MEMORY

 Is memory a place or a process?

 Best definition of memory is an active system that receives information
from the senses, puts that information into a usable form, organizes it as it
stores it away, and then retrieves the information from storage.
 Three Processes of Memory: Three processes: getting the information into
the memory system, storing it there, and getting it back out.
 Putting It In: Encoding= Encoding is not limited to turning sensory
information into signals for the brain.
 Keeping It In: Storage= The period of time will actually be of different
lengths, depending on the system of memory being used.
 Getting It Out: Retrieval=
Parallel distributed processing (PDP) model: A model of memory in which
memory processes are proposed to take place at the same time over a large
network of neural connections.
levels-of-processing model: Focuses on the depth of processing associated with
specific information deeper processing associated with longer retention.
Information processing model: Focuses on the way information is processed
through different stages of memory. The information-processing model assumes
that the length of time that a memory will be remembered depends on the stage
of memory in which it is stored.
The Information-Processing Model: Three Memory Systems:
 There are three stages or types of memory systems: sensory memory,
short-term memory, and long-term memory.
 Bases its model for human thought on the way that a computer functions.

Sensory Memory: Why Do People Do Double Takes? First stage of

memory, the point at which information enters the nervous system through the
sensory systems. Sensory memory is a kind of door onto the world. Information is
encoded into sensory memory as neural messages in the nervous system. As long
as those neural messages are traveling through the system, it can be said that
people have a “memory” for that information that can be accessed if needed.
There are two kinds of sensory memory that have been studied extensively. They
are the iconic (visual) and echoic (auditory) sensory memories.
Iconic Sensory Memory: Visual sensory memory, lasting only a fraction of a
second. Icon is the Greek word for “image.” Information that has just entered
iconic memory will be pushed out very quickly by new information, a process
called masking. Some people do have what is properly called eidetic imagery, or
the ability to access a visual sensory memory over a long period of time.
Although the popular term photographic memory is often used to mean this rare
ability.
Echoic Sensory Memory: Auditory sensory memory, lasting only 2–4 seconds . A
good example of echoic memory is the “What?” phenomenon. Echoic memory is
very useful when a person wants to have meaningful conversations with others.

Short-Term Memory: The second stage. If sensory message is important

enough to enter consciousness, that message will move from sensory memory to
the next process of memory, called short-term memory (STM). Unlike sensory
memory, short-term memories may be held for up to 30 seconds and possibly
longer through maintenance rehearsal. Broadbent’s original filter theory, a kind
of “bottleneck” occurs between sensory memory and short-term memory.
Selective attention: The ability to focus on only one stimulus from among all
sensory input. Cocktail Party Effect. Some memory theorists use the term
working memory as another way of referring to short-term memory. Working
memory: An active system that processes the information in short-term memory.
Working memory is thought to consist of three interrelated systems: a central
executive that controls and coordinates the other two systems, the visual
“sketchpad” of sorts, and a kind of auditory action “recorder”. George Miller
(1956) Digital Span: Digit span refers to the number of items (usually letters or
digits) that a person can hold in working memory. In this experiment, you will
have an opportunity to determine the approximate digit span of your working
memory. Maintenance rehearsal: practice of saying some information to be
remembered over and over in one’s head in order to maintain it in short-term
memory. Research has shown that short-term memory lasts from about 12 to 30
seconds without rehearsal.

Long-Term Memory: The third stage of memory is long-term memory (LTM),

the system into which all the information is placed to be kept more or less
permanently. Duration: As for duration, the name long term says it all. many of
the memories people have stored away for a long, long time—even since
childhood— may still be there. That does not mean that people can always
retrieve those memories. The memories may be available but not accessible,
meaning that they are still there, but for various reasons cannot “get to” them.
The best way to encode information into LTM in an organized fashion is to make
it meaningful through Elaborative Rehearsal: a method of transferring
information from STM into LTM by making that information meaningful in some
way.
Types of Long-Term Information:
Nondeclarative (Implicit) memory: type of long-term memory including memory
for skills, procedures, habits, and conditioned responses. These memories are not
conscious but are implied to exist because they affect conscious behavior. These
skills have to be demonstrated and not reported. Nondeclarative memories also
include emotional associations, habits, and simple conditioned reflexes that may
or may not be in conscious awareness, which are often very strong memories.
Damage to the hippocampal area of the brain causes to have Anterograde
Amnesia, in which new long-term declarative memories cannot be formed.
Declarative (Explicit) LTM: type of long-term memory containing information
that is conscious and known. Nondeclarative memory is about the things that
people can do, but declarative memory is about all the things that people can
know, the facts and information that make up knowledge. There are two types of
declarative long-term memories, semantic and episodic. Semantic Memory: The
word semantic refers to meaning, type of declarative memory containing general
knowledge, such as knowledge of language and information learned in formal
education. Episodic Memory: type of declarative memory containing personal
information not readily available to others, such as daily activities and events.
Long-Term Memory Organization: LTM has to be fairly well organized for
retrieval to be so quick. Research suggests that long-term memory is organized in
terms of related meanings and concepts. Semantic Network Model: model of
memory organization that assumes information is stored in the brain in a
connected fashion, with concepts that are related stored physically closer to each
other than concepts that are not highly related. Parallel Distributed Processing
Model: can be used to explain speed at which different points can be accessed.
Perhaps the best way to think of how information is organized in LTM is to think
about the Internet

Getting It Out: Retrieval of Long-Term Memories:

Retrieval Cues: The main reason that maintenance rehearsal is not a very good
way to get information into LTM is that saying something over and over gives
only one kind of retrieval cue, the sound of the word or phrase. When people try
to remember a piece of information by thinking of what it means and how it fits
in with what they already know, they are giving themselves multiple cues for
meaning in addition to sound. The more retrieval cues stored with a piece of
information, the easier the retrieval of that information will be which is the
primary reason elaborative rehearsal enhances the formation of a memory.
Priming can occur where experience with information or concepts can improve
later performance.
Encoding Specificity: Context Effects On Memory Retrieval: The connection
between surroundings and remembered information is called encoding
specificity. The tendency for memory of information to be improved if related
information (such as surroundings or physiological state) that is available when
the memory is first formed is also available when the memory is being retrieved.
Context-dependent learning may refer to the physical surroundings a person is
in when they are learning specific information.
Encoding Specificity: State-Dependent Learning: state-dependent learning,
memories formed during a particular physiological or psychological state will be
easier to remember while in a similar state.

Recall and Recognition:

Recall: HMM … Let Me Think
Recognition: Hey, Don’T I Know You From Somewhere?

There are two kinds of retrieval of memories, recall and recognition. Recall type
of memory retrieval in which the information to be retrieved must be “pulled”
from memory with very few external cues. Memories are retrieved with few or
no external cues, such as filling in the blanks on an application form. Recognition
the ability to match a piece of information or a stimulus to a stored image or fact.
Involves looking at or hearing information and matching it to what is already in
memory.
Retrieval Failure: It’s Right on the Tip of My Tongue:
Tip of the Tongue (TOT) phenomenon: Sometimes the answer seems so very
close to the surface of conscious thought that it feels like it’s “on the tip of the
tongue.” This particular memory problem gets more common as we get older,
although it should not be taken as a sign of oncoming dementia unless the
increase is sudden.
Serial Position Effect: The tendency of information at the beginning and end of a
body of information to be remembered more accurately than information in the
middle of the body of information.
Primacy Effect: The tendency to remember information at the beginning of a
body of information better than the information that follows.
Recency Effect: The tendency to remember information at the end of a body of
information better than the information that precedes it.

Recognition: The other form of memory retrieval is recognition, the ability to

match a piece of information or a stimulus to a stored image or fact. Recognition
is usually much easier than recall because the cue is the actual object, word,
sound, and so on that one is simply trying to detect as familiar and known.
Examples of tests that use recognition are multiple-choice, matching, and true–
false tests. Recognition isn’t foolproof. False Positive occurs. A false positive
occurs when a person thinks that he or she has recognized (or even recalled)
something or someone but in fact does not have that something or someone in
memory.
Automatic Encoding: tendency of certain kinds of information to enter long term
memory with little or no effortful encoding.
Flashbulb Memories: type of automatic encoding that occurs because an
unexpected event has strong emotional associations for the person remembering
it.

Forgetting:
People with Hyperthymesia not only have the ability to remember nearly
everything, but also have the inability to forget.
Curve of Forgetting: Hermann Ebbinghaus made a curve. This graph clearly
shows that forgetting happens quickly within the first hour after learning the lists
and then tapers off gradually. Although meaningful material is forgotten much
more slowly and much less completely, the pattern obtained when testing for
forgetting is similar.
Distributed Practice: spacing the study of material to be remembered by
including breaks between study periods.

Reasons We Forget:
Encoding Failure: Failure to process information into memory.
Memory Trace Decay Theory: Physical change in the brain that occurs when a
memory is formed. Over time, if these traces are not used, they may Decay,
fading into nothing. Forgetting in sensory memory and short-term memory
seems easy to explain as decay: Information that is not brought to attention in
sensory memory or continuously rehearsed in STM will fade away. When
referring to LTM, decay theory is usually called disuse, and the phrase “use it or
lose it” takes on great meaning. Disuse: another name for decay, assuming that
memories that are not used will eventually decay and disappear.
Interference Theory: Most long-term memories may be stored more or less
permanently in the brain, those memories may not always be accessible to
attempted retrieval because other information interferes. Proactive
Interference: memory problem that occurs when older information prevents or
interferes with the learning or retrieval of newer information. The tendency for
older or previously learned material to interfere with the learning (and
subsequent retrieval) of new material. Retroactive Interference: memory
problem that occurs when newer information prevents or interferes with the
retrieval of older information. When newer information interferes with the
retrieval of older information. Exp: If a student were to study for a French exam
and then a Spanish exam, interference could occur in two directions. When
taking the Spanish exam, the French information studied first may proactively
interfere with the learning of the new Spanish information. But when taking the
French exam, the more recently studied Spanish information may retroactively
interfere with the retrieval of the French information.
 Hippocampus plays a vital role in the formation of new declarative long-
term memories