Psychology of Memory

MD Selection Exam/2025
Vajira D
 Outline
• 3 Stage Memory Model
• LTM classification-3 Memory Systems
• Encoding
• Forgetting
• Remembering/ Retrieval
• Accuracy of memories
• Disorders of memory
• Testing memory
 What is Memory ?
• The process of RETAINING and
RETRIEVING (what is learned)
• Is localized in brain as physical changes
produced by experience- Engram
• Nature of the Physical change ?
 Process and Content
• Memory includes Processes that
• Record and allow later access to
content
Events
People
Information
 Temporal Staging of memory-
3 stages

• Encoding-Perception AND Registration

• Storage- Retention overtime
• Retrieval-Using of information
Aspects /Attributes of A Memory
• Space
• Time
• Sensory perception
• Response
• Affect
 Location of Memory
 In the brain (CNS)
 in a Distributed Manner
 in Component parts
 In THE SAME neural systems that
participate in initial Processing and
Analysis
Systems/Types of Memory Storage
• Sensory memory
• Short term (Working
memory)
• Long term memory
 The Multi Store Model of memory
(the Modal model/Atkinson and Shiffrin memory
model/Structural model)
 Sensory Memory
• Iconic/ Echoic memory
• Momentary recording
American psychologist: George
Sperling( 1960)
• Duration-4 seconds
• Capacity: Large
• Nature/Location: Nerve Fiber Charges
 “Short Term” Memory

 An ‘Unfortunate’/ bad Term

 Original use-ability to hold information
over a brief period of time
 Synonym: Working memory (Current
term)
• Working memory :A broader system;
stores information briefly AND allows
manipulation and use of the stored
information
 Working Memory
 Duration: <12-18 Seconds
 Capacity: 7+/-2, Magic number-7
 American Psychologist George Miller 1956
 recent studies(Nelson Cowan) report less capacity)
 Sound encoding
 ?chunking
 Capacity decreases with age, critical for mental work
e.g. calculation, thinking
 Correlated with intelligence (as measured by
intelligence tests)
 Location: Prefrontal, left and Right temporo-parietal
region
 Working Memory -(Baddely, Goldman-Rakic)

• 2 ways of information handling

– Phonological loop- Auditory information
– Visuospatial sketch pad- Visual and spatial information
• Not a mere temporary store-“Sketch pad”
• 2 systems
– Spatial ( Dorsolateral prefrontal)
– Object (Inferolateral preforontal)
• Episodic buffer- later addition->Information on Time
sequence
• Patients can have abnormal working memory but intact
LTM
• Abnormalities in prefrontal circuits:
– working memory deficits in schizophrenia, depressive
disorders
Working Memory model
Serial Positioning Effect of memory
• Testing for working memory storage:
– Recalling Lists of items
– Initial and later terms better recalled
• Recency
• Primacy
• Recall Immediately and 30s later
• Decency effect: disappears in 30s
• Primacy: is eliminated by hippocampus lesions
• Supports the structural model
Dissociation of memory and intellect
• Severe memory loss can occur in a
background of otherwise normal intellect:
– e.g. Amnesic syndrome
• Laying down of memory:
– Medial Temporal lobe and Midline Diencephalon
What is Intermediate Term Memory
(ITM) ?

• Memories that out last STM but

shorter than LTM.
• E.g.?
The multi store model shortcomings
(Atkinson and Shiffrin model)

• A passive/One way/Linear model

• Short term memory is more than just one simple
unitary store and comprises different
components
• Different types of long-term memory have been
identified
• Rehearsal is considered a too simple explanation
to account for the transfer of information from
STM to LTM.
• The model ignores factors such as motivation,
effect and strategy (e.g. mnemonics)
Long Term Memory
 Long term memory
 A broad term
 3 systems:
 Episodic memory
 Semantic memory
 Procedural memory
 Duration: from 30s onwards
 Capacity: INDEFINITE
 Location: Distributed, Meaning encoding
 Hippocampus (medial temporal lobe)
dependent
 Classification of LTM
• LTM
–Declarative
• Episodic
• Semantic
–Non declarative
 Declarative Memory
• Synonym: Explicit memory
• Subdivisions: Episodic and Semantic
• Impaired in amnesia
• A brain-systems construct (depends on
medial temporal - Diencephalon structures)
• Stores representations of objects, episodes
and facts
• Fast and flexible
• 1-trial training
 Episodic vs. Semantic
• Episodic –Autobiographical,
connected to time and place
• Semantic-
Impersonal, General knowledge, not
time locked
 Non Declarative Memory
• Memories outside awareness
• Synonym: Implicit memory
• Not a single Brain-Systems construct
• Involved in Skilled Behavior
• Slow and need practice
• Relatively inflexible
• Involves: PROCEDURAL MEMORY (Dorsal striatum),
SIMPLE CLASSICAL CONDITIONING ( Cerebellum,
Amygdala and brain stem), PRIMING (Neocortex) ?
– Read: Can concepts be learned implicitly ?
 Memory Encoding
• Encoding: the process of perceiving
information and bringing it into the memory
system
• Encoding is not simply copying
• Recoding: or converting information from one
form to another
• Linking: to existing LTM
• Maintenance: rehearsal, rote learning,
Elaborative encoding
 Triple dissociation of Memory
• Raymond Kesner:
– Declarative: Hippocampus
– Non declarative: Dorsal Striatum
– Affect : Amygdala
 Forgetting
• The loss of information over time
• Theories of forgetting:
• Ineffective Encoding
• Encoding failure-Memory was never formed
• Storage failure
• Decay theory- for sensory ,working and LTM-?
reminiscence
• Disuse
• Retrieval failure
• Interference : Classic experiment –Better Memory after
sleep vs. activity (John Jenkins and Karl Dallenbach)
• Proactive( Previous) and Retroactive (New) interference
• Repression-Freud , Motivated forgetting
 Remembering/Retrieval
• 2 classes of retrieval-
• (1)implicit
• (2)explicit
• Factors:
• Retrieval cues/ Reinstating context-
– any stimulus that helps us recall information in
long-term memory
• Priming
• Reconstruction (e.g. Bartlett stories, Eye
witness testimonies, recovered memory
syndromes)
 Retrieval cues

• Encoding Specificity
principle
– Distinctiveness
– State-dependent memory
– Mood-dependent memory
 Explicit Retrieval
• Deliberate and conscious retrieval -facts,
past experiences
• TESTING-2 main TYPES
• RECALL TESTS-
• Serial recall or free recall (No
hints/Cues)
• RECOGNITION TESTS-identification of
those seen before
• Also by relearning and priming(implicit
memories)
 Implicit Retrieval

• Using stored information

without trying to retrieve
it.
• e.g., Unintentional
Plagiarism
• Past experience is
expressed relatively
automatically.
 Priming

• Facilitating the retrieval by

cues
• Evidence for implicit memory
e.g. Word Stem Construction,
Amnesic individuals may have
intact implicit memory
 Unusual Retrievals

• Déjà Vu, Jamais Vu

• Flash Bulb
Memories
• Tip of the tongue
 Accuracy of memories
• A controversial subject
• Legal implications e.g. eye witness
testimonies
• False memories:
– E.g. Piaget’s Abduction,
– Rape allegations(Repressed memories)
– ?Recalling Past Life
• Lost in the mall technique: Elizabeth F.
Loftus
Car crash experiment
(Loftus and Palmer 1974)
Car crash experiment
(Loftus and Palmer 1974)
Reconstructionist view of memory
• Memory is like a Wikipedia page
• Memories are malleable, they can be
changed, fused, created, altered, and lost
• Leading “Smash” question: broken glass
• Forms of psychotherapy:
• Interpretive construction that cannot be
absolutely verified without external
corroborating evidence
• Episodic memories are more vulnerable
than procedural or semantic memories
The misinformation effect
• A person's recall of episodic
memories becomes less accurate
because of post-event
information.
• Retroactive interference
– Suggestibility
– Misattribution
Permanence of Memories

 Many “memories” from brain

stimulations are clearly imaginary
 Older memories are often
updated, changed, lost or revised
 Constructive Processing -up dating
of memories- gaps could be filled
by new information
 Wikipedia analogy
 Culture and memory

• We encode what is
personally/culturally
important
• Recall and encoding among
different cultures
 Disorders of memory

 Psychological vs. organic memory

disorders
 Anterograde Amnesia
 Retrograde Amnesia
 Dementias
 Amnesic Syndrome
 Isolated memory loses- Dissociative
amnesia
Summary
 Testing for
memory in
Clinical setting
• Higherachial
arrangement
• Prerequisites'
• Auditory data/
visual data
• STM and LTM,
Remote
memory