Memory is the facility and process by which the human brain acquires, stores, and later retrieves information (Cherry 2018). The human brain has the ability to remember and recall information and past experiences by means of memory, substantially influencing human behavior (Mastin 2018). Neurologically, memory is a set of encoded neural connections in the brain, and such neurons fire in the brain when the human remembers the original information or experience (Mastin 2018).
Memory involves three major processes: encoding, storage, and retrieval (McLeod 2013).
During encoding, information perceived is changed into a usable form in the brain. Once such information is correctly encoded, it is then stored in the brain. Humans are generally not aware of this stored memory until it becomes necessary to use it. From there, the retrieval process allows humans to transfer those stored memories into their reactive awareness (McLeod 2013).
In addition, memory is divided into three types: sensory, short-term, and long-term (Cherry 2018). In sensory memory, the initial stage, information is stored for no longer than about a half a second to four seconds.
Short-term memory is information about which the human brain is currently conscious. Most information retained in short-term memory is kept for about 20 to 30 seconds and can be easily forgotten. The last stage is long-term memory, in which information is stored continuously and can be retained for an unlimited amount of time and retrieved when needed. Despite long-term memory, humans may, and often do, fail to remember such information (Cherry 2018).
This inability to remember information of the past is known as “forgetting” (Cherry 2018).
The reasons for forgetting include failure to store information, retrieval failure, interference, motivated forgetting, and the most critical reason–time (Cherry 2018). In failure to store information, the human brain struggles to store the information perceived in the first place (Cherry 2018). During retrieval failure, the human brain simply fails to retrieve the information that is stored and consequently, forgets past memories (Howard 2015). In interference, some memories interfere and are mixed in, confusing the human mind, making it unable to recall a specific memory (Cherry 2018). Further, in motivated forgetting, the human purposely tries to forget a certain memory, such as a traumatic event (Howard 2015). Lastly, the foremost reason for memory loss is time (Cherry 2018). Over time, as the brain ages and loses the connections of healthy neurons, memories become difficult to recall, and in some cases, memory-loss illnesses ensue (Cherry 2018).
One example of a memory-loss illness is Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most common cause of dementia (Alzheimer’s Association 2018). Dementia is the intense loss of neurons and cognitive functioning, resulting in the inability to recall memories and the serious interference of one’s daily life (NIH 2017). Alzheimer’s disease causes approximately 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases (Alzheimer’s Association 2018). Further, it is estimated that more than 115 million humans worldwide will succumb to dementia in 2050 (Alzheimer’s Association 2018). Such illnesses severely impact the quality of life for many people; and as a result, medical studies have sought to closely examine ways to mitigate and ultimately eradicate memory-loss illnesses.
One such study, conducted by Harvard Medical School, has found that exercise may in fact be one way to counteract and protect against memory-loss illness (Godman 2014). According to the study, exercise stimulates growth factors in the brain that release new and healthy neurons and also help other neurons survive, essentially strengthening the brain’s performance (Godman 2014).
Given the importance of memory retention, it is of the utmost significance to discover ways to improve the human memory. This experiment, therefore, will examine the effects, if any, of cardiovascular exercise on human memory retention.
To determine if exercise improves human memory retention, the following experiment will be conducted. First, twenty humans (Homo sapiens), from the ages of 10 to 18 and mixed of both males and females, will be gathered. On one day, each human will be given a ten minute memory test without any form of exercise being completed beforehand; this set is the control group. The memory test will examine their brain’s ability to encode, store, and retrieve information. Each subjects’ tests will then be graded.
Then, on another separate day, the same twenty humans will exercise for 30 minutes before they take the test; this set is the experimental group. They will perform a cardiovascular workout, including jumping jacks, jogging in place, squat jumps, jumping rope, and side to side leaps, all of which will ultimately cause their heart rate to increase, and likewise the brain to produce more blood vessels and neurons. Following the 30 minutes of exercise, the subjects will be given another ten minute memory test, one at the same level as the previous test. These tests will then also be graded to examine their brains’ ability to recall information after having exercised for 30 minutes. Lastly, both of the humans’ memory tests will be compared to discover if the results and grades of the tests support the hypothesis.
We hypothesize that cardiovascular exercise will improve human memory retention. This is likely because when the human body is exercising, the brain produces nerve protecting compounds, new blood vessels grow, and nerve cells multiply, thus strengthening interconnections and protecting the brain cells from potential damage that may cause memory loss (Peak Fitness 2013). As a result, we predict that such exercise by the human body will help to improve the human’s memory retention.
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