Memory

Dr. RANJAN KUMAR

Ph. D. in Clinical Psychology
M. Phil. in M. & S. P. (RINPAS, RANCHI)
PGDGC (RIE, NCERT, BBSR)
Patliputra University, Patna
ranjan.counsellor@gmail.com
“The computer is a retriever
of information, not a
remember of experience”
Schacter
• Memory is an organism's ability to store,
retain, and subsequently retrieve
information.
• Classify memories, based on duration,
nature, and retrieval of information
 Processes
• There are several ways to classify memories,
based on duration, nature and retrieval of
information. From an information processing
perspective there are three main stages in the
formation and retrieval of memory:
• Encoding or registration (processing and
combining of received information)
• Storage (creation of a permanent record of the
encoded information)
• Retrieval or recall (calling back the stored
information in response to some cue for use in a
process or activity)
The Information Processing Model
 Classification
A basic and generally accepted
classification of memory is based on the
duration of memory retention, and
identifies three distinct types of memory:
• sensory memory,
• short term memory
• long term memory.
 Sensory Memory
• Sensory memory corresponds approximately to
the initial 200 - 500 milliseconds after an item is
perceived.
• The ability to look at an item, and remember
what it looked like with just a second of
observation, or memorization, is an example of
sensory memory.
• With very short presentations, participants often
report that they seem to "see" more than they
can actually report. The first experiments
exploring this form of sensory memory were
conducted by George Sperling.
• Sperling was able to show that the capacity of
sensory memory was approximately 12 items,
but that it degraded very quickly (within a few
hundred milliseconds).
• Because this form of memory degrades so
quickly, participants would see the display, but
be unable to report all of the items (12 in the
"whole report" procedure) before they decayed.
This type of memory cannot be prolonged via
rehearsal.
 SENSORY
MEMORY All Incoming
Information-
Information
ATTENTIO Not
N SHORT-TERM Attended To
MEMORY FORGOTTEN
 Short-term Memory
• Some of the information in sensory memory is
then transferred to short-term memory. Short-
term memory allows one to recall something
from several seconds to as long as a minute
without rehearsal.
• George A. Miller, found that the store of short
term memory was 7±2 items (the title of his
famous paper, "The magical number 7±2").
• Modern estimates of the capacity of short-term
memory are lower, typically on the order of 4-5
items.
• Memory capacity can be increased through a
process called chunking.
For example, if presented with the string:
FBIPHDTWAIBM
People are able to remember only a few items.
However, if the same information is presented in
the following way:
FBI PHD TWA IBM
People can remember a great deal more letters.
• This is because they are able to chunk the
information into meaningful groups of letters.
• Herbert Simon showed that the ideal size for
chunking letters and numbers, meaningful or
not, was three.
• Short-term memory is believed to rely mostly on
an acoustic code for storing information, and to
a lesser extent a visual code.
• Conrad (1964) found that test subjects had more
difficulty recalling collections of words that were
acoustically similar (e.g. dog, hog, fog, bog, log).
 Long-term

• Long-term memory can store much larger quantities of

information for potentially unlimited duration (sometimes
a whole life span).

• For example, given a random seven-digit number, we

may remember it for only a few seconds before
forgetting, suggesting it was stored in our short-term
memory. On the other hand, we can remember
telephone numbers for many years through repetition;
this information is said to be stored in long-term memory.
• Short-term memory is supported by transient patterns of
neuronal communication, dependent on regions of the
frontal lobe (especially dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and
the parietal lobe.
• Long-term memories, on the other hand, are maintained
by more stable and permanent changes in neural
connections widely spread throughout the brain.
• The hippocampus is essential to the consolidation of
information from short-term to long-term memory,
although it does not seem to store information itself.
Rather, it may be involved in changing neural
connections for a period of three months or more after
the initial learning.
 Classification by information type

• Anderson (1976) divides long-term memory into

– declarative (explicit) and procedural (implicit)
memories.
• Declarative memory requires conscious recall, in
that some conscious process must call back the
information. It is sometimes called
explicit memory, since it consists of information
that is explicitly stored and retrieved.
Declarative memory can be further sub-divided into
• semantic memory, which concerns facts taken
independent of context;
• episodic memory, which concerns information specific to
a particular context, such as a time and place.
• Semantic memory allows the encoding of abstract
knowledge about the world, such as "Paris is the capital
of France". Episodic memory, on the other hand, is used
for more personal memories, such as the sensations,
emotions, and personal associations of a particular place
or time.
 Declarative memory …….
• Autobiographical memory - memory for particular events
within one's own life - is generally viewed as either
equivalent to, or a subset of, episodic memory.
• Visual memory is part of memory preserving some
characteristics of our senses pertaining to visual
experience. One is able to place in memory information
that resembles objects, places, animals or people in sort
of a mental image. Visual memory can result in priming
and it is assumed some kind of perceptual
representational system underlies this phenomenon.
procedural memory (or implicit memory) is
not based on the conscious recall of
information, but on implicit learning.
• Procedural memory is primarily employed
in learning motor skills and should be
considered a subset of implicit memory.
• Procedural memory involved in
motor learning depends on the cerebellum
and basal ganglia.
Classification by temporal direction

• Retrospective memory: The content to be

remembered is in the past
• Prospective memory: The content is to be
remembered in the future
• Thus, retrospective memory as a category
includes:
–semantic memory
–episodic/autobiographical memory.
• Prospective memory is memory for future intentions, or
remembering to remember (Winograd, 1988).
• Prospective memory can be further broken down into
Event- and time-based prospective remembering.
• Time-based prospective memories are triggered by a
time-cue, such as going to the doctor (action) at 4pm
(cue).
• Event-based prospective memories are intentions
triggered by cues, such as remembering to post a letter
(action) after seeing a mailbox (cue).
 Memory tasks
• Paired associate learning - when one learns to
associate one specific word with another.

• Free recall- during this task a subject would be asked to

study a list of words and then sometime later they will be
asked to recall or write down as many words that they
can remember.

• Recognition- subjects are asked to remember a list of

words or pictures, after which point they are asked to
identify the previously presented words or pictures from
among a list of alternatives that were not presented in
the original list.
 Models
Multi-store (Atkinson-Shiffrin memory model)
• The multi-store model (also known as Atkinson-
Shiffrin memory model) was first recognised in
1968 by Atkinson and Shiffrin.
• Long-term memory is believed to be actually
made up of multiple subcomponents, such as
episodic and procedural memory.
• It also proposes that rehearsal is the only
mechanism by which information eventually
reaches long-term storage, but evidence shows
us capable of remembering things without
rehearsal.
 Working memory
• In 1974 Baddeley and Hitch proposed a
working memory model which replaced the
concept of general short term memory with
specific, active components.
• In this model, working memory consists of three
basic stores:
– the central executive,
– the phonological loop
– the visuo-spatial sketchpad. In 2000 this model was
expanded with the multimodal episodic buffer.
• The central executive essentially acts as
attention. It channels information to the three
component processes: the phonological loop,
the visuo-spatial sketchpad, and the episodic
buffer.

• The phonological loop stores auditory

information by silently rehearsing sounds or
words in a continuous loop; the articulatory
process (the "inner voice") continuously
"speaks" the words to the phonological store
(the "inner ear").
• The phonological loop has a very limited
capacity, which is demonstrated by the fact that
it is easier to remember a list of short words (e.g.
dog, wish, love) than a list of long words (e.g.
association, systematic, confabulate) because
short words fit better in the loop.

• However, if the test subject is given a task that

ties up the articulatory process (saying "the, the,
the" over and over again), then a list of short
words is no easier to remember.
• The visuo-spatial sketchpad stores visual and spatial
information. It is engaged when performing spatial tasks
(such as judging distances) or visual ones (such as
counting the windows on a house or imagining images).

• The episodic buffer is dedicated to linking information

across domains to form integrated units of visual, spatial,
and verbal information and chronological ordering (e.g.,
the memory of a story or a movie scene). The episodic
buffer is also assumed to have links to long-term
memory and semantical meaning.
• The working memory model explains many
practical observations, such as why it is easier
to do two different tasks (one verbal and one
visual) than two similar tasks (e.g., two visual),
and the aforementioned word-length effect.
 Levels of processing
Craik and Lockhart (1972) proposed that it is the method
and depth of processing that affects how an experience
is stored in memory, rather than rehearsal.
Organization –
• Mandler (1967) gave participants a pack of word cards
and asked them to sort them into any number of piles
using any system of categorization they liked. When they
were later asked to recall as many of the words as they
could, those who used more categories remembered
more words.
• This study suggested that the act of organizing
information makes it more memorable.
Distinctiveness - Eysenck and Eysenck (1980)
asked participants to say words in a distinctive
way, e.g. spell the words out loud. Such
participants recalled the words better than those
who simply read them off a list.
Effort - Tyler et al. (1979) had participants solve a
series of anagrams, some easy (FAHTER) and
some difficult (HREFAT). The participants
recalled the difficult anagrams better,
presumably because they put more effort into
them.
Elaboration - Palmere et al. (1983) gave
participants descriptive paragraphs of a
fictitious African nation. There were some
short paragraphs and some with extra
sentences elaborating the main idea.
Recall was higher for the ideas in the
elaborated paragraphs.
 The Structure of Memory

• Memory is a complex construct composed on many

differentiable subfunctions

Process Duration Associated Concept Neuroanatomy Deficit

Reticular
Registration Msecs Awareness Activating System Stupor, coma
Short term memory 0.5-60 mins. Working memory Limbic System + Low memory span

Defective
information storage
Consolidation Seconds to years Learning & Recent memory Hippocampus + and retrieval
Lost skills or
Long-term storage Seconds to life Remote memory Cortex memories

Neuropsychological Testing
 Testing aspects of memory
functions
• Prospective memory (remembering to do
things at a given time, within a certain
interval, and after a certain time interval)
• Orientation (for time, place and person)
• Semantic memory (verbal and visual)
 Orientation
Erickson and Scott (1977) suggested that
all memory assessments should include
an assessment of orientation.

Tests: WMS, WMS-R, RBMT

 Semantic memory
Related to word
Tests: Vocabulary subtest of WAIS, WAIS-
R, Verbal Fluency Test (Benton &
Hamsher, 1976), Subtest for Speed and
Capacity of Language Processing
(Baddeley et al., 1992)
 Executive functions
Lezak has proposed four broad areas of the
executive system that may be impaired following
brain-injury:
• 1. Volition: including capacities for
awareness of one's self and surroundings
and motivational state.
• 2. Planning- including abilities to
conceptualize change (look ahead), be
objective, conceive of alternatives and make
choices, develop a plan conceptually and
sustain attention.3.
 Executive functions
• 3. Purposive action- including
productivity and self regulation.
• 4. Performance effectiveness- or quality
control.
These functions are skills including
anticipation, goal direction, planning,
internal and external monitoring, and
the interpretation and application of
feedback.

Tests: Design Fluency Test (Jones-

Gotman & Milner, 1977), Ruff Figure
Fluency Test (Ruff et al., 1987),
Wisconsine Card Sorting Test
 Test to assess planning:
• Porteus Mazzes (Porteus, 1965)
• Tower of Hanoi (Cohen & Crikin, 1981)
• Tower of London (Shallice, 1982)
• Tinkertoy Test
 Memory testing
• The WAIS is a starting point
– Digit Span tests retention
– Information tests remote memory

• Other common memory tests are:

– The Wechsler Memory Scale (1945)
– Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Recall
– Corsi Blocks

Neuropsychological Testing
 Example 4: The Wechsler
Memory Scale (Revised)
• Consists of 7 subtests:
1.) Personal & current information: Age, date of
birth, current head of state etc.
2.) Orientation: Time and place
3.) Mental control: Automatisms such as
alphabet recitation; Conceptual tracking:
"Count by 4 from 1 to 53"
4.) Logical Memory: Immediate recall of two
paragraphs
Neuropsychological Testing
 The Wechsler Memory Scale
(Revised)
• Consists of 7 subtests:
5.) Digit Span: Like the WAIS-R, but shorter: no 3-
forward/2-back, or 9 forward/8-back
6.) Visual Reproduction: An immediate visual
memory drawing task
7.) Associate learning: 10 words pairs; 6 easy
associations (eg. baby-cries) and 4 hard
associations (eg. cabbage-pen).
- 3 presentations with test after each
- Score = 0.5 easy + hard
Neuropsychological Testing
 PGI-MEMORY SCALE
It defines memory as the ability to retain and reproduce
impression once perceived intentionally. It includes verbal and
non verbal materials and measures remote recent and immediate,
very sort term, intermediate term and long term memories.

There are 10 subtests, standardized on adult subjects in the age

range of 20 to 45 ears.

Test retest reliability is .69 to .85

 Materials :
1. Memory test proforma containing items for the 10 subtests
Remote memory (6 items)
Recent memory (5 items)
Mental balance (3 items)
Attention concentration (2set of digit span test)
Delayed recall (2list of five names each common objects)
Immediate recall (sentence reproduction) (3 sentence in
increasing length)
Verbal retention for similar pairs(five noun- noun pairs)
Verbal retention for dissimilar pairs( five noun-adjective pairs)
Visual retention (5 cards)
Recognition (2 cards)
2. A set of 5 cards for visual retention subtest IX
3. A set of 2 cards- one having picture of 10 common objects for
recognition –subtest X