MEMORY

LECTURE NO 04
What is Memory?

 Memory: The
process by
which we
encode, store,
and retrieve
information.
What is Memory?

 Analogous to a
computer’s keyboard
(encoding), hard drive
(storage), and software
that accesses the
information for display
on the screen
(retrieval)
Three-system approach to
memory
Three-system approach to
memory

 Sensory memory refers to the initial,

momentary storage of information that
lasts only an instant.
Three-system approach to
memory

 Short-term memory holds information

for 15 to 25 seconds and stores it according to
its meaning rather than as mere sensory
stimulation.
Three-system approach to
memory

 Long-term memory: Information is

stored in long-term memory on a
relatively permanent basis.
Three-system approach to
memory
1. Sensory memory

 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.
1. Sensory memory

 Iconic memory (less than second)

 Echoic memory (2-3 seconds)

1. Sensory memory

 Auditory sensory memory or echoic sensory

memory: Hearing a bird sing.

 Visual sensory memory or iconic sensory

memory: Seeing the stop sign.

 Taste sensory memory or gustatory sensory

memory: Tasting the sauce on a pizza.
2. SHORT TERM MEMORY

 Short-term memory capacity 7 (plus or minus

2) items

 Chunk: A meaningful grouping of stimuli that

can be stored as a unit in short-term memory.
SHORT TERM MEMORY

 Chunking is putting related items together in

short-term memory so that the maximum
amount of memory can be reached.

 A chunk can be individual letters or numbers,

permitting us to hold a seven-digit phone
number
2. SHORT TERM MEMORY

PBSFOXCNNAB
CCBSMTVNBC
2. SHORT TERM MEMORY

 Because the list exceeds seven chunks,

it is difficult to recall the letters after one
exposure.

PBS FOX CNN ABC CBS MTV NBC

 21 letters (7 chunks)
2. SHORT TERM MEMORY

 Rehearsal: The repetition of information

 Rehearsal accomplishes two things.

1.First, as long as the information is

repeated, it is maintained in short-term
memory.
SHORT TERM MEMORY

2. More important, however, rehearsal

allows us to transfer the information
into long-term memory.
2. SHORT TERM MEMORY

 Elaborative rehearsal occurs when the

information is considered and organized in
some fashion.

 To make it fit into a logical framework, linking

it to another memory, turning it into an image,
or transforming it in some other way
2. SHORT TERM MEMORY

 Mnemonics: formal techniques for organizing

information in a way that makes it more likely
to be remembered.

 Mnemonic devices include special rhymes

and poems, acronyms, images, songs,
outlines, and other tools.
2. SHORT TERM MEMORY

 Working Memory: A set of active,

temporary memory.

 It's a skill that allows us to work with

information without losing track of what we're
doing. Think of working memory as a
temporary sticky note in the brain.
SHORT TERM MEMORY

 Working memory is thought to contain a

central executive processor that is involved in
reasoning and decision making.
2. SHORT TERM MEMORY
3. LONG TERM MEMORY

 Material that makes its way from short-term

memory to long-term memory enters a
storehouse of almost unlimited capacity.

 Like a new file we save on a hard drive, the

information in long-term memory is filed and
coded so that we can retrieve it when we need
it.
LONG TERM MEMORY

 Primacy effect occurs, in which items presented

early in a list are remembered better.

 Recency effect, in which items presented late in

a list are remembered best.

 Declarative memory: Memory for factual

information: names, faces, dates, and the like
3. LONG TERM MEMORY
MODULES
 Procedural memory: Memory for skills and
habits, such as riding a bike or hitting a
baseball, sometimes referred to as
nondeclarative memory.

 Episodic memory: Memory for events that

occur in a particular time, place, or context
LONG TERM MEMORY MODULES

 Semantic memory: 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.
3. LONG TERM MEMORY
MODULES
3. LONG TERM MEMORY
MODULES
 Semantic networks: Mental representations of clusters of
interconnected information.
Class Discussion

 The ability to remember specific skills and the

order in which they are used is known as
procedural memory. If driving a car involves
procedural memory, is it safe to use a cell
phone while driving?
THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MEMORY
THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MEMORY

 The hippocampus, a part of the brain’s limbic

system plays a central role in the
consolidation of memories.
 That information is subsequently passed along
to the cerebral cortex of the brain, where it is
actually stored.
 The amygdala is especially involved with
memories involving emotion.
RECALLING LONG TERM MEMORIES

 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.
RECALLING LONG TERM MEMORIES

 Retrieval cues: Retrieval cues guide people

through the information stored in long-term
memory in much the same way that a search
engine such as Google guides people through
the World Wide Web
RECALLING LONG TERM MEMORIES

 Recall: Memory task in which specific

information must be retrieved.

 Recognition: Memory task in which individuals

are presented with a stimulus and asked
whether they have been exposed to it in the
past or to identify it from a list of alternatives
RECALLING LONG TERM MEMORIES

 Levels-of-processing theory: The theory of

memory that emphasizes the degree to which new
material is mentally analyzed.
 Information to which we pay greater attention is
processed more thoroughly.
 Therefore, it enters memory at a deeper level and is
less apt to be forgotten than is information processed
at shallower levels.
RECALLING LONG TERM MEMORIES

 Explicit memory: 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
RECALLING LONG TERM MEMORIES

 Implicit memory: 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
RECALLING LONG TERM MEMORIES

 Priming: A phenomenon in which exposure to a

word or concept (called a prime) later makes it
easier to recall related information, even when there
is no conscious memory of the word or concept.

 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.
RECALLING LONG TERM MEMORIES

 Constructive processes: Processes in which

memories are influenced by the meaning we
give to events.

 Schemas: Organized bodies of information

stored in memory that bias the way new
information is interpreted, stored, and
recalled.
MEMORY IN THE COURTROOM:
THE EYEWITNESS ON TRIAL
 Eyewitnesses are apt to make significant errors
when they try to recall details of criminal activity

 The problem of memory reliability becomes

even more acute when children are witnesses,
because increasing evidence suggests that
children’s memories are highly vulnerable to the
influence of others.
MEMORY IN THE COURTROOM:
THE EYEWITNESS ON TRIAL

 Six years after being convicted of murder

based on a so-called repressed memory of his
daughter, George Franklin Sr.'s conviction was
overturned
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY:
WHERE PAST MEETS PRESENT

 Autobiographical memories are our

recollections of circumstances and episodes
from our own lives.

 Autobiographical memories encompass the

episodic memories we hold about ourselves
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY:
WHERE PAST MEETS PRESENT

 For example, we tend to forget information

about our past that is incompatible with the
way in which we currently see ourselves.

 College students misremember their bad

grades but remember their good ones
Why do we forget information?

 One reason is that we may not have paid

attention to the material in the first place—a
failure of encoding.

 Decay: The loss of information in memory

through its nonuse. Interference: The
phenomenon by which information in memory
disrupts the recall of other information.
Why do we forget information?

 Cue-dependent forgetting: Forgetting that

occurs when there are insufficient retrieval
cues to rekindle information that is in memory.

 Proactive interference: Interference in

which information learned earlier disrupts the
recall of newer material.
Why do we forget information?

 Retroactive interference: Interference in

which there is difficulty in the recall of
information learned earlier because of later
exposure to different material.
Why do we forget information?
MEMORY DYSFUNCTIONS

 Alzheimer’s disease: An illness characterized in

part by severe memory problems.

 Amnesia: Memory loss that occurs without other

mental difficulties.

 Retrograde amnesia: Amnesia in which memory is

lost for occurrences prior to a certain event.
MEMORY DYSFUNCTIONS

 Anterograde amnesia: Amnesia in which

memory is lost for events that follow an injury.

 Korsakoff’s syndrome: A disease that

afflicts long-term alcoholics, leaving some
abilities intact but including hallucinations and
a tendency to repeat the same story