Cathul Thuku
Admiral, Therapy Command
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To provide some piece of lore about memory-enhancing Force-powers
- Image Credit: The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery
- Links: Short-term Memory Enhancement
- Therapy Command's Guide to Cognition-Enhancing Force-Powers
- Searching for Memory: The Brain, the Mind and the Past (source for the first three chapters of the content)
- Media Name: Therapy Command's Guide to Memory-Enhancing Force-Powers
- Format: Book
- Distribution: Scattered
- Length: Medium
- Description: Therapy Command's Guide to Memory-Enhancing Force-Powers is meant to give an overview of enhancing a Force-user's ability
- Author: Cathul Thuku
- Publisher: Therapy Command (Alliance-in-Exile)
- Reception: Since the author is one of the main figures of the Alliance's navy in its heyday, it was understandable that research libraries in First Order and Sith Empire territory had great reluctance to carry the book in their inventories, but even in non-aligned territory, the book was criticized for focusing too much on the memory cycle over the finer points of memory.
The preface is an introduction to memory in sentients; it briefly introduces major concepts of memory, such as working memory, explicit and implicit memories, short and long-term memory, and its basic flaws, and so on, so forth. In addition, the uses of memory-enhancing Force-powers are detailed here.
Part 1: The Memory Cycle
- Chapter 1: Encoding. This chapter is dedicated to covering in greater detail the main types of memory encoding: sensory, elaborative, semantic, and organizational, as well as the neurobiological processes of encoding memories so that they can be stored in a sentient's brain.
- Chapter 2: Storage. This chapter is dedicated to the difference between short and long-term memory, what affects the short-term memory's capacity, such as properties of the chunks of information, and also the long-term encoding as well as how forgetting relates to long-term memory.
- Chapter 3: Recall. This chapter is dedicated to the mental processes involved when retrieving memories held in storage, such as free recall, cued recall, and serial recall. Of course, factors that affect recall, as well as the eight main effects that affect serial recall are also covered.
- Chapter 4: Memory Enhancement: This chapter is dedicated to the know-how of using the Force to enhance recall of memories as well as encoding and storage to a lesser extent.
- Chapter 5: Effectiveness: This chapter is dedicated to what affects the effectiveness of STME, such as the natural quality of one's memory, as well as one's processing power and memory content. "As the natural quality of the user's memory improves, STME becomes less effective"
- Chapter 6: Long-term effects of STME: This chapter is dedicated to the long-term effects of STME. "It appears that the long-term benefits or pitfalls of STME usage are still unclear, but, despite the small sample sizes and the problems typically associated with longitudinal studies, it appears that there are no real changes in the individuals' processing power that can directly be traced back to STME"
- Chapter 7: The historical aspects of STME: This chapter is dedicated to the historically significant users as well as the trends in their usage. "For as long as there has been users of STME, the power was considered a neutral power, but also a power with few active users. Nevertheless, historically significant users include Luke Skywalker and Yoda on the light side and Freedon Nadd as well as Vestara Khai on the dark side"
- Chapter 8: The sociological aspects of STME: This chapter is dedicated to the more sociological aspects of STME. "Currently Short-term Memory Enhancement is a hard sell across either side of the Force, since its side effects can have serious consequences"
The original, pamphlet-size Guide to Cognition-Enhancing Force-powers, published by Therapy Command for use across all light-sided factions, was criticized for providing no guidance whatsoever on the usage of any of the powers presented therein. The decision was made to cut any content pertaining to Force-compehension as well as cutting any content related to Instinctive Astrogation Control because those contents were already covered in another book. As a result, the new guide, much more detailed than its predecessor, was instead called the Therapy Command Guide to Memory-Enhancing Powers since the focus was entirely on memory and its enhancement thereof.
