MODULE INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

CHAPTER 5: MEMORY

Objectives:
a.) Label and review the principles of encoding, storage, and retrieval.
b.) Summarize the capacities of short-term memory and explain how
working memory is used to process information in it.

Stages of Memory: Encoding Storage and Retrieval

Memory is the term given to

the structures and processes involved
in the storage and subsequent
retrieval of information.
Memory is essential to all our lives. Without a memory of the past, we cannot
operate in the present or think about the future. We would not be able to remember
what we did yesterday, what we have done today or what we plan to do tomorrow.
Without memory, we could not learn anything.
Memory is involved in processing vast amounts of information. This information
takes many different forms, e.g. images, sounds or meaning.
For psychologists the term memory covers three important aspects of information
processing:

1. Memory Encoding
When information comes into our
memory system (from sensory input), it needs to
be changed into a form that the system can
cope with, so that it can be stored.
Think of this as similar to changing your
money into a different currency when you travel
from one country to another. For example, a
word which is seen (in a book) may be stored if
it is changed (encoded) into a sound or a
meaning (i.e. semantic processing).
There are three main ways in which information can be encoded (changed):
1. Visual (picture)
2. Acoustic (sound)
3. Semantic (meaning)
For example, how do you remember a telephone number you have looked up in
the phone book? If you can see it then you are using visual coding, but if you are
repeating it to yourself you are using acoustic coding (by sound).
Evidence suggests that this is the principle coding system in short-term memory
(STM) is acoustic coding. When a person is presented with a list of numbers and
letters, they will try to hold them in STM by rehearsing them (verbally).

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Rehearsal is a verbal process regardless of whether the list of items is presented

acoustically (someone reads them out), or visually (on a sheet of paper).
The principle encoding system in long-term memory (LTM) appears to be
semantic coding (by meaning). However, information in LTM can also be coded both
visually and acoustically.

2. Memory Storage
This concerns the nature of memory stores, i.e., where the information is stored,
how long the memory lasts for (duration), how much can be stored at any time
(capacity) and what kind of information is held.
The way we store information affects the way we retrieve it. There has been a
significant amount of research regarding the differences between Short Term
Memory (STM ) and Long Term Memory (LTM).
Most adults can store between 5 and 9 items in their short-term memory. Miller
(1956) put this idea forward and he called it the magic number 7. He though that short-
term memory capacity was 7 (plus or minus 2) items because it only had a certain
number of “slots” in which items could be stored.
However, Miller didn’t specify the amount of information that can be held in each
slot. Indeed, if we can “chunk” information together we can store a lot more information
in our short-term memory. In contrast, the capacity of LTM is thought to be unlimited.
Information can only be stored for a brief duration in STM (0-30 seconds), but LTM can
last a lifetime.

3. Memory Retrieval
This refers to getting information out storage. If we can’t remember something, it
may be because we are unable to retrieve it. When we are asked to retrieve something
from memory, the differences between STM and LTM become very clear.
STM is stored and retrieved sequentially. For example, if a group of participants
are given a list of words to remember, and then asked to recall the fourth word on the
list, participants go through the list in the order they
heard it in order to retrieve the information.
LTM is stored and retrieved by association. This is
why you can remember what you went upstairs for if
you go back to the room where you first thought
about it.
Organizing information can help aid retrieval.
You can organize information in sequences (such as
alphabetically, by size or by time). Imagine a patient
being discharged from hospital whose treatment
involved taking various pills at various times,
changing their dressing and doing exercises.
If the doctor gives these instructions in the
order which they must be carried out throughout the
day (i.e., in the sequence of time), this will help the
patient remember them.

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How Long Do Memories Last?

Some memories are very brief, just seconds long, and allow us to take in sensory
information about the world around us.
Short-term memories are a bit longer and last about 20 to 30 seconds. These
memories mostly consist of the information we are currently focusing on and thinking
about.
Finally, some memories are capable of enduring much longer, lasting days,
weeks, months, or even decades. Most of these long-term memories lie outside of our
immediate awareness, but we can draw them into consciousness when they are
needed.
To know more about Consciousness please click the link below:
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Using Memory
To use the information that has been encoded
into memory, it first has to be retrieved. There are many
factors that can influence how memories are retrieved
such as the type of information being used and the
retrieval cues that are present.
Of course, this process is not always perfect.
Have you ever felt like you had the answer to a question
right at the tip of your tongue, but you couldn’t quite
remember it? This is an example of a perplexing
memory retrieval problem known as lethologica or the
tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.

Organizing Memory
The ability to access and retrieve information from long-term memory allows us
to actually use these memories to make decisions, interact with others, and solve
problems. But how is information organized in memory?
One way of thinking about memory organization is known as the semantic
network model. This model suggests that certain triggers activate associated memories.
A memory of a specific place might activate memories about related things that have
occurred in that location. For example, thinking about a particular campus building might
trigger memories of attending classes, studying, and socializing with peers.

Types of Memory
While several different models of memory have been proposed, the stage model
of memory is often used to explain the basic structure and function of memory. Initially
proposed in 1968 by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin, this theory outlines three
separate stages of memory: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term
memory.

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Sensory Memory
Sensory memory is the earliest stage of memory. During this stage, sensory
information from the environment is stored for a very brief period of time, generally for
no longer than a half-second for visual information and 3 or 4 seconds for auditory
information. We attend to only certain aspects of this sensory memory, allowing some of
this information to pass into the next stage: short-term memory.

Short-Term Memory
Short-term memory, also known as active memory, is the information we are
currently aware of or thinking about. In Freudian psychology, this memory would be
referred to as the conscious mind. Paying attention to sensory memories generates
information in short-term memory.
While many of our short-term memories are quickly forgotten, attending to this
information allows it to continue to the next stage: long-term memory. Most of the
information stored in active memory will be kept for approximately 20 to 30 seconds.
The term "short-term memory" is often used interchangeably with "working memory,"
which refers to the processes that are used to temporarily store, organize, and
manipulate information.

Long-Term Memory
Long-term memory refers to the
continuing storage of information. In Freudian
psychology, long-term memory would be
called the preconscious and unconscious. This
information is largely outside of our
awareness but can be called into working
memory to be used when needed. Some of
this information is fairly easy to recall, while
other memories are much more difficult to
access.

Losing Memory
Forgetting is a surprisingly common event. Just consider how often you forget
someone’s name or overlooked an important appointment. Why do we forget
information we have learned in the past? There are four basic explanations for why
forgetting occurs:
 Failure to store
 Interference
 Motivated forgetting
 Retrieval failure

Memory Tasks Used in Measuring Forgetting

The study of these memory tasks has led to several conclusions about the nature
of forgetting.

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Recognition
One aspect of forgetting is failure to recognize something we have experienced.
There are many ways of measuring recognition. In many studies, psychologist as
subjects to read a list of nonsense syllables. The subjects then read a second nonsense
list of nonsense syllables and indicate whether they recognized any of the syllables as
having prepared on the first list. Forgetting is defined as failure to recognize a syllable
that has been read before.
Recognition is the easiest type of memory task. This is why multiple-choice test
are easier than fill-in-the-blank or essay tests. We can recognize correct answers more
easily than we can recall the unaided.

Recall
Recall is more difficult than recognition. In a “I’ve learned that people
recognition task, on simply indicates whether an item will forget what you said,
has been seen before or which of a number of items is people will forget what you
paired with stimulus (as in multiple-choice test). In a
did, but people will never
recall test, the person must retrieve a syllable, with
another syllable serving as a cue. forget how you made them
Retrieval is made easier if the two syllables can feel”.
be meaningfully linked – that is, encoded semantically Maya Angelou
– even if the “meaning” is stretched.

Relearning
Relearning is sometimes called the savings method. Using this method, the
subject first learns some material and, after various lengths of time, relearns that same
material to the same criterion level. The number of trials to relearn the material is
always fewer than the number required to learn it the first time.
The formula for relearning expresses the percentage of practice time saved.
The relearning score = 100 x (original trials minus relearning trials) divided by original
trials
For example: If it took ten trials to learn the material originally and only four trials to
relearn it, the relearning score would equal 100 x (10-4)/10 = 60%
Relearning usually reveals more retention than recall because more stimulus
conditions are present in both the original learning and the relearning.

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The Biology of Memory

Just as information is stored on digital media such as DVDs and flash drives, the
information in LTM must be stored in the brain. The ability to maintain information in
LTM involves a gradual strengthening of the connections among the neurons in the
brain. When pathways in these neural networks are frequently and repeatedly fired, the
synapses become more efficient in communicating with each other, and these changes
create memory. This process, known as long-term potentiation (LTP), refers to the
strengthening of the synaptic connections between neurons as result of frequent
stimulation (Lynch, 2002). The period of time in which LTP occurs and in which
memories are stored is known as the period of consolidation.
Memory is not confined to the cortex; it occurs through sophisticated interactions
between new and old brain structures.
Hippocampus serves as a preprocessor and elaborator of information (Squire,
1992). The hippocampus helps us encode information about spatial relationships, the
context in which events were experienced, and the associations among memories
(Eichenbaum, 1999). This also serves in part as a
switching point that holds the memory for a short
time and then directs the information to other parts
of the brain, such as the cortex, to actually do the
rehearsing, elaboration, and long-term storage
(Jonides, Lacey, & Nee, 2005). Without the
hippocampus, which might be described as the
brain’s “librarian,” our explicit memories would be
inefficient and disorganized.
While the hippocampus is handling explicit
memory, the cerebellum and the amygdala are
concentrating on implicit and emotional memories,
respectively. Research shows that the cerebellum
is more active when we are learning associations and in priming tasks, and animals and
humans with damage to the cerebellum have more difficulty in classical conditioning
studies (Krupa, Thompson, & Thompson, 1993; Woodruff-Pak, Goldenberg, Downey-
Lamb, Boyko, & Lemieux, 2000). The storage of many of our most important emotional
memories, and particularly those related to fear, is initiated and controlled by the
amygdala (Sigurdsson, Doyère, Cain, & LeDoux, 2007).

To know more about Consciousness please click the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUoJc0NPajQ

https://www.simplypsychology.org/memory.html
http://online.sfsu.edu/psych200/unit4/43.htm
Introduction to Psychology by University of Minnesota pages335-336

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