Memory

Eliasmith (2001) defines memory as the general ability, or faculty, that enables us to

interpret the perceptual world to help organize responses to changes that take place in the world.

Memory is any indication that learning has persisted over time. It is our ability to store and

retrieve information.

Information Processing theory

The Atkinson-Schiffrin (1968) three-stage model of memory includes

a) sensory memory,
b) short-term memory, and
c) long-term memory.

LONG TERM MEMORY

Abbot (2002) suggests that long-term memory is that more permanent store in which

information can reside in a dormant state out of mind and unused until you fetch it back into

consciousness

Unlimited capacity store. Estimates on capacity range from 1000 billion to 1,000,000

billion bits of information (Landauer, 1986).

Long-term memory is responsible for 3 operations

1. Encoding, which is the ability to convert information into a knowledge structure.

2. Storage, which is the ability to accumulate chunks of information.

3. Retrieval, which is the ability to recall things we already know.

How Can Short-Term Memories Become Long-Term Memories?

Since short-term memory is limited in both capacity and duration, the retention of

memories requires transferring the information from short-term stores into long-term memory.

There are a few different ways that information can be committed to long-term memory.

Chunking is one memorization technique that can facilitate the transfer of information

into long-term memory. This approach involves breaking up information into smaller

segments. If you were trying to memorize a string of numbers, for example, you would

segment them off into three or four item blocks.

Acronyms are another way of chunking information to remember it (these are also

mnemonics). For example: HOMES = Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior

Hierarchy. Complex information broken down into broad concepts and further

subdivided into categories and subcategories. For example, minerals are divided into two

categories.

mineral
s

metals stones

commo masona
rare precious ry
n
 Rehearsal can also help information make it into long-term memory. You might use this

approach when studying materials for an exam. Instead of just reviewing the information

once or twice, you might go over your notes over and over again until the critical

information is committed to memory.

The exact mechanisms for how memories are transferred from short-term to long-term

stores remain controversial and not well understood. The classic model, known as the Atkinson-

Shiffrin model or multi-modal model, suggested that all short-term memories were

automatically placed in long-term memory after a certain amount of time.

More recently, other researchers have proposed that some mental editing takes place and

that only particular memories are selected for long-term retention. Still other researchers dispute

the idea that there are separate stores for short-term and long-term memories.

TYPES OF LONG TERM MEMORY

Non-Declarative memory

Implicit memory is sometimes referred to as unconscious memory or automatic memory.

Implicit memory uses past experiences to remember things without thinking about them.

It is mediated by cortical areas, the cerebellum, and the basal ganglia. Just as damage

to the hippocampus and frontal lobes can compromise performance on declarative

memory tasks, so, too, can damage to the visual cortical area impair visual priming.

Damage to the cerebellum and basal ganglia can impair classical conditioning and

procedural memory.
It remains relatively stable with normal aging.

Procedural memory, which is a subset of implicit memory, is a part of the long-term memory

responsible for knowing how to do things, also known as motor skills. You don't have to delve

into your memory to recall how to walk each time you take a step. Procedural memory is the

memory for the process involved in completing a task (e.g., motor memory) after the task is well

learned and has become automatic. Musicians and professional athletes are said to have superior

ability to form procedural memories.

Some examples of procedural memory:

Playing piano

Ice skating

Playing tennis

Swimming
 Climbing stairs

Declarative memory

Declarative memory or explicit memory is a memory system that is controlled consciously,

intentionally, and flexibly. Declarative memory generally involves some effort and intention, and

we can employ memory strategies such as mnemonics to recall information.

it is mediated by the hippocampus and frontal lobes, and, thus, damage to these areas

may compromise declarative memory. For example, people with damage to the

hippocampus have difficulty forming new long-term declarative memories, while those

with frontal lobe damage may experience deficits in working memory.

it generally declines with age.
examples include recalling the name of an old friend, remembering a list of items to pick

up at the store, remembering information for a test, learning a phone number, and

recalling your ATM password.

Semantic memory is not connected to personal experience. Semantic memory includes things

that are common knowledge, such as the names of states, the sounds of letters, the capitals of

countries and other basic facts that are not in question.

Some examples of semantic memory include:

Knowledge that the sky is blue

vocabulary or facts such as 2+2 = 4
Knowing how to use a knife and fork
Remembering what dog is
Recalling that President Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963

Episodic memory is a person's unique recollections of a specific event or an episode. People are

usually able to associate particular details with an episodic memory, such as how they felt, the
time and place, and other particulars. It is not clear as to why some memories of events in our

lives are committed to memory, while others don't get recorded, but researchers believe that

emotions play a critical role in what we remember.

episodic memory is used to recall past events, such as a movie you saw last week, the

dinner you ate last night, the name of the book your friend recommended, or a birthday

party you attended.

Some examples of episodic memory:

Where you were and the people you were with when you found out about the Challenger

space shuttle disaster

Your beach vacation last summer

The first time you traveled by plane

Your first day at a new job

The restaurant you went to on your first date with your spouse
 I remember that hot day Ice cream melts unless
when my ice-cream melted its kept cool.
faster than I could eat it
Semantic memory
Episodic memory

Levels of processing

The levels-of-processing framework posits that information is processed differently

depending upon the instructions and the task and can vary from relatively shallow processing to

relatively deep processing. The best retention occurs when processing is elaborative (deep). This

concept was first introduced by Craik and Lockhart in 1972 and has been replicated in dozens of

experiments.

Shallow processing

Shallow processing or maintenance rehearsal focuses on the physical features of an item

rather than its meaning.

examples of physical features include color, length, font, or sound of an item.
Shallow processing can involve the simple repetition of items.
For example, we see pennies every day, but may have difficulty recalling the information

on the front or back of a penny.

Simply repeating an item over and over again for a test will not commit that item to

memory for a long period of time.

Deep processing

Deep processing or elaborative rehearsal focuses on the meaning of an item and

involves forming associations between old and new information, with an effort on

making elaborate connections with existing knowledge.

examples include processing that focuses on the pleasantness of an item, the

definition of an item, and the items relationship to other items.

when learning new vocabulary, it is best to associate the new item, a vocabulary

word, with something you already know well.

TYPES OF RECALL

There are three main types of recall:

1. Free recall is the process in which a person is given a list of items to remember and then

is asked to recall them in any order (hence the name free). This type of recall often

displays evidence of either the primacy effect (when the person recalls items presented

at the beginning of the list earlier and more often) or the recency effect (when the person

recalls items presented at the end of the list earlier and more often), and also of the

contiguity effect (the marked tendency for items from neighbouring positions in the list

to be recalled successively).

2. Cued recall is the process in which a person is given a list of items to remember and is

then tested with the use of cues or guides. When cues are provided to a person, they tend

to remember items on the list that they did not originally recall without a cue, and which

were thought to be lost to memory. This can also take the form of stimulus-response

recall, as when words, pictures and numbers are presented together in a pair, and the

resulting associations between the two items cues the recall of the second item in the pair.
 3. Serial recall refers to our ability to recall items or events in the order in which they

occurred, whether chronological events in our autobiographical memories, or the order of

the different parts of a sentence (or phonemes in a word) in order to make sense of them.

Serial recall in long-term memory appears to differ from serial recall in short-term

memory, in that a sequence in long-term memory is represented in memory as a whole,

rather than as a series of discrete items. Testing of serial recall by psychologists have

yielded several general rules:

more recent events are more easily remembered in order (especially with auditory

stimuli);

recall decreases as the length of the list or sequence increases;

there is a tendency to remember the correct items, but in the wrong order;

where errors are made, there is a tendency to respond with an item that resembles

the original item in some way (e.g. dog instead of fog, or perhaps an item

physically close to the original item);

repetition errors do occur, but they are relatively rare;

Rate of forgetting

Forgetting does not occur at a constant rate.

Ebbinghaus conducted experiments with nonsense syllabi. in his studies, he demonstrated

that most forgetting occurs early. The rate of forgetting slows over time.
Bahrick (1984) has confirmed this pattern using more naturalistic materials. bahrick

examined memory for math and foreign language learned in high school and for the
 names and faces of high school classmates. He assessed forgetting across several decades

and demonstrated that most forgetting occurs early, and that some information persists

over time. The research shows what you remember after 3 years, you are likely to

remember for the rest of your life.

Proactive and retroactive interference

Interference, which occurs when some information blocks or disrupts the recall of other

information, is believed to be a primary source of forgetting. There are two types of interference:

retroactive and proactive.

Retroactive interference occurs when new information blocks or disrupts retrieval of

older information. For example, if you are trying to recall an old, obsolete password to an

account but can only remember your current password, you are experiencing retroactive

interference.
Proactive interference occurs when old, previously learned memories intrude with the

recall of newer memories. For example, imagine your favorite pizza place moves across

town and changes phone numbers. if you drive to the old location or call the old phone

number, you are experiencing proactive interference.

 References

Abbot, B. (2002). Human memory. Fort Wayne: Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort

Wayne, Psychology Department. Retrieved June 22, 2002, from

http://users.ipfw.edu/abbot/120/LongTermMemory.html

Atkinson, R., & Shiffrin, R. (1968). Human memory. A proposed system and its control

processes. In K. Spence & J. Spence (Eds.), The psychology of learning and motivation.

Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.

Bahrick, H. P. (1984). Semantic memory content in permastore: Fifty years of memory for

Spanish learned in school, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113,1-29.

Craik, F.I.M., & Lockhart, R.S. (1972). Levels of processing: A framework for memory research.

Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11, 671-684.

Ebbinghaus, H. (1885/1913). Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology (H.A. Ruger

& C.E. Bussenues, Trans.). New York, NY: Teachers College/ Columbia University.

Eliasmith, C. (Ed.) (2001). Memory. Dictionary of philosophy of mind. Pullman, WA:

Washington State University. Retrieved June 19, 2002, from

http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~philos/MindDict/memory.html

http://www.livescience.com/43713-memory.html