Memory

The Nature of Memory

 Memory: internal record or

representation of some prior
event or experience
 Memory is also a constructive process, in
which we actively organize and shape
information as it is processed, stored, and
retrieved.
The Nature of Memory

 retention of information or
experience over time

Three Phases of Memory

 encoding
 storage
 retrieval
 Memory Processes

 Encoding--transforming information into a

form that can be entered and retained in
the the memory system
 Storage--retaining information in memory
so that it can be used at a later time
 Retrieval--recovering information stored
in memory so that we are consciously
aware of it
 The Nature of Memory
Four Memory Models
1. Information
Processing Approach:
memory is a process
analogous to a
computer, which
encodes, stores, and
retrieves information
The Nature of Memory
Four Memory Models

The Information Processing

Model is a framework, The model
likens the thinking process to
how a computer works.
Just like a computer, the human mind takes in
information, organizes and stores it to be retrieved at a
later time. Just as the computer has an input device, a
processing unit, a storage unit, and an output device,
so does the human mind have equivalent structures.

In a computer, information is entered by means of input

devices like a keyboard or scanner. In the human mind,
the input device is called the Sensory Register,
composed of sensory organs like the eyes and the ears
through which we receive information about our
surroundings.

As information is received by a computer, it is

processed in the Central Processing Unit, which is
equivalent to the Working Memory or
Short-Term Memory. In the human mind, this is where
information is temporarily held so that it may be used,
discarded, or transferred into long-term memory.
In a computer, information is stored in a
hard disk, which is equivalent to the
long-term memory. This is where we keep
information that is not currently being used.
Information stored in the Long-Term Memory
may be kept for an indefinite period of time.

When a computer processes information, it

displays the results by means of an output
device like a computer screen or a printout.
In humans, the result of information
processing is exhibited through behavior or
actions - a facial expression, a reply to a
question, or body movement.
The Nature of Memory
Four Memory Models
2. Parallel Distributed
Processing Model:
memory is distributed
across a network of
interconnected units
that work
simultaneously (in a
parallel fashion) to
process information
 The Nature of Memory
Four Memory Models
 The Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) model of memory
is based on the idea that the brain does not function in a
series of activities but rather performs a range of
activities at the same time, parallel to each other.
parallel processing refers to our ability to deal with multiple
stimuli simultaneously.

 The PDP model holds that the cognitive processes can be

explained by activation flowing through networks that link
together nodes. Every new event changes the strength of
connections among relevant units by altering the connection
weights. Consequently, you are likely to respond differently
the next time you experience a similar event
 The Nature of Memory
Four Memory Models

This theory of memory uses a pyramid to show

the “hierarchy” of different levels of processing,
from shallow to deep. The shallow processes,
including structural processes, are least likely to
be remembered long-term, while the deepest
processes are more likely to “stick.”
Structural Processing
Structural processing occurs when we encode the
physical appearance of something. For example, we
may notice the color of a written word or whether or
not it’s in all capitals. Structural processing (other
known as orthographic or visual processing) may
include taking it a stimulus’ color, size, shape, or
physical form.
This type of processing doesn’t require too much
deep thought. We simply take the stimulus for what it
is. It requires maintenance rehearsal, or repetition, in
order to stick in our short-term memory. Maintenance
rehearsal doesn’t stick as effectively as elaboration
rehearsal, but we’ll get to that in a bit.
Phonemic Processing
Phonemic processing is a step higher than structural
processing, but is still a shallow form of processing
information. It occurs when we take in sounds.
Let’s say you are looking at a list of words: play, bottle,
door, and chair. I ask you which of these words has two
syllables. Or I ask you which one rhymes with “hair.” In
order to answer the question correctly, you will have to
sound out each of the words in your head and count
syllables or compare it to the sound of the word “hair.”
Although phonemic processing is still considered a more
shallow form of processing, it often has a higher rate of
recall than visual processing. Maintenance rehearsal is
also required for the stimuli to stick in your short-term or
long-term memory.
Semantic Processing

The deepest form of processing is semantic processing.

This involves processing information about the meaning of
the word.
If structural processing encodes the font color of the word
“hair” and phonemic processing encodes the sound of the
word, semantic processing encodes what hair is, how it
relates to other words around it, etc. Because semantic
processing goes deeper than physical appearance or
auditory information, we encode it in a different. It
involves elaboration rehearsal. During elaboration
rehearsal, we may contemplate how the stimuli fits into our
everyday lives, at the task at hand, etc.
 The Nature of Memory
Four Memory Models

Serial Position Effect: Evidence for two memory stores

Serial Position Effect: remembering material at the beginning and end of the list better
than material in the middle

Primacy Effect
 more space in working memory for elaborative rehearsal during encoding: LTM

Recency Effect
 items still in working memory
 Three Stages of
Memory
 Three memory stores that differ in function,
capacity and duration

Maintenance Rehearsal

Encoding
Sensory Attention
Sensory Working or Long-term
Memory Short-term memory
Input
Memory Retrieval
Diagram of Three-Stage
Memory Model
The Nature of Memory
Three Stage of
Memory Model
 Sensory Memory: briefly preserves a
relatively exact replica of sensory information
 Sensory memory has a large capacity but
information only lasts a few seconds.
 Selected information is sent on to short-
term memory.
 *Sensory Memory

Sensory-is the shortest-term element of memory.

The ability to look at an item for a second and
then remember what it looked like.
It is processed approximately 200-500
milliseconds after an item is perceived.
 Sensory Memories
The duration of sensory memory varies
for the different senses.

Iconic
0.5 sec.
long
Echoic
3-4 sec. long

Hepatic
< 1 sec. long
 Sensory Memory
 Function —process for basic
physical characteristics
 Capacity—large
 can hold many items at once
 Duration—very brief retention of
Sensory images
Sensory  .3 sec for visual info
Input
Memory  2 sec for auditory info
 Divided into two types:
 iconic memory–visual information
 echoic memory– auditory
information
 Attention is needed to transfer
information to working memory
Sensory Memory
 Visual sensory memory—brief memory of
an image or icon. Also called iconic
memory.
 Auditory sensory memory—brief memory
of a sound or echo. Also called echoic
memory.
 Auditory sensory memories may last a bit
longer than visual sensory memories
The Nature of Memory
Three Stage Memory
Model
 Short-Term Memory (STM): temporarily
stores sensory information and decides
whether to send it on to long-term memory
(LTM)
 STM can hold 5-9 items for about 30
seconds before they are forgotten.
 STM capacity can be increased with
chunking. STM duration improves with
maintenance rehearsal.
 Short-term Memory
(Working Memory)
• Short-term or working
memory is the brief
time of keeping
something in mind
before dismissing it or
pushing it into long-
term memory. The
hippocampus and
subiculum store short-
term memories.
Short Term or Working
Memory

Sensory Attention Working or

Sensory
Short-term
Input
Memory
Memory
 Short-Term
Memory
 Function—conscious processing of
information
 where information is actively worked on
 Capacity—limited (holds 7+/-2 items)
 Duration—brief storage (about 30
seconds)
Sensory Attention Working or
Sensory
Short-term
Input
Memory
Memory
Maintenance Rehearsal

 Mental or verbal repetition of information allows

information to remain in working memory longer
than the usual 30 seconds
Maintenance Rehearsal

Sensory Attention
Sensory Working or
Memory Short-term
Input
Memory
 Types of Rehearsal

 Maintenance vs. Elaborative

 Repetition vs. Meaningful associations
Chunking

 Grouping small bits of information

into larger units of information
 expands working memory load
 Which is easier to remember?
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 483 792 516
 Chunking
The capacity of the working memory
may be increased by “chunking.”

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 Duration
Peterson and Peterson (1959) measured
the duration of working memory by
manipulating rehearsal.
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The duration of the working memory is

about 20 sec.
Working Memory Model
The Nature of Memory
Three Stage Memory
Model
 Long-Term
Memory (LTM):
relatively
permanent
memory storage
with a virtually
limitless capacity
 Long-Term Memory
 Once information passes from sensory to
working memory, it can be encoded into
long-term memory

Maintenance Rehearsal

Encoding
Sensory Attention
Sensory Working or Long-term
Memory Short-term memory
Input
Memory Retrieval
 Long-Term Memory
 Function—organizes and stores information
 more passive form of storage than working memory
 Unlimited capacity
 Duration—thought by some to be permanent

Maintenance Rehearsal

Encoding
Sensory Attention
Sensory Working or Long-term
Memory Short-term memory
Input
Memory Retrieval
 Long-Term Memory
 Encoding—process that controls movement
from working to long-term memory store
 Retrieval—process that controls flow of
information from long-term to working
memory store
Maintenance Rehearsal

Encoding
Sensory Attention
Sensory Working or Long-term
Memory Short-term memory
Input
Memory Retrieval
Automatic vs. Effortful
Encoding
 Automatic processing
 Unconscious encoding of information
 Examples:
 What did you eat for lunch today?
 Was the last time you studied during
the day or night?
 You know the meanings of these very
words you are reading. Are you
actively trying to process the definition
of the words?
Automatic vs. Effortful
Encoding
 Effortful processing
 Requires attention and conscious effort
 Examples:
 Memorizing your notes for your
upcoming Introduction to Psychology
exams
 Repeating a phone number in your
head until
you can write it down
Types of Long-Term
Memories
Types of Long-Term Memory

 Explicit memory—memory with

awareness; information can be
consciously recollected; also called
declarative memory
 Implicit memory—memory without
awareness; memory that affects behavior
but cannot consciously be recalled; also
called nondeclarative memory
 Explicit Memory

 Declarative or conscious memory

 Memory consciously recalled or
declared
 Can use explicit memory to directly
respond to a question
 Two subtypes of explicit memory
 Explicit Memory

 Episodic information—information
about events or “episodes”
 Semantic information—information
about facts, general knowledge,
school work
 Episodic Memory

 Memory tied to your own personal experiences

 Examples:
 What month is your birthday?
 Do you like to eat caramel apples?
 Q: Why are these explicit memories?
 A: Because you can actively declare your
answers to these questions
Semantic Memory

 Memory not tied to personal events

 General facts and definitions about
the world
 Examples:
 How many tires on a car?
 What is a cloud?
 What color is a banana?
 Does NOT depend on tying the item to your
past
Implicit Memory

 Nondeclarative memory
 Influences your thoughts or
behavior, but does not enter
consciousness
 Procedural Memory
 Memory that enables you to perform specific
learned skills or habitual responses
 Examples:
 Riding a bike
 Using the shift stick while driving
 Tying your shoe laces
 Q: Why are these procedural memories
implicit?
 A: Don’t have to consciously remember the
steps involved in these actions to perform them
 Try to explain to someone how to tie a
shoelace
How are memories
organized?

Clustering--organizing items
into related groups during
recall from long-term memory
Semantic Network Model

 Mental links between concepts

 common properties provide basis for mental link
 Shorter path between two concepts =
stronger association in memory
 Activation of a concept starts
decremental spread of activity to nearby
concepts
Semantic Network Model

Car Bus
Truck Fire
House
Engine
Fire
Ambulance
Red Hot Stove
Rose
Apple Cherry Pot Pan
Violet
Flower
Pear Pie
 Improving Long-
Term Memory (LTM)
 LTM can be improved with:
 Organization
 Elaborative Rehearsal
 Retrieval Cues
 Recognition
 Recall
 Memory Retrieval
Once information has been encoded and stored
in memory, it must be retrieved in order to be
used.
There are four basic ways in which
information can be pulled from long-term
memory

•Recall
•Recollection
•Recognition
 Memory Recall/Retrieval
Retrieval, recall or recollection (calling
back the stored information in response
to some cue for use in a process or
activity) previously encoded and stored
in the brain.

*During recall, the brain "replays" a

pattern of neural activity that was
originally generated in response to a
particular event,
Memory: Brain Structures
 Why do we forget?

Sensory memory
The senses momentarily register
amazing detail

 Forgetting
Short-term memory
A few items are both noticed
and encoded
can occur
at any
Long-term storage
Some items are altered or lost
memory
stage
Retrieval from long-term memory
Depending on interference, retrieval
cues, moods, and motives, some
things get retrieved, some don’t
Forgetting as retrieval
failure
 Retrieval—process of accessing stored information
 Sometimes info IS encoded into LTM, but we can’t
retrieve it

Encoding
Short-term Long-term
memory memory

X
Retrieval

Retrieval failure
leads to forgetting
Measures of Retrieval
 Recall—test of LTM that involves retrieving
memories without cues, also termed free recall
 Cued recall—test of LTM that involves
remembering an item of information in response
to a retrieval cue
 Recognition—test of LTM that involves
identifying correct information from a series of
possible choices
 Serial position effect—tendency to remember
items at the beginning and end of a list better
than items in the middle
 Encoding Specificity

– When conditions of retrieval are similar to

conditions of encoding, retrieval is more
likely to be successful
– You are more likely to remember things if
the conditions under which you recall
them are similar to the conditions under
which you learned them
 Encoding Specificity

 Context effects—environmental cues to

recall
 State dependent retrieval—physical,
internal factors
 Mood Congruence—factors related to
mood or emotions
 Flashbulb Memories

 Recall of very specific images or details

about a vivid, rare, or significant event
 May seem very vivid and specific, but
they are not more accurate than ordinary
memories
 Memory Distortion

 Memory can be distorted as people

try
to fit new info into existing schemas
 Giving misleading information after
an event causes subjects to
unknowingly distort their memories
to incorporate the new misleading
information
 Loftus Experiment

 Subjects shown
Leading question:
video of an accident “About how fast were the cars going
between two cars when they smashed into each other?”

 Some subjects
asked: How fast were Accident
the cars going when Memory construction
they smashed into
each other?
 Others asked: How
fast were the cars
going when the hit
each other?
 The Forgetting Curve

Hermann Ebbinghaus
first began to study
forgetting using
nonsense syllables

Nonsense syllables
are three-letter
combinations that
look like words but
are meaningless
(ROH, KUF)
 Forgetting Theories

 Encoding failure
 Interference theories
 Motivated forgetting
 Decay
Forgetting as encoding
failure

 Info never encoded into LTM

Short-term X
Encoding Long-term
memory memory

Encoding failure
leads to forgetting
Which is the real penny?

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

(f) (g) (h) (i) (j)

(k) (l) (m) (n) (o)

Answer

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

(f) (g) (h) (i) (j)

(k) (l) (m) (n) (o)

Encoding Failures

Even though you’ve seen

thousands of pennies, you’ve
probably never looked at one
closely to encode specific
features
 Interference Theories

 “Memories interfering with

memories”
 Forgetting NOT caused by mere
passage of time
 Caused by one memory
competing with or replacing
another memory
 Two types of interference
Two Types of Interference

Types of Interference

Retroactive Proactive
Interference Interference
Retroactive Interference

 When a NEW memory interferes

with remembering OLD information
 Example: When new phone
number interferes with ability to
remember old phone number
Retroactive
Interference
 Example: Learning a new language
interferes with ability to remember
old language
Study French Study Spanish
French 101
Mid-term

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retroactive interference
Proactive Interference
 Opposite of retroactive
interference
 When an OLD memory
interferes with
remembering NEW
information
 Example: Memories of
where you parked your
car on campus the past
week interferes with
ability find car today
Motivated Forgetting

Undesired memory is held back form

awareness
 Suppression—conscious forgetting
 Repression—unconscious forgetting
(Freudian)
Decay Theories
 Memories fade 100%

away or decay Average

percentage
gradually if of
information
unused retained

 Time plays
critical role
 Ability to retrieve 20 1 8 24 2 6 31
mins hr hrs hrs daysdaysdays
info declines with Interval between original
learning of nonsense syllables
time after original and memory test

encoding
 Decay Theories
 Biology-based theory
 When new memory formed, it creates
a memory trace
 a change in brain structure or chemistry
 If unused, normal brain metabolic
processes erode memory trace
 Theory not widely favored today
Biological Bases of Memory
 Biological changes in neurons facilitate
memory through long-term potentiation
(LTP), which happens in at least two
ways:
1. repeated stimulation of a synapse
strengthens the synapse, and
2. neuron’s ability to release its
neurotransmitters is increased or
decreased.
Biological Bases of Memory

 Hormones
also affect memory
(e.g., flashbulb
memories--vivid and
lasting images are
associated with
surprising or
strongly emotional
events).
Where Are Memories
Located?
 Memory tends
to be localized
and distributed
throughout the
brain--not just
the cortex.
Biological Basis of Memory

Karl Lashley searched for a localized

memory trace or engram
Found that maze-learning in rats was
distributed throughout the brain
Richard Thompson found that memory for
simple classically conditioned responses was
localized (in the cerebellum)
 Biology and Memory
Loss:
Injury and Disease
 Amnesia: memory
loss from brain injury
or trauma
• Retrograde amnesia:
old memories lost
• Anterograde
amnesia: new
memories lost
Amnesia
 Amnesia—severe memory loss
 Retrograde amnesia—inability to
remember past episodic information;
common after head injury; need for
consolidation
 Anterograde amnesia—inability to form
new memories; related to hippocampus
damage
Biology and Memory Loss:

Injury and Disease

 Alzheimer’s Disease (AD): progressive

mental deterioration characterized by
severe memory loss
Memory and the Criminal
Justice System
 Two memory problems
with profound legal
implications:
• Eyewitness Testimony--
very persuasive but can be flawed
• Repressed Memories—
considerable debate as to whether recovered
memories are accurate or repressed
 Using Psychology to
Improve Our Memory

 Why do we distort our memories?

 Need to maintain logic and consistency.

 Need to shape and construct our

memories because it is more efficient to
do so.
Pause and Reflect:
Why Study Psychology?
 Psychological research conducts
basic research, which helps us
describe and understand our own
and others’ memory processes. This
basic research also leads to applied
research that shows us how to
improve our sensory, short-term,
and long-term memory.
 Using Psychology to
Improve Our
Memory
 Eight Tips for Memory Improvement:
1. Pay attention and reduce interference
2. Use rehearsal techniques
3. Organization
4. Counteract serial position effect
5. Time management
 Using Psychology to
Improve Our Memory

6. Use encoding specificity principle

7. Employ self-monitoring and overlearning
8. Use mnemonic devices (e.g., method of
loci, peg-word, substitute word, word
associations)
 Pause and Reflect:
Critical Thinking

 Which of the “Eight Tips for Memory

Improvement” do you need to use to improve
your academic performance? Which of the
eight tips would your best friend suggest that
you need to improve for your everyday
interactions?