The memoir Educated is written by Tara Westover and is based on her memories of her past. She has stated in some parts of her memoir that the memory of the past event could not be true or could possibly be true. Some of these memories that Westover stated in her memoir are very far back memories of when she was young. So that means having memories from that time could be hard to remember. Westover had remembered a lot of details that happened in her life and so she has a great memory but some of it could be a false memory. 

The purpose of my claim was to find out how Westover could remember a lot of things from her childhood up to her teens. I assume that some of her memories were false memory because most people can’t just know in detail what happened to them when they were young. But Westover might of put the pieces of her memory together and was able to write about it for her memoir. Another purpose of my claim was the question that I had in mind. The question was “How does Westover remember a lot of details when she was young”. I plan on answering my question by using the scholarly articles about memory that was given to help answer my question.

There are four scholarly articles about memory that I am going to use to answer my question. Some of the articles talk about false memory and about how we remember things. There are also articles that talk about experiments like “The role of visual imagery in autobiographical memory”. In the article, they did three experiments but they mostly just examined memory. Overall, I want to find my answer from the four articles about Westover being able to remember things clearly.

By using the articles I will make a bibliography to help me understand the article more. After citing an article I will write a paragraph about the article. Then write a second paragraph about how the source is useful. From my bibliography, a larger project that might develop would be a research essay. The project would most likely be for a psychology class since the topic is about the brain and memory.  

Annotated Bibliography

Bruer, K. C., Price, H. L., Harvey, M. B., & Adams, A. S. (2017). Judicial discussion of eyewitness identification evidence. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 49(4), 209-220. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cbs0000084 

The article “Judicial discussion of eyewitness identification evidence” is about people that have been an eyewitness of a criminal. Then when the eyewitness tells the police how the criminal looks like they wouldn’t exactly remember how the person looks like. The reason why is because the criminal is a stranger to them and we tend to see faces every day. 

The article can be helpful by using the information about the eyewitness not being able to completely remember the face of the criminal. Also that we see faces every day so it would be hard to remember the face of the criminal.  

Greenberg, D. L., & Knowlton, B. J. (2014). The role of visual imagery in autobiographical memory. Memory & Cognition, 42(6), 922-34. Retrieved from https://login.proxy032.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1550519122?accountid=9935 

The article “The role of visual imagery in autobiographical memory” is about an experiment that they conducted about autobiographical memory. The first experiment was an examination of the relationship between the “properties of autobiographical memory and several measures of visual imagery ability”(2014). In the second experiment, they then examined “the autobiographical memories of people with different cognitive styles-namely”(2014). Then lastly the third experiment was an examination of “the memories of individuals who had a congenital absence of visual imagery”(2014). 

This article can be helpful by using the information from the article about the results of the experiments. The results of the experiments were that there wasn’t any positive realtionship between imagery ability and autobiographical memory, “visual imagery was correlated with the feelings that they were reliving their memories and auditory imagery played a greater role in verbalizers”(2014) and that they had a deficit of auditory imagery. 

Jablonka, E. (2017). Collective narratives, false memories, and the origins of autobiographical memory. Biology & Philosophy, 32(6), 839-853. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10539-017-9593-z 

The article “Collective narratives, false memories, and the origins of autobiographical memory” is about autobiographical memory has “evolved culturally as a response to the problems of false memory and deliberate deceit that were introduced by that technology”(2017). The article was also about small groups can correct their own memory defects. But when the groups grew it “became more socially differentiated, and movement between groups prevented story-verification, misattributions of events became more common”(2017).

The article can be helpful by using the information in the article about the group of humans that has been growing that it has affected our autobiographical memory. The autobiographical memory also has affected false memory and making it occur more. 

Mahr, J. B., & Csibra, G. (2018). Why do we remember? the communicative function of episodic memory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 41 doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X17000012 

The article “Why do we remember? The communicative function of episodic memory” is about “a large part of our conscious mental lives is spent reminiscing about past experiences and sharing those experiences with others”(2018). That is identified as a episodic memory. The article also talks about the study of memory and remembering.

The article can be helpful by using the information in the article about episodic memory and the study of memory. For example, “episodic memory turns out to be crucial to the human capacity to communicate about the past events”(2018).

The book Educated is a memoir written by Tara Westover. In the book, she talks about how her childhood was and how she never went to school when she was young. Her childhood was mainly about how her father was always in charge, her mother being a midwife, and her older siblings leaving the house to work or go to school. She also wasn’t able to go to school when she was young because of how much her father hated schools and other things. The only solution for Tara to be able to attend school or do what she enjoys is by leaving the Westover house. 

In chapter five, Tara’s brother Tyler decides that he wants to go to college. When Tyler tells their father his plans, he says: “I’m g-g-going to c-college,” he said, his face rigid”(41). Then their father’s reaction was “his expression was folded, impassive. The silence was worse than shouting”(41). The reaction to Tyler’s decision was no but he wasn’t going to change his plans. Later in the chapter, Tyler is allowed to attend college and so he moves out of the house.

 Their father had always hated schools since he heard about the Weavers. He would think that the schools brainwash the children that attend it. He would also mention the Illuminati sometimes when he would lecture about school being bad to his children. When he heard about Tyler’s plan he automatically disagreed with it because it was a college that Tyler wanted to attend. Their father also tried to change Tyler’s mind about going to college over the summer before Tyler actually left for college. But their father’s persuading didn’t work on Tyler.

Tyler and Tara both had a special relationship in the chapter. They both had an interest in the music that was choir and classical music. Tyler owns a boom box and stacks of CDs that has music in them that are choir and classical music. So when they would listen to the music in Tyler’s room they would be quiet and just listen to the music. Tara stated about herself in the chapter that when she’s with Tyler she feels as if she transforms when they listen to the music. Like for example, she feels as if she is looking through Tyler’s eyes that see’s her. When Tyler left for college Tara was devastated and sad that he was leaving. Tyler was also going to miss Tara when he leaves for college. 

The special relationship that Tyler and Tara had was a very important part of the memoir. The reason why is that Tyler was the only older brother that left the house for education instead of work. This did lead up to Tara being lonely without Tyler’s presence for a little while. But as time goes by in the later chapters she tries to do many things while she’s in the house but she’s restricted by her father and many other things too. So during that time Tyler does show up and makes a big impact on helping her. He tells her to go to college and that would mean for her to leave the Westover house. These events will lead up to the important parts of the memoir. 

Just how Tyler got to leave the Westover house. The other older siblings before Tyler that left the house also got to do what they wanted to do. The other older siblings that left the house were Tony and Shawn. “Tony, drove rigs, hauling gravel or scrap, trying to scrape together enough money to marry the girl down the road”(41). Shawn had left the house because he quarreled with their father and so he gets to do what he wants to do since he’s out of the house now. So if Tara leaves the house, she would be able to do what she wants to do. For example, get the education that she was curious about. The reason why all of the siblings are able to do what they want is that their father is not there to control them in what they do. 

The two quotes in the second paragraph tells that the book title Educated is based on Tara Westover not being able to get the education that she needed and wanted. The reason was because of her father being strict and not agreeing with Tyler going to college. But leaving the Westover house would let her be able to get the education that she wanted. Just how Tyler left the house and went to college. Tyler leaving the house would be a very important part of the memoir because he’s the only brother that left the house for education. So impact on Tyler leaving the house would help Tara on the way on her journey of doing what she wants to do in life.

Works Cited

Westover, Tara. Educated. Random, 2018.

I have conducted research or produced a research project in the past for assignments. Those assignments varied from mainly important projects or simple assignments. The subjects that the assignments varied from were English, science, music, and art that I mostly did my researches for in the past. When researching I would have to find news, important/famous people, or the history of the subject. Then all of the research that I did went into essays or PowerPoints for the important project or simple homework that was assigned to me. Overall, I would say in my opinion to the researching I have done in the past for assignments was quite fun. 

One of the recent assignments that associates with researching that I have done was for my English 112 class. The assignment was to make a blog about any five things that you like and I chose to do my top five songs on Spotify. The blog also had to include a works cited for the information used in the blog. Since my blog was about songs my works cited was called a discography. While I was trying to conduct my discography I did some informal research about other things such as the K-pop idols that I like to listen too and information that was related to a K-pop group called BTS that I included in my list. When I do that with other researches I tend to get distracted and not get my work done. But in the end, the researching did take a lot of time but being able to get my information to finish my assignment was worthwhile. 

When I have gathered all of my information for the PowerPoint or essay assigned to me I would then have to write. While trying to write I always have trouble writing because of my word choices, grammar, and dividing paragraphs. From the reading that I did in The Norton Field Guide to Writing in chapter twenty-five, it states that “The medium and design of a text affect how you must read it”(Bullock et al. 295). The topic of what medium and design were interested me a lot because I knew that this relates to something that I struggled with. The three things that I struggle with when I write relates to medium and design by affecting it. It will affect medium and design by the way how the powerpoint or essay would be read. If I do my word choices, grammar, and divide my paragraphs wrong then the way how to read it will be very different from the way that the rubric wanted the assignment to be done. But if I do them right then the medium and design affecting how you must read the powerpoint or essay will be read correctly of how the rubric wanted. 

In conclusion, I have done a lot of research in the past for important projects and simple assignments. The researches were mainly for the subjects of English, science, music, and art. I also did informal research when I was conducting my discography for my blog. When I did my informal research I got distracted and it took me a lot of time to find the information that I needed. Then lastly medium and design is affected by the things that I struggle with which are word choices, grammar, and dividing paragraphs.

Work Cited

Bullock, Richard, et al. Chapter 25: “Reading across Fields of Study.” The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Reading and Handbook. 5th ed. Norton, 2019. pp. 294-304.

My Top Five Songs from Spotify is:

1. BTS- Paradise
2. Seventeen- Don’t Wanna Cry
3. DPR LIVE- Martini Blue
4. Jay Park- Dank
5. Taemin- Heart Stop

The genre of music that I most often listen to on Spotify is k-pop. K-pop, or Korean pop, is a type of music produced in South Korea that provides modern pop music. K-pop often has both English and Korean words or phrases in the lyrics. I was introduced to k-pop by a friend of mine in 2016. After I was introduced to k-pop I became a fan of many other k-pop groups and solo artists. For example, the very well known group called Bangtan Sonyeondan, BTS. The boy group named BTS consists of seven members and their fans are called Army. The name Army is an acronym for Adorable Representative M.C for youth. The songs that I choose as my top five from Spotifiy was a hard choice to choose from. The reason why it was hard for me to choose was because I like a lot of k-pop songs and just choosing 5 songs was difficult.

Discography

BTS. “Paradise.” Love Yourself: Tear, Big Hit Entertainment, 2018. Spotifty, https://open.spotify.com/track/01dmH2IPkrLNWIMPNXlreE?si=Yf6cmbcaTOGd7UV8BJBrRA

DPR LIVE. “Martini Blue.” Her, Dream Perfect Regime, 2017. Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/track/7zDu3l7DDlfSlt20YMKkWo?si=R77X4JBaTWCrKUW0o7XLBA

Jay Park. “Dank.” V, AOMG, 2018. Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/track/1B2ga6ZAthSmAjKy75B0C5?si=5wSV6oTUTBKgd3Cj5wK1tA

Seventeen. “Don’t Wanna Cry.” AL1, Pledis Entertainment, 2017. Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/track/6Upu6yjkdi0DVI8E3IBZEU?si=hBsupktoTAyur48adp0OZg

Taemin. “Heart Stop.” Move, SM Entertainment, 2017. Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/track/4eMI8gIIpyEETcInX54nt1?si=LPf6NWoFR0SakwxGWATizQ