Momento is a movie about a man, Leonard Shelby, with anterograde amnesia, severe loss of the ability to form new episodic and semantic memories. These memories are formed and retained in the hippocampus and when there is an injury to this part of your brain it can cause short-term memory loss. Leonard sustained short-term memory loss when he was hit over the head and knocked out after witnessing the rape and murder of his wife.
Throughout the remainder of the movie we see snippets of actual time; Leonard telling his story about Sammy Jenkins, a man he was investigating while working for an insurance company, who’s injury Leonard’s had similarities to, and who had inadvertently helped him learn to cope with his own injury; and reverse time, …show more content…
It brings into account the coping mechanisms one could use in learning to work with a condition such as this. Leonard for instance uses a unique system of note and picture taking to help him remember what he had learned the prior day. Like someone with actual short-term memory loss, it depicts someone who has to focus on a task or situation in order to remember it long enough to be able to make the necessary important notes.
Like others with this type of injury, Leonard can remember everything about his life up to the injury, but everything after is non-existent, as he can’t seem to make new memories. As he stated, “it’s like waking, like you just woke up” (Momento). In Learning and Memory, Henry Molaison, or H.M. as the psychology world knew him, also knew of his condition and the only way he could describe it was that it seemed like he was waking up everyday from a dream but couldn’t remember any of it (p.260). H.M. allowed himself to be research by the psychology world in hopes to find out the cause of short-term memory …show more content…
As long as they focus on a task they will do it well, however, as soon as their attention is turned to something else their focus is lost along with any memory of what they had been doing (Gluck.M, Mercado, E., & Myers, C., p.260). In Momento, Leonard attempted to do this after the women he thought was an ally began telling him how she was using him. After she left he attempted to quickly find a pen, all the while trying to stay focused so that he could write himself notes regarding the instance. Unfortunately his focus was lost when she slammed her car door and his memory of what had happened was lost as well, going back to believing she was an ally.
During the parts of the movie that were in actual time Leonard had mentioned that he had asked for tests to be done on Sammy to see if he could be conditioned even though he wasn’t capable of making new memories. In this test Sammy had to pick up three objects one of which was electrified. The idea was that after so many tests Sammy should have been conditioned as to not pick up the electrified object. However, that never happened. Sammy was unable to perform this task. According to Gluck, et al., “sheer repetition of either verbal or visual information isn’t enough to ensure its being remembered” (p.
Throughout the remainder of the movie we see snippets of actual time; Leonard telling his story about Sammy Jenkins, a man he was investigating while working for an insurance company, who’s injury Leonard’s had similarities to, and who had inadvertently helped him learn to cope with his own injury; and reverse time, …show more content…
It brings into account the coping mechanisms one could use in learning to work with a condition such as this. Leonard for instance uses a unique system of note and picture taking to help him remember what he had learned the prior day. Like someone with actual short-term memory loss, it depicts someone who has to focus on a task or situation in order to remember it long enough to be able to make the necessary important notes.
Like others with this type of injury, Leonard can remember everything about his life up to the injury, but everything after is non-existent, as he can’t seem to make new memories. As he stated, “it’s like waking, like you just woke up” (Momento). In Learning and Memory, Henry Molaison, or H.M. as the psychology world knew him, also knew of his condition and the only way he could describe it was that it seemed like he was waking up everyday from a dream but couldn’t remember any of it (p.260). H.M. allowed himself to be research by the psychology world in hopes to find out the cause of short-term memory …show more content…
As long as they focus on a task they will do it well, however, as soon as their attention is turned to something else their focus is lost along with any memory of what they had been doing (Gluck.M, Mercado, E., & Myers, C., p.260). In Momento, Leonard attempted to do this after the women he thought was an ally began telling him how she was using him. After she left he attempted to quickly find a pen, all the while trying to stay focused so that he could write himself notes regarding the instance. Unfortunately his focus was lost when she slammed her car door and his memory of what had happened was lost as well, going back to believing she was an ally.
During the parts of the movie that were in actual time Leonard had mentioned that he had asked for tests to be done on Sammy to see if he could be conditioned even though he wasn’t capable of making new memories. In this test Sammy had to pick up three objects one of which was electrified. The idea was that after so many tests Sammy should have been conditioned as to not pick up the electrified object. However, that never happened. Sammy was unable to perform this task. According to Gluck, et al., “sheer repetition of either verbal or visual information isn’t enough to ensure its being remembered” (p.