Analyzing Michael's 'Working Memory'

Working Memory Michael, a 52-year-old doctor, is worried about memory problems he has had recently. His marriage is on the edge of divorce due his wife being upset about his long work hours. He states that his wife has started complaining that he has become very forgetful. When asked to give examples, he stated that his wife asked him to pick up food at the grocery store and after repeating the short shopping list back to his wife, not only did Michael forget the items, he forgot to stop at the market at all. Michael reports that he has been very anxious lately about his work at the hospital due to many changes that will take place and he is fearful of losing his job and not being able to start his own private practice at his …show more content…
When directed attention happens, Michael’s attention is deliberately focused on the present stimuli or inner thoughts; this would be the thought of needing to complete the credits for his job. Usually, few, if any, distractions exist, and the attention is able to facilitate the creation of new concepts and memories. The direction can originate from an inner need. This is why Michael was able to remember some of the new information immediately after studying, but he found that he could just remember the main concepts, not the details. However, with flowing consciousness is the opposite of directed attention. It is represented by a more dreamlike attention that is focused more on inward thoughts. This would be an example of Michael’s inward thoughts being more concentrated on anxiety concerning work at the hospital, the many changes that are going to be made in his department, the fear of losing his job and not being able to start his own private practice at his age and his wife being upset that he is working more hours and has threatened him with divorce. Michael’s brain uses flowing consciousness as a means of taking a break from concentrated attention. The purpose of flowing consciousness is to allow information gathered and processed during directed attention …show more content…
Michael can begin with optimal memory strategies. By contextualizing information so that he is more interested in how theories relate to a specific scenario and retain the information longer in his working memory. This process will help Michael with his continuing education classes. Michael will be able to recall more information from reading his class information because memorization does not facilitate understanding. There is a memory exercise that Michael can complete to also help with his memory. This exercise will need the help of his friend or his wife. He can compile a list of words, set an alarm for ten seconds and have his wife time him for ten seconds as he read all of the words and try to memorize them. After he has done that he will need to talk with his wife, maybe move around the house for five minutes and then return to his seat and write out as many of the words that he can recall. This will cause his STM to contain the stimuli message sent from his sensory system that is processed in the sensory cortices and then in the hippocampus. Attention is required for the brain to work with the new information. When Michael’s memory system is aware of the new information, it repeats it continuously until there is time to recall and incorporate the information from LTM. When Michael’s wife sent him to the grocery store with a