intelligence. Times Books. USA.

Herbert, M. (2005) Large brains in autism: the challenge or pervasive abnormality. The Neuroscientist. 11 (5) 417-440.

Molinaro, N., Conrad, M., Barber, H. and Carreiras, M. (2010) On the Functional Nature of the N400: Contrasting effect related to visual word recognition and contextual semantic integration. Cognitive Neuroscience. 1 (1) 1-7.

Pendarvis, E., Howley, A., & Howley, C. (1990) The abilities of gifted children. Prentice Hall. USA.

Weimer, W. and Palermo, DS. (1974) Cognition and the symbolic processes. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. USA.

Winner, E. (1998) Uncommon Talents: Gifted Children, Prodigies and Savants. Scientific American Presents. 32-37.

3D Image: Juan Conde Tovany

The relationship between memory and attention

Memory and attention are clearly related because process of attention has its beginning when brain remembers what senses capture. When someone pays attention to a meal, the chemical sense of taste tries to recognize all flavors, trying to separate every one of the components to be able to say this taste like...

When attention is required from the visual system, we must remember the spatial location of objects, colors, shapes and composition of structures of what we see, and sometimes speed and movement are required (Delaney, Nghiem and Waldum, 2009). But the process becomes complex when after watching something for a while, we have to reply specific questions about those object or their composition. Of course, more elements are involved at the scene; more complex will be to determine what we looked.

Please, analyze the image above, pay attention to colors and shapes, recognize objects, examine the composition.

Do you recognize those birds?, do you know what are they walking on? where was taken the photograph?.

Attention must be based on prior knowledge of the elements or otherwise it would be difficult to say if persons can recognize what they see (Ruiz Contreras and Cansino, 2005). Hence, brain requires complex interactions between episodic and working memory, also called long-term memory, which allows access to information on the system. The principle has been explained as a review of the files in the brain, ready to be used at need (St. Clair Thompson, 2010).

But then, how does emerge this system called memory so complex and delicate sometimes, in the evolutionary process?.

Memory, as well as other basic processes (sensation and perception, learning, motivation and emotion, thought and language) was designed to be used to keep survival of the species, I mean, it serves to keep us on the face of the earth. But it also fits the individual needs depending on the interaction with the enviroment (Killgore and Yurgelun-Todd, 2009).

At this sense we can say that memory process is flexible, and  some researchers have found recently  that their cells are renewable, mainly  showing that both the cells of the hippocampus that is where physical location is believed memory process, such as the olfactory bulb, are renovated, as well as skin and bone cells (Alvarez - Buylla and Garcia Verdugo, 2002).

This is the reason that memory requires consolidation. Try to remember these digits: 9, 3, 9. 0, 9, 2, 1, 7 ...

Learning is usually associated with memory, in fact the whole process is learning and memory, and of course,  both processes require attention, but how is the process? Do we remember first and then we learn? Or do we learn and then remember?. What do come first? Is the chicken or the egg?. From the standpoint of the brain, one relies on the other. I can say my name because I have learned it, so if someone shouts my name in the middle of a crowd, even with little effort, I will seek out who called me. But then what do babies have prior knowledge to remember?.

First of all, memory is a process found in other species, many studies about memory have been conduced with cats, and we all know that dogs can remember roads, people and smells; some species of birds can remember words, this is because a bigger and more evolved brain of specie will let them to create more complex interactions between processes.

We also know that  memory is located in the brain, specifically on an area called  hippocampus, which is part of what is called the limbic system, located exactly in the middle of the brain and is also home to the emotions. Hence there is a strong relationship between memory and emotion.

This relationship may  create incomplete memories, for example adults can remember the moment when a parent used some kind of punishment to reprimand misconduct. It is easy to remember the punishment and the pain, whether physical or emotional, but when ask: Why were you punished?, Usually the memory is much more vague. Misconduct didn’t produce pain; the punishment was the painful event.

Can you remember the numbers a little above on this article?, Do you remember the exact order?, Now ... can you remember them in reverse order? ...

When laboratory tests are made,  as in the psychometric tests, usually are used stimuli like remembering digits, words in order, relating words or numbers, but in normal life, the amount of stimulation is such that hardly can remember and pay attention to many events. Some decades ago, researchers believed that the magic number of memory was 7 ± 2 ... but if we remember 3 things now, sometimes is enough.

And in this age of information, where everything flows as Pentium 5 speed,  how can we remember the date, the appointment of 5 pm, our to do list, the task to tomorrow, someone's birthday, phone numbers and also set the snooze alarm?.

We learn to rely on equipments that we make life easy, such as Ipads, smart phones, the I phone, post sticks on our laptops,  because the brain is not expandable, it is confined in a finite space, therefore depends on the cognitive economy, and remember only important things, like where did I leave my cell phone?.

But for a newborn, things are different. Babies do not HAVE to remember their acts, they depend from the so-called primary instincts, for example, eat, sleep, defecate ... they do not have to remember, how breathing or if they need to sweat. Nature gave to species a complete equipment to survive, because the brain is capable of operating under minimum conditions, because is not fully developed. In fact, I think development is a never ending process, since the different areas begin the race to connect and create functional neuronal networks, to respond to the needs of the environment (Dzib Goodin, 2011).

The race to connect neurons, under the principle of the fittest networks and more repetitive task will survive and what is not discarded; this race begins before birth, but will be more evident during the first year of life. Of course, begins the development of what is known as white matter, which is nothing else than the way to conduct electrical impulses. This substance has been associated with processing speed and connectivity, defined as the ability to connect different brain regions effectively (Roberts, Anderson, and Husain, 2010; Tirapu-Ustárroz, Luna-Lario, Hernaez-Goñi, and García-Suescun, 2011).

As we grow, thanks to the interaction of the environment, will be created specific networks or circuits, hence even if two people live the same events, each one will remember or analyze them differently. Some further developed visual system and it will be easy to remember visual stimuli while others are more inclined to the sound.

The relationship between learning and memory, arises for a need to consolidate those things that become important, for example the way to go home, the name of the street where you live, your name, biking or driving a car, remembering the alphabet and the sounds associated with each sign, so do the numbers, the arithmetic relationship ... what we learn remains in the cognitive system, but if you also need it and is in constant use, this will consolidate it, and  if we add the fact that what we like and makes us feel good, and probably all those things will be repeated many times, this will create a strong neural network and may be difficult to change with time.

And this is because, habits are nothing else than consolidated neural networks, we do not have to think how to use a toothbrush, as soon as we get closer to where it is, we take it without thinking about what hand should do the work, we use it as best we can, we rinse and we put it in place without thinking of it.

You as an expert reader has not needed to think how recognize any sign of this writing, you know the sounds associated with, you joined them, understood them and gave meaning to the text. Nobody had to tell you, this is an A and this B, and this sounds like ... maybe this can explain better the relationship between learning and memory.

Can you remember the numbers that were read above in this paper?. Do not worry!, 98% of people fail to do so and in this case is a good sign, you paid more attention to the text. What do you earn remembering those numbers? Unless there is a prize of $ 3,000 is not worth using a portion of their cognitive processing on it.

Those useful aspects of sensory stimulation will be consolidated by our memory, which causes us a very strong emotion, or what enables us to survive. Who cares about how many numbers above?, Only those who have a brain injury,  and  suffer an obsession with numbers ... sometimes it's good to rely on electronic toys  to remind us things,  or physiological processes, to remember that it is lunch time.


Alma Dzib Goodin 

If you would like to know more about my writing you can visit my web site:
http://www.almadzib.com

Referencias

Alvaréz – Buylla, A. y García Verdugo JM. (2002) Neurogenesis in adult subventricular  zone. The Journal of Neuroscience. 22(3) 629-634.

Delaney, PF., Nghiem, KN and Waldum, ER. (2009) The selective directed forgetting effect: Can we forget only a part of a text?. The Quaterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 62 (8) 1542-1550.

Dzib Goodin, A. (2011) Introducción a los procesos neurocognitivos: lenguaje, lectura, escritua y matemáticas. En  prensa. Servicios Editoriales Balam. México.

Killgore, WDS. and Yurgelun-Todd, DA. (2009) Cerebral correlates of amygadla responses during non-conscious perception of facial affect in adolescent and pre adolescent children. Cognitive Neuroscience. I (1) 1-11.

Roberts, R.E., Anderson, E. J., Husain, M. (2010) Expert Cognitive Control and Individual Differences Associated with Frontal and Parietal White Matter Microstructure. The Journal of Neuroscience. 30(50): 17063-17067.

Roberts, R.E., Anderson, E. J., y Husain, M. (2010) Expert Cognitive Control and Individual Differences Associated with Frontal and Parietal White Matter Microstructure. The Journal of Neuroscience. 30(50): 17063-17067.

Ruiz Contreras, A. y Cansino, S. (2005) Neurofisiología de la interacción entre la atención y la memoria episódica: revisión de estudios en modalidad visual. Rev. Neurol. 41 (12) 733-743.

St. Clair Thompson, HL. (2010) Backwards digital recall: A measure of short-term memory or working memory?. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology. 22 (2) 286- 296.

Tirapu-Ustárroz, J.,  Luna-Lario, P., Hernáez-Goñi, P., García-Suescun, I. (2011) Relación entre la sustancia blanca y las funciones cognitivas. Rev Neurol. 52 (12): 725-742.

Nore: 3D image: Juan Conde Tovany

          Photography: Alma Dzib Goodin

The attention process: much more than just a look.

In the post about attention to details in this blog, who watches the video may notice than more distance between stimuli easier to notice differences. Many of the observers of the video are adults, theoretically adapted, they sit down every single day front their computer screens and pay attention, but even they need at least 3 video scenes to realize what is going on.

Then what, is it the attention something specific? , what does it mean when we ask to a child to pay attention?

Attention depends basically of the development of multiple brain structures, but socially is given more importance to visual attention, so all sensory processes converge to make possible to notice something.

 In a colloquial way, attention is defined as the selective perception and directed that focuses on the interest a particular source of stimulation, or the effort and concentration on a task (Van Zomeren and Brouwer, 1994). The complexity comes when someone is trying to pay attention at the same time than many complex stimuli are around: something is flashing, there is all kind of noises, something smells good or bad, and also it's possible to feel pressure on muscles ... and we must add that children always have an adult saying: pay attention, as if someone has an idea what that is ...

The Attention, like all neurocognitive process is adaptive, this means that neural networks must be developed to allow someone to be more or less sensitive to visual stimuli or auditory. At this sense, seems logical that a fisher has a better vision even when sun reflexes on the sea, at the same time than waves move his ship and must  respond to his position in the vastness of the ocean, considering the weather and time of day, trying to avoid a feeling seasick thanks the movement of your boat and find the richest shoal that can give him a good day of work.

Now let's think about children who are sitting on a sofa all day, only paying attention to a television,  viewing just front them  and maybe the only one source of distraction is hunger, which is satisfied with just stretch their hands.

Hence, it seems, the high increase of cases of attention deficit disorder is caused by lack of stimulation of the modern life. Looking ahead, this means that specialized networks in peripheral vision can be atrophied, because, even with larger screens,    oculomotor movement concentrates on just a little space, and on the other hand, auditory sense, always knows that sounds "exist only at the TV", so it is not necessary to prepare any response... and we must add less gaming spaces, except those required by the consoles ... yes!, we pay less attention to details, no doubt.

At this sense, sometimes restrictions affect only to neurocognitive process, such can be the case of the oculomotor restriction, which causes deficits only for sight, but in this case, attention is used in all sensory processing, from vision, hearing, taste, smell, haptic sense and thereof the combination (Estévez González, García Sánchez and Junque, 1997), including emotional perception ...so this means that if there is not enough stimulation, it can be eliminated many important networks to face the concrete jungle, for example.

This is because in everyday life, people must take decisions that are almost life or death, observing movement of cars, to know when a food is not eatable or look closely faces details to see if the other person is smiling or ready for a fight, and what about while we cross the street?, it’s very important taking decisions: cross or stop, and watching at the same time, if driver is planning to remove the foot off the accelerator...

At school, children must recognize silly details from adult perspective, but those details are every day goal in classrooms, for example to distinguish between a, a, a and the difference between A, A & A?, subtle, Huh?. Children shall have the same difficulty that you had to recognize the differences at the first three or four scenes of the video ... so, is it enough just to ask and repeat them to pay attention?.

But sustained attention is actually a very complex world of decisions made by the brain every second. Researchers have tried to understand it using simple tasks, like those works conducted by Sackur and Dehaene (2009), which consists of two simple stimuli and a brain taking a decision between left or right or red and green.

But in real life, when children are in a classroom, trying to pretend that they are paying attention to the teacher, feeling that left shoe pinches, the edge of the trousers or skirt  slash their leg; the sun hits on their  arms;  pen is too small or too large to hold it, at the same time, nearer kid speaks tirelessly; there is a tree strangely moving  outside of the classroom; their stomachs are asking for water or the crushed sandwich inside the lunchbox, jealously guarded to recess... and sometimes we find restless children because a  baby brother woke up asking  for food  5 times during the night...yes, things in  real life  are always more difficult ... by the way, do you remember the child's name of this example? ...

After so much reading about the brain and complexity of the attention process, I stopped asking to my students to pay me attention, if the source of stimulation is rich and motivating, attention comes alone.

Alma Dzib Goodin 

If you would like to know more about my writing you can visit my web site:
http://www.almadzib.com

References

Van Zomeren, AH. y Brouwer, WH. (1994) Clinical neuropsychology of attention. Oxford University Press. New York.

Estévez González, A., García Sánchez, C. y Junque, C. (1997) La atención: una compleja función cerebral. Rev Neurol. 25 (148) 1989-1997.

Sackur, J. y Dehaene, S. (2009) The cognitive architecture of chaining of two mental operation. Cognition. 111. 187-211.

Attention to details

An important element of learning is the attention that is usually linked with memory. We usually ask students to pay attention to  tasks in the environment, but what does pay attention mean?, Do we notice subtle differences or do we need drastic changes in the environment to know that something happened?.

Here I share a video that will make you prove your ability to pay attention, but please, don’t  feel bad if you don’t fully understand what happens, repeat the video and then share your experience:

http://youtu.be/vBPG_OBgTWg 

Once you can discover the trick, you will notice that if the change in the environment is dramatic, your brain will be enough active to  say something happened here, but at the same time ... How much do we dare to say that something is causing a cognitive dissonance?, I mean   hey, what happened here?.

Alma Dzib Goodin

If you would like to know more about my writing you can visit my web site:
http://www.almadzib.com

Video: Derren Brown - Person Swap