Research Article

After I handed in my application they sent me my research assignment from the university. If I finish that satisfactorily then I should be accepted. The research assignment is based on an article called ‘Visceral Drives in Retrospect’ by Loran F. Nordgren, Joop van der Pligt, and Frenk van Hurreveld. It’s actually a really interesting article that I – funnily enough – already read about six months ago.

The research shows that our memories are mood dependent. If we feel different from the time when a memory was stored then we attribute our actions to different things. So, for example, if we were really angry when we hit somebody but now we’re much calmer while we remember we’re bound to think that we hit that person for a very logical reason, rather than an emotional one.

This fits right in with research that has been done into memory storage and memory recall, wherein it was discovered that our memories are often false and change over time. I’ve spoken about that very frequently over the last year or so, with very good reason. After all, if we believe that our memories are trustworthy when they are not, then that is bound to lead to a great deal of conflict, while if we’re all aware that we can’t trust our own memories very far, then we should be able to avoid confrontations with our loved ones.

I know I avoid quite a bit of conflict by saying ‘I’m not quite sure how it went, maybe it went like you said’. Of course, I have my own version of events in my own head, but who is to say whose memories are to be trusted? Maybe he’s right, maybe I’m right, maybe neither of us are; what’s the use in getting into a fight over it? After all, nearly ever conversation that is longer than five minutes has at least one false memory in it (yes, even for you. I’ve found I’ve got much further in life since I’ve started accepting my own limitations. If I understand what I – and others – can and cannot do, then I can play on my strengths and cover for my weaknesses.)

Anyway, back to the essay. So I have two weeks to finish writing a two page response (well four double spaced, but whatever) and it should all go well except for one little problem, they want me to discuss the methodology – which is academic speak for the mathematics used to analyse the statistics. The problem is I’ve well and truly lost all my statistical analysis skills. I’ve got a book on statistical analysis that I’ve nicked from my girlfriend and hopefully that will be some use, but that does worry me.

But then I always seem to be worried about something and it generally seems to end up going alright, so I’ll just do my best and hope that that is good enough.