CHAPTER_MEMORY

➢ What is memory?
a) The process by which we encode, store and retrieve information
(Feldman text)

b) Our Cognitive systems for storing and retrieving information (Baron

Text)

c) Memory is the capacity of the nervous system to acquire and retain

usable skills and knowledge which allows living organisms to benefit
from experience.

➢ Definitions
❖ H J Eyesenk : Ability of an organism to state the information from
earlier learned response, experience, retention, and reproduce that
into an answer to specific stimuli.

❖ Moris C. G : “Memory is the process by which learnt material is

retained”

➢ Phase/Stages of Memory
❖ Encoding:
a) Is the process of receiving sensory input and transforming it
into a form or cod which can be stored (Morgan Text)

b) The process through which info is converted into a form that

can be entered to memory (Baron Text)

c) The initial process of recording info in a form of usable to

memory (Feldman Text)

❖ Storage:
 a) The process through which information is retained in memory
(Baron Text)

b) Process of putting coded info into memory (Morgan Text)

c) Maintenance of material stored in memory (Feldman Text)

❖ Retrieval:
a) Material is memory storage is located and brought into
awareness to be useful (Feldman Text)

b) Process through which info is retained in the memory (Baron

Text)

c) Process of gaining access to stored coded info when needed

(Morgan Text)

➢ Information Processing Theories:

Stage Theory/Phase Theory/Modal Model Theory (Richard Atkinson
and Richard Shiffrin (1968)

❖ According to this theory, memory starts with a sensory input from

the environment. This input is held for a brief period of time(very few
second) in a sensory register associated with sensory channels
(Vision, Hearing & Touch etc).

❖ Info that is attended and registered in sensory register may be

passed to short term memory (20 – 30 Sec held info)

❖ Some of the info reaching short term memory is processed by being

rehearsed, that is by having attention focused on it (by repeated over
 and over) by processed in some other way that will link up into
already stored in memory. Info that is rehearsed may be passed to
long term memory. In long term memory, they are organized into
categories. i.e. Days, months, years etc. When you remember
something a representation of item is withdrew/retrieved from long
term memory.

➢ Tip of the tongue phenomenon:

❖ The inability to recall information that one realizes one knows- a

result of the difficulty of retrieving information from long-term
memory. Eg, When we tried to remember someone’s name,
convinced that you knew it but unable to recall to no matter how
hard we tried. This common occurrence - known as the tip-of the-
tongue phenomenon.

➢ Flashbulb memories

❖ Memories centered on a specific, important, or surprising event that

are so vivid it is as if they represented a snapshot of the event.
Flashbulb memories do not contain every detail of an original scene
and the details recalled in flashbulb memories are often inaccurate.

➢ Explicit and Implicit Memory

❖ Explicit Memory: - Intentional or conscious recollection of

information. When we try to remember a name or date we have
encountered or learned about previously is an example of explicit
memory

❖ Implicit Memory: - Memories of which people are not consciously

aware but that can affect subsequent performance and behavior.
Skills that operate automatically and without thinking, such as
 jumping out of the path of an automobile coming towards us as we
walk down the side of the road are stored in implicit memory.

➢ Priming

❖ A phenomenon in which exposure to a word or concept (called a

prime) later makes it easier to recall related information, even when
there is no conscious memory of the word or concept. In priming
experiments, participants are rapidly exposed to a stimulus such as a
word, an object or perhaps drawing a face. The second phase of an
experiment is done after an interval ranging from several second to
several months. At this point participants are exposed to incomplete
perceptual information that is related to the first stimulus and they
are asked whether they recognize it.

➢ Retrieval Cues

❖ Stimuli associated with information stored in the memory that can

aid in its retrieval

➢ Recall

❖ A specific piece of information must be retrieved. Eg as in Exam

➢ Recognitions

❖ When people are presented with a stimulus and asked whether they
have been exposed to it previously or asked to identify form a list of
alternatives

➢ State dependent memory

❖ Occurs when aspects of our physical states serve as retrieval cues of

information stored in LTM. Eg: If you drink lot of coffee, if you
 prepare for exam and if you don’t think that much during exam time,
your memory will be affected badly

➢ Context Dependent Memory

❖ Refers to the fact that info entered to memory in one context or

setting is easier to recall in that context than others

➢ Sensory memory
❖ A memory system that retains representations of sensory inputs for a
brief period of time.
❖ This storage function of sensory channels is called sensory
memory/sensory register.
❖ Most of the information briefly held in sensory register is lost; what
has been briefly stored decays from the sensory register.
❖ But if we pay attention to and recognize some of the information in
the sensory register, the attended to information is passed on to
short term memory for further processing.

➢ Types of sensory memory:

▪ ICONIC MEMORY: Reflects information from visual system.

Duration- less than one second.
▪ Echoic memory: duration- less than 20 seconds
▪ Hap tic memory
▪ Gustatory memory
▪ Olfactory memory

➢ SHORT TERM MEMORY:

❖ Brief storage of information currently being used.
❖ Capacity: limited (ESTIMATED about 7plus or minus two units –
millers magical number(1956,George Miller)
❖ Duration –less than 20 seconds.(BARON TEXT)
❖ Some scientists refer to this as working memory
 ❖ Eg;this is the type of memory we use to dial a phone number.
❖ Chunking: meaning full grouping of stimuli that can be stored as one
unit. It can also be words or other meaning full units

➢ LONG TERM MEMORY:

▪ Relatively permanent storage
▪ Capacity: un limited
▪ Duration : long or permanent

➢ TYPES OF LONG TERM MEMORY:

▪ DECLARATIVE MEMORY: Memory for factual information.
Names, faces, dates etc.
▪ Procedural memory: memory for skills and habits such as
riding a bike or hitting a baseball, sometimes also called non
declarative memory.
▪ Semantic memory: memory for general knowledge and facts
about the world
▪ Episodic memory: memory for events that occur in a particular
time, place or context.

➢ Working memory: A set of active temporary memory stores that actively

manipulate and rehearse information.
❖ It is thought to contain a central executive processor involved in
reasoning and decision making.
❖ Central executive co ordinates verbal store, visual store and episodic
buffer.

➢ Visual store: where the visual store specialises in visual and spatial
information.
➢ Verbal store: verbal store holds and manipulates material relating
speech, words and numbers.
➢ Episodic buffer: it contains information that represents episode or
events.
➢ Mnemonics: these are the formal techniques for organizing information
in a way that makes it move likely to be remembered.

➢ Levels of processing : this theory emphasizes the degree to which new

material is mentally analysed. It suggests that the amount of information
processing that occurs when material is initially encountered is central for
determining how much information is initially remembered. The theory
suggests that greater the intensity of initial processing the more likely we
are to remember it.

▪ Since very little mental processing takes place if we dont pay

much attention to the information to hich we are exposed,we
forget the new material almost immediately,
▪ But if we pay greater attention to the information it will be
processed more thoroughly and hence memory enters deeper
level
▪ Eg: if we look at the term dog, we pay attention only to the
shapes of letters at shallow level. At intermediate level of
processing, shape transferred into meaning full units. Eg : here
letters of alphabet of the word dog. At deepest level of
information processing we see dogs as animals having four
legs,tail its connection with mammals and cats

➢ Constructive processes: processes by which memories are influenced by

the meanings we give to events.

➢ Schemas: organized bodies of information stored in memory that bias the

way new information is interpreted,stored or recalled. Our reliance on
schemas means that memories often consist of reconstruction of previous
experience. Eg: the procedure of schemas is almost similar to the children’s
game of telephone where information is passé sequentially from one
person to another.
➢ PROACTIVE INTERFERENCE : interference In which information learned
earlier disrupts the recall of newer material. Eg: if you have studied French
in 10 th standard and Spanish in 11 th standard, but if you took a college
achievement test in Spanish at12 th standard you will find it difficulty in
recalling the Spanish translation of the word because all you can think is its
French equivalent.( past interferes with present )

➢ Retroactive interference: interference in which there is difficulty in

recall of information learned earlier because of its later exposure to
different material. Eg: if you have studied French in 10 th standard and
Spanish in 11 th standard and for a college achievement test of French if
you find it difficult to remember French because of Spanish it is because of
retro active interference.(present interferes with past)

➢ Diseases related to memory:

❖ Alzheimer’s disease: an illness characterized in part by severe

memory problems. Symptoms appear like forgetting simple things
like birthdays. At last they cannot even speak or comprehend
languages. Die due to physical detorioration.
❖ Amnesia: memory loss that occurs without other mental difficulties
❖ Retrograde amnesia: amnesia in which memory is lost for
occurrences prior to a certain event
❖ Anterograde amnesia: amnesia in which memory is lost for events
that follow an injury
❖ Korsakoffs disease : a disease that affects long term alcoholics
leaving some abilities intact but including hallucinations and
tendency to repeat the same story.

➢ Autobiographic memories : our recollections of circumstances and

episodes from our own lives. It encompasses the episodic memories that
we hold about ourself.