Memory

Dr Hussain Al Alkaaby
MBCHB.CABMS.FICMS(Neuropsychiatry)
• Memory, defined as the ability to store and
retrieve information over time
• Information comes in as data or inputted. It is
processed through working memory, stored in
long term memory, and can be converted to
output by using the correct commands.
Changes in thinking occur over time as new
information enters the system
Psychologists conceptualize memory in terms of
three processes. These include:
• Encoding is the process by which we place the
things that we experience into memory.
Unless information is encoded, it cannot be
remembered. You have been to a party where
you were introduced to someone and then,
maybe only seconds later, you realized that
you did not remember the person’s name. You
could not remember the name, probably
because you were distracted and never
encoded the name to begin with.
Storage is the process of holding information in memory to be
processed or used. Some memories we will hold for years, other
memories we hold only long enough to use the information,
such as looking up a phone number and retaining it long enough
to place the cal
Retrieval refers to the process of reactivating
information that has been stored in memory. Memory
would be useless without the ability to retrieve the
memories that we have created. Retrieval is not a
simple process and many factors can influence the ease
with which we can locate a memory
Encoding
• Not everything we experience can or should be encoded
• We tend to encode things that we need to remember and not bother to
encode things that are irrelevan
• One way to improve our memory is to use better encoding strategies
• elaborative encoding, we process new information in ways that make it
more relevant or meaningful
• Ineffective encoding, or an encoding failure, is an important cause of
memory failure and forgetting in humans
Storage
• information begins in sensory memory, moves to short-term
memory, and eventually moves to long-term memory
• Whether the information moves from shorterduration
memory into longer-duration memory or whether it is lost
from memory entirely depends on how the information is
attended to and processed
SensoryMemory
• Sensory memory refers to the brief storage of
sensory information.
• Unless it is attended to and passed on for
more processing, the memory is quickly
forgotten
• The purpose of sensory memory is to give the
brain some time to process the incoming
sensations, and to allow us to see the world as
an unbroken stream of events rather than as
individual pieces.
 Iconic memory
Iconic memory is sensory memory for visual
information
Iconic memory was first studied by the
psychologist George Sperling
 Echoic memory

is the sensory memory for sound

echoic memories can last as long as 4 seconds
it allows you to remember the words that you
said at the beginning of a long sentence when
you get to the end of it
 eidetic imagery

eidetic imagery, having a photographic memory.

People with a photographic memory can report
details of an image over long periods of time.
These people state that they can see an image
long after it has been presented, and can often
report accurately on that image
eidetic memories in hearing; some people
report that their echoic memories persist for
unusually long periods of time
The composer Mozart may have possessed
eidetic memory for music, because even when
he was very young and had not yet had a great
deal of musical training, he could listen to long
compositions and then play them back almost
perfectly
 Short-Term Memory

Most of the information that gets into sensory memory is

forgotten, but information that we turn our attention to, with
the goal of remembering it, may pass into short-term memory. In
Short-term memory (STM) small amounts of information can be
temporarily kept for more than a few seconds, but usually for
less than one minute. Information in short-term memory is not
stored permanently but rather becomes available for us to
process, and the processes that we use to make sense of, modify,
interpret, and store information in STM are known as working
memory
Working memory is not a store of memory like STM, but rather a set of
memory procedures or operations
central executive, which is the part of working memory that directs attention
and processing
For instance, the central executive will direct the process known as rehearsal.
At the same time, it will direct the visual cortex to form an image of the list of
letters in memory
Short-term memory is limited in both the length and the amount of
information it can hold
Maintenance rehearsal is the process of
repeating information mentally or out loud with
the goal of keeping it in memory. We engage in
maintenance rehearsal to keep something that
we want to remember (e.g., a person’s name, e-
mail address, or phone number) in mind long
enough to write it down, use it, or potentially
transfer it to long-term memory.
• Chunking is the process of organizing
information into smaller groupings, or chunks,
thereby increasing the number of items that
can be held in STM.
• For instance, try to remember this string of 12
letters:
 Long-term Memory
• If information makes it past short term-
memory it may enter long-term memory
(LTM), the memory storage that can hold
information for days, months, and years
• The capacity of long- term memory is large,
and there is no known limit to what we can
remember
 Explicit/Declarative Memory
• Explicit/declarative memory refers to
knowledge or experiences that can be
consciously remembered
• there are two types of explicit memory
episodic and semantic
• Episodic memory refers to the firsthand
experiences that we have had. For example,
recollections of our high school graduation
day or sixteenth birthday
• Semantic memory refers to our knowledge of
facts and concepts about the world. For
example, definition of the word “affect” is the
experience of feeling or emotion.
 Implicit/Nondeclarative Memory
• implicit/nondeclarative memory refers to
knowledge that we cannot consciously access.
However, implicit memory is nevertheless
exceedingly important to us because it has a
direct effect on our behavior
• there are three general types of implicit
memory: Procedural memory, classical
conditioning effects, and priming.
• Procedural memory refers to our knowledge
of how to do things. When we walk from one
place to another, speak to another person in
English, dial a cell phone, or play a video
game, we are using procedural memory
• classical conditioning :in which we learn, without
effort or awareness, to associate a neutral
stimulus with another stimulus that creates a
naturally occurring response
• For example, you may learn to associate the
sounds in a restaturant (CS) with food (US), that
naturally results in enjoyment (UR). When you
enter a restaurant and hear the sounds (CS), the
same response of enjoyment (CR) is experienced.
• Priming :or changes in behavior as a result of
experiences that have happened frequently or
recently
• For example, we can prime the concept of
“kindness” by presenting people with words
related to kindness
The Structure of Long-Term Memory: Categories, Prototypes,
and Schemas

• categories:networks of associated memories

that have features in common with each other
• If they have just remembered the word
“wrench,” from a list, they are more likely to
remember the word “screwdriver” than to
remember the word “rose,” because the
words are organized in memory by category
• prototype, which is the member of the
category that is most average or typical of the
category
• For instance, some category members, such as
Siamese, are highly prototypical of the
category cat, whereas other category
members, such as lions, are less prototypical.
• schemas, or frameworks of knowledge in long-
term memory that help us organize
information.
• We have schemas about objects, people,
events, and social groups. Schemas are
important because they help us remember
new information by providing an
organizational structure for it.
 Retrieval
• retrieval, which is getting information out of long
term memory
• The main reason for retrieval failure is that the
information was not adequately encoded to
begin with, which is known as an encoding
failure.
• Decay theory is an older memory theory
proposed to explain the loss of information, that
has not been used over time, from long-term
memory.
• Context-dependent learning refers to an
increase in retrieval when the external
situation in which information is learned
matches the situation in which it is
remembered
• state-dependent learning refers to superior
retrieval of memories when the individual is in
the same physiological or psychological state
as during encoding
 The Biology of Memory
• The ability to maintain information in long term
memory involves a gradual strengthening of the
connections among the neurons in the brain.
• long-term potentiation (LTP), refers to the
strengthening of the synaptic connections
between neurons as result of frequent
stimulation
• The period of time in which LTP occurs and in
which memories are stored is known as
consolidation
 The Role of Neurotransmitters in LTP
• Glutamate, a neurotransmitter and a form of
the amino acid glutamic acid, is perhaps the
most important neurotransmitter in memory
 Location of Memory
• One of the most important brain regions in
explicit memory is the hippocampus, which
serves as a preprocessor and elaborator of
information
• The hippocampus helps us encode information
about spatial relationships, the context in which
events were experienced, and the associations
among memories
• Without the hippocampus, our explicit memories
would be inefficient and disorganized
• the cerebellum and the amygdala are
concentrating on implicit and emotional
memories, respectively
THAK YOU