MEMORY

CHAPTER 3
• Memory:

• an active system that receives information from the senses, puts that information into a
usable form, organizes it as it stores it away, and then retrieves the information from
storage

• THREE PROCESSES OF MEMORY:

1] Encoding:

• The first process in the memory system  to get sensory information into a form that the
brain can use.

• Encoding is the set of mental operations that people perform on sensory information to
• Encoding is accomplished differently in each of three different storage systems

• In one system, encoding may involve rehearsing information over and over to keep it in memory,

• in another system, it involves elaborating on the meaning of the information

2] Storage:

• The next step in memory is to hold on to the information for some period of time

• The period of time will actually be of different lengths, depending on the system of memory being used.

• For example, in one system of memory, people hold on to information just long enough to work with it, about 20
seconds or so.

• In another system of memory, people hold on to information more or less permanently.

3] Retrieval:
• MODELS OF MEMORY:

A] Information-processing model-

• assumes the processing of information for memory storage is similar to the way a computer processes memory in
a series of three stages.

B] Parallel distributed processing model- (PDP)

• memory processes take place at the same time over a large network of neural connections.

• memory as a simultaneous process, with the creation and storage of memories taking place across a series of
mental networks

C] Levels-of-processing model- (LOP)

• information that is more “deeply processed,” or processed according to its meaning rather than just the sound or
physical characteristics of the word or words, will be remembered more efficiently and for a longer period of time.
• The Information-Processing Model: Three Memory Systems

• It was also information-processing theorists who first proposed that there are
three types of memory systems  sensory memory, short-term memory, and
long-term memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968).

• SENSORY MEMORY:

• the very first stage of memory, where raw information from the senses is held for
a very brief period of time.

• information enters the nervous system through the sensory systems—eyes, ears,
• ICONIC SENSORY MEMORY:
• Visual sensory memory
• only lasts for a fraction of a second.

• classic experiments by George Sperling (1960)

• information that has just entered iconic memory will be pushed out very quickly
by new information, a process called masking

• some people have eidetic imagery the ability to access a visual sensory
memory over a long period of time

• ECHOIC SENSORY MEMORY:

• Auditory memory
• SHORT-TERM MEMORY:

• If an incoming sensory message is important enough to enter consciousness, that

message will move from sensory memory to the next process of memory, called short-
term memory (STM).

• Unlike sensory memory, short-term memories may be held for up to 30 seconds and
possibly longer through maintenance rehearsal.

• SELECTIVE ATTENTION:

• the ability to focus on only one stimulus from among all sensory input (Broadbent, 1958).

• It is through selective attention that information enters our STM system.

• filter theory a kind of “bottleneck” occurs between the processes of
sensory memory and short-term memory.

• Only a stimulus that is “important” enough will make it past the

bottleneck to be consciously analyzed for meaning in STM.

• When a person is thinking actively about information, that

information is said to be conscious and is also in STM

• Criticism- “cocktail-party effect”

• Treisman’s Attenuation theory-

• selective attention operates in a two-stage filtering process:

• In the first stage, incoming stimuli in sensory memory are filtered on the basis of simple physical
characteristics

• there is only a lessening (attenuation) of the “signal strength” of unselected sensory stimuli in
comparison to the selected stimuli

• second stage, only the stimuli that meet a certain threshold of importance are processed

• Since the attenuated stimuli are still present at this second stage, something as subjectively important
as one’s own name may be able to be “plucked” out of the attenuated incoming stimuli
• WORKING MEMORY:

• short-term memory  simple storage

• working memory  storage and manipulation of information (Baddeley, 2012).

• Short-term memory has traditionally been thought of as a thing or a place into

which information is put.

• memory researchers prefer to think of memory in terms of a more continuous

system, where information flows from one form of representation to another

• Working memory  an active system that processes the information present

• Working memory consists of three interrelated systems:

1. central executive (a kind of “CEO” or “Big Boss”) that controls and coordinates
the other two systems,

2. the visuospatial “sketchpad”

3. a kind of auditory action “recorder” or phonological loop

• The central executive acts as interpreter for both the visual and auditory
information
• CAPACITY:

• George Miller (1956) wanted to know how much information humans can hold in short-term
memory at any one time

• He reviewed several memory studies, including some using a memory test called the digit-span
test a series of numbers is read to subjects in the study who are then asked to recall the numbers
in order.

• Each series gets longer and longer, until the subjects cannot recall any of the numbers in order.

• Miller concluded that the capacity of STM is about seven items or pieces of information, plus or
minus two items, or from five to nine bits of information.
• If the bits of information are combined into meaningful units, or chunks,
more information can be held in STM

• This process of recoding or reorganizing the information is called chunking.

• Chances are that anyone who can easily remember more than eight or nine
digits in the digit-span test is probably recoding the numbers into chunks.
• DURATION:

• Research has shown that short-term memory lasts from about 12 to 30 seconds without
rehearsal

• After that, the memory seems to rapidly “decay” or disappear.

• maintenance rehearsal

• practice of saying some information to be remembered over and over in one’s head in
order to maintain it in short- term memory.

• a person is simply continuing to pay attention to the information to be held in memory,

• With this type of rehearsal, information will stay in STM until rehearsal stops
• LONG-TERM MEMORY:

• all the information is placed to be kept more or less permanently.

• Capacity unlimited

• DURATION:

• There is a relatively permanent physical change in the brain itself when a memory is
formed.

• That does not mean that people can always retrieve those memories.

• The memories may be available but not accessible they are still there, but for
• Information that is rehearsed long enough may actually find its way into long-
term memory.

• Rote learning- “rotating” the information in one’s head, saying it over and over
again.

• maintenance rehearsal is not the most efficient way of putting information into
long-term storage, because to retrieve, one has to remember it almost exactly as
it went in.

• LTM is encoded in meaningful form, a kind of mental storehouse of the meanings

• Elaborative rehearsal  a way of increasing the number of retrieval cues for
information by connecting new information with something that is already well
known

• Craik and Lockhart (1972)  information that is more “deeply processed,” or

processed according to its meaning rather than just the sound or physical
characteristics of the word or words, will be remembered more efficiently and for
a longer period of time.

• the levels-of-processing approach predicts, elaborative rehearsal is a deeper kind

of processing than maintenance rehearsal and so leads to better long-term
storage
• TYPES OF LONG-TERM INFORMATION:

• LTM includes general facts and knowledge, personal facts, and skills that can be
performed.

• Memory for skills is a type of nondeclarative memory, or implicit memory,

because the skills have to be demonstrated and not reported.

• Memory for facts is called declarative memory, or explicit memory, because facts
are things that are known and can be declared
• nondeclarative (implicit) memory

• type of long-term memory including memory for skills, procedures, habits, and
conditioned responses.

• These memories are not conscious but are implied to exist because they affect
conscious behavior.

• anterograde amnesia

• loss of memory from the point of injury or trauma forward, or the inability to
form new long-term memories.
• declarative (explicit) memory

• type of long-term memory containing information that is conscious and known.

• semantic memory

• type of declarative memory containing general knowledge, such as knowledge of language and

information learned in formal education.

• episodic memory

• type of declarative memory containing personal information not readily available to others, such
 Retrieval of Long-Term Memories
• RETRIEVAL CUES:

• remembering a piece of information by thinking of what it means and how it fits

in with existing knowledge multiple cues for meaning in addition to sound.

• The more retrieval cues stored with a piece of information, the easier the
retrieval of that information will be

• This connection between surroundings and remembered information is called

encoding specificity.
• CONTEXT EFFECTS ON MEMORY RETRIEVAL-

• the tendency for memory of any kind of information to be improved if retrieval

conditions are similar to the conditions under which the information was
encoded (Tulving & Thomson, 1973).

• These conditions, or cues, can be internal or external.

• Context-dependent learning  the physical surroundings a person is in when

they are learning specific information.

• Study on scuba divers- Godden & Baddeley, 1975

• STATE-DEPENDENT LEARNING-

• memories formed during a particular physiological or psychological state will be

easier to remember while in a similar state

• researchers had subjects try to remember words that they had read while listening
to music.

• Subjects read one list of words while listening to sad music (influencing their mood
to be sad) and another list of words while listening to happy music.

• recall the lists the researchers again manipulated the mood of the subjects.

• The words that were read while subjects were in a happy mood were remembered
better if the manipulated mood was also happy but far less well if the mood was sad
• RECALL AND RECOGNITION:

• Recall memories are retrieved with few or no external cues, such as filling in the blanks on an application
form.

• Recognition involves looking at or hearing information and matching it to what is already in memory.

• serial position effect

• tendency of information at the beginning and end of a body of information to be remembered more accurately
than information in the middle

• primacy effect

• tendency to remember information at the beginning of a body of information better

• recency effect

• tendency to remember information at the end of a body of information better

• AUTOMATIC ENCODING: FLASHBULB MEMORIES-

• Automatic encoding- many kinds of long-term memories seem to enter

permanent storage with little or no effort at all

• People unconsciously notice and remember a lot of things, such as the passage of
time, knowledge of physical space, and frequency of events.

• A special kind of automatic encoding  when an unexpected event or episode in

a person’s life has strong emotional associations, such as fear, horror, or joy.

• Memories of highly emotional events can often seem vivid and detailed 

• Emotional reactions stimulate the release of hormones that have been shown to
THE RECONSTRUCTIVE NATURE OF LTM RETRIEVAL

• As new memories are created in LTM, old memories can get “lost,” but they are more
likely to be changed or altered in some way (Baddeley, 1988).

• memories are never quite accurate, and the more time that passes, the more
inaccuracies creep in.

• Sir Frederic Bartlett

• memory as a problem-solving activity  the person tries to retrieve the particulars of

some past event by using current knowledge and inferring from evidence to create the
memory
• MEMORY RETRIEVAL PROBLEMS :

• The Misinformation Effect-

• False memories are created by a person being exposed to information after the event.

• That misleading information can become part of the actual memory, affecting its
accuracy

• Study by Elizabeth Loftus- subjects viewed a slide presentation of a traffic accident.

The actual slide presentation contained a stop sign, but in a written summary of the
presentation, the sign was referred to as a yield sign. Subjects who were given this
misleading information after viewing the slides were far less accurate in their
memories for the kind of sign present
• EBBINGHAUS AND THE FORGETTING CURVE:

• one of the first researchers to study forgetting.

• Because he did not want any verbal associations to aid him in remembering, he
created several lists of “nonsense syllables”

• He memorized a list, waited a specific amount of time, and then tried to retrieve
the list, graphing his results each time.

• The result has become a familiar graph: the curve of forgetting.

• This graph clearly shows that forgetting happens quickly within the first hour after
learning the lists and then tapers off gradually.
• REASONS WE FORGET:

1. encoding failure- the failure to process information into memory.

2. decay – loss of memory due to the passage of time, during which the memory trace is not
used.

3. Interference theory- other information interferes

a) proactive interference: the tendency for older or previously learned material to interfere
with the learning (and subsequent retrieval) of new material.

b) retroactive interference: When newer information interferes with the retrieval of older