The brain is the most complex part of the human body. The brain can be divided into three basic units, the forebrain, midbrain and the hindbrain. The hindbrain includes the upper part of the spinal cord, the brain stem and the ball of tissue is called the cerebellum. The hindbrain controls the body’s vital functions such as heart rate and respiration. The cerebellum coordinates movement and is involved in learned routine movements. The upmost part of the brain is the midbrain which controls some reflex actions and is part of the circuit involved in the control of eye movements and other voluntary movements. The forebrain is the largest and most developed part of the human brain and it consists mostly …show more content…
In 1972 psychologist Paul Eckman suggested that there are six basic emotions that is worldwide in humans: fear, disgust, anger, surprise, happiness and sadness. In 1999 the emotions list was greatly expanded, those emotions include embarrassment, excitement, contempt, shame, pride, satisfaction and amusement. People do not always have pure emotions and many of the time the emotions we feel are mixed emotions, for example if you are starting at a new school you might feel excited and nervous. These emotions might happen at the same time or one emotion will shortly follow the …show more content…
Memory is the term given to the structures and processes involved in the storage and subsequent retrieval of information. There are three basic stages of memory: encoding, storage and retrieval. The first stage is Memory Encoding. Memory Encoding allows the perceived item of interest to be converted into a construct that can be stored within the brain and then recalled later from short term or long term memory. There are three wats in which information can be encoded: visual, acoustic and semantic. The second stage is Memory Storage. In the 1950’s and 1960’s Karl Lashley and Wilder Penfield looked in to long term memories and where they are stored. Long term memories are not stored in just one part of the brain but are widely distributed throughout the cortex. Long term memories are stored throughout the brain as groups of neurons are cells within the nervous system that transmit information to other nerve cells, muscles or gland cells. Most neurons gave a cell body, an axon and dendrites. Information can only be stored for a brief duration in short term memory which seems to be between 15 and 30 seconds, unlike long term memory that last a lifetime. The third stage is Memory Retrieval; this refers to reaching information out of the storage. Short term memory is stored and retrieved sequentially. Long term memory is stored and