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Memory
Chapter 9
What is Memory?
• The ability to recall past events, images, ideas,
or previously learned information or skills
• The storage system that allows a person to
retain and retrieve previously learned information
• The process by which information is encoded,
stored and retrieved
Memory
I.
How does the Memory Process Begin?
II.
What are the Types of Memory Storage?
III.
What influences Memory Retrieval?
IV.
What Causes People to Forget?
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How Does the Memory Process
Begin?
The brain as Information Processor
ƒ Organizes, interprets and responds to
information from the environment
Information
Sensory
Systems
A. Information Processing
Three Processes:
1. Encoding
Information
Sensory
Memory
2. Storage
ShortTerm
Memory
3. Retrieval
LongTerm
Memory
Encoding
Modifying information so that it can be placed
into memory. Translating stimuli into neural
codes.
•
•
•
Visual
Auditory
Olfactory
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Sensory Memory
Captures stimulation of the sensory organs in a
form that the brain can interpret and use.
•
•
•
Iconic memory : Involves the storage
mechanism for visual sensory
information
Echoic memory: Involves the storage
mechanism for auditory sensory
information
Must be transferred to short-term
storage or will be forgotten
Storage
The process of maintaining or keeping
information readily available
• Short Term Memory (STM): Can hold info. for up
to one minute after the stimulus decays. Can
register 7 pieces of info.
• Ways of retaining info in STM:
• Rehearsal:
• Chunking:
Rehearsal
• Process of repeatedly verbalizing or
thinking about information to keep it
active in memory
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Chunks
Meaningful units of information organized in a
familiar way based on:
•
•
•
•
Meaning
Past associations
Rhythm
Arbitrary strategy
Other examples?
Long Term Memory
Relatively permanent and large-capacity storage
for information that can be recalled or
reconstructed.
Types:
Procedural Memory: Memory for skills
Declarative Memory: Memory for specific information
Semantic Memory: Memory for generalized knowledge
Not time-specific
Episodic Memory: Memory for Specific events
Tagged with information about time when, where, and how
Autobiographical memories: memories about our personal stories
Types of Long Term Memory
Explicit Memory
Conscious memory of which you are aware
Implicit Memory
Memories of which you are not aware
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Long Term Memory
Practice
Timing of practice is important
Two types:
a. Massed practice
• Intensive practice at once
b. Distributed practice
• Practice is spread over several
practice sessions
Retrieval
The process by which information is recovered from
memory
Depends on:
•
•
How retention is measured
How information is encoded and stored
Recall
The ability to retrieve information unaided by
choices.
For example: Fill in the blanks on tests.
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Recall Tasks
Memorize these words:
1. Mouse
2. Sun
3. Tree
4. Wheat 7. Lion
10. Car
5. Moon 8. Ball
11. Drill
6. Bench 9. House 12. Brush
Recall Tasks
a. Recall as many words as you can. The order
doesn’t matter.
• Example of a free recall task
b. Recall as many words as you can in order.
• Example of a serial recall task
Recognition
• The easiest memory task.
• You know it when you see it.
• Involves recognition of previously stored
information.
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Retrieval
Retrieval Success and Failure: Encoding
Specificity
Sometimes information is in memory, but is
inaccessible
Why?
One reason: Poor retrieval
cues
Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval
Gender and Memory
Culture may have a stronger effect
on memory than gender does
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Forgetting
A problem of encoding , storage, or retrieval
Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850 – 1909)
• The first person to study memory scientifically
and systematically
• Used nonsense syllables
• E.g., nak, mip, gek
• Recorded how many times he had to study a
list to remember it well
• Short lists required less repetition than longer
lists
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Later studied relearning
– After forgetting, how quickly can
something be relearned?
– More rapidly the second time
Forgetting occurs rapidly, then levels off
Causes of Forgetting
Decay of Information
• The loss of information from memory
due to disuse and the passage of time
Interference in Memory
• The suppression of one bit of
information by another
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Interference in Memory
a. Proactive Interference
• Previously learned information (past)
interferes with the ability to learn new
(recent) information
b. Retroactive Interference
• Newly learned information (recent)
interferes with the ability to recall
previously learned (past) information
Interference with Attention
Stroop Effect
–
Read the INK COLOR of the words
below as quickly as you can
YELLOW
RED
BLUE
BLACK
GREEN
RED
BLUE
YELLOW
RED
BLUE
BLACK
GREEN
RED
BLUE
Interference with Attention
Stroop Effect: The word itself produces
interference
Current explanations concentrate more on
problems of attention, rather than
interference
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Special Types of Forgetting
1. Eyewitness Testimony
• Both jurors and judges place high
confidence in eyewitnesses
– However, research shows
eyewitnesses are often inaccurate
Special Types of Forgetting
Motivated Forgetting (Repression)
–
–
–
Occurs when frightening, traumatic
events are forgotten because people
want to forget them
First suggested by Freud (1933)
• Believed such memory loss occurred
through repression
– Burying traumatic memories in the
unconscious
Underlies the debate on recovered
memory
Motivated Forgetting
• Difficult to study in the lab for ethical reasons
– Researchers have successfully created
false memories of non-traumatic events
– Neither repression nor trauma are
necessary to create false memories
• Many psychologists are critical of the use of
“recovered” repressed memories in child
abuse cases
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Amnesia
Memory Loss
There are two basic kinds of amnesia
1. Retrograde amnesia
2.
The inability to remember events and
experiences that preceded an injury or brain
damage
Anterograde Amnesia
Inability to remember events and experiences
that occur after an injury or brain damage
A person is unable to form new memories
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