Memory

Three important distinctions

1-3 Stages of memory; encoding, storage &retrieval. 2-Atkinson-Shiffrin theory; there are 3 memory stores sensory, short-term& longterm. 3-Different memories for different kinds of information explicit& implicit.

Encoding stage
The environmental information is translated &stored as meaningful entity ,you transferred sound waves of her name into kind of waves or representations that memory accepts and you transformed pattern of light of her face as representation & you connect the 2 representations in the memory.

Storage stage
The stored information corresponding to to her name &face retained during the time between the 2 meetings.

Retrieval stage
The attempt to pull from memory stored information as representations, so that you will able to recognize her face& name when you meet her in the afternoon.

Sensory store characteristics

1-It contain all information captured by sensory organs. 2-It is transient ie information decays over time of few seconds. 3-Small portion of information that is attended to transferred into short-term store.

Short-term store (working memory) characteristics

1-It can be roughly identified with consciousness. 2-Information is stored in terms of the physical qualities of the experience. 3-Information in STM is readily accessible in carrying out tasks & recalled by scanning the entire content of the memory. 4-Information will decay within about 20 seconds . 5-Decay can be prevented by rehearsal (repeating). 6-STM is primarily the function of the frontal lobes.

Long-term store characteristics

1-Information enter it via various kinds of elaborative process from STM. 2-Information is stored primarily in terms of its meaning. 3-Information is recalled by using cues. 4-Its size is unlimited. 5-information is acquired from LTM via process of retrieval &placed back into STM where it can be manipulated &used to carry out tasks at hand. 6- LTM is a function of hippocampus& the language areas.

Different memories for different kinds of information

1-Explicit memory Episodic memory is for personal episode. It encoded in respect to an individual &for a particular time &place like graduation year, birth day, dinner etc Anterograde amnesia is a profound inability to remember day to day events &hence to acquire new information. Retrograde amnesia is inability to remember events that occurred prior to the injury or disease. Semantic memory is for facts &general truth. It encoded to other knowledge &no coding for time or place e.g the capital city of Iraq is Baghdad. 2-Implicit memory in which a person unconsciously remembers information of various sorts e.g. information to shut a football or riding a bicycle.

Sensory memory
Environmental stimuli---sense organs---sensory memory. there are sensory memories corresponding to all sensory modalities. Iconic memory for vision Echoic memory for audition Sperlings experiment ;the span of apprehension is the number of immediately recallable item. People presented with 12 digits arranged in 3 rows of 4 columns per row they typically could report 4 or 5 digits.

Working memory
It is called working memory because the space in STM is used when old memories are temporarily brought out of LTM to be used or updated resulting in further reduction in STM space. Doonesbury-cartoon stated that the information that is attended to transferred from sensory memory to the next store which is named as short-term memory by Atkinson &Shiffrin. Herman Ebbinghans in 1885 founded that STM was limited to 7 digits. George Miller in 1956 named it as magic number 7 but now a day it called digit span task that is 7+_2 .Rarely we are able to hold more than 9 bits of information in STM ,regardless of the nature of that information.

meaningful units& storing those units in working memory by using LTM.e.g can you repeat all the 14 digits SRUOYYLERECNIS?it is so difficult but it will be much easier if arranged as SINCERELY YOURS because items were reduced from 14 to 2. Sternberg in 1966 founded that the more items there are in working memory the slower the retrieval becomes. Functions of STM include 1-Store material needed for short period. 2-Awork space for mental computation. 3-Away station to long term memory. Rehearsal is the conscious repetition of information in working memory through which it maintains information in STM & transfer it to LTM

Chunking is recoding new material into smaller more

Long-term memory
Encoding for verbal material based on the meaning neither acoustic nor visual representations. people may misremember many of the specifics like what, who, whom &when but yet can accurately describe the basic situation. Organization is to group information into categories such as animals, vegetable, names and stored there as such. Recall is better when we impose more organization on the information that is stored in LTM. LTM can improved by creating real or artificial links between items e.g EGBDF will be easier to remember if each item refer to meaningful ward like Every Good Boy Does Fine.

Bradshaw&Anderson in1982 stated that some facts are elaborated according to either their causes or their consequences &named that elaboration .e.g our prophet Muhammad attack Khaiber Jews for their cooperation with Mecca disbelievers. Poor memory often reflect a retrieval failure rather than a storage failure i.e forgetting from LTM result from loss of access to information rather than from loss of information its self. The better the retrieval cues available the better our memory. Forgetting can be due to loss of information from storage like retrograde amnesia following treatment with ECT due to damage to hippocampus in which new information need few days to consolidate.

Level of processing model

The differences between STM& LTM are not differences between 2 different memory systems operating according to different principles. Rather, these differences are the result of different levels of processing during the encoding process, and there is a continuum of levels of processing ranging from very shallow to very deep. the shallow processing involves the encoding of superficial perceptual information ,whereas deep processing encodes meaning& also involves greater elaboration of memories during encoding phase than does shallow processing.

Forgetting
There are 4 major theories of forgetting: 1-Decay theory: memories that are not used fade gradually over time as a result of disuse. 2-Interference theory: forgetting in LTM occur because other memories interfere with retrieval of what you are trying to recall, if other memories are similar to one you are trying to remember .e.g 2 mobile numbers 3-Schema theory: LTM memories often distorted over time to become more consistent with our schemas of beliefs, knowledge& expectations. 4-Theory of motivated forgetting: Freud suggested that the conscious mind often dealt with unpleasant or threatening information by pushing it into unconsciousness by repression.

Emotional factors in forgetting

Emotion can influence LTM in 5 distinct ways: 1-Rehearsal:we rehears& organize exciting memories more than we do for neutral ones, 2-Flashbulb memories: is a vivid relatively permanent record of the circumstances in which one learned an emotionally charged significant event. e.g every body remember when & where Iraqi army invade Kuwait. 3-Retrieval interference via anxiety: negative emotions interfere with retrieval. e.g failure to deal with 1st Q in the examination result in anxiety that interfere with retrieval of information about 2nd Q. 4-Context effects: we can best retrieve information when we feel sad if we were sad during learning that information. 5-Repression:Freud stated that traumatic emotional experience during childhood stored in the unconscious where access to memories is blocked.

Circumstances negatively affect accuracy of memory

1-Original event: short duration of exposure to stimuli, poor lighting, poor attention may result in poor encoding. 2-Postevent reconstruction: persons beliefs and other inferences &suggestion imposed by others may falsificate memory. 3-Motivation:rehearsal of an inaccurate information can lead to strong memory.e.g patient with Munchausen's syndrom.

Improving memory
We can improve our memory by using any of the following methods. 1-Chunking&memory span: the capacity of WM can not be increased beyond 9 items but we can enlarge the size of chunk ,store items in STM & relating items to information in LTM. 149-2177-620-02 change to 1492-1776-2002 2-Imagery&encoding Method of Loci mental image:by using of ordered sequence of arbitrary items. : 10 . Key word encoding method for learning words in foreign language. horse .

3-Elaboration:the more we elaborate items about causes & cosequences of an event this will setup a meaningful connection for retrieval. , schizophrenia 4-Context: if your psychology lectures in this room, your recall of lecture material is better here than in any other places because the room serve as a cue for retrieving of lecture material. 5-Organization:organization of unrelated items by grouping information into categories during encoding improve subsequent retrieval. if you use organization 90% of words can be recalled compared with only 10% if not. 6-Practicing retrieval: after reading material ask your self questions about it, select points which are difficult to retrieve ,make them well connected to each other & to the main subject.