Memory

An active system that receives information from the senses, puts that information
into a usable form, and organizes it as it stores it away, then retrieves the
information from storage.
3 Processes:
1. Getting the information = ENCODING
2. Keeping the information = STORAGE
3. Getting it out = RETRIEVAL

I. Encoding
Set of mental operations that people perform on sensory information to
convert that information into a form usable in the brains storage system
Involved in all 3 stages of memory: 1 turning sensory information into signals,
2
rehearsing information over and over to keep it, and 3 elaborating on the
meaning of the information
II.
Storage
Holding onto information for some period of time
Period of time can go from:
Depending
o Short-term/time
on its
o Permanently
importance
and
relevance

* Period of time will be of

Different
depending on the LEVEL OF
MEMORY being Used
III.
Retrieval
Getting the information out from storage
The biggest problem many people have

Lengths

Explicit Memory
A CONSCIOUS Effort in Encoding and Retrieving the info about the environment
I.e. try to remember the impressions you had in the underwater scene. Thinking
of the beautiful corals, fishes and bubbles from your gear. Making conscious
effort to analyze the picture.
Implicit Memory
Retrieval of info W/O conscious effort
I.e. kittens swimming in the sea ; since based on your precious knowledge,
kittens do not belong in that picture

Models of memory

1. Information processing model /

o
o
o
o
o

IPM

Most common
Most comprehensive and influential over the last several decades
Approach: focuses on the way information is processed or handled
through the different stages
How long memory will be remembered depends on stage of memory in
which it is stored
How long memory will be retained depends on the depth (effort made to
understand the meaning) to which the information is processed

2014 Kelly B.
Green

Ex. Watching a video about OT vs. Memorizing Willard & Spackmans

definition of OT
Levels of processing model > thinking about the meaning of something is a
deeper level of processing and results in retention of the word

o
o

2.

Parallel distributed processing model

o Memory is seen as a simultaneous process with the creation and storage of
memories taking place across a series of mental networks stretched across
the brain
o Neural connections > organized in parallel and sequential pathways in the
brain
o The brain performs several different processes running at the same time or
parallel to each other, while at the same time spreading that information
across the entire networks of neural connections
Instead of information being processed only in a series of steps, the brain
performs several different processes all running at the same time or parallel to
each other

Stages of Memory
1. Sensory memory
o The first stage
o Information enter the nervous system through sensory systems
o Types: 1) ICONIC (visual) comes from
the Greek word icon
which means image
2) ECHOIC (hearing) brief
memory
of something a
person has heard
o

Masking information that has just entered the iconic will be pushed out very
quickly by new information || only after a QUARTER of a second || RESEARCH:
Old info is Replaced by NEW info unless you find something meaningful || ex.
Scanning a room full of students
o

Eidetic Imagery photographic memory

rare ability to access visual memory over a long period of time
more common in children and tends to diminish by adolescence or
young adulthood

Echoic Memory you heard a stimulus but brain didnt interpret it

immediately || takes several seconds to realize it:
1) Something is said
2) Didnt hear it; may be important
3) Try to remember what was said
Realization within 4 seconds - instant
replay (able to heal)
Allows people to hold on to auditory information long enough for lower brain
center to decide in the information is important enough to become conscious
o

2. Short-term memory (STM) or

memory

working

Selective attention ability to focus only on one stimulus among all sensory input
Actively Thinking = Stimulus
2014 Kelly B.
Green

Cocktail party effect

Not consciously aware of it --- automatic
CENTRAL
Executive

VISUAL
Sketchpa
d

Digit span test - capacity of short term memory

Can remember only until the 7th digit
Longer for letters
How info can be hold for a short time

Memory Techniques
Chunking bits of information combined into meaningful units, chunks can
be held in STM
Process of recording or reorganizing
Easiest way to do it is to connect information with something already
known
Information that is more deeply processed according to its meaning
rather than just sound or physical characteristics of the word will be
remembered more efficiently
REPEAT info while LINKING IT to those already in the LTM
WAYS OF REHEARSAL:
o Maintenance rehearsal
MERE REPETITION W/O trying to find logic or linking it with known
information helps MAINTAIN info a BIT LONGER
STM capacity: 12-30 seconds w/o rehearsal, the memory seems to
rapidly decay/disappear
Process of simply continuing to pay attention to the information to be
held in memory
Works well since attention is how information got into STM in the first
place
Information will stay in STM until rehearsal stops
If something interferes: memory is lost
Inference also happens if information exceeds capacity
o

AUDITORY
Recorder

Elaborative rehearsal transfer from STM to LTM by making it

meaningful in some way
Easiest way to connect NEW info
More deeply processed: according to ITS MEANING than just Sound

3. Long-term memory (LTM)

o Characteristics:
System into which the information is placed to be kept more or less
permanently
Capacity: unlimited
2014 Kelly B.
Green

(Engram) Physical change in the brain itself when LTM is formed (This
change is relatively permanent)
Memories are always available but not always accessible
Encoded into meaningful form to become important
o Rote memory rotating information in ones head
Saying it in ones head over and over again
Not the most efficient way of putting information into LTM
To get information back, one has to remember it almost exactly as it
went in
Ex. People with autism

The KEY in EXTENDING RETENTION in STM is through Repetition / Rehearsal

Types of LTM:
1. Procedural memory of skills that involves a series of steps or procedures
- STRONG Memories
- Memory of skills and behaviors that people know how to do including
emotional associations, habits, and simple conditioned reflexes that may
or may not be in consciousness
Very strong memories
Implicit memory
Amygdala emotional associations
Cerebellum in hindbrain for storage of memories of unconditioned
(habits, skills, responses)
Hippocampus new learned responses
I.e. riding a bike that is automatically retrieved when you need to perform
it.
2. Declarative
Facts and information that make up knowledge and can be Declared OUT
Explicit memory (BCOZ we are fully conscious of the Moments when we
Retrieve the info)
Types:
o Semantic learned in school, through reading, lectures, online
research
Conceptual Memory: currently using in this course || to help you
understand and remember them
for words, symbols, numbers
NOT All parts of EXPLICIT memory are easily translate to words /
symbols
o Episodic events in life
Autobiographical memories; memories of what happened to a
person
LT-retention of info from everyday, major events and experiences in
your life
i.e. Celebrations, Vacations, Conversations you had
You remember FUNNY Moments; You were there. You Experienced it.
DETAILS are easily RECALLED
2014 Kelly B.
Green

Semantic network model

LTM organization
Organized in terms of related meanings and concepts
Apparent that information exists in a kind of network with nodes or focal
points of related information linked to each other in a kind of
hierarchy
RELATED Info -- stored physically CLOSER to each other than concepts
that are not highly related
Assumed that information are stored in the brain in a connected fashion

STEP 3
Retrieval

Retrieval cues stimulus for remembering

When you try to remember a piece of information by thinking of what it
means and how it fits with what they already know
More cues stored in a piece of information = easier retrieval of that
information
Encoding specificity connection between surroundings and remembered
information
Tendency for memory of any kind of information to be improved if THE
physical surroundings available when memory was 1st formed ARE ALSO
AVAILABLE when the memory...
State dependent learning memory formed during particular
physiological/psychological state will be easier to remember while in a similar
state

Recall and Recognition

1. Recall few or no external cues
Ex. fill-in-the-blanks, essay, identification
2. Recognition involves looking at information at or hearing information and
matching it to whats already in
Ex. multiple choice

Tip of tongue phenomenon solution: to forget it

The more you think about it, the more it slips
Serial position effect beginning and end: easier to remember compared to
middle
1. Primacy effect more rehearsal time in the
beginning
2. Recency effect usually attributed that
last words are still in
STM for easy
retrieval with no new word entering to
push most recent words out of memory
False positive memory eyewitness recognition
Error in recognition in which people think they recognize a stimulus but not
actually a memory
Flash bulb memory or automatic encoding enters LTM with little or no efforts
Emotional reactions stimulate the release of hormones that enhance
formation of LTM

2014 Kelly B.
Green

Problems
1.
Misinformation effect fault is in encoding
itself
2.
False memory syndrome ex. Maam Stephs friend & OIA

Forgetting -- complete LOSS or INABILITY to Recall

Previously Learned

info

Curve of forgetting a graph showing a distinct pattern in which forgetting is

very fast within the 1st hour after learning a list and then tapers off gradually
Distributed practice spacing material to be remembered
Breaks between studying
Primary reason why we shouldnt cram
Memory trace physical changes in the brain (neuron or in the activity between
neurons) which occurs when a memory is formed
Over time, if not used, they may decay fading into nothing

Disuse-decay theory - use it or lose it

Interference Theory
1.
Proactive interference older information interferes with retrieving new
information
2.
Retroactive interference new information interferes with retrieving old
information
* Interferences - all experiences that go B/W our REVIEWING and TESTING Situations

Reasons for forgetting

1.
Encoding failure information is not attended
to
Info not accurately committed to memory in the 1st place
2.
Decay or disuse not accessed || weakening of the memory traces in
time || lack of Frequent attempts to recall info bcos of lack of need
3.
Proactive interference old interferes with
new
4.
Retroactive interference new interferes with
old
5.
Cue-dependent Forgetting
Opposite of # 1
Info was successfully encoded in LTM but NOT ACCESSIBLE TO RECALL
THE CUE / INDICATOR WAS NOT PRESENT

Memory and the Brain: The Physical Aspects of Memory

Engram physical change in the brain when memory is formed
Changes in the 1 number of receptor sites, 2 sensitivity of synapses, and 3
dendrites and proteins with neurons
All changes increase neural connections and make connections that
already exist more sensitive to stimulus

2014 Kelly B.
Green

 2014 Kelly B.
Green