Term paper

The memory:
How does it function and store?

Written by Emil Bakiev

Biology 10th class

teacher: Ms. Lukas
submission date: 3th of July

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Table of Content:

1. A short overview.......................................................................3

2. The sensory memory................................................................4

3. The short term memory...........................................................4

4. The working memory model from Baddelay.........................5

5. The long term memory.............................................................6

6. How is the information storaged?...........................................7

7. Synaptic plasticy.......................................................................8

8. What happens to the stimulus after entering a Sensory

Organ? ......................................................................................9

9. Sources......................................................................................11

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 1. A short overview:

The memory is a functional area of the brain, where all data, required for life, is stored. From
motoric abilities up to facts, all is stored finally in the long-term memory. The human memory is
divided up into 4 stages:

1. The sensory memory

2. The short-term

3. The working memory

4. The long-term memory

You know what your e.g. your supervisor in the company just said without actively listening? This
is an example for the sensory memory. What is responsible for you being able to use information
from long-term memory ? The working memory. Finally the long-term memory is the final part of
the storage process and is there to store everything you learn in motor skills, knowledge and old
memories for a longer period of time.

But the memory is not located in one place, it's spread all over the brain.

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 2. The sensory memory

The sensory memory is responsible for storing all stimuli, incoming from the the 5 senses: sight,
hearing, smell, taste and touch, at least for just less then a second. But it can also be seen as a buffer
to store stimuli for a short time to lead the important ones into the short term memory.
The memory is divided up into following areas:

1. the iconic memory (sight)

2. the echoic memory (hearing)

3. haptic memory (touch)

The information is stored for not longer then 500 miliseconds, but very detailed. The exception is
the echoic memory, which can store information up to 2 seconds. For a short time the sensory
memory can store more than the working memory.

3. The short-term memory

The short-term memory is the preliminary stage to long-term memory. It can storage 5-9 (The
Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two) information units and it serves for the purpose to
storage information for a short time period either to forget it or to consolidate it through repeated
practice, so that it is stored in long-term memory.The duration of storaging varies between 10
seconds and one minute. But this model is considered obsolete and incomplete, so it was extended
by the working memory of Alan.D. Baddeley and Graham G. Hitch.

A small pictorial illustration:

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 4. The working memory model from Baddeley

The working memory model from Baddeley was introduced in 1974 by Alan.D. Baddeley and
Graham G. Hitch and is an alternative or an extension model to the short-term memory model. It
was changed and adapted over the years, but the principle stays the same:

The core is the central executive, wich controls and regulates the two main systems by your
attention : The Visuospatial Sketchpad and the Phonological Loop. The information can be
obtained from your sensory memory and also from you long term memory, to do for example maths
exercises. The central executive regulates your attention and decides, which information is let
through from the sensory memory or picked up from long-term memory.

The Visuospatial Sketchpad:

• is responsible for visual and spatial information

The Phonological Loop:

• is responsible for auditory and speech information

• a linguistic stimulus will directly enter the Phonological
Short-Term Store and and by memorizing
(Subvocal Rehearsal) it will be strengthened
• a non-linguistic stimulus must first
be recoded to be included in the Short-Term Store

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 5. The long-term memory

The Long-term memory is the final storage section of the brain. The exact storage capacity is
unknown, but one assumes an almost infinite amount of memory. Information can be stored for
couple of days or up to the rest of your life, depending on the importence.

The type of information, as well as its storage, can be seen in the following diagram:

The long term memory is divided into two sectors: The Explicit and the Implicit. The Explicit
memory contains two other Subdivisions: The Episodic and the Semantic; like the Implicit with the
Prodedural and the Emotional sector.
The interesting thing is, that these sectors are located in different areas of the brain, and they have to
work togehter, to guarantee a complete memory, an example seen in the following,

The Episodic sector is responsible for remembering important events, like visiting a city but also
personality-based facts like your name; while the Semantic is responsible for knowing facts, like the
name of the city you visited, the location of it and maybe the number of the population.
The Procedural sector is responsible for certain movement patterns like sports exercises or riding a
bike while the Emotional Conditioning is responsible for remembering the emotions, you maybe
experience feelings while you watching a movie.

An example for the use of different sectors: If you are playing the piano, you need your Procedural
sector to remember which keys to play. In the same time you maybe have to know the pieces name
or the composer. This is the task for the semantic sector. To play with expression, you have to use
yur emotional sector to remember the right feeling for this piece.

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The long-term memory storage works in 4 steps:

• Encoding
• Consolidation
• Retrieval
• Forgetting

Encoding describes the process to make an information ready for storage, which is then stored in
step 2, the consolidation, by repeating and memorizing the information.
The retrieval works in 2 steps:

1. Recall
2. Recognition

Recall is when you can recall things without a reminder or help. Recognition is the opposite,
because there you need a reminder to remeber the information. This can be demonstrated in the
following example: You're on a quiz show and you get asked a question. If you know the answer
without the answer choices, it's recall. But if you need a suggested solution to know the answer, it is
known as recognition.

Forgetting describes the process in which the memory trace (engram) is either overwritten with new
information or the path to the information is so poorly developed (long-term depression) that it no
longer occurs to you.

6. How is the information storaged?

The information is stored in a so called engram. A engram is a memory trace, formed by a network
of nerv cells and their connections between, the synapses, which is left behind by the storage of the
information. In order to store information, the synapses connections must be improved, expanded or
new ones must be created(Synaptic plasticy). All engrams together form the human memory.

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 7. Synaptic plasticy

Synapses can adapt and change depending on the stimulation. The more a synapse is used, the better
it is expanded and reverse. If it is used less, it decays. There are three expansion stages that build on
each other. If the synapsis is longer and stronger excited, Ca2+ channels (NMDA) are opened,
which where former blocked by Mg2+. Ca2+,entering the postsynapse, then activates the following
enzymes:

1. Nitric oxide synthase:

it causes more transmitters to be distributed which in turn allows more calcium to flow in
and pushes the process further

2. CaM kinase II:

it causes more AMPA receptors to be installed in the postsynaptic membrane, allowing more
Natrium to flow into the postsynapse to increase the efficiency and the speed with which the
signal is transmitted

3. Adenylyl cyclase:
it causes accelerates the conversion from Adenosine monophosphate to Cyclic adenosine
monophosphate, which activates genes that cause the production of proteins and thus new
synapses are formed or old ones restored.

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 8. What happens to the stimulus after entering a Sensory Organ?

Here is a possible model to illustrate how memory is structured:

And that´s a possible way a stimulus enters the brain and finds his way into the long-term memory:

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A stimulus from one of the Sensory Organs enters the Sensory memory. There, a lot of stimuli are
already filtered (e.g. by attention) and only a few enter the working memory. There the information
is edited and used or prepared for storage (encoding).
The information is also filtered in the working memory and if it is not repeated and consolidated, it
is also lost.
When the information is finally encoded, it is transferred to the long-term memory and finally
stored. Now it can be used by the working memory or it can be consolidated forever by repeated
practice.

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 9. Sources

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-long-term-memory-2795347#:~:text=Long-term
%20memory%20refers%20to%20the%20storage%20of% 20information,Some%20important
%20things%20to%20know%20about%20long-term%20memory%3A

https://blog.neuronation.com/de/das-langzeitgedachtnis

https://human-memory.net/

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gedächtnis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_memory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baddeley%27s_model_of_working_memory

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baddeleys_Arbeitsgedächtnismodell

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconic_memory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echoic_memory

YouTube-videos:

Channel: Frank Ollermann

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbKLQH-_mGg&list=PLSjp4uGgKVnnqovKl-
Gi3WNLY1ffZLIaL&index=2&t=187s (Langzeitgedächtnis: Enkodierung, Speicherung und
Abruf)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz4amtq8GK8&list=PLSjp4uGgKVnnqovKl-
Gi3WNLY1ffZLIaL&index=3&t=81s (Prozedurales Gedächtnis)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UykWde2cy70&list=PLSjp4uGgKVnnqovKl-
Gi3WNLY1ffZLIaL&index=6 (Vergessen und Interferenz)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cefVD2e3WeA&list=PLSjp4uGgKVnnqovKl-
Gi3WNLY1ffZLIaL&index=4 (Das Arbeitsgedächtnis)

Channel: PsychoLogisch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKMul_7Sbus&list=PLSjp4uGgKVnnqovKl-
Gi3WNLY1ffZLIaL&index=3 (Unser Gedächtnis / Psychologie)

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Channel: IUBH Fernstudium

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xCJ8hRYdBA&list=PLSjp4uGgKVnnqovKl-
Gi3WNLY1ffZLIaL&index=5 (Psychologie - Vodcast 05: Lernen und Gedächtnis)

Channel: BBC Earth Lab

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUoJc0NPajQ&list=PLSjp4uGgKVnnqovKl-
Gi3WNLY1ffZLIaL&index=7 ( How does your memory work? | Head Squeeze)

Channel: Biologie - simpleclub

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNhBg6_Vny8&list=PLSjp4uGgKVnnqovKl-
Gi3WNLY1ffZLIaL&index=8&pbjreload=101 ( Langzeitpotenzierung – Gedächtnis 4)

Channel: MaxPlanckSociety

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGKTH60rvoU (Synaptische Plastizität - wie das Gehirn lernt)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSK6Ql_1SIA (Synaptische Plastizität - wie Synapsen funken)

Book source:
"Gedächtnis / Die Natur des Erinnerns" written by Larry R. Squire and Eric R. Kandel
( published by " Spektrum Akademischer Verlag")
(2nd Edition, translated from English by Monika Niehaus)

Picture sources:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_WSXOGwzwT4/maxresdefault.jpg (p.3)

http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/66268/images/Short%20term%20memory%20-%20Lost.JPG (p.4)

http://mercercognitivepsychology.pbworks.com/f/1353275322/e.jpg (p.5 top )

http://www.linguisticsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/memory-tutorial-2.png (p.5 bottom)

https://www.jobilize.com//ocw/mirror/col11816_1.1_complete/m55797/
CNX_Psych_08_01_Explicit.jpg?qcr=www.quizover.com (p.6)

http://slideplayer.fr/slide/1326717/3/images/18/Synaptic+Plasticity.jpg (p. 8)

http://www.linguisticsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/memory-tutorial-2.png (p.9 top)

https://developmentallearningsp14.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/memory.jpg (p.9 bottom)

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