Survival Processing and Animacy Effects on Memory (Research Paper Sample)

Survival Processing and Animacy Effects on Memory
PSY-285WI Research Methods
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Abstract
The utilization of the natural and adaptive properties of human brains was outlined in this study paper as a current and successful method for increasing memory retention and cognition. The major focus is on how survival processing influences memory retention, visual imagery, and information cognition in relation to a variety of domain-specific memory systems. The study looks at how many of the three individuals can recollect animate and inanimate terms by writing down what they remember. Each participant was asked to write down the number of animate and inanimate terms they remembered, which was how the study's data was acquired. The distinction between living and nonliving things has an impact on human cognition. Language comprehension, reasoning, knowledge organization, and feeling all benefit from animacy. Animacy has a significant influence on basic memory tasks, which was previously underestimated. Animate perception of inanimate inputs, as well as animate handling (inanimate items are remembered better when touched by animate things), might help with retention.
Keywords: survival processing, animacy, free recall
This research article described a modern and effective approach in improving memory retention and cognition through the use of the innate and adaptive characteristics of the brain of human beings (Nairne and Pandeirada 239). This perspective relates to the innate survival mechanism and fitness-relevant adaptation as functions of the human brain. Henceforth, the adaptive characteristics of the brain intended for survival can be used for modern practical application to increase its memory retention function.
The early research understanding of human memory is focused dominantly on the structural characteristics exploring more on the specific regions of the brain involved in memory retention and the nature of imprinting. However, the modern scientific community knows too little regarding the function of human memory. In this regard, the authors express strong emphasis on this aspect determining the significant value on memory imprinting, imagery retention, and information coding (Nairne and Pandeirada 239). Essentially, the function of human memory is highly significant for human survival thus can still be further used to enhance such aspects at present through a deeper contextual understanding of the involved processes. This approach is much more efficient compared to focusing on the complete understanding of the structure and it already implies the direct application of information for memory enhancement.
To further explore the importance of human memory, it is essential to consider the inherent reasons why such cognitive function evolved in the first place. In this context, the authors provided three assumptions regarding such questions (Nairne and Pandeirada 240). First, the function of human memory is not associated solely with remembering the past but rather towards developing a new effective measure for adapting at present and in the future. The second assumption is that human memory evolved to become more domain-specific or sensitive to quantitative content rather than merely the information alone. The human memory considers the relative importance or value of information with regards to survival, fitness, and experience. The third assumption is that human memory is evolving to enhance practical performance mechanisms for survival and fitness context such as food acquisition, mating selection, and skill acquisition. Overall, these three assumptions regarding the function of human memory all relate to the concern of adaptation and survival.
In exploring the context of adaptive memory, the authors explore relative researches on the matter. This includes the study suggesting the rationale behind the higher memory retention on women for information relating to fixed locales because of early labor segregation in the society. Another is the study establishing the relationship between human memory and predictive assessment for relative functions and actions occurring in the future. In addition, another study pointed the strong relationship between the natural occurrence of information and the standard forgetting mechanism to the likelihood that such information will be reencountered and needed in the future. All of these studies support the innate adaptive characteristics of human memory concerning its function and application.
To further explore the subject, the authors experimented with different examples of adaptive memory relative to the survival and fitness hypothesis. The primary focus is how survival processing affects memory retention, visual imagery, information cognition relative to several domain-specific memory mechanisms. Likewise, the research aims to determine how this specific cognitive function can be triggered considering memory registry and activation through specific cues both from environmental factors and personal invocation. Among the specific application sought by the authors are evolved cheater-detection mechanisms during the processing of social relationships, predator-avoidance systems in the presence of a threat, and male selection mechanisms in an appropriate social context. The experiment aimed to explore long-term application beyond the automatic response mechanism in which the stimulus is processed in memory rather than its meaning.
The experiment had the participants imagine themselves in a survival situation and then rate the survival importance of several randomly selected words (Nairne and Pandeirada 241). Such mediums were chosen to determine the qualitative aspect of the processing of the participants with regards to each randomly selected word as they relate to the context of adaptation and survival. After the task, participants were given a surprise memory test for the rated words to determine their memory retention performance. The free-recall performance was then evaluated based on two conditions, pleasantness rating and relevance to the scenario of immigration to a foreign country. The rating mechanism is based on the assumption that survival relevance would require deep processing and self-relevant decisions while pleasantness would involve standard processing control relative to the given scenario though not in a survival-relevant context. The results clearly show that survival processing enhanced memory retention. This result is consistent with the initial hypothesis of the authors which suggests that human memory adapts and tunes to better recognized fitness-relevant information. The result can also be attributed to the concern that survival processing requires more processing effort due to its recognized innate importance. The authors also recognized that memory retention remains longer and more robust on information that is fitness-relevant compared with information that is not fitness-relevant. To establish a comparative value for the research, the research involved a separate group of participants to rate unrelated words based on their respective relevancy on the survival scenario, their pleasantness, and the ease of visual imagery (Nairne and Pandeirada 241). This approach aims to produce an effective long-term memory retention technique and efficient recall mechanism through invoking survival based-information encoding.
As such, based on the result of the conducted experimentation, it can be ascertained that the human brain is innately designed to prioritize survival-based cognitive functioning in terms of memory storage and recall. This innate design of the memory mechanism is likely attributed to ensure the survival and adaptation of human beings to new surroundings, threat detection, and ensuring effective mating partner selection. This idea likewise suggests that the human brain indeed allocates specific regions intended for the survival module which prioritizes information based on adaptation relevancy (Nairne and Pandeirada 242). In this regard, this innate cognitive functioning can then be used to influence memory mechanism on other practical concerns through highlighting its relation to the adaptation perspective during recognition processing and information recall.
Animacy is the context of being alive. Animacy plays a significant role in human language processing and understanding. Evidentially animacy helps in supporting the organization of knowledge and the reasoning process. The underlying logical and intelligent enhancement is achieved through perceptive measures created by animates. Apart from solid knowledge acquisition and organization, animacy helps humans in memory management and organization (Nairne et al., 2017, p. 22). The Episodic memory organization contextually presents an area of research where the future study will focus on memory manipulation and enhancement protocols. Objectively, the evolution process carries the context of developing an animate ability to remember past years by reorganizing the valuation of memory based on percept and reality.
Animacy involves the development of constructs that helps in cognitive abilities. Cognitive abilities, which are part of living things, typically display a clear distinction between animate and inanimate processes. Learning is a continuous process that is only associated with living things. Animates show the learning process when they internalize and produce results of what is learned. The study has discovered proof for animacy-based infection impacts: Objects moved by quickens are recalled better than objects contacted by lifeless things (Nairne et al., 2017, p. 25). It is conceivably versatile in following up studies that specialists have controlled. Contacted artic...