RESEARCH WORK – June 2019

Byline – Huzaifa Al Haddad

The Forgetting Curve

Hermann Ebbinghaus (January 24, 1850 – February 26, 1909) was a
German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory,
and is known for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing
effect. He was also the first person to describe the learning curve.
Ebbinghaus forgetting curve describes the decrease in ability of the brain
to retain memory over time. The issue was hypothesized by Hermann
Ebbinghaus in 1885, which is why it’s called Ebbinghaus forgetting curve.

Ebbinghaus found that about 44% of any memorized context is lost

(forgotten) in just 1 hour. It continues to drop off over time, eventually
leveling out.

MEMORY
Memory is the ability to take in information, store it, and recall it at a later
time.
Memory is differentiated into short-term memory and long-term memory.
In recent years, it has been discovered that long-term memory is the seat
of understanding ; it stores not just facts but complex concepts or
schemas.
The key for information to get to the long-term memory in the first place
is that it has to go through a part of the short term memory called the
working memory. Working (short-term) memory has about two to four
slots where we process information it acts as a bottleneck for the infinite
amount of the information around us. The problem is what we hold there
can quickly vanish. In other words if we don’t grapple with the ideas in
our working memory for extended period of time, they never get sent to
the long term memory; they just disappear. In conclusion, it can be stated
that the working memory acts as a filter for the information and it filters
an infinite unnecessary information on daily basis & allows only a very few
of these information to get to the long-term memory.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS
Psychology and neuroscience researchers have started to identify thinking
processes and brain regions involved with creativity. Recent evidence
suggests that creativity involves a complex interplay between spontaneous
and controlled thinking – the ability to both spontaneously brainstorm
ideas and deliberately evaluate them to determine whether they’ll actually
work.
Briefing the topic, it can be stated that people with creative minds have
trouble concentrating and retaining information since their mind
constantly gets deviated to different topics & subjects.
HYPERACTIVITY and PSYCHOSOMATIC PROBLEMS
Hyperactivity means having increased movement, impulsive actions, and a
shorter attention span, and being easily distracted.
Hyperactive behavior usually refers to constant activity, being easily distracted,
impulsiveness, inability to concentrate, aggressiveness, and similar behaviors.
Hyperactivity is not easily defined. It often depends on the observer. Behavior
that seems excessive to one person may not seem excessive to another. But
certain individuals, when compared to others, are clearly far more active.
Studies show that many hyperactive individuals are unhappy, or even
depressed. This can become a problem if it interferes with the daily life of an
individual such as school work, general etiquettes and/or making friends et
cetera.

Any illness that has physical symptoms, but has the mind and emotions as its
origin, is defined as a psychosomatic illness. A psychosomatic illness originates
from emotional stress or damaging thought patterns, and progresses with
physical symptoms, usually when a person's immune system is compromised
due to stress. Depression, low self-esteem & even vagueness(uncertainty) can
indeed be a cause of psychosomatic illness.
A common misconception is that a psychosomatic condition is imaginary or
"all in someone's mind." Actually, the physical symptoms of psychosomatic
conditions are real and should be treated quickly, as with any other illness.

CESSATION
Much of the information in this research work has been apprehended from
various sources on the internet. I have spent time to ensure that no copyrights
had been infringed and hereby declare that this research work shall be ‘fair
use(d)’. In case of any unintentional copyright infringement or query, email to-
craxxterious@gmail.com .