Science Paper (for 01/05/01):
 "From Learning to Remembrance: A Look at the human mind"
 
  Truly, one of the greatest things about the human mind is its ability to learn. No matter how much we learn about our world, we can always learn more. But just how DO we learn? How do we remember what we've learned? And why do we have trouble remembering things sometimes, while other times we have no trouble at all? These few questions will be the central topics of this scientific essay.
  Imagine, if you will, a young kid named Bob. He's never seen anyone make cereal before, but today he will witness the feat for the first time. He watches as his big sister Margaret prepares a hearty bowl of cereal to start the day; taking a bowl from the cabinet, she pours a large helping of Corn Flakes into it, before pausing to open the refrigerator door to get some milk. After retrieving this next precious commodity, she pours some into her bowl, stirs, returns the milk to the fridge, sits down, and begins to eat.
  Bob just saw how to make a bowl of cereal. Now, if Bob is a really quick learner, and was paying close attention to Margaret as she made her breakfast, then Bob may now be able to make breakfast for himself, saving everyone else the trouble. But the chances are that he isn't, and/or he wasn't, and so he's no closer to cereal-making mastery then he was before. Right? No. Even if he wasn't watching Margaret's every move, the process she used was still transferred to his subconscious mind, in part or in whole. In other words, whether Bob knows it or not, he knows how to make himself a bowl of cereal.
  Well, I'm sure a lot of skeptics will want to know what good that cereal-making information will do him, now that he's got it stored in his subconscious mind. First things first; I will explain this in a minute.
  Suppose, now, that every day from that day forwards Bob watched Margaret make herself a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Even if Bob never pays close attention to what Margaret is doing, each time he sees and hears her go through the routine. Eventually, his subconscious mind will have gathered enough information to piece the method together. Sooner or later, Bob will understand the timeworn secrets of cereal-making.
  But how can this be? Understanding something he never took the time to learn?
  Ah, but he DID learn it. Piece by piece, bit by bit. Even if he didn't consciously learn it, his subconscious mind was working constantly, and paying attention, regardless of what he was consciously focused on.
  This is because the subconscious mind is an amazing thing. It constantly labors, day and night, making connection and finding similarities between different pieces of data, and paying attention to your sensory inputs. Your subconscious mind remembers everything you've ever learned; your conscious mind just has some trouble at accessing that data.
  In contrast, consider your conscious mind. Pick two points, and stare at them simultaneously. Don't let your focus waver between them! If you can accomplish such a feat, you're one of the few (or one) that can. Your conscious mind lacks the simultaneous aspect of your subconscious mind; it can only focus on one thing at a time.
  If any more proof of the sheer amazingingness of your subconscious mind is needed, then  I have it right here. I said before that your subconscious mind remembers EVERYTHING that you have ever seen, or heard, or otherwise learned. In comparison, think of a computer. If it was going to do such a thing at the level of detail in which our memories are subconsciously stored, even for a single minute, it would quickly run our of storage space. Then, to have something that would remember everything for many years seems indeed incredible, doesn't it? But I digress.
  Subconscious data retrieval... How does it work? Well, this is a subject still shrouded in mystery, but I'll do my best.
  Let's say that Bob is older now, and he is taking his first history test. He wants to recall the date in which Columbus sailed the ocean blue, so he tries to recall the mnemonic device his teacher had taught him. His conscious mind sends a signal to the subconscious mind asking about the rhyme, which then prompts his subconscious to search through the associations it had made between its memories. In this the subconscious mind works much like a thesaurus, looking for related topics.
  Well, if all goes well, Bob's subconscious mind will return the right information, and he will get the question right. But at this point, we've got to stop and ask ourselves, why wouldn't all go well? There are several reasons why such a thing might happen.
  First off, his associations might be incorrect. If he learned that 1492 was the year Canada became the world's leading exporter of cheese, and this data was continually reinforced so that the link between "1492" and Canadian cheese became strong, then the link between "1492" and Columbus's famed blue-ocean sailing might never have formed, and so his subconscious mind wouldn't have been able to find the proper information. Therefore, it would either have returned the wrong information or he wouldn't have had a clue as to the answer.
  Secondly, he might not understand the question fully, and so his conscious mind would have been asking his subconscious mind the wrong question. Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer, as the saying goes.
  Thirdly, his mental health might be somewhat lacking. No, I'm not necessarily suggesting that poor little Bob is a deranged lunatic; simple depression would have just as much of an effect. The poisons released into the system by depression and other negative emotions can hinder the mind; thus, if you're angry and stressed out all the time, it's much harder to be profound than if you lead a calmer existence (which goes a long way towards explaining why their are so few heavy-metal philosophers). Just about any negative emotion will prove derogatory to mental function; but likewise, positive emotions (such as joy, happiness, and contentment) can help promote mental strength.
  Well, we've seen how people learn, how memory works, and why the working condition of an individual's memory is subject to the individual's mental condition. By this, we see that I have finished explaining what I set out to explain. This just leaves me with a brief farewell wish: I hope you have learned something from this essay on learning, and please don't forget it!