LP5: Assignment: Article Review Elise Ashley Leyva
I have chosen the article “A Normative Theory of Forgetting: Lessons from the Fruit Fly” I chose this article because the name was very interested to me, and I thought it would be very interesting. I also chose this article because it consisted of theories and experimental conditionings of why we forget thing. This caught my attention because for many, many years I have always wondered why I would forget things. This raised a concern and the urgency to learn this within this lesson because it would occur very frequently to me. As I was growing up, and even throughout my adult hood people close to me also noticed this, and I never know why, until reading more about this issue and how it affect other people as well and why it happens.
This article conducted of a conditioning experience that featured a Drosophila melanogaster also known as a fruit flies. Conducting this experience it revealed that the cause underlying forgetting is an active process which is modulate by the learning task and not by internal constraints of memory system. This fly has been the favorite organism for biological research, initially in the field of genetics and now for the fundamental problems in biology freedom the fields of ecology and neurobiology.
This was done by taking a group of fruit flies and placing them into a tube for conditioning, of course. This group was exposed to a specific odor and the exposer was paired with an reinforcer of sugar or electrical shock. Then they are removed from the conditioning tube and placed into the second, elongated tube for assessment. One side of the tube is baited with the conditioning odor and after some time passes, the fraction of flies are determined which exhibit the conditioning response by comparing the number of flies which are closer to the baited side of the tube with the number of flies closer to the un-baited side. This allowed to measure memory performance. To check for bias in the setup, one typically in addition uses a second odor as a control which was not paired with a reinforcer. So, this was done to prove that fruit flies have a dedicated mechanism to control forgetting and was convincingly demonstrated. The fruit fly, whose goal is to maximize reinforcement, chooses between the appetitive and aversive reaction depending on past experience.
I think this article and this perception was very meaningful. I think that the title will grabs the attention of one who is interested in learning why, forgetting occurs. This article is based on a theory and is compared to fruit flies and tells that if conditioning can be performed and successfully seen by a Drosophila, then it can be compare to our minds as well. Basically, it shows that interference is also a great play in the forgetting process of your brain or any capacity that has a limit. Our minds are limited to information and sometimes we must take ample time to remember something because interference has occurred and it will take time for our brain to recalculate all the information is has processed.
I think while reading the article the author could have explained the comparison of the flies to the human brain in the begging, I had to research the similarities in order to view the comparison. I also had to research for accurate the fruit flies would be to this research, I feel that as the author created the study the author should have gave a in depth review of how the information was supposed. After, my personal research was done, I was really able to rely on the experiment that was conducted because I had background as to what I was reading and I was able to rely on the information throughout the study and experiment.
I believe anyone, that comes across this may see this review to be very helpful, because I have summarized the article and I have added my own facts into the study for anyone to take advantage of. This will allow the reader to relax and concentrate on the experiment itself and will be able to take the time to process the information. You will be able to see the similarities of this conditioning experience to everyday conditioning as we all experience. I think that it is important to support your facts and research and I think that the reader will be able to benefit and help and task or assignment they will need with this information, I have provided.