UNIT-IV

MEMORY AND FORGETTING

 Definition

 “ Memory is the process of maintaining information over time.”(Matlin, 2005).

 Memory is the ability of an organism to store information from earlier learning

processes(experience, retention) and reproduce that information in answer to a specific
stimuli. (Eysenck,1970).

 Memory is the cognitive system to acquire, retain , and later retrieve information.

 Memory is involved in processing vast amount of information. And the information takes
many different forms, e.g. images, sounds or meaning.
Encoding: It is the process of receiving sensory input and transforming
the information into a form or code, and that information can be
stored(visual-picture; acoustic-sound; semantic-meaning).

Storage: It is the process of putting coded information into memory and

the information can be stored over a period of time. This concerns the
nature of memory stores, i.e. how long the memory lasts for (duration),
how much can be stored at any time (capacity) and what kind of
information is held. The way we store information affects the way we
retrieve it.

Retrieval(recall or recognition): It is the process of gaining access to

the stored or coded information when needed.
 Short-Term Memory(STM): STM is a memory that holds information received from the
sensory register for up to 30 seconds. Short-term memory is also known as “working
memory”. Although, the length of the retention depends on a number of factors/processes,
as:
 Serial Position Effect: Primacy Effect and the Recency Effect: Serial-position effect is the
tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, and the middle items
worst. The term was coined by Hermann Ebbinghaus.

When asked to recall a list of items in any order is the free recall. The better recall at the
end of the list is known as the recency effect. The better recall at the beginning of the list
is known as the primacy effect. One suggested reason for the primacy effect is that the
initial items presented are most effectively stored in long-term memory because of the
greater amount of processing devoted to the items.
 Long-Term Memory(LTM): LTM holds a vast quantity of information which can be
stored for a longer period of time. The information stored is diverse and wide-ranging and
includes all of our personal memories, our general knowledge and our beliefs about the
world.

 LTM contains words, sentences, ideas, concepts, and life experiences we have had.

 LTM is not a passive store of information, but a dynamic system which constantly revises
and modifies stored knowledge in the light of new information. LTM is a much larger,
more complex memory system than STM and it is not so easy to characterize in terms of
factors like capacity, duration and simple encoding.
 LTM has different stores as:
 Semantic Memory: This refers to the meaning of words and concepts and the rules for using
them in language. It is a vast network of meaningfully organized items of information.
 Episodic Memory: This contains memories of specific things or events that have happened to a
person.
 Sensory Memory: Sensory memory allows individuals to retain impressions of sensory
information after the original stimulus has ceased. The role of sensory memory is to provide a
detailed representation of our entire sensory experience for which relevant pieces of information
are extracted by short-term memory and processed by working memory Two other types of
sensory memory are:
 Echoic Memory: It is the auditory sensory store. It is the sensory memory register , specific to
auditory information (sounds). It lasts for not more than 3-4 seconds.
 Iconic Memory: It is the visual sensory store. It is also known as picture or photographic
memory. This refers to the short term visual memories people store when seeing something very
briefly. It lasts just for few seconds(the picture, image, or any photograph).
The theory can be referred to the book of Morgan, King,
Weisz and Schopler, from page 187-188
The “tip of the tongue” (TOT) phenomenon is a state in which one cannot hit the “target”
word but can recall words of similar form and meaning.

The TOT phenomenon indicates that information is organized in long-term memory

This phenomenon name comes from the saying, “ It’s on the tip of my tongue”
1. A student is attempting a question in his mid-term history examination, one which he has
read just before the test. However, try as he might, he cannot remember the answer to that
question, though he knows what it is about, and what page it is on in his textbook. He can
remember everything about the answer, except the target word/phrase that he is s
searching his memory for.

 2. Two women are discussing a particular new cream that is believed to have amazing
benefits. One of them has recently purchased it, and is telling her friend to try it too.
However, try as she might, she cannot recall the name of this wondrous new cream,
though she can remember that it starts with a letter “L”. She knows the benefits, she
recalls how it feels and smells, she remembers what letter it starts with, but cannot retrieve
the name of the cream from her memory.
 3. In a general knowledge quiz, a participant is asked who the CEO of a famous business
is. The participant knows who the person is, how (s) he looks, what (s) he does, what the
name of that business is, but not the name of the CEO. The name of the CEO is the target
word, which the participant just cannot recall, triggering a TOT.

 4. Your friend is trying to describe a scene from a movie she recently watched. The scene
seems familiar to you, and you realize you’ve watched this movie before. You remember
the story, the music, the ending, the director, but not the name of the movie. This is an
annoying example of a TOT, when you never remember what you want right when you
need it. Later, when you’ve stopped bothering to remember what the name of the movie is,
the answer comes to you.
 Forgetting is the inability to remember any information.

 Forgetting is failing to retain or recall what has been acquired. (Munn,1967)

 “It is the apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in long-term memory(LTM)”.

 Forgetting occurs;
• when we do not “rehearse” the encoded and stored information
• when old memories are replaced by the new ones
• there is difficulty to remember any information from the memory due to environmental or
psychological factors
 Amnesia is a memory deficit. It is the loss of long-term memory that occurs as a result of
brain damage (physical injury, neurological disorder , seizure or stroke or PTSD)
Amnesia is of two types: Anterograde and retrograde amnesia
 Anterograde Amnesia: It is inability to create new memories after the event that caused
amnesia. Thus, leading to a partial or complete inability to recall the recent past, while
long-term memories before the event remain intact. In other words, it is the impaired
capacity for new learning
 For example, someone with this form of amnesia might forget:
 someone they have recently met
 a new phone number
 a recent meal
 the names of famous people
 newly made changes to a routine, such as school or job changes
 Retrograde Amnesia: In retrograde amnesia, an individual experiences difficulty in
remembering past events and previously familiar information. It is the loss of information
that was acquired before the onset of amnesia.
For example, someone with this form of amnesia might forget:
 not remembering things that happened before the onset of amnesia
 forgetting names, people, faces, places, facts, and general knowledge before the onset of
amnesia
 remembering skills like riding a bike, playing the piano, and driving a car
 retaining older memories, especially from childhood and adolescence
 Childhood Amnesia: Childhood amnesia, also called infantile amnesia, is the inability of
adults to retrieve episodic memories (memories of situations or events) before the age of
two to four years, as well as the period before the age of ten, of which some older adults
retain fewer memories than might otherwise be expected given the passage of time. This
happens to adults who were abused or traumatized in childhood.

 Defensive /Dissociative Amnesia: It is the inability to recall information, usually about

stressful or traumatic events in persons' lives, such as a violent attack or disaster.
Dissociative amnesia is a condition in which a person do not remember important
information about their life.
 Interference Theory of Forgetting
This theory states that interference occurs when information that is similar in format gets
in the way of information that someone is trying to recall. For example, after changing
your mobile phone number, you have a difficult time remembering the new number, so
you keep on accidentally giving people your old number. The memory of your old
number interferes with your ability to recall your new number.

There are two types of interference:

 Retroactive Interference: When more recent information gets in the way of recalling the
older information. In other words, learning new things can make it more difficult to recall
things that we already know. For example, a musician might learn a new piece, only to
find that the new song makes it more difficult to recall an older and previously learned
piece of music.
 Proactive Interference: It is the reverse of retroactive interference. This occurs when old
information prevents the recall of new information.

Examples of Proactive Interference:

 When the aisles of a shopping mart are changed, you may instinctively start walking
towards the old shelves instead of the new ones.
 Proactive interference may also get in the way of performing physical tasks. For
example, your hands may have a hard time adjusting to a new keyboard once you have
started using a new one.
 Kids who pick up a bad habit may have a difficult time getting rid of it.
 When children return to school after summer vacations, they often have trouble keeping
up with their new schedule. For instance, they may find it difficult to get up in the
morning.
 Decay theory states that when something new is learned, “memory trace” is formed in the
brain and over time this trace tends to “disintegrate”, unless it is occasionally used.

According to decay theory, short-term memory can retain information for a limited period
of time, unless it is rehearsed. If it is not rehearsed, the information gradually fades or
decay.

 Therefore, forgetting occurs as a result of automatic decay of the memory trace in the
brain.
 Mnemonics is a technique used to assist memory, usually by forging a link or association
between the new information to be remembered and information previously encoded. For
instance, one might remember the numbers in a password by associating them with
familiar birth dates, addresses, or room numbers.
 The method of loci (loci being Latin for "places") is a strategy of memory enhancement
which uses visualizations of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall
of information. A mnemonic technique in which the items to be remembered are
converted into mental images and associated with specific positions or locations. For
instance, to remember a shopping list, each product could be imagined at a different
location along a familiar street.
 Chunking: It is a systematic way of encoding information. It is a process by which individual
pieces of an information set are broken down and then grouped together in a meaningful
whole. For example, A phone number such as 14121998 can be easily remembered by dividing
it into 14, 12 and 1998. Or, the number is stored as December 14, 1998 instead of a series of
individual digits. Others divide the number into pieces of 3, or into pieces of 2.

 The memory pegs: It is a process of organizing a set of images to which the to-be-remembered
items can be linked. Example: a rhyming system can be used for the numbers 1 through 10.
Think of words that rhyme with numbers---1 is a bun, 2 is a shoe, 3 is a tree, 4 is a door, and so
on

 Acronyms: An acronym is a word formed from the first letters or groups of letters in a name or
phrase. These techniques are used as a mnemonic by memorizing the first letters of certain
words. Example: The SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat) Model, The PEST
Analysis( The political, economic, social and technological analysis), BODMAS
Thank You!