On page 52, David Shenk talks about how human's memory technique is organizing a "scattered collection of details into a single distinct memory". For example, memorizing phone numbers, ten unrelated items in the right order, made simple by dividing them into groups of three. Explain why you think this is easier and how breaking a memory into pieces is easier to memorize than the whole thing. Compare this to the memory technique of animals, such as bees, and their use of cognitive maps to locate food sources (Campbell, chapter 51). How does the development of memory techniques relate to the theme of evolution?
(Mindy Shaw, mindyshaw95@yahoo.com)
As David Shenk describes the human memory, he emphasizes that memorizing information in small bits is effective, and “remembering ten unrelated items in the right order is next to impossible” (Shenk 52). Furthermore, the study conducted by Ericsson and Chase to determine whether or not short-term memory could be improved did, in fact, prove that memory could be increased by practice; however, “when it comes to memory skills, there is no escaping human biology” (Shenk 56). The human biology that affects memory is the brain, which is no exception of the structure versus function relationship theme of biology. In the brain, there are cells called Glia cells which “hold the brain’s neurons together and protect the cells that determine our thoughts and behaviors” (http://scicasts.com/lifesciences/1874-bioresearch-disease-studies/3954-brains-connective-cells-regulate-learning-and-memory). While these cells are central to the function of the brain, which is to store information and build memory, they are also “central to the brain’s plasticity-how the brain adapts, learns, and stores information” (http://scicasts.com/lifesciences/1874-bioresearch-disease-studies/3954-brains-connective-cells-regulate-learning-and-memory). The experiment Shenk explains shows how mnemonic associations and devices are helpful in learning new information. In contrast to trying to learn information in large chunks, breaking it into smaller pieces is more effective because of the structure of the brain. While the Glia cells control the plasticity of the brain, the remarkable function of the brain is to be able to physically change due to an increase in the information stored. If information was to be stored in larger pieces, it would be harder for the brain to adapt to the amount of information needed to be stored. All changes happen overtime, and by memorizing information in smaller pieces, the brain has more time to adapt to the environmental changes of an increase of information being stored. Furthermore, this directly supports Shenk’s argument that intelligence is not innate and can be altered because “[humans] are special…not [because] they are born so intelligent but that they are designed to change their minds when faced with the data” (Shenk 131).
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The memory technique of humans is very similar to the cognitive memory technique of bees to find food sources. While honeybees have complex ‘dances’ to describe to other bees where a food source is, they are able to locate food through “spatial learning, [or] the establishment of a memory that reflects the environment’s special structure” (Campbell 1126). For example, the bees would perform various movements and dances depending on the distance of food, 50 meters away, and the angle of the food source, 30 degrees north (Campbell 1124). Honeybees, as well as other animals, are able to recognize food sources through spatial learning. Another such animal that does this is the female digger wasp. The female digger wasps have nests in the ground which they cover with sand. Niko Tinbergen wanted to determine how female digger wasps were able to find their way back to their own nests. He found that “a wasp locates her nest by learning its position relative to visible landmarks” (Campbell 1127). While honeybees and female digger wasps learn visually, some animals use a cognitive map, or a “representation in the nervous system of the spatial relationships between objects in an animal’s surroundings” (Campbell 1127). Another such animal that learns spatially is, in fact, the human. Shenk describes taxi drivers and how even in cities where landmarks are not in a grid-like pattern, they are able to identify the city through spatial learning. Neurologist Eleanor Maguire found that “in contrast with non-cabbies, experienced taxi drivers had a greatly enlarged posterior hippocampus-that part of the brain that specializes in recalling spatial representations” (Shenk 35). The data proved that changes to the hippocampal gray matter can be changed-plasticity again. Furthermore, as found in the Glia cells, “parts of the brain adapt and organize themselves in response to specific experience” (Shenk 35). This relates to evolution because as memory techniques are used to acquire more information, the brain is able to adapt. While these techniques can improve memory, they can also alter epigenetics. Epigenomes can be passed down from generation to generation, and as memory skills get sharper, the next generation should be sharper as well because “lifestyle can alter heredity” (Shenk 161). The physical changes to the brain from memory techniques and the epigenome theory Shenk provides shows how humans can evolve and be more efficient in storing information in each subsequent generation.
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