Memory Can Be Likened to a Place or Process. Discuss Using Either Metaphor.

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Cognitive psychology is an area of psychology that studies mental processes of how people think, perceive, remember and learn. Ulric Neisser (1967) was the first to coin the term “cognitive psychology” and stated it concerns all the processes in which a “sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered and used”. (Neisser, 1967, p.4). However, cognition is not observable as it concerns the internal mental processes of the brain. Memory is an internal process carried out by the human brain that allows one to obtain, retain and recall any experiences or information that has been presented to the brain. (Passer & Smith, 2007). Without an ability to remember, humans would have no identity. They would ask the same questions every day. They would forever live in the present and have no recollection of the past that has gone before them. Loved ones and enriching memories would be quickly forgotten. The complexity of memory makes it a challenge to understand though. It wasn’t until the 1960s, when the major advances in computing coincided with the revolution of cognitive psychology, brought about the computational analogy: “the mind as a processing system that encodes, stores, and retrieves information”. (Passer & Smith, 2007, p.234). This metaphor broke memory down into three simple processes: encoding, storage and retrieval. Encoding: the translation of information into a neural code for the brain to process just like a keyboard translates key strokes into electrical codes for a computer. Storage: the retaining of information just as the RAM (random access memory) or hard drive retains information in a computer. Retrieval: the process in which stored information is accessed by the brain similar to that of a software command that opens a file from the hard drive on a computer. (Passer & Smith, 2007). It continues to influence thinking around how memory
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