Fundamentals of Psychology

Chapter 5 : Memory

What is memory?

Memory = The faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information

Constructive = actual construction of our memory system.

Memory is Constructed and Reconstructed.

Perception = is the organisation, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in

order to represent and understand the presented information or environment.

Functional = it performs useful functions for us.

The information-processing model = a framework used by cognitive psychologists to

explain and describe the processes of the human brain.

Some metaphors for memory are misleading. That’s certainly the case with the “video
recorder” metaphor for memory, which implies that human memory makes a complete and
accurate record of everything we experience.
Experiments clearly show this video-recorder metaphor is wrong. And, especially in some cases
of “recovered memories,” believing in the unfailing accuracy of memory can be dangerously
wrong.
Instead, human memory is an interpretive system that takes in information and, much like an
artist, discards certain details and organises the rest into meaningful patterns. As a result, our
memories represent our unique perceptions of events rather than being accurate or objective
representations of the events themselves.

We make the most complete and accurate memory records for:

1- Information we focused our attention on.

2- Information in which we are interested.

3- Information that arouses us emotionally.

4- Information that connects with previous experience.

5- Information that we rehearse.

Memory’s Three Basic Tasks

1) Encoding
2) Storage
3) Retrieval

1) Encoding first requires that you select some stimulus event from the vast array of
inputs assaulting your senses and make a preliminary classification of that stimulus.

2) Storage, the second essential memory task, involves the continued use (retention) of
encoded material over time.

3) Retrieval, the third basic memory task, is the payoff for your earlier efforts in encoding
and storage. When you have a properly encoded memory, it can take only a split
second for a good cue to access the information, bring it to consciousness, or, in some
cases, to influence your behaviour at an unconscious level.

Preliminary = preceding or done in preparation for something fuller or more important.

Elaboration = you attempt to connect a new concept with existing information in memory.
One way to do this is to link the new material to something personal.

Negative Reinforcement = When you take away something unpleasant to increase the
behaviour.

Retention = the continued use

Eidetic Imagery = “photographic memory”

How Do We Form Memory?

If information in a lecture is to become part of your permanent memory, it must be processed

in three sequential stages:

1- first sensory memory

2- then working memory
3- finally long-term memory.

(Don’t get these three stages

confused with the three basic
tasks of memory we covered
earlier.)
Sensory Memory typically holds sights, sounds, smells, textures, and other sensory
impressions for a maximum of a few seconds.In general, these short-lived images allow us
to maintain incoming sensory information just long enough for it to be screened for
importance by working memory.

Working Memory selectively takes information from the sensory registers and makes
connections with items already in long-term storage.Working memory holds information for
up to 20 to 30 seconds making it a useful buffer for temporarily holding a name you have just
heard or following directions someone has just given you.

Long-Term Memory (LTM) receives information from working memory and can store it for
long periods—sometimes for a lifetime. Information in long-term memory includes all our
knowledge about the world.

The Capacity and Duration of Sensory Memory

Your senses take in far more information than you can possibly use.
It’s the job of sensory memory to hold the barrage of incoming sensation just long enough
for your brain to quickly scan it and decide which stream of information needs attention.

Partial Report = a method of testing memory in which only some of the total information
presented is to be recalled.
The Structure and Function of Sensory Memory

Not all sensory memory consists of visual images. We have a separate sensory register for
each sense, with each register holding a different kind of sensory information

Please note that images in sensory memory have no meaning attached to them—just as
digital images have no meaning to a camera. It’s the job of sensory memory simply to store
the images very briefly. It’s in the next stage, working memory, where the sensation takes on
meaning.

The Biological Basis of Sensory Memory

The biology of sensory memory appears to be relatively simple.

Sensory memory consists of the rapidly fading trace of stimulation in our sensory systems
Working memory then “reads” these fading sensory traces and decides which ones will gain
admittance into the spotlight of attention and which will be ignored and disappear.

The Second Stage: Working Memory

Working memory serves as the temporary storage site for a new name you just heard or for
the first part of this sentence while you read the remainder. More broadly, working memory is
the processor of conscious experience, including information coming from sensory memory,
as well as information being retrieved from long-term memory

example: Working memory is the mental file folder into which you retrieve the information
you learned in yesterday’s class as you review for tomorrow’s test.
Working memory is not only the centre of mental action but also the
cooperation among other components of memory.

The Capacity and Duration of Working Memory

The storage component of working memory

holds about seven items. Newer research
suggests our capacity is even lower, limited to
three to five items

When we overload working memory, older

items usually drop away to accommodate
newer ones. Yet, when working memory fills up
with information demanding attention, we can
fail to notice new information streaming into
our senses.

working memory has the smallest capacity of the three memory stages.

In Summary Working Memory has limited capacity and short duration

Ways to work around these difficulties.

- Chunks and Chunking

- The Role of Rehearsal

Chunks and Chunking

In memory, a chunk is any pattern or meaningful unit of information. It might be a single
letter or number, a name, or even a concept. For example, the letters P-H-I-L could
constitute four chunks.

The Role of Rehearsal

Imagine you are ordering pizza, and you ask your roommates what toppings they want. To
keep their list in your working memory while you call the pizza place, you might repeat it to
yourself over and over.

Maintenance Rehearsal = repeating items over and over to maintain them in short-term
memory

Elaborative Rehearsal = an encoding strategy to facilitate the formation of memory by

linking new information to what one already knows
The Structure and Function of Working Memory

The four activities working memory engages in:

- The central executive

- The phonological loop
- The sketchpad
- An episodic buffer

The Central Executive The information clearing-house for working memory, the central
executive, directs your attention to important input from both sensory memory and long-term
memory and interfaces with the brain’s voluntary (conscious) response system.

Acoustic Encoding: The Phonological Loop When you read words like “whirr,” “pop,”
“cuckoo,” and “splash,” you can hear in your mind the sounds they describe. This acoustic
encoding also happens with words that don’t have imitative sounds. That is, working
memory converts all the words we encounter into the sounds of our spoken language and
shuttles them into its phonological loop—whether the words come through our eyes, as in
reading, or our ears, as in listening to speech

Visual and Spatial Encoding: The Sketchpad Serving much the same function for visual
and spatial information, working memory’s sketchpad encodes visual images and mental
representations of objects in space.
Binding Information Together: The Episodic Buffer appears to bind the individual pieces
of information in working memory— such as the sounds, the visual information, and other
sensory input—into a coherent episode.

Levels of Processing in Working Memory

Levels-of-Processing Theory = The idea that the way information is encoded affects how
well it is remembered.

Elaborative Rehearsal = an encoding strategy to facilitate the formation of memory by

linking new information to what one already knows

The Third Stage: Long-Term Memory

good retrieval cues (stimuli that prompt the activation of a long-term memory) can navigate
through the web and help you quickly locate the item you want amid all the data stored
there.

The Capacity and Duration of Long-Term Memory

How much information can long-term memory hold? As far as we know, it has unlimited
storage capacity.

This makes long-term memory the clear champion in both duration and storage capacity
among the three stages of memory.

The Structure and Function of Long-Term Memory

Two Main Components of Long Term Memory:

1) Procedural Memory = a register for the things we know how to do

2) Declarative Memory = stores information we can describe—facts we know and
experiences we remember

Procedural Memory
We use procedural memory to store the mental directions, or “procedures,” for all our
well-practised skills. Much of procedural memory operates outside of awareness

Declarative Memory
To store facts, impressions, and events. Using declarative memory typically requires
conscious mental effort.
Two Major Subdivisions of Declarative Memory:

1) Episodic Memory
2) Semantic Memory

Episodic Memory
stores your memories of events, or “episodes,” in your life. It also stores temporal coding (or
time tags) to identify when the event occurred and context coding that indicates where it took
place.

Semantic Memory
It stores the basic meanings of words and concepts. Usually, semantic memory retains no
information about the time and place in which its contents were acquired. Thus, you keep
the meaning of cat in semantic memory—but probably not a recollection of the occasion on
which you first learned the meaning of cat.
Schemas = When you attend a class, have dinner at a restaurant, make a phone call, or go
to a birthday party, you know what to expect, because each of these events involves familiar
scenarios. Cognitive psychologists call them Schemas. Schemas allow us quick access to
information. So if someone says “birthday party,” you can immediately draw on information
that tells you what you might expect to be associated with a birthday party.

Early Memories = Most people have difficulty remembering events that happened before
their third birthday, a phenomenon called childhood amnesia.

Childhood Amnesia = the inability of adults to recollect early episodic memories, is

associated with the rapid forgetting that occurs in childhood

Schemas = clusters of knowledge in semantic memory that give us a context for

understanding events

The Biological Basis of Long-Term Memory

Engram = the biological basis of long-term memory.

Anterograde Amnesia = a type of memory loss that occurs when you can't form new
memories.

Retrograde Amnesia = amnesia where you can't recall memories that were formed before
the event that caused the amnesia

Memory Consolidation = the process by which a temporary, labile memory is transformed

into a more stable, long-lasting form

Flashbulb Memories = a vivid, long-lasting memory about a surprising or shocking event

that has happened in the past.

Parts of the Brain Associated With Long-Term Memory:

- Hippocampus
- Amygdala
- Cerebral Cortex,
- Cerebellum
How Do We Retrieve Memories?

- Implicit Memory
- Explicit Memory

Implicit Memory = memory that can affect your behaviour without coming into full
awareness.

Explicit Memory = is the conscious, intentional recollection of factual information, previous

experiences, and concepts.

The general rule is this: A memory is implicit if it can affect behaviour or mental processes
without becoming conscious. Explicit memories, on the other hand, always involve
consciousness during storage and retrieval.

Retrieval Cues

For accurate retrieval, both implicit and explicit memories require good cues.

Retrieval Cue = is a clue or prompt that is used to trigger the retrieval of long-term memory.

Priming = the procedure of providing cues that stimulate memories without awareness.

The Importance of Meaningful Organisation:

The best way to ensure accurate retrieval is to make information meaningful during the
encoding process. This means that you must associate new information with things you
already know when you first encounter it.

Two Primary Ways Explicit Memories Can be Cued:

1) Recall
2) Recognition

1- Essay tests require recall or retrieving a memory with minimal retrieval cues. That is, on
an essay test, you must create an answer almost entirely from memory, with the help of only
minimal cues from a question such as, “What are the two ways to cue explicit memories?”

2- Recognition is the method required by multiple-choice tests. In a recognition task, you

merely identify whether a stimulus has been previously experienced. Normally, recognition is
less demanding than recall because the cues are much more complete.
Other Factors Affecting Retrieval ( Recall)

- Encoding Specificity
- Mood and Memory
- Prospective Memory

Encoding Specificity
The more closely retrieval cues match the form in which the information was encoded, the
better they will cue the appropriate memory.

Mood and Memory .

We use the expression “feeling blue” to acknowledge that moods bias our perceptions.
Likewise, our moods can also affect what we remember, a phenomenon called mood-
congruent memory. If you have ever had an episode of uncontrollable giggling, you know
how a euphoric mood can trigger one silly thought after another. And at the other end of the
mood spectrum, people with depression often report that all their thoughts have a
melancholy aspect. In this way, depression can perpetuate itself through retrieval of
depressing memories.

Prospective Memory
One of the most common memory tasks involves remembering to perform some action at a
future time—such as keeping a doctor’s appointment.

Experts suggest following these steps to prevent prospective memory failures:

● Keep a “to-do” list for yourself, and use other concrete memory aids such as the
calendar or reminder function on your cell phone.
● When carrying out important procedures (such as studying), don’t multitask.
● When a task is crucial, don’t put it off—do it right away to avoid forgetting about it.
● Use reminder cues, like the father in the above example might have done, to avoid
forgetting something that is a departure from your routine.
● Finally, avoid taking frequent breaks. Studies have also shown that taking frequent
breaks or switching tasks increases the chances of this type of forgetting So, stop
checking your phone and social media feeds while you’re studying!

The “tip of the tongue” (TOT) phenomenon = is a state in which one cannot quite recall a
familiar word but can recall words of similar form and meaning

Encoding Specificity Principle = which says successful recall depends on how well your
retrieval cues match cues that were present when the memory was encoded.
Explicit Memory = is the conscious, intentional recollection of factual information, previous
experiences, and concepts.

Why Does Memory Sometimes Fail Us, and What Can We Do About It?

According to memory expert Daniel Schacter, the culprit is what he terms the “seven sins” of
memory:

1. Transience
2. Absent-mindedness
3. Blocking
4. Misattribution
5. Suggestibility
6. Bias
7. Unwanted persistence

start your learning of these “seven sins“ by categorising them into two types:

1. The first three we will discuss are sins of omission, which involve actual forgetting.

2. The remainder are sins of commission, which are memory distortions rather than
memory lapses.

Omission = the action of excluding or leaving out someone or something.

Commission = an operator performs an incorrect action

The Three Sins of Omission

1) Transience: Fading Memories Cause Forgetting

2) Absent-Mindedness: Lapses of Attention Cause Forgetting
3) Blocking: Access Problems

Transience: Fading Memories Cause Forgetting

Transience = the attribute of being brief or fleeting.

Savings Method = a way of measuring quantitatively, without relying on an individual's

conscious memory, how much learned material is retained.

The Biological Basis of Forgetting

Brain Scientists recently discovered one major cause of fading memories, and it’s likely to
surprise you: The very act of remembering can cause forgetting!
Interference
Another cause of transience comes from interference—when one item prevents us from
forming a robust memory for another item. This often occurs when you attempt to learn two
conflicting things in succession, such as if you had a French class followed by a Spanish
class.

What causes interference? Three main factors top the list:

- The more similar the two sets of material to be learned, the greater the likelihood of
interference.
- Meaningless material is more vulnerable to interference than meaningful material.
- Emotional material can be an especially powerful cause of interference.

There are two types of interference.

1) Proactive Interference
2) Retroactive Interference.

Proactive Interference
Occurs when an old memory
disrupts the learning and
remembering of new
information.
Pro- means “forward,” so in
proactive interference, old
memories act forward in time to
block your attempts at new
learning.

Retroactive Interference.
When new information
prevents your remembering of
older information. Retro-
means “backward, so the
newer material reaches back
into your memory to push old
material out of
memory
The Serial Position Effect = is the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a
series best, and the middle items worst.

Primacy Effect refers to the relative ease of remembering the first items in a series.

Recency Effect refers to the strength of memory for the most recent items.

Absent-Mindedness: Lapses of Attention Cause Forgetting

When you misplace your car keys or forget an anniversary, you have had an episode of
absent-mindedness. It’s not that the memory has disappeared from your brain circuits.
Rather, you have suffered a retrieval failure caused by shifting your attention elsewhere.

Absent-Mindedness = lapses of attention and forgetting to do things.

Blocking: Access Problems

Blocking, the third “sin” of memory, occurs when we lose access to information, such as
when you see familiar people in new surroundings and can’t remember their names.
distraction can cause blocking on prospective memory tasks, such as remembering to
perform a certain action at a certain time. Age plays a role, too, with blocking increasing as
one grows older.

The Four Sins of Commission

1. Misattribution: Memories in the Wrong Context

2. Suggestibility: External Cues Distort or Create Memories
3. Bias: Beliefs, Attitudes, and Opinions Distort Memories
4. Persistence: When We Can’t Forget

Misattribution: Memories in the Wrong Context

Sometimes we retrieve memories but associate them with the wrong time, place, or person.
Misattribution, a problem that stems from the reconstructive nature of long-term
memory.Misattribution can also prompt people to mistakenly believe that other people’s
ideas are their own, leading to unintentional plagiarism.
Yet another type of misattribution can cause people to remember something they did not
experience at all.

Misattribution = an incorrect inference as to the cause of an individual's or group's

behaviour or of an interpersonal event.
 Suggestibility: External Cues Distort or Create Memories

Memories can also be distorted, or even created, by the power of suggestion either
deliberately or unintentionally

Distortion of memory caused by misinformation has been dubbed, appropriately, the

misinformation effect.

Misinformation Effect = the way false or misleading information can distort their
understanding even after they've received correct information.

Fabricated Memories = cases in which people remember events differently from the way
they happened or, in the most dramatic case, remember events that never happened at all.

Bias: Beliefs, Attitudes, and Opinions Distort Memories

refers to the influence of personal beliefs, attitudes, and experiences on memory. Lots of
domestic arguments of the “Did not! Did too!” variety owe their spirited exchanges to bias.
While it’s easier to see another person’s biases than our own

Here are two common forms of Bias:

- Expectancy Bias
- Self-Consistency Bias

Expectancy Bias

An unconscious tendency to remember events as being congruent with our expectations

produces expectancy bias.
Expectation bias (EB) = occurs when an individual's expectations about an outcome
influence perceptions of one's own or others' behaviour
Self-Consistency Bias

People abhor the thought of being inconsistent, even though research suggests that they are
kidding themselves.

Self-Consistency Bias = refers to people's tendency to judge their own interpersonal

behaviour in a given situation in accordance with their general self-images, even if their
actual behaviour in the situation is partialled out.

Persistence: When We Can’t Forget

reminds us that memory sometimes works all too well. We all experience this occasionally,
when a persistent thought, image, or melody cycles over and over in our minds.Thankfully,
for most of us, such intrusive memories are usually short-lived.
Improving Your Memory with Mnemonics

Mnemonic Strategies = any device or technique used to assist memory, usually by forging
a link or association between the new information to be remembered and information
previously encoded.

Two Mnemonic Strategies:

1) The Method of Loci

2) Natural Language Mediators

The Method of Loci

A mnemonic technique in which the items to be remembered are converted into mental
images and associated with specific positions or locations.

Natural Language Mediators

Help us remember new information by associating it with meaningful word patterns such as
a story, an acronym, a rhyme, or a song.