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  • Essay / Memory in the Film 50 First Dates

    Short term memory is when information recognized from sensory memory enters consciousness, if repeated and coded correctly the information then passes to memory long term; otherwise, the memories will be lost. In the movie 50 First Dates, a lot is said about memory loss. Some of them are true and some of them are not. A situation is presented in which a lady named Lucy, played by Drew Barrymore, suffered a terrible accident causing her to lose her memory. Then a man named Henry, played by Adam Sandler, falls in love with her and has to find a way to deal with his condition so he can be with her. Due to the interesting plot, it can be easy to forget the accuracy of the statements made on memory. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay To begin, the doctor states that Lucy has Goldfields syndrome, which is incorrect. The doctor further explains that this syndrome is the scar tissue that helps convert short-term memory into long-term memory while sleeping. In other words, she doesn't encode, meaning that while she sleeps, she is unable to transfer information from one memory stage to another. Although this statement is true, instead of being called Goldfields syndrome, it is actually anterograde amnesia. Anterograde amnesia means that one is unable to form long-term memories; however, we still have semantic memories which are factual knowledge like knowledge of the president. Although they may still retain their semantic memories, they could potentially lose their episodic memories which are personal experiences such as prom. Of course, every patient is different and cases vary depending on the extent of the damage and where it is located. In Lucy's case, her temporal lobe was damaged in her car accident. What interests me is that this lobe is involved in implicit memory and in the film it seems that its consciousness is still functioning. For example, she is still able to drive, paint, and build waffle houses; this could also be known as procedural memory. Continuing, during the scene where the doctor explains his condition, Lucy laughs at one of his remarks. The doctor responds and says, "as you can see, your sense of humor is still intact and it's here," then goes on to say, "beautiful tonsil." The amygdala has nothing to do with a sense of humor, but rather two lima bean-sized neuronal clusters that enable aggression and fear. Additionally, throughout the film there are many more details that are left unsaid. For example, Lucy does not have the ability to retrieve information. It cannot bring stored information from long-term memory to the conscious level of short-term memory; that's why she was encouraged to write a journal so she could remember what she did the day before. Additionally, its storage memory remains the same. She remembers that she is an art teacher, where she lives, who her family is, and how to conduct other activities. On top of that, the reminder was posted. This is a reproduction of information requiring no retrieval cues. Lucy shows that she can remember information before the accident, but is unable to remember any new information. Additionally, there is another character in the film who suffers from memory loss and her condition is much worse than Lucy's. “Ten Second Tom” is presented to Lucy for him.