From the Editor
Marching Into March
Luis Ayala for december
February proved to be a very difficult month for most of our fellow Texans: not only did we face one of the coldest winters of our lifetimes (by our standards), but most of us also had to confront it with no electricity or water, as our infrastructure catastrophically failed to support us.
But just like during the aftermath of a tropical storm or hurricane, survivors emerge and start to clean the debris and reconstruct their surroundings, happy to be alive and ready to regain a sense of normalcy.
Psychology recognizes the existence of the “Recency Effect,” which refers to the tendency to remember the most recently-presented information best.
There are a few explanations for why the recency effect occurs.
- The most recent information is still presented inactive memory. When testing is conducted immediately after learning, any information that was learned last may still be actively held in short-term memory. This increases the accuracy of our recall.
- Temporal cues may also help improve recall of the most recently learned information.
Perhaps you too recently conquered a difficult challenge or overcame an obstacle that life placed in front of you. If so, I invite you, while the lessons from that event are still in your active memory, to write down what you learned from it and what you’d do differently next time the situation appears to be headed your way, so you can be better prepared.
March is upon us and life will move on from the hurdles behind us. We will inevitably face other challenges that will help fade the memories of our most recent ones, but the lessons learned now should be preserved for posterity, for our sake and the sake of those around us.
Cheers,
Luis Ayala,
Editor and Publisher