Research Journals

Posted by Braden

I have to write a 7-8 page research paper for biology--that's not so bad. We have to cite at least 6 "primary sources" in it--that struck me at first as kinda bad.

By "primary source," he means basically that we need to get our information from peer-reviewed research journal articles. The problem is, these journals aren't really in English. They use the same pronouns, articles, and punctuation as us, but they don't actually use English. For example, one of the sentences that I quote in my paper is, "There is evidence that impaired glucose regulation is associated with impaired cognition, particularly episodic memory." There are many statements made in these articles that are a lot less decipherable than the one given, but you get the idea.

So, after hunting down eight articles from the library research journal database (which is amazing, by the way) on the topic on which I am doing my paper--the possibility of improving one's ability to memorize information by physiological, emotional, or circumstantial means--I sat down at home with a highlighter, a pen, and a long night ahead of me, with the intent to hack my way through them in one sitting and have the necessary material for writing a thesis statement by the end of it. I got started, and...

...2.5 hours later...

...this is awesome! It's a shame I only have a couple articles left. Did you know that being in the same setting where you learned information won't necessarily help you recall that information any better, but it will make you more likely to overwrite that memory with later episodes that take place in that setting? Or that early sleep (SWS) and late sleep (REM) have different effects on what your brain converts to long term memory or consolidates? Or that getting extra glucose to the brain--eating a candy bar--actually does aid in short term memory retention?

I found myself really intrigued by the experiments explained by these researchers and wishing that I had something equally interesting to test, write up, and present to the academic world.

I've always planned on eventually taking part in research in my field of study--this expected-to-be-painful but actually enjoyable experience gave me one more confirmation that I really wouldn't mind doing that sort of work for the next 40 years of my life. Thank you, biology research paper!