CLASSMATE: JVW

There are two key commonly known factors which affect memory are motivation and attention. Motivation affects memory recall in the sense that when an individual is given and incentive to recall given information, he/she will recall that information more readily and unmistakably than in the case when there is no incentive. Attention is another factor that has been found to profoundly affect memory recall. Research has demonstrated that this factor mostly affects recall during the encoding stage. Message encoding is weakened when the person receiving the message is focusing attention on another task. Thus, it will be hard for the individual to recall the information he/she was receiving when he/she was focused on another task.

Factors contributing to disruption of memory can be easily seen in a client seeking counselling. A client who seems to remember incentivized things as opposed to those without incentives are likely to suffer from memory disruption. The factor at play in such a case is motivation. A client who seem not to recall things which have been discussed during a therapy session is likely to be suffering from memory disruption caused by lack of attention. Clients with memory disruption can be helped by encouraging them to concentrate and keep focus on the main source of information avoid disruptions as much as possible. Clients with the problem of having to be motivated so as to remember given information can be helped by removing the motivator and encouraging them to recall without having to be given incentives. This will help them develop a habit of remembering information even when they do not expect to be rewarded. Such a client should be helped by making sure that the reward factor is absent because this is what makes their memory biased and only remembering things for which they are rewarded and forgetting everything else.

Zizek, B., Garz, D., & Nowak, E. (2015). Kohlberg Revisited. Berlin, Germany: Springer.

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