Learning Assessment

One of the most surprising things I’ve learned so far in Psy 100 is that the brain is capable of holding more data than any technological storage device in existence. “The brain’s memory storage capacity has been estimated to be around 2.5 petabytes (a million gigabytes), which would be enough to hold three million hours of television shows if your brain worked like a video recorder. You would have to leave the television running continuously for more than 300 years to use up all that storage” (Griggs 178). There were approximately 400 freshmen admitted last year at Berea College, each with a 250gb hard drive. in their laptops. You would need to enroll 10,000 freshmen in order to have enough laptops on campus to hold as much data as one human brain. For a more cost-effective comparison, let’s consider bare (sold without an operating system) hard drive prices. Currently, on Newegg.com, you can purchase a 4tb hard drive for $300. You would need 625 of these to hold as much information as one human brain, which would cost $187,500. The median income in the United States is $46,326 (mybudget). So, it would take a normal American a little over 4 years to purchase enough storage space to rival that of their brain, assuming they lived at home with their very generous parents, and therefore had no expenses. It boggles the mind, doesn’t it? And to think the most valuable thing I’ve ever owned has been in my head this whole time!

I also learned that my concept of memory was completely false. I had subscribed to the computer metaphor, that my memories were written to disk (my brain) and that they could be recalled perfectly whenever I wished. Those times when I couldn’t remember things were just archival errors. I learned in this course that not only was this metaphor wrong, it was very misleading. Every time I recall a memory, it is reconstructed-changed in some small way. This means that a memory dear to me, such as my first kiss, will, over time, be distorted into something that is quite different. This seems strange and counter-intuitive to me. How could I possibly forget or distort something that is so vivid and dear to me? We watched a 60 minute video segment which helped me to understand the fragility of memory. Not only is it re-created each time it’s recalled, but a memory is fallible, and can be easily influenced.

Something interesting I learned that I can try to apply to my learning is that stress affects the hippocampus negatively. The stress hormones cause the hippocampus to be incapable of forming memories. So, it logically stands that I should try to study in a stress-free environment. This means I should probably not study in my room, especially not when he’s trying to tune his guitar!

Overall, I’m quite pleased with the progress I’ve made so far in the course, however, I feel as though I’m still not quite up to par with my normal performance. The course feels rushed, with it being constrained to eight weeks, and I still find myself moving along at what I must describe as a comparatively ‘coasting speed’. Having reading every night is still for some reason kicking me in the side, even though I should be used to it by now. When I get to class having read Griggs and feeling prepared, we’ll have a quiz, and I’ll realize we had Eagleman reading as well. What I need to do to fix that is actually look at the syllabus more than once a week. I should print it out and perhaps tape it to my desk, so I’m required to read it every morning as I’m getting ready.

Works Cited:

http://www.berea.edu/admissions/quickfacts/default.asp

http://www.mybudget360.com/how-much-does-the-average-american-make-breaking-down-the-us-household-income-numbers/

Griggs