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Chapter 6 Summary: Memory
6.1 What are the three processes of memory and the different models of how memory works?
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Memory can be defined as an active system that receives information from the senses, organizes and alters it
as it stores it away, and then retrieves the information from storage.
The three processes are encoding, storage, and retrieval.
Models of Memory
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In the levels-of-processing model of memory, information that gets more deeply processed is more likely to
be remembered.
In the parallel distributed processing model of memory, information is simultaneously stored across an
interconnected neural network that stretches across the brain.
The Information-Processing Model: Three Stages of Memory
6.2 How does sensory memory work?
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Iconic memory is the visual sensory memory, in which an afterimage or icon will be held in neural form for
about one-fourth to one-half second.
Echoic memory is the auditory form of sensory memory and takes the form of an echo that lasts for up to 4
seconds.
6.3 What is short-term memory, and how does it differ from working memory?
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Short-term memory is where information is held while it is conscious and being used. It holds about seven
plus or minus two chunks of information and lasts about 30 seconds without rehearsal.
Working memory is an active system responsible for processing the information in STM.
STM is easily lost through decay or interference.
6.4 How is long-term memory different from other types of memory?
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Long-term memory is the system in which memories that are to be kept more or less permanently are stored
and is unlimited in capacity and relatively permanent in duration.
Information that is more deeply processed, or processed according to meaning, will be retained and
retrieved more efficiently.
6.5 What are the various types of long-term memory, and how is information stored in long-term memory organized?
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Procedural memories are memories for skills, habits, and conditioned responses. Declarative memories are
memories for general facts and personal experiences and include both semantic memories and episodic
memories.
Implicit memories are difficult to bring into conscious awareness, whereas explicit memories are those that a
person is aware of possessing.
LTM is organized in the form of semantic networks, or nodes of related information spreading out from a
central piece of knowledge.
Getting It Out: Retrieval of Long-Term Memories
6.6 What kinds of cues help people remember?
Retrieval cues are words, meanings, sounds, and other stimuli that are encoded at the same time as a new memory.
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Encoding specificity occurs when physical surroundings become encoded as retrieval cues for specific
memories.
State-dependent learning occurs when physiological or psychological states become encoded as retrieval
cues for memories formed while in those states.
6.7 How do the retrieval processes of recall and recognition differ, and how reliable are our memories of events?
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Recall is a type of memory retrieval in which the information to be retrieved must be “pulled” out of memory
with few or no cues, whereas recognition involves matching information with stored images or facts.
The serial position effect, or primacy or recency effect, occurs when the first items and the last items in a list
of information are recalled more efficiently than items in the middle of the list.
Classic Studies in Psychology: Elizabeth Loftus and Eyewitnesses
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Loftus and others have found that people constantly update and revise their memories of events. Part of this
revision may include adding information acquired later to a previous memory. That later information may
also be in error, further contaminating the earlier memory.
Automatic encoding of some kinds of information requires very little effort to place information into longterm memory.
Memory for particularly emotional or traumatic events can lead to the formation of flashbulb memories,
memories that seem as vivid and detailed as if the person were looking at a snapshot of the event but that are
no more accurate than any other memories.
The Reconstructive Nature of Long-Term Memory Retrieval: How Reliable Are Memories?
6.8 How are long-term memories formed, and what kinds of problems do people experience as a result?
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Memories are reconstructed from the various bits and pieces of information that have been stored away in
different places at the time of encoding in a process called constructive processing.
Hindsight bias occurs when people falsely believe that they knew the outcome of some event because they
have included knowledge of the event’s true outcome into their memories of the event itself.
The misinformation effect refers to the tendency of people who are asked misleading questions or given
misleading information to incorporate that information into their memories for a particular event.
6.9 What is false memory syndrome?
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Rather than improving memory retrieval, hypnosis makes the creation of false memories more likely.
False memory syndrome is the creation of false or inaccurate memories through suggestion, especially while
hypnotized.
Pezdek and colleagues assert that false memories are more likely to be formed for plausible false events than
for implausible ones.
What Were We Talking About? Forgetting
6.10 Why do we forget?
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Ebbinghaus found that information is mostly lost within 1 hour after learning and then gradually fades away.
This is known as the curve of forgetting.
Some “forgetting” is actually a failure to encode information.
Memory trace decay theory assumes the presence of a physical memory trace that decays with disuse over
time.
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Forgetting in LTM is most likely due to proactive or retroactive interference.
Memory and the Brain: The Physical Aspects of Memory
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Evidence suggests that procedural memories are stored in the cerebellum, whereas short-term memories are
stored in the prefrontal and temporal lobes of the cortex.
Semantic and episodic memories may be stored in the frontal and temporal lobes as well but in different
locations than short-term memory, whereas memory for fear of objects is most likely stored in the amygdala.
6.11 How and where are memories formed in the brain?
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Consolidation consists of the physical changes in neurons that take place during the formation of a memory.
The hippocampus appears to be responsible for the storage of new declarative long-term memories. If it is
removed, the ability to store any new factual information is completely lost.
6.12 How does amnesia occur, and what is Alzheimer’s disease?
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In retrograde amnesia, memory for the past (prior to the injury) is lost, which can be a loss of only minutes
or a loss of several years.
ECT, or electroconvulsive therapy, can disrupt consolidation and cause retrograde amnesia.
In anterograde amnesia, memory for anything new becomes impossible, although old memories may still be
retrievable.
Most people cannot remember events that occurred before age 2 or 3. This is called infantile amnesia and is
most likely due to the implicit nature of infant memory.
Applying Psychology to Everyday Life: Current Research in Alzheimer’s Disease
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The primary memory difficulty in Alzheimer’s is anterograde amnesia, although retrograde amnesia can also
occur as the disease progresses.
There are various drugs in use or in development for use in slowing or stopping the progression of
Alzheimer’s disease.