Hyperthymesia

Essay Instructions:

Purpose of this paper: To provide a review and critical analysis of a topic within Psychology of the Self INSTRUCTIONS: 1.Choose a topic within Psychology of the Self. Your topic does not have to be one that we have covered in class but it MUST be relevant to Psychology of the Self. a.Example: “Autobiographical memory” 2.Choose a specific question that you will attempt to answer in your paper. a.Example: Acceptable Question – “What are the causes of infantile amnesia?” 3.Search for AT LEAST 3 original, empirical, journal articles from within the psychological literature that provide empirical evidence that addresses your answer topic. Your articles must be published in the year 1995 or after (Any exceptions MUST be approved by the instructor). a.Using the example question, “What are the causes of infantile amnesia”, you can search the literature and select articles that provide evidence that supports (or refutes) cognitive explanations (e.g. symbolic representations), social interactionist or explanations, retrieval error explanations, etc. b.You cannot use review articles to fulfill this criterion. (N.B. A review article reviews/summarizes the current research on a particular topic/question and does not include any data collection or analysis of empirical data). c.You cannot use meta-analyses to fulfill this criterion. (N.B. A meta-analysis uses statistical procedures to analyze the empirical results of several previously published studies). d.You cannot use dissertations, theses, or articles published in Dissertation Abstracts International. e.You cannot use articles published in non-scholarly sources (e.g. Wikipedia). 4.Once you have your articles, write an introduction that states and describes your topic and specific question and defines any key concepts a.You may use scholarly sources (e.g. textbooks, lecture slides) other than the 3 articles you will summarize for definitions, background information etc. in your introduction. 5.Write a review of your articles. a.In other words, provide a brief summary of each of your articles that includes background information, main purpose, hypotheses, methods, results, interpretations and limitations of each article. 6.Provide an answer (with explanation) to your main question that is based on the articles that you reviewed. Here is your chance to demonstrate your creativity, understanding of your topic and the evidence reviewed, and your critical analysis skills. a.Using the example question, “what are the causes of infantile amnesia?” you may decide that you agree with evidence that suggests that there are both cognitive and language causal factors. You must provide some justification for your opinion and so you may choose to critique the evidence that you reviewed. You may emphasize and explain the strengths of the evidence you agree with and emphasize and explain the weaknesses of the evidence that you disagree with. You can also include additional sources that support your answer. There are several ways to go about justifying/explaining your answer. Be creative. Simply stating that “based on the review of the evidence, there are several causes of infantile amnesia” is not sufficient! Simply re-summarizing the evidence is also not sufficient! 7.Provide an APA formatted reference list that includes ALL of your sources. You must have a minimum of 3 original empirical journal articles FORMAL REQUIREMENTS: 1.APA formatted title page (must include your name, student number, course code) 2.Introduction 3.Review of at least 3 original empirical journal articles that provide evidence that you will use to answer you main question. 4.Critical analysis that provides an answer to your question and justification for/explanation of your answer. 5.APA formatted reference list that includes ALL of your sources and a minimum of 3 original empirical journal articles. GRADING SCHEME: (In some cases below there is a list of “minimum criteria”. An “A” paper does an exceptional job at fulfilling these minimum criteria AND goes beyond by demonstrating creativity, exceptional grasp of the information and its relevance to psychology, and exceptional critical analysis skills. In other words to get an “A” you have to not only meet the minimum criteria, you have to do an exceptional job of writing an introduction, reviewing your articles, answering your question, etc.) a. Introduction [10 points] a. Minimum criteria i. Statement and description of topic and question ii. Definition of any key concepts b. Quality of Review and choice of articles [30 points] a. Minimum criteria i. At least 3 articles which are all original, empirical journal articles published between 1995 and 2013 ii. Articles are relevant to topic and question iii. Adequate information provided about each article c. Quality of Critical Analysis [30 points] a. Minimum criteria i. Clear statement and explanation of answer to main question d. Format [10 points] a. At least 3 original empirical journal articles cited in reference list b. Within page limits (8 pages DOUBLE-SPACED) c. APA format for title page, page numbers and running header, any headings and sub- headings used, ALL in-text citations and reference list d. Margins (1” all sides) e. Font size (12pt Times New Roman) e. Punctuation, grammar, spelling, and writing style [20 points] a. Minimum criteria i. Minimal punctuation, grammatical and spelling errors ii. Clearly and concisely written iii. Good transitions between sentences and paragraphs TIPS: 1. Review the university's policy on plagiarism. It will not be tolerated! 2. Get started early so that you have enough time to thoroughly research your topic (i.e. read the literature). 3. Do not make your topic too narrow as this reduces your chances of finding 3 relevant articles. Most likely you will have to come up with a couple of different topics, do your literature search, and chose the topic that is best (i.e., has enough articles to choose from). 4. Correct punctuation, spelling, and grammar are important as they make your paper easier to understand. The university provides many resources to help students with punctuation, grammar and spelling. Make use of them. 5. Organize your paper using subheadings. I would suggest that you do not organize your paper using subheadings such as “Article 1”. Instead use subheadings that reflect the content of what is being reviewed in that section. 6. Your paper should flow. That is, the sequence in which you discuss information should make sense and your sections should transition smoothly. 7. Remember that a summary is not just taking ALL of the information in your articles and putting them into your own words. A summary is concise, includes only relevant information and is in your own words.

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Hyperthymesia
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Article review
Article 1
A case of Hyperthymesia is an article of the research performed recently in the year two thousand and thirteen, by Donahue, Hussey and Ally, using naturalistic observation method to revisit the duty of the amygdale in autobiographical memory. The results showed that hyperthymestic people have uncontrollable retrieval of memory, a syndrome caused by brain disorder.
Article 2
Anterion, Mazzola and Laurent conducted a survey in the year two thousand and eight concerning autobiographical memory with the intentions to discover the causes of hyperthymesia through consideration of personal semantic knowledge, phenomenological aspects, generic characters and events. The survey showed that many people with this case tend to spend much time in recalling their past events.
Article 3
The article “Mnesic imbalance and the neuroanatomy of Austin spectrum disorders” was a research conducted by Munguia in the year two thousand and eleven, to determine the psychological explanation behind hyperthymesia. The tests performed on the people indicated that the syndrome is caused by a brain disorder, where some parts of the brain are under developed thus failing to control memory flow.
HYPERTHYMESIA
Hyperthysemia is also termed as hyperthymestic syndrome, piking or highly superior autobiographical memory abbreviated as HSAM. A condition enables a person to have an advanced autobiographical memory, which means these kinds of people have the capability to remember the greater part of personal events and experiences. Hyperthysemia is a neuropsychological condition known to be extremely rare and identified by primary characteristics of spending a lot of time thinking on personal memories and encompassing exceptional memory recall (Hussey & Donahue, 2013). This kind of syndrome drives numerous people to ask the same question that has been a challenge to answer, “What are the possible causes and experiences of the people believed to be hyperthymestic?” There is a great controversy regarding the dilemma and numerous neurologists have attempted to come up with a reasonable or logical explanation for it.
Some people consider Hyperthysemia syndrome as an abnormality while others take it to be a supernatural gift. This syndrome in the psychology of self allows particular individuals to remember every little detail of the experience that they had or even other people experience, quoting even the dates of the events. The stereotypes argue that this syndrome bears both advantages as well as disadvantages because individuals cannot control what they want to remember, meaning that they would remember even the bitter memories that they would not wish to recall. However, the fact remains that regardless of its advantages and disadvantages, finding its causes are still a big challenge because only a few people have the same syndrome, and thus there is not adequate evidence in the few victims. When the people with hyperthymesia are given certain dates of activities, they tend to frequently remember the specific day of the week that the day fell on as well as any other personal information that surrounded them on that date. In addition, they remember their teacher’s name, the way they used to dress, and the way a certain news anchor were dressed, on a particular day and a particular television station. If there were a historical event that individuals with hyperthymesia were attending and had interest, they would remember every detail of the event like the people who spoke, what they were wearing, among other details that normal people may not quite remember (Antérion, Mazzola & Laurent, 2008). The hyperthymestics have a share of negative experiences with people who think they are pretending or faulty. This kind of an individual ought to be handled with much care when identified because they may have a low self-esteem, because of criticism. This syndrome is considered as a disorder in the brain and so some more research would be helpful to provide medication since it bears shortcoming as well.
The people who have this syndrome also tend to bear poor photographic or eidetic and keep complaining of bearing problem with rote memory duties that are usually needed in schools. Moreover, they lack superior abilities or normal abilities at times to recall sequences of numbers. These kinds of people also are less productive or have trouble with skills that are memory building and rarely improve their rote memory, particularly when they are taught about tools and memory skills. Therefore, the input to the higher memory of individuals with hyperthymesia is solely based on the remembrance of the information that is particularly linked to them. Numerous people may consider this condition of superior autobiographical memory remembrance as a gift because it is extraordinary, while others considers it a curse because of the negative effects that it influences. For instance, individuals are incapable of stopping flows of memories if they have hyperthymesia. It is only in order that people be in a position to control their emotions, thoughts, as well as other things involved in their physical and mental system. However to people with hyperthymesia, this has been a great difficulty that causes them to dwell in the past and fail to focus on the things involved in the future (Romero-Munguía, 2011).
It is quite hard to locate or identify an individual that has this syndrome, as it requires keen observation by the people around them and later evaluated by psychologists. Certain conversations or dates concerning an experience or event tends to trigger one memory after the other until the whole event is reanalyzed, locking these people into the past. Similarly, if the things that happened involve sadness or pain, the individuals keep on hurting themselves because they cannot control their emotions. The experience where remembrance of one event leads to series of memories of how things exactly happened is called episodic memory and is extremely difficult to control and impossible to stop. Memory of details is a good thing where necessary especially in a scene that should not be forgettable or that needs witnessing like the crime scene. This is because complete disruption of the place, the dates, the figure of the assailants, the color of clothes that they wore, among others would be helpful to a criminal investigator seeking evidence and luckily found a hyperthymestic witness. At an early age, children may be thought as bright because of the remem...

Updated on January 26, 2024

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