Emotional Memory Essay Example for Free

Emotional Memory Essay Emotional memory pertains to an individual’s recollection of incidents that have occurred in the past. The mechanism behind such strong retention is mainly based on the emotions that are associated with that particular event, resulting in a increased level of attention that facilitates encoding of the event in the memory of an individual. Emotional memory is also involved in ruminations of the occurrence, regardless of the length of time that has already passed away since the actual event. This kind of memory can be distinguished from other neurobiological concepts of memory because its retention is very strong due to the influence of emotions, which technically magnifies details of the incident. Research has shown that emotional memory is imprinted in the cortical region of the brain. This description is supported by observations that several neural activities occur in the cortex, thus facilitating memory retention. Several studies have indicated that emotional memory involves two major processes, namely encoding and post-encoding. The first process of encoding involves the heightened level of attention of an individual during the actual event, while post-encoding pertains to the consolidation of the details of the event after the actual incident, coupled with enhancement that is triggered by the emotions that were set off at that time. One prime example of an emotional memory is the vivid recall of an accident that is associated with physical injury and blood. Regardless of the length of time that the incident has occurred, the individual who was involved in the accident is still capable of remembering the accident even after several years. One complication of emotional memory is that an individual finds it difficult to dissociate his emotions with regards to a particular incident. It is thus extremely hard for an individual to go back to the site of an accident if this person almost died at that time. It has been suggested that evolution also plays a role in emotional memory, wherein the brain of human beings has acquired the capacity to retain details of an event in order to survive that particular incident. It may thus be possible that through fear, early primates and other higher mammals may have learned to stay away from predators and other harmful environmental components in order to survive in the wild. These species may have adapted such modes of memory by being subjected to extreme discomfort or pain that is related to incidents such as toxin exposure or predation and thus their perception for harmful conditions may have been imprinted in their brains and possibly passed on to their offspring. The exact mechanism behind the retrieval of memories associated with a particular incident based on emotional settings still remains elusive up to this date. The unique feature of storage for a prolonged period of time further complicates the pathway and several analysts have attempted to address this question. Neurobiologists have suggested that emotional memory may be act as a complete process unless an individual is able to retrieve the information associated with a specific incident in the past. Storage of information, or encoding, is simply one component of the entire emotional memory pathway yet the retrieval of specific information is essential in determining that the entire process has been completed. It has also been suggested that emotional memory is easier to access over the neutral events, and this is also partly due to the role of amygdala, which influences how the hippocampus functions at such events. In addition to the emotional influence, sleep also sways the brain to remember specific incidents, wherein the amount of sleep can result in a positive or negative condition for memory. According to Sterpenic et al. (2007), memory is influenced by sleep through the imposition of neural correlates. Through the application of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a comparison of neural connections was examined among subjects who were able to sleep for a sufficient amount of time and those who were deprived of sleep. The investigation was designed towards a stage wherein the subjects were allowed to undergo post-encoding, which is one of the two stages of emotional memory. The investigation showed that subjects who received enough hours of sleep had the ability to remember the positive events that occurred. On the other hand, an interesting observation came from those subjects who were subjected to a particular negative event. They observed that regardless of sufficiency or lack of sleep, the subject participant was able to retain the details of the negative event, most probably through the characteristic emotion that was generated from the negative stimuli. Another observation gathered by neurobiologists regarding emotional memory was that several regions of the brain were responsible in retaining such details and emotions. The two major brains areas involved in emotional memory were the hippocampus and the cortex. Specific regions of the cortex that were responsible for emotional memory included the prefrontal cortex, which is also involved in criminality. It seems that negative emotions, such as that involved in emotional memory, are largely stored in this region of the brain. Moreover, fMRI scanning showed a functional connection between these two regions of the brain and the combinatorial effect of these regions was magnified when the incident is featured with negative stimuli or emotions. It is interesting to know that sleep may also have a selective effect on the memory of an individual. The amygdala was observed to only stimulate the hippocampus for encoding when a negative event has occurred and this happens with or without sleep. On the other hand, a happy incident will only be stored in the hippocampus if an individual receives enough sleep. Such selective storage of details may be largely influenced by emotions during that particular event, and not simply by the amount of time that an individual was able to sleep. Such kinds of research investigations are thus important in the providing a better understanding of how emotions influence an individual’s memory and ultimately, one’s mental condition. It has also been shown that emotions play a major role in the storage of details in the brain. In an investigation that involved manipulation of the context of emotion of subject participants, the activity of the neural networks in the brain was examined. A specific memory tested also allowed the comparison of retrieval capacities of the brain and the research conducted by Smith et al. (2005) showed that the presence of emotions increased the likelihood that an individual will retain the details of the incident. The emotional memory tested in this study showed that the actual area of brain involved in this mechanism is the left side of the amygdala, as well as the left side of the frontotemporal region of the cortex. The study also showed that the right side of the amydala and the frontotemporal cortex was not capable enough of storing details of a specific incident, regardless of its coupling to emotions. It is thus possible that when an individual has damaged the left side of his brain, then it is impossible for him to recall any other details of his past. It should also be understood that cognition is mainly based on memory as well as emotion, yet for several yesterday there were not attempts performed into looking into the finer details of the pathway. In addition, there were also only a few reported regarding the interaction of the amygdala and the cortex and on how these two regions responded to each other’s messages. The advent of high definition imaging technologies such as the magnetic resonance imaging allowed the visualization of internal regions of the brain that were perceived to be unreachable by an other analytical means. References Smith, A. P. , Henson, R. N. , Rugg, M. D. and Dolan, R. J. (2005). Modulation of retrieval processing reflects accuracy of emotional source memory. Learning and Memory, 12, 472–479. Sterpenich, V. , Albouy, G. , Boly, M. , Vandewalle, G. , Darsaud, A. , Balteau, E. , Dang-Vu, T. T. , Desseilles. M. , D’Argembeau, A. , Gais, S. , Rauchs, G. , Schabus, M. , Degueldre, C. , Luxen, A. , Collette, F. , Maquet, P. (2007). Sleep-related hippocampo-cortical interplay during emotional memory recollection. PloS Bi

Conditional and Iterative Data Types :: Essays Papers

Conditional and Iterative Data Types Conditional and Iterative A programming language cannot be a programming language with out its conditional and iterative structures. Programming languages are built to accomplish the task of controlling computer input and output. A programmer must use every tool available to complete his/her given tasks, and conditional as well as iterative statements are the most basic items of programming which must be mastered. Many different programming languages can demonstrate conditional and iterative statements including C++, Java, Pascal, Qbasic, COBOL, and Scheme. Most of these languages implement conditional and iterative statements in a similar fashion; however, there are a few differences. The conditional structure is easy to understand and self-defining. The whole statement is base on a condition and its veracity. When the statement or "test" is found to be true, a statement is executed, and if it is false, another test is given or the program continues to the next block. Conditional structures include the simple, two-alternative, multi-alternative, and non-deterministic conditional. The simple conditional is the easiest to understand being the IF-THEN statement. if *Boolean expression* then *block of statements* IF a condition is met THEN execute a statement. The two-alternative conditional or IF-ELSE is also easy to understand. if *Boolean expression* then *block of statements* else *block of statements* IF a condition is met execute a statement; ELSE the condition was not met so execute a different statement. The multi-alternative conditional is very close to the two-alternative conditional. if *condition-1* then *statement-block-1* elseif *condition-2* then *statement-block-2* †¦ elseif *condition-n* then *statement-block-n* [else *statement-block-(n+1)*] end if The IF question is asked about a statement, and if it is not true, the next statement is examined. If statement number two is not true, the next statement is examined; then the next statement is examined and so forth until a condition is met, and the control is carried out of the multi-alternative conditional. The non-deterministic conditional is similar to the multi-alternative conditional, because it has multiple conditionals. if *condition-1*  *statement-sequence-1* when *condition-2*  *statement-sequence-2* †¦ when *condition-n*  *statement-sequence-n* end if The reason multi-alternative and non-deterministic conditionals are different, stems from the release of program's control or flow. The non-deterministic conditional tests each statement to see if its condition is met; whereas the multi-alternative conditional only tests statements until one of the conditions is met. After one of the conditions is met, the multi-alternative conditional releases the program control and fails to check anymore statements.

Creative Retention Strategies That Are Used by Organization Today

With the fast changing economic & market conditions, companies are facing very high pressure to perform which require them to have the best people to work with, to retain their experience minds; they want to be the most preferred employer in the eyes of their prospects (future employee). To retain their best talent companies are adopting various creative strategies. According to DQ-IDC recent survey on the reasons that make people change the job, the most important reason was salary & compensation but apart from that Career Development, Location, Flexibility of office hours, Job Security, Organization Culture & Welfare policies emerged as the main reason of changing job. There is not much change on the attrition front we have seen even after following many strategies; the biggest attrition rate is still in IT industry which is 18%, followed by banking & financial companies. The average retention rate has dropped from 82% in 2007 to 79% in 2008. Now when we look what companies are doing to retain their employees, we can find many interesting thing. Some of the creative retention strategies/practices followed by companies are 1. Flexi timing: – Many Companies are following this technique like Aditi technologies, Sap Labs etc. It seems these companies have got the right software of flexible timing. 2. Fun @ Work:- Many companies have made fun an integral part of the working & their companies values, some of them have linked the fun with their performance appraisal system like Wipro BPO, Acclairis Business solution pvt. Ltd., VCustomer Corp. etc. 3. Training & Development opportunity: – Many companies have understood that their people are the most important assets that’s why they want a continuous up gradation of their employee through short term training & development programmes. 4. Respect Your Employee: – When we look at the recent survey on â€Å"Employee retention† we can find respect & recognition at the work place has emerged as the one of the main reason of changing job. Almost every company is trying hard to pay due respect to their employee by many programme. On the spot award, Self Appraisal, Foreign trips, â€Å"Get well soon† Flower bouquets for ill employee or family members are such programmes to show the respect towards the employees. 5. Empower Your employee: – It is not a matter of surprise that Marriott Hotel India every employee is called â€Å"Associates† and the â€Å"Sir† culture is absent there, Associates are empowered enough to take decision, the same way RMSI who have freed his employee to calculate their own performance bonus, at any time on the internet. 6. Bridge the Gap:- Programmes such as â€Å"Coffee with GM† in Marriott Hotel, â€Å"Good Morning Qualcomm† in Qualcomm, Breakfast meeting by CEO etc Are tool to improve the communication & fill the communication gap between Manager & their subordinate & also to bring fairness in the system. 7. Work with Friends: – Many companies like Perot System hires 40% of the employee through employee referral channel to create a friendly college like environment & to bring a sense of belongingness among the employee. 8. Best Reward System:- Many organization started self chosen reward system in which an employee could decide his/her own target & reward, organization are adopting 3600 performance appraisal system to bring the fairness in appraisal system. Apart from above example I have seen many interesting example like Mind Tree consulting’s â€Å"Baby’s Day Out† programmes, Antakshri programme, Departmental Day Outs, Annual Spring party, Sabbatical for social services, Cadbury day, Dhoom machale etc. are some example followed in different organization to control the attrition. After looking all the above aspects in nut shell companies should keep in mind the most widely accepted HR definition which is the best mantra to retain the employee & that is—- â€Å"The genuine concern of people†.

An Anthropological View On Human Nature - 997 Words

From an anthropological view, we were evolved from a violent context. The strongest and most violent survived and were able to produce offspring. This should tell us a little bit about who we are as humans. We were born and breath in a violent nature. To kill or to be killed was the lineage’s method of survival for millions of years. Expecting that to completely change in the matter of a few thousand years is impractical. Sullivan was talking about how it was and still is â€Å"human nature† for us to act and react the way we do. It is not futile to make laws against such things, because we are incredibly intelligent creatures and the majority of us would respect such laws. We all have the tendency to react in a violent matter, but we are more than intelligent enough to know that killing each other is not good for our health. The best method of survival is not to kill your enemy, it is to not threaten them in the first place. 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