Miah Week 10 - Monkey See, Monkey Do (I Mean That Literally)

 Monkey See, Monkey Do (I Mean That Literally)

         There are three main stages to memorization: Encoding, storage, and retrieval.

        No monkeys yet, but stay with me here.

        When you learn something, the information enters your brain at the encoding stage. It's stored with the most barebones effort it can get away with until it's either lost as short term or retained as long term. If you focus more on it, whether on purpose or by chance, it enters your memory storage. Now you've officially learned something in theory. Applying it practically is the final stage: retrieval, which is self-explanatory. You've retrieved the process you learned, and can now apply it.

        This is the simplest explanation for memory I can give without going into variants with observational learning and the like. Be grateful that I didn't try to lure you in with jokes, and instead went directly to the definition that either got you to click off or keep reading up until this sentence. If you did the latter, congrats! Hopefully you're interested in what I'm about to say next, otherwise you counteracted the shortened attention span of a high schooler for nothing.

        This blog post is a little different than my usual ones, if you hadn't noticed. I'm going to be teaching you something that fascinates me instead of being a little hater for a grade. This time, we're looking into my favorite part of the human brain: mirror neurons.

        Mirror neurons are most noticeably observed with monkeys and peanuts. Monkey See will watch Monkey Do shell a peanut. Monkey See has never even fathomed this as a concept before, but after watching Monkey Do successfully shell the peanut, can now get their own peanut and do the same. Their mirror neurons were firing.

        Here's another example. Human See is watching a race to support Human Do. When Human Do gets a burst of speed and gains an advantage, Human See's heart rate speeds up. Their mirror neurons were firing.

        Do you get it? Mirror neurons go off when we see what other people do. You encode, store, and retrieve. It's a learning response; and, by extension, an empathy response. Watching someone cry could make you feel sad on their behalf. Witnessing your friend get angry at another person can incite the same response on your end. Mirror neurons, at their very core, are brain cells that have an equal response to watching someone perform an action versus performing the action yourself.

        Normally, I would finish this off with an unbacked and unresearched theory for comedic effect and mild shock value. If you've read any of my previous blogs that have to do with education, it's basically expected of me. Unfortunately, I don't have anything for you; no graphs, no universal experiences, and no Pepe Silvia-style red string conspiracy board on mirror neurons.

        That comes in the next blog post, when I show you my Pepe Silvia-style red string conspiracy board on mirror neurons. It's a work in progress. You just can't rush a descent into madness and get the same effect these days.

        What's your most vivid experience with your own mirror neurons?