MEMORY SYSTEMS

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pınar Uran Kurtgöz

Izmir Democracy University Faculty of Medicine

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Memory; It is a complex of systems that
include recording, processing, storing and
recalling an event or experience when
necessary. It has 3 stages; Encoding, storing
and recalling-remembering information
when needed.
• What would happen if humans didn't have
memory?
• Human being could not hide his/ her
behaviors and opinions that he/ she had
learned from a certain experience, and he/
she had to learn every time.
• Memory is discussed in 2 basic dimensions.
• 1- Duration of stored information
• a) Sensory memory
• b) short-term memory
• c) long-term memory
• 2- The nature of the information
stored
• A memory distinction is made depending on
whether the coding and recall processes are
conscious or unconscious.
SENSORY MEMORY
• Sensory memory is the capacity to retain a
large number of information that we
encounter in daily life for a very short
period of time. It is divided into three.
• Iconic (visual): duration 100-400 milliseconds
• Echoic (auditory): duration 1-2 seconds
• Haptic (tactile)
• Information that is not transferred from
sensory memory to short-term memory
and then to long-term memory is lost.
SHORT-TERM MEMORY
• Short-term memory is the ability to retain a limited number of pieces of information for a short period of time.
• Short-term memory takes both sensory information from sensory memory and data previously contained in
long-term memory, processes it, and transfers it back to long-term memory.
• This memory serves as a short-term store; It mediates the extraction of new inferences from pre-existing
information in memory.
• In relation to basic cognitive functions such as learning, comprehension, reasoning, it ensures that new
information is not only temporarily retained, but also transformed to be compatible with the targeted
information.
• For this reason, short-term memory often does not only act as a passive storage but forms part of working
memory.
• Working memory; Language is the basic component of higher cognitive functions such as problem solving and
reasoning.
LONG-TERM MEMORY

• It can be expressed as an unlimited store E X P L I C I T ( D E C L A R AT I V E )

where information is kept for a long time M E M O RY
or even for the whole life. • Explicit (declarative) memory; It refers to
• There are two types of long-term the conscious retrieval of
memory. information.There are two types, episodic
and semantics. Episodic memory: stores
• 1- Explicit (declarative) memory
personal experiences. It performs the skill
• 2- Implicit (non-declarative) memory of learning, storing, consolidating and
retrieving information from one's daily life.
• Episodic memory contains details of daily life • General culture, rules, concepts, generalizations
events, as well as information about place and are in this memory.
time. • Episodic memory stores past holiday memories.
• Semantic memory: Stores information about facts. Semantic memory is; It stores learned vocabulary
Semantic memory is the part of long-term information. For example, episodic memory
memory in which meanings, understandings, and stores the details of the holiday, while semantic
other concept-based information are processed. It memory stores information about the name of
contains general knowledge about the world and the place where the holiday was made.
conscious recollections of factual information.
2 - I M P L I C I T M E M ORY I M P L I C I T M E M O RY
• Implicit Memory; It encompasses all unconscious • Pre-Application Effect: We learn some information
memory, including skills and habits. without noticing it alongside others. When we
• Implicit memory is a term used for the automatic drive in the car, we learn the lyrics of the music
and unconscious recall of past events. we listen to without realizing it.
• It is a type of memory that describes experiences • Classical Conditioning: we store it in the implicit
that the person does not acquire intentionally and part of long-term memory.
consciously and actually remembers without • Skills and Habits: Skills that are initially learned
realizing it. intentionally are later automated and stored in
implicit memory. Walking, swimming, cycling, etc.
The temporary or permanent loss of the power to remember or recognize anything that has
already been learned is called forgetting.
CAUSES:
1-Not using what has been learned
2-Newly learned things can make you forget what has been learned before. Or what has been
learned before can make you forget what has just been learned.
3-Organic causes: Cell loss in the brain and brain damage.
4-Suppression (push to the subconscious)