Have you ever wondered what shapes your mind to think the way it does; either differently from others or Surprisingly similarly? An individual’s Schema is to blame! Let me introduce you to how schema affects cognition and bring forth some noteworthy points of evaluation:

Trying to originate this lazy-mind-syndrome I have, I quickly realized that it has to do with the fact that I’m slowly becoming a little more practical. It seems to me that in western education the emphasis has shifted from memorizing and remembering to understanding and applying. Undoubtedly this practical approach is necessary these days in order to succeed, but I would argue that people underestimate the value of memorizing.

 “Harness your brain’s neuroplasticity and train your way to a brighter life”

Psychologists have been researching the idea of memory errors since Frederic Bartlett's 1932 study. Memory illusions are an unfortunate byproduct of our Brain's need to make sense of the world. This results from the brain's adaptive tendency to fill in the gaps when reconstructing, rather then replicating or reproducing, memories (Lynn, 1997). Memories are actively reconstructed based on event-specific information, cues, and possibly even cultural background (Cohen & Gunz, 2002). Our minds rely on the representativeness heuristic (“like goes with like”) to simplify this process of remembering. Memory illusions, although false, can often be quite subjectively compelling to the individual.

After 9 years of intensive use of the drug ecstasy, a man stands in the supermarket, but is not able to recall what he just put in his shopping basket. An exceptional case has shed a new light on the consequences of the use of the drug ecstasy. Because 3,4-methyleendioxymethamfetamine is a relatively new drug it has been hard to investigate the long-term consequences that this drug might have on the brain.

Improvements in technology throughout the 20^th century led to the development of non-invasive techniques of human brain imaging, such as PET and fMRI.  This high-tech machinery gave neuroscientists the opportunity to analyze arrays of activation of the nervous system, by monitoring hemodynamic signals. The growth of this popular brain imaging approach, throughout the late 20^th and into the 21^st century, came with the built-in advantage that subjects could be studied in relative normal conditions.

In an increasingly complicated world, people search for new means to simplify their interactions with their environment. The amount of information surrounding us is growing at a rapidly increasing pace, and every day we are confronted with new things to know and process. According to the information processing theory, there are three stages in acquiring information; the sensory memory, the working memory and the long-term memory. The memory capacity of the sensory and working memory are limited and it is necessary to focus ones attention in order to achieve optimal information processing. In addition to the problems arising from an overexposure to sensory input, despite the vast capacities of our long-term memory, it is no longer possible to memorize all the information and knowledge that humans have accumulated. One outcome of this development is a change in the ways humans study different fields. Instead of merely memorizing and reproducing all the fact, studies like the liberal arts and science approach here at the AUC, are geared to give a broad overview, combined with teaching methods to deal with the vast amounts of information in a new way. The actual storage of information is often computerized and the student takes the role of an “informed search engine” that puts the information into context. The information processing model takes a computer view of the human brain. It seems only logical that computers can do a better job in storing the information that humans cannot maintain in their long-term memory.

I’m sure you’ve had it happen to yourself just as I have: you listen to some music and before you know it you have a song stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Annoying! So let’s look at how this works.