Unit 1

INTRODUCTION:
CONCEPTS AND DEFINITION OF
MEMORY
Memory

Prof. Mario Pérez Cano

DEFINITION
Memory
Memory is usually thought of as the ability to
• Recollect past events
• Bring learned facts and ideas back to mind

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DEFINITION
Memory
A full understanding of memory and related functions must
therefore involve an understanding of the brain mechanisms of:

Acquisition Storage Retrieval

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DEFINITION
Memory
Memory includes:
• Happenings re-experienced consciously
• Behavior in the absence of conscious
awareness
• The mental activities of learning and
memory that clearly have their neural
counterparts in brain activities

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DEFINITION
Memory by association
The memory that event A was experienced
• together with
• or immediately preceding
event B is recorded in the memory bank as
an association from idea A to idea B

I forgot the ball → You were crying a lot 5

DEFINITION
Memory
Reviving these associative sequences from memory
(event A makes us think of event B) is the presumed
method by which…
…people's past experiences cause their later
thoughts to progress from one idea to the next.

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Memory
Introduction
Theories (about memory and other constructs) are essentially
like maps. They summarize our knowledge in a simple and
structured way that helps us to understand what is known.

Our memories comprise not one, but several interrelated

memory systems.
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MEMORY
Ebbinghaus (1885)
Ebbinghaus began by
simplifying the
experimental situation and
study memory using
controlled systematic
experiments with careful
measurements of his own
learning.

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MEMORY
Ebbinghaus (1885)

He measured the difficulty of

learning a list by the number
of study trials required for
him to attain one errorless
recitation of it.

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MEMORY
Ebbinghaus (1885)
He served as his own subject and he taught himself by:
• Studying serial lists of 6 to 20 syllables (zug, pij, tev)
• Reading them aloud in sequence in pace with a
metronome
• Trying to recite the series from memory.

Verbal learning: A term applied to an approach to memory that

relies principally on the learning of lists of words and nonsense
syllables.
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MEMORY
Ebbinghaus (1885)
Strict controls regarding:
• The timing
• Number of study trials
• Recall time permitted
• Retention Interval
• Learning materials of homogeneous difficulty
• The room in which he learned
• The time of day in every trial

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MEMORY
Ebbinghaus (1885)
Ebbinghaus observed that the acquisition of knowledge goes through several stages:
STAGE DESCRIPTION

Initial learning • The individual is exposed to the information to be learned for the first
time.
• Retention is usually low, and the forgetting curve accelerates quickly
Consolidated learning • With practice and repetition, the information is consolidated in short-
term memory and moves into long-term memory.
• Retention improves, and the forgetting curve becomes less pronounced.
Sustained learning • As the information is continued to be repeated and reinforced over time,
learning becomes more sustained.
• The information is retained for a longer period and is less susceptible to
forgetting.
Mastery learning • The information has been learned so solidly that it is highly unlikely to be
forgotten.
• Learning has become ingrained and enduring knowledge. 12
MEMORY
Ebbinghaus (1885)

Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve

is characterized by:
• A rapid and pronounced
loss of information in the
first hours or days after
learning it.
• After that, the forgetting
rate gradually decreases
as time passes.

We forget most of what we learn in the initial hours

after learning, and then we forget less as time goes on.
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MEMORY
Ebbinghaus (1885)
More results:
• Ebbinghaus also found that forgetting of a list decreased
with multiple re-learnings of it
• Difficulty increased disproportionately with the length of
the list being learned.
• Overlearning increased retention
• Widely distributed study trials (say, 1 per hour) were
more effective than closely packed trials (say, 1 per
minute) for long-term retention.

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MEMORY
Ebbinghaus (1885)

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MEMORY
Approaches
• Bartlett explicitly rejected the learning of Bartlett (1932)
meaningless material as an appropriate way
to study memory.
• He stressed the importance of the
rememberer’s “effort after meaning.”
• The study of the memory errors could be
explained in terms of the participants’
cultural assumptions about the world.
• Bartlett proposed that these depended on
internal representations that he referred to
as schemas.
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MEMORY
Prior connections
• Recall can be substantially increased by using words in
the list that have strong prior connections
• Subjects are likely to discover these inter-item
relationships and use them for organizing their recall.

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MEMORY
Prior connections
• Recall can be substantially increased by using words in the
list that have strong prior connections
• Subjects are likely to discover these inter-item
relationships and use them for organizing their recall.
ENGLISH SPANISH
Consider Considerar

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PRACTICE

LIST A

Annual
Royalty
Arrow
Way
Youngth
Now
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PRACTICE

LIST B

Bake
Baked
Baker
Bakery
Bake-off
Bakering

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MEMORY
Paired-associates learning
• Subjects study a set of pairs of discrete units (syllables,
words, pictured objects)
• Later are asked to learn to recall a specific member of a
pair (the “response”) when tested by presenting the
other member of the pair (the “stimulus”).

A B A ?

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Lists of pairs

Perfume – state
Heart – surgeon
Vain – bus
Middle – bride
Recording – Clock

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Lists of pairs

Recording –
Heart –
Perfume –
Middle –
Vain –

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MEMORY
Lists of pairs
When we study a list of many pairs, each stimulus word will show
the initial:

GENERALIZATION CONFUSION

based on the similarities (appearance or meanings) to other

stimuli in the list.

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Practice

1 2

Testigo Witness

Marido Husband

Aleatorio Random

Finalmente Eventually

Actual Current

Denunciar Sue

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Practice

1 2

Finalmente

Aleatorio

Actual

Denunciar

Testigo

Marido

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Practice

1 2

abandonar abandon

absorber absorb

aceptar accept

adaptar adapt

admitir admit

calmar calm

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Practice

1 2

aceptar

absorber

calmar

abandonar

admitir

adaptar

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Practice

1 2

opposed NEH

endorse PEH

academy SEH

silence TEH

feature LEH

genetic WEH

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Practice

1 2

silence

feature

academy

genetic

endorse

opposed

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MEMORY
Paired-associates learning
• Increasing the prior familiarity and meaningfulness
of the response terms lowers the difficulty of
recalling.
• Increasing the similarity among the nominal
stimuli in the list of pairs increases the difficulty of
discriminating.
• Confusions between two similar stimuli persist until
the subject selects a differentiating cue that
distinguishes between them
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MEMORY

Such results suggest that learners are not the

passive tabula rasa (blank slate) assumed in
traditional associationism.

They are very active in using what they already

know to search for meaningful relationships
among the learning materials that they can
utilize to ease their memorization task.
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MEMORY

In an impressive tour de force regarding

the power of retrieval cues, Mantyla
(1986) had subjects write 3 meaningful
associates (e.g., a category name) to
each of 600 target words, with no
instructions for remembering.

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MEMORY

Seven days later they received a recall test.

• When given none of their associates as
cues, they recalled only 6% of the target
words
• When given their 3 associates as cues, they
recalled 65% of the 600 target words.

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MEMORY
Paired-associates learning

PATIENT PACIENTE

CONDUCTOR CONDUCTOR

CONDUCTOR DRIVER

CONDUCTOR – Person who directs an orchestra

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MEMORY
Lists of pairs
• Over repeated study trials, the correct association
is expected to be strengthened sufficiently to win
out in competition with both the preexisting and
the generalized associates.
• This generalization analysis explains the fact that
pairs with similar stimuli and/or responses will
lead to many confusion errors.

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MEMORY
Clusters
Bousfield (1953)
When multiple study and recall trials are given with the
same list of supposedly unrelated words, subjects'
improving recall is usually accompanied by increasing
stereotypy or consistency in what items they recall
together as clusters

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MEMORY
Clusters
• The clusters are often idiosyncratic groups of 3 to 7 list words among which a subject
finds some kind of meaningful relationship.
• With training, these subjective clusters grow longer (include more items) and become
more stable.

THE LIST TO REMEMBER THE CLUSTERS HOW A SUBJECT RECALL THE LIST

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*The first cluster (blue) includes 4 words. The second cluster (Orange) has only 3 words.
D–F–T–U–I–G–A–S–W–O

M–O–N–I–T–O–R–I–N–G

MONITORING
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MEMORY
Specific Transfer Chunks? That
is very
E–A–S–Y

A chunk is defined as a familiar

collection of more elementary
units that have been
interassociated and stored in
memory repeatedly and that
act as a coherent, integrated
group when retrieved.

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MEMORY
Concepts
Free recall task: following presentation of a set of
discrete experiences (words, pictures…), subjects are
asked to recall them in any order that they choose for
convenience.

Recognition test: following presentation of a set of

discrete experiences (words, pictures…), subjects are
asked to distinguish (from a longer list) which items were
presented before and which items were not presented
before. 41
MEMORY
Concepts EXAM
Error of commission:
Recall or recognize an item not included in the list
Error of omission:
Do not recall or recognize an item included in the list

Student!
Look at me!

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MEMORY

If you do not If you remember

remember me: me: comission
omission error error

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Recall test vs recognition test

Practice Exception

Plot Support
Agony Emergency
Allow Intermediate
Parallel River
Amuse Offer
Consume Crystal
Rask Refer
Pollution Highway
Verdict Reject
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 AMUSE INVESTIGATION OFFER ALLOW
Recognition PRACTICE AGONY EXCEPTION ASH
test PHYSICAL EMERGENCY VEHICLE HANDICAP
CONGRESS DISAGREE CARD RAILCAR
RIVER VERDICT RASK SUPPORT
HUMOR DEPRIVE IMPRESS REFER
DRAIN CHARM CONSUME POLLUTION
INTERMEDIATE VOTER LEADER PARALLEL
HILL KILL CRYSTAL SYMPATHETIC
PLOT WRAP REJECT HIGHWAY
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MEMORY

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MEMORY
Recall vs recognition
These two thresholds reflect the general belief that
recognition tests are easier than recall tests, and are
more sensitive for detecting small differences among
weak associations

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MEMORY
Recall vs recognition EXAM
1. Any S-R pair/single stimulus that is recalled can
also be recognized
2. Initial study trials can build up some memories in
a “subthreshold” manner, even before these
effects are revealed in accurate recognition or
recall
3. Repetitions beyond the point of recall
(“overlearning”) continue to strengthen the habit
and its resistance to later forgetting.
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MEMORY
Concepts
Short-term memory (STM)

STM is a theory-neural way to refer to the temporary

storage of small amounts of material over brief delays.
• Could include visual, spatial, smell, touch…
information.

STM shows an extreme fragility, lasting only a few

seconds after the subject's attention is drawn elsewhere.
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MEMORY
Concepts
The STM models were partly inspired by neurological
patients (the famous H.M.) with organic amnesia caused
by bilateral damage to:

• The medial temporal lobe

• Hippocampus

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MEMORY
Concepts

Such patients have an intact

short-term memory and long-
term memory, but…

…are greatly impaired in

transferring new verbal
information to long-term
memory.
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MEMORY
Concepts
Structures that produce durable long-term traces …
…may be somewhat independent from those responsible
for:
• Short-term and
• Maintenance of information

Illustrative example 52
MEMORY
Concepts
Short-term memory should also be
conceived as the temporary activation of
information chunks in a single memory.

chunks

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MEMORY
Concepts
Working Memory (WM)
• The concept of working memory is based on the assumption that a
system exists for the temporary maintenance and manipulation of
information, and that this is helpful in performing many complex
tasks.

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MEMORY
Concepts
• Most asume that working memory acts as a form of mental
workspace, providing a basis for thought.
• It is usually assumed to be linked to attention, and to be able to
draw on other resources within:
• Short-term
• Long-term memory

LTM

STM

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MEMORY
Concepts
Working Memory (WM)
Baddeley (1986, 1990) has hypothesized several modality-specific
short-term stores that he calls working memories.

The implication is that adults have multiple regions for short-term

storage of stimuli received from different sensory modalities:
• A phonological store for speech-based material
• A visuo-spatial store for visual images
• An “executive controller” that holds plans that program and coordinate the
activities of the separate short-term stores.

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Memory Assessment Tests

• Verbal working memory: Digit Span Backward

• Visual-spatial working memory: The backward span of the Corsi Block-Tapping Test

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MEMORY
Concepts
Long-term memory (LTM)

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MEMORY
Concepts
Long-term memory (LTM)

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MEMORY
Concepts EXAM
Long-term memory (LTM)

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MEMORY
Concepts
Long-term memory (LTM)
Explicit memory
• Remembering specific events (eg. meeting a friend)
• Remembering facts or information about the world (the meaning of
words)

Implicit memory
• Performance (driving)

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MEMORY
Concepts EXAM
• Long term-memory
• Explicit memory
• Episodic memory
• Semantic memory
• Implicit memory

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MEMORY
Concepts
Semantic memory
• Organized knowledge a person possesses about:
• Words
• Verbal symbols and their meaning
• Referents
• Relations
• Rules
• Formulas
• Algorithms
• Etc.
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MEMORY
Concepts
An episodic memory
• Specific event that occurred at a particular time and
place.
• Situations in which you actually re-experience some
aspect of the original episode.

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MEMORY
Concepts
Episodic memories are:
• More susceptible to forgetting
• Usually accompanied by an explicit or implicit
reference to, and image of, the time and/or place
of the episode.

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MEMORY
Concepts
Semantic memory and episodic memory involve:

Tulving Baddeley
Separate storage or Separate retrieval
systems routes to a common
store

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MEMORY
Concepts
Baddeley
Tulving
or Separate retrieval
Separate storage
routes to a common
systems
store

Semantic route

Episodic route

Semantic
Store Common
Episodic Store
Store
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MEMORY
Concepts EXAM
➢ Long term-memory
• Explicit memory
• Episodic memory
• Semantic memory
• Implicit memory

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MEMORY
Concepts
Implicit memory

• Classical conditioning
• Motor skills
• Priming

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MEMORY
Concepts
Suggest
Horizon
Justify
Ceiling
Sausage
Fantasy
Drawing
Charity
Justice
Victory

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MEMORY
Concepts
Sug…
Hor….
Jus…
Cei…
Sau…
Fan…
Dra…
Cha…
Just…
Vic…

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MEMORY
Concepts
Implicit memory and explicit memory
• Represent a range of different learning systems
• Different parts of the brain that have evolved for different
purposes.

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MEMORY
Concepts

Autobiographic memories

• Dated episodic memories

• Abstract generalizations about long stretches
of their life that are not themselves distinct
episodes
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MEMORY
Concepts
Autobiographic memories
People can recall that they went to college for four years,
although they may not now be recalling any specific
incident.

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MEMORY
Concepts
Source Memory. People remembering where
and from whom they learned certain
information

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MEMORY
Something curious
• Memories are reconstructed to satisfy self-
serving motives
• People remember themselves in a more
favorable light than is warranted.

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MEMORY
Something curious
People also tend to distort their memory
of:
• How they used to behave
• Their former opinions
…to be more consistent with their opinion
of today.
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UNIT 1 - MEMORY
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Tulving, E., & Craik, F. I. (Eds.). (2000). The Oxford
handbook of memory. Oxford University Press.
Chapter 1: A Brief History of Memory Research
Gordon H. Bower

Baddeley, A., Michael W. Eysenck, M. &

Anderson, M.C. (2020). Memory. New York:
Routledge
Chapter 1: What is memory?
Alan Baddeley
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 Mario Pérez Cano
mperez4@[Link]

UCAM Universidad Católica de Murcia

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