Oliver Hanna | 1

Oliver Hanna
Intro to American Studies
Professor Kathryn Singer
June 18, 2015
Final Draft of Paper 1
Endless Memory Limited by Recall
Something remembered from the past, a recollection, simply a memory.
Memories can me good or bad, like a wedding or a divorce. They can make someone
happy or sad, laugh or cry, smile or frown. The act of being able to remember something
later on is just outstanding, as there are many forms of memories. There is short-term
memory, long-term memory, and you have auditory memory and visual memory, all of
which are just the top level view of what forms of memory there are. They can entice a
person to strive to do well or they can cripple a person by giving someone posttraumatic stress disorder for example. The human brain is by far, the most unbelievable
organ as the capacity of the brain is virtually limitless. Yes, limitless. Now not to get
things confused, but memories are never lost but the path to those memories is just hard
to find within a vast amount of new memories. In this writing, you will find what makes
memories, what memory means to an individual, as well as how ones memory can trick
them and what are memory triggers.

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There are different types of memory; short-term, long-term; visual and auditory
memory.

Short-term memory is constantly occurring, it stores information for

approximately 30 seconds to 45 seconds. People can store information in their shortterm memory which after the 30 seconds to 45 seconds will become less and less clear,
such as a phone number before writing it down or an event such as an accident before it
starts to lose its validity because our brains usually try to keep bad memories away, as
they are unhealthy. Long-term memory, this is what will make you smile 20 years from
now, or what will give you post-traumatic stress disorder. Long-term memory, is the
final stage of the dual memory model proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin, in which data
can be stored for long periods of time. While short-term and working memory persists
for only about 30 seconds to 45 seconds, information can remain in long-term memory
indefinitely. Yes, indefinitely.
Now, although memories can be stored in long-term memory forever, they cannot
always be accessed. The reason why they cannot be accessed is because there are newer
memories that are added and it makes it harder to get access to those old memories.
This is where a trigger comes in to action as it is the sole source of accessing those old
memories.
Then you have visual and auditory, visual memories simply mean memories
created and stored as images in ones memory such as the color and type of car which
ran the red light, the type of dress you saw at the wedding that you want, so it cannot get
out of your head, and auditory which is memory of a sound for example a song, a voice
of a relative who may have passed, or a siren causing one to go to shock or act outside of
the social norm when hearing a siren if you come from a place where you may have been

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traumatized and associated the siren to the tornado or earthquake alert. These are the
different fractions of memory.
As you know, memories are constantly created, some are just short-term, and
some are long-term as discussed. However, the ability to recall those memories are
dependent on a trigger as mentioned above, as memories are never lost or erased, only
the ability to recall them is lost, that is why a trigger is the key to your memory.
Memory works well with a trigger, a trigger can be a scent, an event, or an
occurrence. Most memories arent lost nor erased, they are just stored and need a hint
to get ones brain to recall the memory. This is why, memories that are created and
associated with a scent, an event or an occurrence, are the ones easily remembered.
Most veterans who have been at war, experience this trigger.
If you have seen the film American Sniper, you will notice that after he comes
home from war, scents, sounds, events, and occurrences seem to drown him in constant
post-traumatic stress. One example was when he was with his son at the mechanic, and
he heard the mechanic putting on the tire using the compressor and immediately
remembered gun shots and went off into a day dream. Another example, would be
Breaking and Entering, by Sherman Alexie, the protagonist can experience something
similar to the protagonist in American Sniper. The reason for that is because, the man
in Breaking and Entering has also gone through a life changing event with
unforgettable and dreadful images which can cause post-traumatic stress disorder. Posttraumatic stress is all about triggers, however, their triggers are hyper-active as the

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triggers immediately brings back a memory of a traumatic event without warning or a

way to handle it.
Memories can mean the world to people, as you may have heard, Memories are
priceless, and Memories last a lifetime. This is true to me as I am sure it is true to you
as well. I remember specific memories with my father, Reda, before he passed away
from cancer and heart problems. Memories make people smile, make people laugh,
make people frown and make people cry just as they do for me. For example, whenever
I see the Bayonne Medical Center, I always remember walking in with my dad through
the side entrance so that he can see his cardiologist Dr. Wong, it is a sad memory but I
love it. The reason why I love it, is because it triggers more memories. Yes, it can be
more saddening memories like having my birthday in the hospital on January 25 th, then
a week later on February 1 st being told that my father has passed away without me
saying See you soon. Although it is sad, I am happy to remember them because its as
if I am able to relive those moments and see him, hear him, and feel him. Granted
sometimes I, and we, forget how our loved ones voice sounded, but some triggers like
things that they used to say remind us of their sweet voices. But it can also be good
memories like a daisy chain effect, some good and some bad memories but nevertheless,
they are memories worth holding on too.
Now, can a country have a memory? The answer is yes, a country can have many
memories both good and bad. In this country I believe all the good memories were of
some time ago when historical movements came into play to shape our country into
what it is today, and when Bin Laden was killed by the United States Navy Seals.
However, recently only bad memories have are being created for our country. Memories

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such as the attacks of 9/11/01, the Baltimore bombings and a few more which crippled
our country. Anything can be associated with a memory, and if it just so happens to
have a large enough impact, it will attribute a memory to the thing. Some of these
other things can be an ethnicity, a race, country of birth, and so on.
One thing I would like to bring up is the fact that people often forget about
memories that are associated with a country because they end up only being taught in a
history class and it becomes irrelevant information to those leering about the history,
these memories often only live with one or two generations, but they usually never go
passed that. The simple truth to that matter is, the younger and newer generations have
no connection to what happened, what we may call memories, they call United States
History Chapter X, I see this in my younger cousins history text book when they spoke
about the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11/01, we lived through that and all have
memories of that day, but the younger and newer generations will only know it to be
history.
Ever play a game of telephone; well peoples memories can be just like that. As
people can remember the same event or thing, either slightly different or extremely
different as memory is not a tangible item. The reason why people remember things
differently is because we all go through our own individual experiences, and having all
of those different experiences result in different observatory skills which impact how an
event is interpreted which as a result affects the memory being stored. For example,
eyewitnesses are not always great if questioned after the event by an extended period of
time. Police are able to determine based on multiple statements what and who they are
looking for. I was a volunteer police officer, civil citizen, and was taught most of the

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ways how they can determine the outlier statements. Below is a small excerpt from an
article about eyewitness accounts By Hal Arkowitz and Scott O. Lilienfeld.
IN 1984 KIRK BLOODSWORTH was convicted of the
rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl and sentenced to the
gas chamberan outcome that rested largely on the
testimony of five eyewitnesses. After Bloodsworth served
nine years in prison, DNA testing proved him to be innocent.
Such devastating mistakes by eyewitnesses are not rare,
according to a report by the Innocence Project, an
organization affiliated with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School
of Law at Yeshiva University that uses DNA testing to
exonerate those wrongfully convicted of crimes. Since the
1990s, when DNA testing was first introduced, Innocence
Project researchers have reported that 73 percent of the 239
convictions overturned through DNA testing were based on
eyewitness testimony. One third of these overturned cases
rested on the testimony of two or more mistaken
eyewitnesses.
( Hal Arkowitz and Scott O.
Lilienfeld)

I would like to call to attention the last sentence, where it reads One third of these
overturned cases rested on eyewitness testimony of two or more mistaken
eyewitnesses. There was no affiliation between any of the witnesses and the defendant,
the only issue was time, and with time came more invalid information being generated
by ones observations skills and false and trickery memory which was being modified to
what the eyewitness thinks they saw as opposed to what they actually saw.
In conclusion, something remembered from the past, a recollection, is simply a
memory. Memories can be pleasant or uneasy, and they can help us and or trick us and
cause tremendous damage to your-own life or someone elses life. There is short-term
and long-term memory, and auditory and visual memory. Memories are best recalled by

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a trigger of some sort, either a scent, an event, an occurrence, or a sound. Memories can
have an impact on someones life by allowing vivid images to create a post-traumatic
stress disorder which is usually found in most of our veterans. People can be tricked,
and exaggerate or falsify the truth as they are recalling it from their own memory which
as we know is not like a paper and pen. Overall, memory is an amazing thing if one has
the ability to control it, we take our memory for granted and never sit and think how
outstanding it can be. So, can you control your memory?

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Works Cited
Alexie, Sherman. "Breaking and Entering." War Dances. New York: Grove,
2009. Print. Kumaran, D.

Arkowitz, Hal, and Scott Lilienfeld. "Why Science Tells Us Not to Rely on
Eyewitness Accounts." N.p., n.d. Web. 16 June 2015.

Green, Marc. "Visual Expert Human Factors: Eyewitness Memory Is

Unreliable." Visual Expert Human Factors: Eyewitness Memory Is Unreliable. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 15 June 2015.

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Dear Professor, I feel if I try to write up to 8 pages, it will include redundancy and
broaden my scope as opposed to the recommendation to narrow it. If you have any
ideas of where I can find guides to writing more about something I feel I covered in full
without adding nonsense.
Thank you

-Oliver Hanna