MEMORY AND RECALL

by:

Dr. Sohail Ahmed

assistant professor
psychiatry dept

Ms. Sabira Yousuf

Clinical Psychologist

Processes of Memory
Retrieval

Encoding
Put into
memory

Recover from
memory

Storage
Hold in
memory

ENCODING

Sensory Memory
Visual sensory memory (the icon)
Auditory sensory memory (the
echo)
Very large capacity
Very short duration:

about 250 ms. for the icon

1-2 sec. for the echo

Short Term Memory (STM)

Limited capacity -- 7 plus or minus 2
chunks
Chunk: a meaningful unit

Examples:

A single letter (S)

A group of letters (FBI)
A group of words (Four score and seven years ago)

Duration of 20-30 sec., due to

limited capacity & interference

Short Term Memory

Displacement in STM

STM
(7 slots)

bread
cheese
eggs
peas
syrup
apples
flour
milk
eggs
peas
syrup
apples
flour
milk
bread
peas
syrup
apples
flour
milk
bread
syrup
apples
flour
milk
bread
apples
flour
milk
bread
flour
milk
bread
milk
bread

Lost from
STM

bread

STORAGE

LONG TERM MEMORY

Huge capacity
Potentially long duration

(decades)
Organized by meaning

KINDS OF MEMORIES
Retrospective
Memory
memory for past events

Prospective
Memory
remembering to do

Three-Box Model of Memory

FORGETTING
Causes:
Failure to Encode

Consolidation Failure

Decay
Interference (proactive &retroactive

inhibition)
Motivated Forgetting
Retrieval Failure

AMNESIA:
Anterograde amnesia - loss of memory for
events occurred after the trauma
Retrograde amnesia - loss of memory for
events
occurred prior to the trauma
De ja vu : familiarity in unfamiliar situations
Jamais vu Unfamiliarity in familiar situations

RETRIEVAL

Factors Affecting Retrieval

Serial Position
Primacy effect
Recency effect

Environmental Context
State-Dependence
Stress and Anxiety

Improving our memory

1) Rote Rehearsal 2) Associations 3) Meaningfulness 4) Chunking - e.g., for learning phone numbers:
5) Mnemonic devicesEg. The phrase Mercurys Very Eager Mother Just
Serves Us Nine Potatoeshelps student remembering
names of
PlanetsMercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto

Remembering Textbook Material

SQ3R method
Survey the chapter before reading it
Question yourself what you will cover before
reading a section
Read
Recite the key points after you have completed a
section
Review all the material after reading the chapter

Brain Structures and Memory

Hippocampus is involved in the formation of new
memories or transfer of information from short
term to long term memory.
Parts of memories are stored in sensory cortex.
Sights are stored in visual cortex and sounds in
auditory cortex.
The limbic system is largely responsible for
integrating these pieces of information when we
recall an event.
An area in frontal lobe stores information about