Memory loss refers to the situation in which a person suffers a loss of memory hence forgetting and losing personal memories and takes place as a result of permanent or temporary damage caused by illness, brain damage, drug use or severe psychological stress. The kind of memory loss that a person suffers depends on the kind of injury or illness. Memory is an essential aspect of critical thinking and entails encoding, storing and retrieving of information. Memory can be distinguished as either short-term memory or long-term memory. Long-term memory that entails storing of information for longer than a few seconds gets classifies into two; that are an explicit and implicit memory. Explicit memory refers to the conscious recollection of past events and facts. Explicit memory is further divided into 1) episodic memory (memory for capturing personal events in our lives) and 2) semantic memory (memory for capturing facts and knowledge). Implicit memory refers to the memories used without awareness although it demonstrates evidence of learning and storage that occurred before. It gets classified into various types namely; procedural memory, classical conditioning and priming (Watts, Cockcroft & Duncan 2009).
Various factors get attributed to the suffering of memory loss. They include medical or mental health conditions (that include depression or side effects of medication), change in the brain, natural causes, blows to the head and viruses, stroke, Korsakoffs syndrome as a result of heavy alcohol consumption, and Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease (Goldstein, 2014). The occurrence of a stroke takes place when a blood clot in the brain prevents the flow of blood to brain tissue, hence depriving it of oxygen thus causing severe damage. Early symptoms of memory loss include severe memory problems that include forgetting names or the way to undertake familiar tasks, delusions and sleep disturbances.
Many ways have been used to depict memory loss in movies, some of which bear at least a resemblance to actual incidences of amnesia and others that are entirely fictional conditions.
References
Goldstein, E. B. (2014): Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.
Watts, J., Cockcroft, K., ver pelis & Duncan N. (2009): Developmental Psychology: Juta and Company Ltd