MEMORY

Memory
Memory
• Internal record of some prior event or experience; a set of mental
processes that receives, encodes, stores, organizes, alters, and
retrieves information over time
• The process by which we encode, store, and retrieve information
Sensory memory
Sensory memory: The initial, momentary storage of information, lasting
only an instant.
• Sensory memory can store information for only a very short time. If
information does not pass into short-term memory, it is lost for good.
• there are several types of sensory memories, each related to a
different source of sensory information.
• For instance, iconic memory reflects information from the visual
system. Echoic memory stores auditory information coming from the
ears.
F T Y C
K D N L
Y W B M
• In sum, sensory memory operates as a kind of snapshot that stores
information— which may be of a visual, auditory, or other sensory
nature—for a brief moment in time. But it is as if each snapshot,
immediately after being taken, is destroyed and replaced with a new
one. Unless the information in the snapshot is transferred to some
other type of memory, it is lost
SHORT TERM MEMORY
• The information that is stored briefly in sensory memory consists of
representations of raw sensory stimuli, it is not meaningful to us. If
we are to make sense of it and possibly retain it, the information must
be transferred to the next stage of memory: short-term memory.
• Short-term memory is the memory store in which information first
has meaning, although the maximum length of retention there is
relatively short.
• Memory that holds information for 15 to 25 seconds.
• The specific amount of information that can be held in short-term
memory has been identified as seven items, or “chunks,” of
information, with variations up to plus or minus two chunks.
• A chunk is a meaningful grouping of stimuli that can be stored as a
unit in short-term memory.
PBSFOXCNNABCCBSMTVNBC
Rehearsals
• The transfer of material from short- to long-term memory proceeds
largely on the basis of rehearsal, the repetition of information that
has entered short-term memory.
• Rehearsal accomplishes two things.
• Maintainance in short term memory
• Transfer to long term memory
• Elaborative rehearsal occurs when the information is considered and
organized in some fashion.
Long Term Memory
• Long-Term Memory (LTM) is large capacity and long
duration
• The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of
the memory system
major distinction within long-term memory is that between declarative
memory and procedural memory.
• Declarative memory is memory for factual information: names, faces,
dates, and facts, such as “a bike has two wheels.”
• procedural memory (or nondeclarative memory) refers to memory
for skills and habits, such as how to ride a bike or hit a baseball.
Information about things is stored in declarative memory;
• information about how to do things is stored in procedural memory
• Declarative memory can be subdivided into semantic memory and
episodic memory. Semantic memory is memory for general
knowledge and facts about the world, as well as memory for the rules
of logic that are used to deduce other facts.
• In contrast, episodic memory is memory for events that occur in a
particular time, place, or context. For example, recall of learning to
ride a bike or arranging a surprise 21st birthday party for our brother
is based on episodic memories.
RECALLING LONG TERM
MEMORY
• Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: The inability to recall information
that one realizes one knows—a result of the difficulty of retrieving
information from long-term memory.
RETRIEVAL CUES
• A retrieval cue is a stimulus that allows us to recall more easily
information that is in long-term memory. It may be a word, an
emotion, or a sound; whatever the specific cue, a memory will
suddenly come to mind when the retrieval cue is present.
Levels of Processing
• The theory of memory that emphasizes the degree to which new
material is mentally analyzed.
• According to this approach, the depth of information processing
during exposure to material—meaning the degree to which it is
analyzed and considered—is critical; the greater the intensity of its
initial processing is, the more likely we are to remember it
• Because we do not pay close attention to much of the information to
which we are exposed, very little mental processing typically takes
place, and we forget new material almost immediately.
EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT MEMORY
• Explicit memory refers to intentional or conscious recollection of
information. When we try to remember a name or date we have
encountered or learned about previously, we are searching our
explicit memory.
• In contrast, implicit memory refers to memories of which people are
not consciously aware, but which can affect subsequent performance
and behavior. Skills that operate automatically and without thinking,
such as jumping out of the path of an automobile coming toward us
as we walk down the side of a road, are stored in implicit memory
• Where were you on December 16 , 2014?
FLASHBULB MEMORIES
• Memories centered on a specific, important, or surprising event that
are so vivid it is as if they represented a snapshot of the event.
CONSTRUCTIVE PROCESSES
• Processes in which memories are influenced by the meaning we give
to events.
• people tend to remember information in terms of schemas
• Schemas: Organized bodies of information stored in memory that bias
the way new information is interpreted, stored, and recalled.
FORGETTING
WHY WE FORGET?
• One reason is that we may not have paid attention to the material in
the first place—a failure of encoding.
• the reason for your memory failure is that you probably never
encoded the information into long-term memory initially
PROCESSES FOR MEMORY FAILURE
• Decay: The loss of information in memory through its nonuse.
• Interference: The phenomenon by which information in memory
disrupts the recall of other information.
• Cue-dependent forgetting: Forgetting that occurs when there are
insufficient retrieval cues to rekindle information that is in memory.
MEMORY DYSFUNCTIONS
• Alzheimer’s disease: An illness characterized in part by severe
memory problems.
• Alzheimer’s symptoms appear as simple forgetfulness of things such
as appointments and birthdays. As the disease progresses, memory
loss becomes more profound, and even the simplest tasks—such as
using a telephone—are forgotten. Ultimately, victims may lose their
ability to speak or comprehend language, and physical deterioration
sets in, leading to death.
• Amnesia: Memory loss that occurs without other mental difficulties.
• The type of amnesia immortalized in countless Hollywood films
involves a victim who receives a blow to the head and is unable to
remember anything from his or her past.