Memory Formation Research Paper

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Pages: 6

Memory Formation
The structure of the brain
In order to see what the effects of ethanol on memory are, one needs to fist look at how memories are stored in a normal, sober state. To begin with, one must first look at the brain as a whole to see what different areas of the brain are responsible for. Figure 1 shows the different regions of the brain.

The cerebrum is divided into four sections called lobes, these are: the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe and temporal lobe (as illustrated Figure 1). Each lobe is responsible for a specific function. The frontal lobe is responsible for thinking, planning, emotions, behaviour control and decision making; the parietal lobe is in charge of perception and spatial judgements; the occipital lobe processes visual information; and the
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It can process information of any type but has limited capacity. The phonological loop handles verbal and auditory information and is divided into two other components which are the articulatory control system and the phonological store. The articulatory control system is the inner voice which can store information in a verbal form, is used when trying to remember a telephone number and repeat it to oneself. The phonological store holds speech-based material for about 1.5 to 2 seconds. It can receive information directly from the sensory memory as auditory information, from the long-term store as verbal information and from the articulatory control system. The episodic buffer is a limited capacity memory storage system controlled by the central executive through conscious awareness. It acts as a temporary and passive display store until the information is needed. The visuospatial sketchpad handles visual and spatial information from either sensory memory as visual information or from long-term store as images. Once all the information is processed, it will enter the long-term store (Hannibal & Crane,