Luke Ozdenvar

Group members: Luke, Eshan, Seth

Badge leader: Eshan

Feb 15th - Feb 2nd

WOK Badge: Memory

"Knowing that memory is fallible and changeable, is it still a reliable way of knowing?”

JOURNALS

Journal 1 Feb 15, 2017 We plan to tackle the aspect of memory which uses selective attention. The things we look at everyday but we discard in our long memory since they are not necessary. In our group we are planning to create questionnaire that will test the persons selective attention. We will give them simple task such as googling checking an app on their phone etc.. Afterwards we will ask them question relating to what they have done. I hypothesize that the test subjects will not be able to answer their questions because they will be focused on an another topic.

Journal 2 Feb 17, 2017 We decided to change the idea of our project to fit the question of "Knowing that memory is fallible and changeable, is it still a reliable way of knowing?”. To test this we plan to come up with a question we can ask our parents. This question will include a memory that they both should know and have significant memory of. We will ask each of them individually and then compare their answers to how they both remember the same event. After we gather our results we will have a final comparison between the 3 people in our group to come up with a final design for out presentation. The main point of our presentation will be to show that memory is not reliable as it may seem and it can differ for each person.

Journal 3 Feb 17, 2017 Today we tried to plan out our project and how we would execute it and gain answer that would show us how memory is fallible. We decided to base off our question from a moment we spent in Wyoming and to ask these series of questions to our group. After this we will have all the results compared and put into a final presentation. After we are done with these we will be ready to present our presentation. The only things left to do know is to ask our questions and do the final touches to our powerpoint. I have strong connection with this memory so I remember most of what happen and will be able to compare my knowledge to others. Our questions will test their memory before and in the certain event that happened and will show how memory changes from person to person although they experience the same thing.

Evaluation and Final Journal Feb 15, 2017 After watching the presentations for reason and memory I came to realize that they were closely related teach other. We create our reasoning based off our memories. Overall, I found the most interesting presentation to be the own about intuitive reasoning. It showed us how people think differently towards simple yes or no questions. Since they are answering yes or no questions their answers could be different then reality. These loaded questions caused confusions and forced people to think about their answers.

From the memory presentations I learned that memory was not a reliable way of knowing. Although we all experience a memory we can all recall it differently then others. Therefore, memory is not a fully reliable way of knowing. We depend on our memory on a daily basis but as I said before its reliability can be put into question. Also, from memory presentation about google effect I learned that we highly are highly reliant on the internet to look up simple pieces of information. After we look up these pieces information we seem to forget them after they have completed their use.

In our own presentation there were some points I was not happy with the fact that Seth was absent caused the problem that we had trouble presenting his part. Also our computer wouldn’t connect to airplay for some reason causing us an unpredicted technical issue. These are somethings I plan to focus on not doing on my next presentation. Other than that I though we understood our topic and made an original presentation.

Essential questions

How do people experience the same moment differently?

How do people recall the same memory what does their recall depend on?

How do we know our memories are true?

EXTENSION PROPOSAL

Joshua Foer talks about how we can improve our memory and how everyone has the same capability of memory but if focus on level of memory could be increased with simple techniques for everybody. By using some of his techniques we could increase both our short term and personal memory. If we were to affiliate simple things with stuff we can remember we can significantly increase our memory. This can also help us when we recall them in the future.

I would like to make this my extension proposal because it shows us that we are more capable then we think. Given anyones current circumstance they have the power to increase their memory. It would show the viewer how to look at memory from a different perspective. Most people assume that your memory capacity is something you are born with. But, by watching this video we can see that this not the case. The guy gives a personal experience out of his life to show that this is possible making the video more intriguing.

ELECTIVE READINGS

Adding Memory Listening to this podcast made me realize a lot about how memory work and how changeable it is. I was aware that memory was changeable and that memories could be manipulated, but I never thought of the fact that memories could be implanted with such ease. According to the podcast while having a casual conversation with a person if we force them mentally to think of old events that were true, then eventually ask them to remember a fake event; the person will create a memory of that fake event and believe it to be true. Afterwards we talk about a painter who suddenly has a memory of a day 30 years ago and starts painting random stuff like horses. However, after a while he gets into painting humans and paints the same girl over and over. This shows us that our memory can be tracked back many years and we are able to recall them.

Memory and Forgetting This podcast explains to us that no matter what memory is fallible and changeable. Since this was my knowledge question it made a lot of sense to me and I could follow along with it. It talks about how our memory is always changing and the only time we experience the true moment of that memory is when it actually happened. Every time we try to remember to recall that memory we change what originally happened therefore, a single memory cannot be kept in its true form. If one person was to not to think a certain memory for a long while of time and suddenly call it, that person will be more powerful than if he was to call it everyday. In the second part of the video we learned that using certain types of medication we can make our brain forget emotional affiliations of a certain memory. In our world today this could be used to help people with strong memories of a sad or bad moment in their life and ease their pain. Overall, this podcast has showed me that forgetfulness can be both good and a bad thing.

Documentation