The Power of the Human Mind

The Power of the Human Mind

The human mind acts as the central point of processing information. The human mind is divided into three interconnected parts, which include the cerebrum, cerebellum, and the brain stem. The mind is the root of human intelligence; humans experience emotions and thoughts through their brain, then process daily basis information from the senses and store the data as a memory. Memory is a mind- comprehensive process that requires different parts of the brain to work in conjunction to take place. The cerebellum part of the brain plays a critical role in the processing of procedural memories. The two main types of memories include short term and long term memories, which are encoded and stored in different parts of the human mind. The memory processing consists of the encoding stage, storage, and retrieval stage.

The human mind stores it stores all the experiences of the body, but the duration of the storage differs from one memory to another. According to brain experts, the mind stores memories in three ways, which is first in the sensory stage, the short term memory, then the long term memory(Postle 2016). The steps act as a filter of the necessary memory to be maintained in the human brain. The creation of a mind starts with its perception, and the memory information is registered in the sensory memory stage, which only lasts for brief seconds.

The short term memory is the ability to store a limited amount of information by the human mind is a readily active state for a short period. Different from the sensory memory, the short term memory has the ability of temporary storage of short memories (Cowan 2017). The duration of storage relies on an individual’s rehearsal efforts. The short term memory has low storage capacity, which only allows temporary recall of information. However, the retrieval ability of short term memories can be improved through memory retention techniques such as chunking. The short term memory is referred to as a working memory due to its active state, and the retention is also said to be affected by an individual environment. The mind front part, which includes the central executive and the prefrontal cortex, plays a significant role in the working memory retention ability. The two serve as a store for the information briefly where the short term memories are held for necessary reasoning by the brain.

The central executive regulates two neural loops, which generally facilitates the visualizing of store information. One human mindactivates the parts near the visual cortex of the mind and serves a visual scratchpad, and the other loop activates the Broca parts of the brain and acts as an inner voice that keeps on repeating the words to be retained in the mind. The attributes of the information processed can also affect the retention capacity of the short term memory — short term memories decay in  10-15 seconds, which afterward they are displaced by newly processed information. The transfer of memories from short term to long term involves encoding and consolidation of data. The type of memories to be transferred to the long term stage depends on the duration they have been held in the short term.

The long term memory is an almost permanent stage of memory storage, and it has an infinite storage capacity that can hold information indefinitely. The long term memories are categorized into three types, which include explicit memories, semantic memories, and episodic memories. The explicit memories include facts, events, and concepts information, which requires conscious recall of the memory. The memories are referred to as explicit due to the detailed form of its storage and retrieval. The explicit memory is further divided into semantic and episodic. The semantic memory entails the factual information processed by the brain. The memory is about the knowledge we gain from schools, books, and concepts. People use the sematic memory information in tests and scenarios which require the extensive exercise of intelligence (Furbach & Schon 2018). The semantic memory has another of data known as script. The script is the generated norms registered in the human mind like going to school, taking notes, going for lunch breaks when need to, and getting back home.

Episodic memory involves processed information on specific situations in an individual’s life. The knowledge a person has on particular occurrences or events, the way it occurred, why it happened, when, and where it took place. The episodic memory is closely related to explicit memory since it also describes the information about specific events. The other type of long term memory is referred to as implicit memory, which is unconscious memory entailing procedures of completing actions. The memory involves the frequent practice of a skill which gets the information strongly retained and result in the unconscious performance of the skill. The memory is automatically translated into action without conscious awareness. An example of implicit memory includes tying a tie, shoe lances, and brushing teeth, among others. Attention is an essential aspect of a memory capture.