You're trying to remember something.
lucky for you, this girl is studying memory.
Cognitive and Experimental Psychologists implement two major methods of retrieval when studying memory: Recall and Recognition. We use these techniques too. For instance, when we're trying to reach back into our minds and resurrect a memory, a detail, the day the music died, we may be able to recall the item explicitly:
THE MUSIC DIED WHEN BUDDY HOLLY DIED ON FEBRUARY 3RD, 1959
seriously, type "what day did the music die" into Google. the search engine is pretty explicit.
If unable to pinpoint a date off the top of our heads, we may need some clues to answer the question. Items related to the main concept in question can lead you to recognize it, locate its trace in your mind eventually. I am totally assuming you know who Buddy Holly is by the way, and I apologize if you don't. I just need a specific fact that is somewhat well-known to roll out here.
So, we mentioned the word "recognize." That's a concept in cognitive psychology. Let's explore it by focusing on processes underlying recognition: re-experience and familiarity.
RECOGNITION by re-experience/recollection brings about
feelings of being able to mentally relive the past.
RECOGNITION by familiarity brings about feelings of
being on the edge of knowing something for sure. One can feel clueless
as to why the familiar feeling is arising.
Researchers conducting experiments distinguish between these recognition processes by asking participants if they can "remember" the item or word (which indicates recollection), or if they just simply "know" that they saw the item before (which indicates familiarity).
There is EVIDENCE for these
different processes underlying recognition from neuroimaging studies:
Recollection shows increased activity in
the hippocampus, while familiarity
shows increased activity in the parahippocampal and perirhinal cortices. Think
of these subprocesses as complementary to explicit recall. The parahippocampal and perirhinal cortices are literally encasing the
explicit center:
The hippocampus (G.
“seahorse”), the Explicit Center;
The parahippocampal cortex,
a complementary structure to the hippocampus, involved in the “where”
recognition;
sidenote:
Studies show the parahippocampal gyrus to have a role in recognition of social context as well as environment. Research from a group led by Katherine P. Rankin suggests
that the parahippocampal gyrus is responsible for detection of sarcasm.
You may be wondering: Isn’t
the left side of the brain responsible for the understanding of language, and
other linear, rule-based processes? As you keep learning about the mind, the more you will realize that the left-brained/right-brained dichotomy is grossly
oversimplified. Both hemispheres have their specialties, but what is one side of your body without the other?
Yes, the right parahippocampal
gyrus is involved in recognition of visual context, a finding that probably dances
on your prior knowledge of right-brained specialization. But, in keeping with
its name, there is strong evidence supporting that the parahippocampal gyrus is involved in recognition of paralinguistic elements of conversation (e.g. sarcasm).
For a refresher on Greek prefixes: ORIGIN from
Greek para ‘beside’;
The right parahippocampal gyrus has been shown to be responsible for recognition of environmental context, social context, as well as nuances in language–elements that sit beside language itself. This shows us that hemispheric lateralization is
not as left-brained/linear, right-brained/spatial as we thought. While the left
brain may be more responsible for following grammatical rules, the right
parahippocampal gyrus can aid you in recognizing where those rules bend to take on a meaning other than the literal
translation.
Doesn’t this make splendid sense? The supposedly SPATIAL, weird-super-interpretive hemisphere of your brain aids you in detecting the location of sarcasm. If the left, more linear side of our brain did this, it would have to detect the sarcasm as a thing in each instance it arises. The things, or words, used to create a sarcastic sentence can vary, but the environment around it is what makes it sarcasm.
From this, we could say
that sarcasm is not an object; it does not follow linear rules, or translate semantically. The literal meaning is the what.
The where, on the other hand,
considers where you and your fellow conversationalist are in your lives, in your surroundings, and, ultimately, in your minds. It is these spatial concepts that point to
sarcasm rather than define it.
Bihemispheric elements complement one another in dealing with a supposedly left-brained construction (language), which could not take on the same meaning–no matter how many grammatical rules you lived by–if you didn’t implement your right-brained wisdom.
Bihemispheric elements complement one another in dealing with a supposedly left-brained construction (language), which could not take on the same meaning–no matter how many grammatical rules you lived by–if you didn’t implement your right-brained wisdom.
Article concerning right-brains and sarcasm: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/health/research/03sarc.html?em&ex=1212724800&en=51b0f096761db2f9&ei=5087+&_r=0
So I didn't quite complete my whole lesson on recognition. I guess I just wanted to explain how subprocesses of memory, such as those facilitated by the parahippocampal gyrus, aid us in retrieving more explicit ones, such as the date February 3rd, 1959. While you tried to remember the day the music died and who I was talking about, this may have helped you (link):
So I didn't quite complete my whole lesson on recognition. I guess I just wanted to explain how subprocesses of memory, such as those facilitated by the parahippocampal gyrus, aid us in retrieving more explicit ones, such as the date February 3rd, 1959. While you tried to remember the day the music died and who I was talking about, this may have helped you (link):
