Memory - how is it affected by gender and culture

Gender Differences

Men and women process things in different ways with different parts of their brains. it seems that testosterone and estrogen have different effects on how the brain cells turn out and how they function. There is also difference in neurons bethween men and women. This could explain why women have worse cases of dementia and Alzheimers. different perspectives and interests that those things which are the focus of a particular gender also impact how memory is used.

Psychologists Agneta Herlitz and Jenny Rehnman in Stockholm did a research about gender difference and effects on the memory. They found out that women have better episodic memory, a type of long-term memory based on personal experiences. Women also excelled in verbal episodic memory tasks. Men on the other hand were better at remembering symbolic, non-linguistic information, known as visuospatial processing. Women curenlty hold an advantage in episodic memory. 

Culture Differences

The culture that we grow up with determines our view on things. Western cultures tend to focus on objects and categories, ­whereas people from Eastern cultures tend to focus more on contextual details and similarities and sort by functional relationships. Our parents and our surrounding also plays a big role on our memory. The way family comunicates and talks to as, repeats certain events. The more is our memory focused on family events rather than on indivudual memories. The earliest memory a person can have can be 2,5years (tribes), 3years(USA) or 4years(Korea).

Alzheimer's Disease: The Forgetting

1. Why do you think Alzheimer's disease is so much more common now than it was in the past?
Countries are more developed nowadays than they were before and have a large proportion of elderly people. Some researches show that Alzheimer's is more common for people who live in urban area's.

2. How is Alzheimer's an economic issue?
The high cost of health care for the patients and their inability to care for themselves effects family members who take care of them. The costs of nursing home and health care for the patients often exceeds the resources of the individuals.

3. Explain how Alzheimer's disease was "discovered".
 it was described before, but t was not until 1906 that a German physician, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, specifically identified a collection of brain cell abnormalities as a disease. One of his patients died after years of severe memory problems, confusion and difficulty understanding questions. he later on performed an autopsy. he doctor noted dense deposits surrounding the nerve cells. 

4. Explain the concept that Alzheimer's robs you of your identity.
People start to forget where did they put things and what were they supposed to do. They have trouble with their memories, the recognition of faces. Often they don't recognize family members. One second everything is perfectly normal and the next one they act mean and violent to the persons they were talking to before. As the time goes on it becomes more severe and the change in their behaviour happens often.

5. Describe the process that Alzheimer's disease follows.
The disease is divided into 4 stages :

Pre-dementia: Can be easily mistaken for aging or stress.
Early: Vocabulary is shrinking and word fluency decreased.
Moderate: Behavioural and neuropsychiatric changes become more prevalent.
Advanced: The person is completely dependent on caregivers, loss of speech.