Week 12
Lecture 23 &24
Memory
Objectives
In this chapter we will go through
• Different three stages involved to encode
information into memory.
• Describe the main ways that information is
organized in long-term memory.
• Identify the process how can we improve
memory.
• Explain the forgetting process and discuss how it
improves our memory.
Memory
• “Memory is the process of maintaining information over
time.” (Matlin, 2005)
• “Memory is the means by which we draw on our past
experiences in order to use this information in the
present’ (Sternberg, 1999).
• Memory is an active system that receives, organizes, and
stores information.
• Memory is the process in which information is encoded,
stored and retrieved.
An Information-Processing Model
Here is a simplified description of how memory works
• Encoding: to represent
Encoding information in some form
(sound, visual image) that can
be stored.
• Storage: the information is
held in a way that allows it to
Storage later be retrieved.
• Retrieval: reactivating and
recalling the information,
producing it in a form similar
Retrieval to what was encoded.
Types of memory
There are three types of memory:
1. Sensory memory
2. Short-term memory
3. Long-term memory
1. Sensory memory
• Sensory memory refers to the immediate, very brief
recording of sensory information before it is processed
into short-term, working, or long-term memory.
• We very briefly capture a sensory memory of all the
sensations we take in.
• Iconic (Visual) Memory: form of sensory memory that holds
visual information for up to one second.
• Echoic (Auditory) Memory: form of sensory memory that
holds auditory information for one to two seconds.
2. Short-Term Memory (STM)
• The stuff we encode from the sensory goes to STM.
• Events are encoded visually, acoustically or semantically.
• George Miller (b. 1920) proposed that we can hold 7 + 2
information bits (for example, a string of 5 to 9 letters).
• More recent research suggests that the average person, free
from distraction, can hold about:
7 digits, 6 letters, or 5 words.
• Short term memory has three key aspects:
• 1. limited capacity (only about 5 to 9 items can be stored at
a time)
• 2. limited duration (storage is very fragile and information
can be lost with distraction or passage of time)
• 3. encoding (primarily acoustic, even translating visual
information into sounds).
Improving capacity of short-term
memory
• Once information has been stored into short-term memory, a
variety of control processes may be applied. These processes
improve the capacity of short-term memory. Rehearsal and
chunking are two important examples.
• Rehearsal: mental repetition of information for retention in
short-term memory. For e.g., when the grocery list is
rehearsed, it can be held in STM for relatively long period of
times.
• Chunking: chunks are the unit of memory. Although it’s true
that we can hold only nine items in STM, but we can improve
the capacity by using chunking.
3. Long-term memory(LTM)
• Long-term memory, or LTM, is store house for information
that must be kept for long periods of time. LTM is more
durable than STM.
• There are two main types of long term memory.
1. Explicit (declarative) memory
2. Implicit (nondeclarative) memory
Types of long term memory
Long term
memory
Explicit Implicit
(nondeclarati-
(declarative) ve) memory
memory
Episodic Semantic Procedural
memory Memory Memory
Types of long term memory
1. Explicit (declarative) memory
• Explicit memory requires conscious thought—such as
recalling who came to dinner last night or naming animals
that live in the rainforest. Explicit memory is further divided
into two types:
a. Episodic memory: for specific experiences that took
place at specific times in specific place. For e.g., memory of
occasions and events. Episodic memory is autobiographical
because it provides us with a crucial record of our personal
experiences.
b. Semantic Memory: memory for meaning. For e.g., what
the phrase “peace of mind” means. It accounts for our
"textbook learning" or general knowledge about the world.
Types of long term memory
2. Implicit (nondeclarative) memory
It stands in contrast to explicit memory in that it doesn't
require conscious thought. It allows you to do things by
rote. This memory isn't always easy to verbalize, since it
flows effortlessly in our actions. Procedural memory is the
type of implicit memory
• Procedural Memory: It enables us to carry out
commonly learned tasks without consciously thinking
about them. It is a memory for motor movements and
skills, such as how to ride a bicycle, to cook etc.
Forgetting
Nature and Causes
“If we remembered everything, we should on
most occasions be as ill off as if we
remembered nothing”
William James
Forgetting
• Forgetting is to exclude useless material from the
conscious. Psychologists say that forgetting is a
blessing to give way to proceed in learning and
retaining useful things.
Causes of Forgetting
❖ Brain shock or trauma due to any head injury or an accident or damage to
hippocampus.
❖ Decay of brain cells due to old age.
❖ Unconscious reasons of frustration are stress, anxiety and complexes which
cause motivated forgetting. Repression is the basic defense mechanism that
blocks from consciousness painful memories and anxiety arousing thoughts.
❖ Long time pause between the event experienced and the recall.
❖ Disinterest and lack of motivation cause forgetfulness.
❖ Over learning and lack of sleep also causes forgetting.
❖ Intoxication, drug addiction, alcohol and opium affects active recall
Interference
• Interference is an explanation for forgetting in
long term memory, which states that forgetting
occurs because memories interfere with and
disrupt one another, in other words forgetting
occurs because of interference from other
memories (Baddeley, 1999).
Types of interference
❖ Proactive inhibition and retroactive inhibition or interference also cause
forgetting..
Proactive interference (pro=forward) occurs when you cannot learn a
new task because of an old task that had been learnt. When what we
already know interferes with what we are currently learning – where old
memories disrupt new memories.
Retroactive interference (retro=backward) occurs when you forget a
previously learnt task due to the learning of a new task. In other words,
later learning interferes with earlier learning - where new memories
disrupt old memories.
Student Task
• If you were to quickly read the following list of 12
words once, you probably not be able to recall it
after 10 seconds. Which method do you used to
retain it for long time in short term memory.
east, spring, fall, dorsal, west, medial, winter, lateral,
north, ventral, summer, south.
• Describe a situation in which you need to use
working memory to perform a task or solve a
problem. How do your working memory skills help
you?
• Discuss how forgetting is good or bad.
Video Links
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJWadZiC
0SI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuZAUJbjg
LU
Outcomes
• Students enable to discuss how information
stores in our memory.
• Now students are able to differentiate between
three types of memory.
• They are enable to increase the capacity of short
term memory.
• They Now can explain how forgetting occurs and
its impact on human beings.
Question and answers session
References
• https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontopsychology
/chapter/8-1-memories-as-types-and-stages/
• Zarin Bukhari (2010). “Processes of Psychology
and Applied Psychology”.
• Robert S. Feldman. (5th Edition).“Understanding
Psychology”.
The End
