CHAPTER 6 : MEMORY

In this chapter, we address a number of issues about memory that psychologists

are investigating. We examine the ways in which information is stored and retrieved.
We discuss evidence showing that there are actually three separate types of
memory, and we explain how each type operates in a somewhat different fashion.
The problems of retrieving information from memory and the reasons information is
sometimes forgotten are examined, and we consider the biological foundations of
memory. Finally, we discuss some practical means of increasing memory capacity.

After reading this chapter, then, you will be able to answer the following
questions:

■ What is memory?
■ Are there different kinds of memory?
■ What causes difficulties and failures in remembering?
■ What are the biological bases of memory?
■ What are the major memory impairments?

ENCODING, STORAGE, AND RETRIEVAL OF MEMORY

What is memory, and why do we remember certain events and activities and forget
others? To illustrate how psychologists answer these questions, consider what might
occur if you were asked to name the sea on which Bombay is located during a game
of Trivial Pursuit.

If you have trouble answering the question, your difficulty may be related to the
initial encoding stage of memory. Encoding refers to the process by which
information is initially recorded in a form usable to memory. You may never, for
instance, have been exposed to information regarding Bombay's location, or it simply
may not have registered in a meaningful way if it had been pointed out to you.

On the other hand, even if you had been exposed to the information and
originally knew the name of the sea, you may still be unable to recall it because of a
failure in the retention process. Memory specialists speak of placing information in
storage, the location in the memory system in which material is saved. If the
material is not stored adequately in the first place, it cannot be recalled later.

Memory also depends on one last process: retrieval. In retrieval, material in

memory storage is located, brought into awareness, and used. Your inability to
recall Bombay's location, then, may rest on your inability to retrieve the information
that you learned earlier.

In sum, psychologists consider memory as the process by which we encode,

store, and retrieve information. Each of the three parts of the definition of memory
—encoding, storage, and retrieval—represents a different process. And only if all
three processes have operated will you be able to recall the sea on which Bombay is
located: the Arabian Sea.

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THE THREE STAGES OF MEMORY:
MEMORY STOREHOUSES

Although the processes of encoding, storing, and retrieving information are

necessary for memory to operate successfully, they do not describe the specific
manner in which material is entered into our storehouse of memories. Many
psychologists studying memory suggest that there are different stages through which
Information must travel if it is to be remembered.

According to one of the most influential theories, three kinds of memory

storage system exist. These types of storehouses vary in terms of their function
and the length of time information is retained (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968).

Sensory memory refers to the the initial momentary storage of information,

lasting only an instant. It is recorded by the person system as a raw, non meaningful
stimulus. Short-term memory holds information for fifteen to twenty five seconds. In
this phase, the information is stored in terms of its meaning rather than as mere
sensory stimulation. The third type of store is long-term memory. Here, information
is relatively permanent, although it may be difficult to retrieve.

SENSORY MEMORY.
A momentary flash of lightning, the sound of a twig snapping, and the sting of a
pinprick all represent stimulation of exceedingly brief duration, but they may
nonetheless provide important information that can require some response. Such
stimuli are initially—and briefly—stored in sensory memory, the first repository of the
information that the world presents to us. Actually, the term "sensory memory"
encompasses several types of sensory memories, each related to a different source
of sensory information. There is iconic memory, which reflects information from our
visual system; echoic memory, which stores information coming from the ears; and
corresponding memories for each of the other senses.

Regardless of the individual subtypes, sensory' memory in general is able to

store information for only a very short time, and if material does not pass to another

2
form of memory, that information is lost for good. For instance, iconic memory
seems to last less than a second, although, if the initial stimulus is very bright, the
image may last a little longer (Long & Beaton, 1982). Echoic memory fades within
three or four seconds (Darwin, Turvey, & Crowder, 1972). However, despite the brief
duration of sensory memory, its precision is high: It is able to store an almost exact
replica of each stimulus to which it is exposed.

If the storage capabilities of sensory memory are so limited and information

stored within sensory memory so fleeting, it would seem almost impossible to find
evidence for its existence; new information would constantly be replacing older
information, even before a person could report its presence. Not until psychologist
George Sperling (1960) conducted a series of clever and now-classic studies was
sensory memory well understood. Sperling briefly exposed people to a series of
twelve letters arranged in the following pattern:

F T V C
K D N L
Y W B M

When exposed to this array for just one-twentieth of a second, most people
could accurately recall only four or five of the letters. Although they knew that they
had seen more, the memory had faded by the time they reported the first few letters.
It was possible, then, that the information had initially been accurately stored in
sensory memory, but during the time it took to verbalize the first four or five letters
the memory of the other letters faded.

SHORT-TERM MEMORY: OUR WORKING MEMORY.

Because the information that is stored briefly in our sensory memory consists
of representations of raw sensory stimuli, it is not necessarily meaningful to us. In
order for us to make sense of it and to allow for the possibility of long-term retention,
the information must be transferred to the next stage of memory, short-term memory.
Short-term memory, sometimes referred to as working memory, is the memory in
which material initially has meaning, although the maximum length of retention is
relatively short.

The specific process by which sensory memories are transformed into short-
term memories is not yet clear. What is clear, however, is that unlike sensory
memory, which holds a relatively full and detailed—if short-lived—representation of
the world, short-term memory has incomplete representational capabilities.

In fact, the specific amount of information that can be held in short-term

memory has been identified: seven items, or "chunks, of information, with
variations up to plus 01 minus two chunks. A chunk is a meaningful grouping of
stimuli that can be stored as a unit in short-term memory. According to George Miller
(1956), it could be individual letters, as in the following list:

CNQMWNT

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 Each letter here qualifies as a separate chunk, and—as there are seven of
them—they are easily held in short-term memory.
But a chunk might also consist of larger categories, such as words or other
meaningful units. For example, consider the following list of twenty-one letters:

TWACIAABCCBSMTVUSAAAA

Clearly, because the list exceeds seven chunks, it is difficult to recall the letters af ter
one exposure. But suppose they were presented to you as follows:

TWA CIA ABC CBS MTV USA AAA

The reason the task suddenly became so simple was that the shapes could
be grouped together into one chunk—a word that we all recognize. Rather than
being nineteen separate symbols with no meaning, they are. recoded as just one
chunk.
Chunks can vary in size from single letters or numbers to categories that are
far more complicated, and the specific nature of what constitutes a chunk varies \
according to one's past experience. You can see this for yourself by trying an
experiment that was first carried out comparing expert and inexperienced chess
players (deGroot, 1966).

Although it is possible to remember seven or so relatively complicated sets of

information entering short-term memory, the information cannot be held there very
long. Just how short term is short-term memory? Anyone who has looked up a
telephone number at a pay phone, struggled to find coins, and forgotten the number
at the sound of the dial tone knows that information in short-term memory does not
remain there terribly long. Most psychologists believe that information in short-term
memory is lost after fifteen to twenty-five seconds—unless it is transferred to long-
term memory.

REHEARSAL
The transfer of material from short- to long-term memory proceeds largely on
the basis of rehearsal, the repetition of information that has entered short-term
memory. Rehearsal accomplishes two things. First, as long as the information is
repeated, it is kept alive in short-term memory. More important, however, rehearsal
allows the material to be transferred into long-term memory.

Whether the transfer is made from short- to long-term memory seems to depend
largely on the kind of rehearsal that is carried out. If the material is simply repeated
over and over again—as we might do with a telephone number while we rush from
the phone book to the telephone—it is kept current in short-term memory but it will
not necessarily be placed in long-term memory. Instead, as soon as we stop dialing,
the number is likely to be replaced by other information and will be completely
forgotten.

On the other hand, if the information in short-term memory is rehearsed using

a process called elaborative rehearsal, it is much more likely to be trans1 erred into

4
long-term memory (Craik & Lockhart, 1972). Elaborative rehearsal occurs when the
material is considered and organized in some fashion. The organization might
include expanding the information to make it fit into a logical framework, linking it to
another memory, turning it into an image, or transforming it in some other way. For
example, a list of vegetables to be purchased at a store could be woven together in
memory as items being used to prepare an elaborate salad; they could be linked to
the items bought on an earlier shopping trip; or they could be thought of in terms of
the image of a farm with rows of each item.

By using organizational strategies called mnemonics, we can vastly improve our

retention of information (Higbee & Kunihira, 1985). Mnemonics are formal
techniques for organizing material in a way that makes it more likely to be
remembered. For instance, when a beginning musician learns that the spaces on the
music staff spell the word "FACE" or when we learn the rhyme "Thirty days hath
September, April, June, and November; all the rest have . .. we are using
mnemonics.

LONG-TERM MEMORY:

The Final Storehouse. Material that makes its way from short-term memory to long-
term memory enters a storehouse of almost unlimited capacity. Like a new book
delivered to a library, the information in long-term memory is filed and cataloged so
that it can be retrieved when we need it.

Evidence of the existence of long-term memory, as distinct from short-term

memory, comes from a number of sources. For example, people with certain kinds of
brain damage, like Pamilla Smith (whose case began the chapter), have no lasting
recall of new information following the damage, although people and events in
memory prior to the injury remain (Milner, 1966). Because short-term memory
following the injury appears to be operative—new material can be recalled for a very
brief period—and because information from before the injury is recalled, we might
infer that there are two distinct memories, one for short-term and one for long-term
storage.

EPISODIC AND SEMANTIC MEMORIES.

There are actually two kinds of memories held in long-term memory: episodic and
semantic (Tulving, 1983). Episodic memories relate to our individual lives, recalling
what we have done and the kinds of experiences we have had. When you recall your
first date, the time you fell off your bicycle, or what you felt like when you graduated
from high school, you are recalling episodic memories. The information in episodic
memory is connected with specific times and places. In contrast, semantic memories
consist of organized knowledge and facts about the world; because of semantic
memory, we know that 2x2 = 4, the earth is round, and "memorce" is misspelled.

Episodic memories can be surprisingly detailed. Consider, for instance, what

your response would be if you were asked to identify what you were doing on a
specific day two years ago. An impossible task? You might think otherwise as you

5
read the following exchange between a researcher and a subject who was asked, in
a memory experiment, what he was doing "on Monday afternoon in the third week of
September two years ago."

Episodic memory, then, can provide information from events that happened
long in the past (Reynolds & Takooshian, 1988). But semantic memory is no less
impressive: By calling upon it, all of us are able to dredge up thousands of facts
ranging from the date of our birthday to the knowledge that $1 is less than $5. Both
individual pieces of information and the rules of logic for deducing other facts are
stored in semantic memory.

Many psychologists, using associative models of memory, argue that semantic

memory consists of associations between mental representations of various pieces
of information (e.g., Collins 8c Quillian, 1969; Collins & Loftus, 1975). Consider, for
example, Figure 8-6, which shows some of the relationships in memory relating to
"animal."

The basic notion of associative models of semantic memory is that when we

think about a particular concept, related concepts are activated and more readily
brought to mind. For example, thinking about a "robin" leads to the activation of
related concepts such as "eats worms' and "has a red breast." As a result if we are
trying to recall some specific bit of information activating associated material may
help us recall it.

In such instances, related information helps prime us u recall information that

we are otherwise unable to recollect. In priming, prior presentation of information
subsequently makes it easier to recall related items, liven when we have no
conscious memory of the original information (Tulving & Schacter, 1990).

The typical experiment designed to illustrate priming helps clarify the

phenomenon. In such an experiment, subjects are first presented with some
stimulus. The stimulus might be a particular word, an object, or perhaps a drawing of
a face. The second phase of the experiment is held after an interval ranging from
several seconds to months later. At that point, subjects are exposed to incomplete
perceptual information that is related to the first stimulus and asked whether they
recognize it. For example, it may consist of the first letter of a word that had been
presented earlier, or a part of a face that had been shown earlier.

If subjects are able to identify the stimulus more readily than they identify stimuli
that have not been printed earlier, priming is said to have occurred. What is
interesting about the phenomenon of priming is that it occurs even when subjects
report having no conscious awareness of having seen the stimulus earlier.

The discovery that people have memories about which they are not aware has
been an important one. It has led to speculation that a form of memory, dubbed
"implicit memory," may exist side by side with explicit memory. We discuss this
possibility in the accompanying Cutting Edge box.

6
STORAGE IN LONG-TERM MEMORY.

Episodic and semantic information are stored in long-term memory in

several ways. One of the primary ways is through the linguistic code, which relies on
language. The linguistic code allows us to store information abstractly without having
to rely on a specific image, for instance, we may be able to recall that someone
talking about a sloth is discussing an animal, even while we are unable to conjure up
a specific image of what it looks like.

Levels of Processing
So far, we have used the notion that the processing of information in memory
proceeds along three sequential stages, starting with sensory memory, proceeding
to short-term memory, and finally ending with long-term memory. However, not all
psychologists specializing in memory agree with such a view. Some suggest that a
single process accounts for how well information is remembered: the way in which
material is first perceived, considered, and understood.

The levels-of-processing theory emphasizes the degree to which a new

material is mentally analyzed (Craik & Lockhart, 1972), In contrast to the view that
there are sensory, short-term, and long-term memories, levels-of-processing
theory suggests that the amount of information processing that occurs when
material is initially encountered is central in determining how much of the information
is ultimately remembered. According to this approach, the depth of processing during

7
exposure to material—meaning the degree to which it is analyzed and considered—
is critical; the greater the intensity of its initial processing, the more likely we are to
remember it.

Because we do not pay close attention to much of the information to which we

are exposed, only scant mental processing takes place, and we forget it almost
immediately. However, information to which we pay greater attention is processed
more thoroughly. Therefore, it enters memory at a deeper level=and is less apt to be
forgotten than information processed at shallower levels.

The theory goes on to suggest that there are considerable differences in the
way information is processed at various levels of memory. At shallow levels,
information is processed merely in terms of its physical and sensory aspects; for
example, we may pay attention only to the shapes that make up the letters in the
word "dog." At an intermediate level of processing, the shapes are translated into
meaningful units—in this case, letters of the alphabet. These letters are considered
in the context of words, and a specific sound of the word may be attached to the
letters.

At the deepest level of processing, information is analyzed in terms of its

meaning. It may be seen in a wider context, and associations between the meaning
of the information and broader networks of knowledge may be drawn. For instance,
we may think of dogs not merely as animals with four legs and a tail, but in terms of
their relationship to cats and other mammals. We may form an image of our own
dog, relating it to our own lives.

According to the levels-of-processing approach, the deeper the initial level of

processing of specific information, the longer the information will be retained. The
approach suggests, then, that the best way to remember new information is to
consider it thoroughly when you are first exposed to it—reflecting on how it relates to
information that you currently have (McDaniel, Riegler, & Waddill, 1990).

The levels-of-processing theory considers memory as involving more active

mental processes than the three-stage approach to memory. However, research has
not been entirely supportive of the levels-of-processing approach. For example, in
some cases material that is processed on a shallow level is remembered better than
information processed on a deeper level (Baddeley, 1978; Cermak & Craik, 1979).

In sum, neither the levels-of-processing model nor the three-stage model of

memory is able to account for all phenomena relating to memory. As a result, other
models of memory have been proposed. For example, psychologist Nelson Cowan
(1988) has suggested that the most accurate representation of memory comes from
a model in which short-term storage is considered a part of long-term storage, rather
than representing a separate stage. Still, it is too early to tell—let alone remember—
which model gives us the most accurate representation of memory.

8
FLASHBULB MEMORIES
Where were you when you learned that the space shuttle Challenger had
exploded?
You probably have little trouble recalling your exact location and a variety of
other trivial details about occurrences that happened when you heard the news,
even though the accident happened years ago. The reason is a phenomenon known
as flashbulb memories. Flashbulb memories are memories centered around a
specific, important, or surprising event that are so vivid it is as if they represented a
snapshot of the event.
Several types of flashbulb memories are common among college students.
For example, involvement in a car accident, meeting one's roommate for the first
time, and the night of high school graduation are all typical flashbulb memories
(Rubin, 1985).
Of course, flashbulb memories do not contain every detail of an original
scene. For instance, I remember vividly that some three decades ago I was sitting in
Mr. Sharp's tenth-grade geometry class when I heard that President Kennedy had
been shot. Although I recall where I was sitting and how my classmates reacted to
the news, I do not recollect what I was wearing or what I had for lunch that day.
Flashbulb memories, then, are not complete and unfailingly accurate, and just how
much their essential nature differs from everyday memories remains an open
question (McCloskey et al., 1988; Cohen, McCloskey, 8c Wible, 1990; Pillemer,
1990; Christianson & Loftus, 1990).

CONSTRUCTIVE PROCESSES IN MEMORY: REBUILDING THE PAST

Although it is clear that we can have detailed recollections of significant and
distinctive events, it is difficult to gauge the accuracy of such memories. In fact, it is
apparent that our memories reflect, at least in part, constructive processes,
processes in which memories are influenced by the meaning that we give to
events. When we retrieve information, then, the memory that is produced is affected
not just by the direct prior experience we have had with the stimulus, but by our
guesses and inferences about its meaning as well.

The notion that memory is based on constructive processes was first put
forward by Sir Frederic Bartlett, a British psychologist, who suggested that people
tend to remember information in terms of schemas, general themes that contain
relatively little specific detail (Bartlett, 1932). He argued that such schemas were
based on the information provided not only by a stimulus but also by our
understanding of the situation, our expectations about the situation, and our
awareness of the motivation underlying people's behavior.

In a demonstration of the operation of schemas, researchers have employed

a process known as serial reproduction, in which information from memory is
passed sequentially from one person to another and then try to describe it to
someone else without looking back at it. Then ask that person to describe it to
another person, and repeat the process with still one more person.
If you listen to the last person's report of the contents of the cartoon, you are sure to
find that it differs in important respects from the cartoon itself. Many people recall the
cartoon as showing a razor in the hand of the black person— obviously an incorrect
recollection, given that the razor is held by the white person (Allport & Postman,
1958).

9
 This example, which is drawn from a classic experiment, illustrates the role of
expectations in memory. The migration of the razor from the white person's hand to
the black person's hand in memory clearly indicates that expectations about the
world—reflecting, in this case, the unwarranted prejudice that blacks may be more
violent than whites and thus more apt to be holding a razor—have an impact upon
how events are recalled.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY: WHERE PAST MEETS PRESENT

Your memory of your own past might well be a fiction—or at least distortion of
what actually occurred. The same constructive processes also make us inaccurately
recall the behaviour of others also reduce the accuracy of autobiographical
memories. Autobiographical memories refer to our recollections of the facts about
our own lives (Bradburn, Rips, & Shevell, 1987).

For example, people tend to forget information about their past that is
congruent with the way in which they currently see themselves. One study found that
adults who were well adjusted but who had been treated for emotional problems
during the early years of their lives tended to forget important but troubling childhood
events. For instance, they forget such details as their family s receipt of welfare
when they were children, being in foster care, and living in a home for delinquents
(Robbins, 1988). Similarly, people who are depressed remember sad events from
their past more easily than happy people do, and people who report being happy in
adulthood remember more happy events than depressing ones (Bower & Cohen,
1982).

FORGETTING: WHEN MEMORY FAILS

He could remember, quite literally, nothing—nothing, that is, that had happened
since the loss of his brain's temporal lobes and hippocampus during experimental
surgery to reduce epileptic seizures. Until that time, his memory had been quite
normal. Rut after the operation he was unable to recall anything for more than a few
minutes, and then the memory was seemingly lost forever. He did not remember his
address, or the name of the person to whom he was talking. He would read the
same magazine over and over again. According to his own description, his life was
like waking from a dream and being unable to know where he was or how he got
there (Milner, 1966).

. All of us who have experienced even routine instances of forgetting—such

as not remembering an acquaintance's name or a fact on a test—understand the
serious consequences of memory failure.

The first attempts to study forgetting were made by German psychologist

Hermann Ebbinghaus about a hundred years ago. Using himself as his only subject,
he memorized lists of three-letter nonsense syllables—meaningless sets of two
consonants with a vowel in between, such as FIW and BOZ. By measuring how easy
it was to relearn a given list of words after varying periods of time from initial learning
had passed, he found that forgetting occurred systematically, as shown in Figure 8-
10. As the figure indicates, the most rapid forgetting occurs in the first nine hours,

10
and particularly in the first hour. After nine hours, the rate of forgetting slows and
declines little, even after the passage of many days.

Despite his primitive methods, Ebbinghaus's research had an important

influence on subsequent research, and his basic conclusions have been upheld
(Wixted & Ebbeson, 1991). There is almost always a strong initial decline in memory,
followed by a more gradual drop over time. Furthermore, relearning of previously
mastered material is almost always faster than starting from scratch, whether the
material is academic information or a motor skill such as serving a tennis ball.

Efforts at understanding the problem of why we forget have yielded two major
solutions. One theory explains forgetting in terms of a process called decay, or the
loss of information through its non use. This explanation assumes that when new
material is learned, a memory trace or engram—an actual physical change in the
brain—occurs. In decay, the trace simply fades away with nothing left behind,
because of the mere passage of time..

Because decay is not able to fully account for forgetting, memory specialists
have proposed an additional mechanism: interference. In interference, information
in memory displaces or blocks out other information, preventing its recall.

Most research suggests that interference is the key process in forgetting (Potter,
1990). We mainly forget things not because the memory trace has decayed; but
because new memories interfere with the retrieval ones.

PROACTIVE AND RETROACTIVE INTERFERENCE:

THE BEFORE AND AFTER OF FORGETTING
There are actually two sorts of interference that influence forgetting:
proactive and retroactive. In proactive interference, information learned earlier
interferes with recall of newer material. Suppose, as a student of foreign languages,
you first learned French in tenth grade, and then in eleventh grade you took Spanish.
When it comes time to take a college achievement test in the twelfth grade in
Spanish you may find you have difficulty- recalling the Spanish translation of a word
because all you can think of is its French equivalent.

On the other hand, retroactive interference refers to difficulty in recall of

information because of later exposure to different material. If, for example, you have
difficulty on a French achievement test because of your more recent exposure to
Spanish, retroactive interference is the culprit. One way of remembering the
difference between proactive and retroactive interference is to keep in mind that
proactive interference moves forward in time—the past interferes with the present—
whereas retroactive interference retrogresses in time, working backward as the
present interferes with the past.

11
MEMORY DYSFUNCTIONS: AFFLICTIONS OF FORGETTING

To a casual observer, Harold appears lo be a brilliant golfer. He seems to

have learned the game perfectly; his shots arc almost flawless.
Yet anyone accompanying him on the course is bound to notice some startling
incongruities. Although he is immediately able to size up a situation and hit the ball
exactly where it should go, he cannot remember where the ball has just landed. At
the end of each hole, he forgets the score (Blakeslee, 1984, p. CI; Schacter, 1983).

Harold's problem: he suffers from Alzheimer's disease, the illness that includes
severe memory problems among its symptoms. Alzheimer's, discussed first
in Chapter 3, is the fourth leading cause of death among U.S. adults. It strikes
around 10 percent of people over the age of 65, and almost half of all people who
live beyond 85 develop the disease .(Gelman, 1989b; Dickinson, 1991).

In its initial stages, Alzheimer's symptoms appear as simple forgetfulness of

things like appointments and birthdays. As the disease progresses, memory loss
becomes more profound, and even the simplest tasks—such as how to dial a
telephone—are forgotten. Ultimately, victims can forget their own names or family
members' faces. In addition, physical deterioration sets in, and language abilities
may be lost entirely.

Although the causes of Alzheimer's disease are not fully understood, recent
evidence suggests that it may be linked to a specific inherited defect. The flaw leads
to difficulties in the production of the protein beta amyloid, necessary for the
maintenance of nerve cell connections. When the manufacture of beta amyloid goes
awry, it leads to the deterioration of nerve cells in the brain—producing the
symptoms of Alzheimer's (Hardy et al., 1991).

Alzheimer's disease is just one of several memory dysfunctions that plague

their victims. Another is amnesia, memory loss that occurs without other mental
difficulties. The classic case—immortalized in many a drama—is a victim who

12
receives a blow to the head and is unable to remember anything from his or her past.
In reality, amnesia of this type, known as retrograde amnesia, is quite rare. In
retrograde amnesia, memory is lost for occurrences prior to a certain event. There is
usually a gradual reappearance of lost memory, although it may take as long as
several years for a full restoration to occur. In certain cases, some memories are lost
forever (Raddeley, 1982).

A second type of amnesia, anterograde amnesia, loss of memory occurs for

events following an injury. Information cannot be transferred from short-term to long-
term memory, resulting in the inability to remember anything other than what was in
long-term storage prior to the accident.

Amnesia is also displayed by people who suffer from Korsakoff's

syndrome, a disease that afflicts long-term alcoholics who have also had an
impaired diet, i resulting in a thiamine deficiency. Although many of their intellectual
abilities ; may be intact, they display a strange array of symptoms, including
hallucinations; 1 repeating questions, even after being told the answer; and
repeating the same story over and over again.

We may be grateful, then, that being somewhat forgetful plays a useful role in
our lives.

THE INFORMED CONSUMER OF PSYCHOLOGY:

IMPROVING YOUR MEMORY

Apart from the advantages of forgetting, say, the details of a gruesome

science fiction movie, most of us still would like to find ways of improving our
memories. Given our understanding of memory, is it possible to find practical ways of
increasing our recall of information? Most definitely. Research has revealed a
number of strategies that can be used to help us develop better memories (Cohen,
1989).

Among the best:

■ The keyword technique. Suppose you are taking a class in a foreign language
and need to learn long lists of vocabulary words. One way of easing this process is
to use the keyword technique, in which a foreign word is paired with a common
English word that has a similar sound. This English word is known as the kevword.
For example, to learn the Spanish word duck (pato, pronounced poko), the keyword
might be "pot"; for the Spanish word for horse {caballo, pronounced aah»eyi>yo), the
keyword might be "eye."

Once you have thought of a keyword, you form a mental image of it

graphically "interacting" with the English translation of the word. For instance, you
might envision a duck taking a bath in a pot to remember the word pato, or a horse
with a large, bulging eye in the center of its head to recall caballo. This technique
has produced considerably superior results in learning foreign language vocabulary
than more traditional techniques involving memorization of the words themselves
(Pressley & Levin, 1983: Press-ley, 1987).

13
■ Method of loci. If you have ever had to give a talk in class, you know the difficulty
of keeping in mind all the points you want to make. One technique that works quite
effectively was developed by the ancient Greeks: When Greek orators sought to
memorize long speeches, they used the method of loci (loci is the Latin word for
places) to organize their recollections of what they wanted to say. With this
technique, each part of a speech is imagined as "residing" in a different location of a
building.

For instance, you might think of the preface of a talk as being in the house’s
entryway, the first major point being in the living room, the next major point residing
in the dining room, and so forth, until the end of the speech is reached at the back
bedroom of the house.

This technique can easily be adapted to learning lists of words; each word on
the list is imagined as being located in a series of sequential locations. I lie method
works best by using the most outlandish images possible: II you wanted to
remember a list of groceries consisting of bananas, ketchup, and milk, for instance,
you might think of a banana intertwined in the leaves of your living-room begonia, the
ketchup spilled over the end table, and the milk spraying from the top of a table
lamp. When you got to the supermarket, you could mentally "walk" through your
living room, recalling the items easily.

■ The encoding specificity phenomenon. Some research suggests that we

remember information best in an environment that is the same as or similar to where
we initially learned it—a phenomenon known as encoding specificity (Tulving &
Thompson, 1973). You may do better on a test, then, if you study in the same
classroom in which the test is going to be given. On the other hand, if you must fake
tests in a room different from the one in which you studied, don't despair: The
features of the test itself, such as the wording of the test questions, are sometimes
so powerful that they overwhelm the subtler cues relating to the original encoding of
the material (Bjork &: Richcardson-Klarehn, 1989).

 Organization of text material, Most of life's more important recall tasks involve
not lists of words but rather texts that have been read. How can you facilitate recall
of such material? One proven technique for improving recall of written material
consists of organizing the material in memory as it is being read for the first time. To
do this, you should first identify' any advance information about the structure and
content of the material—scanning by using the table of contents, chapter outline,
headings, and even the end-of-chapter summary—before reading a given chapter.
Understanding the structure of the material will enable you to recall it better.
Another technique is to ask yourself questions that integrate the material you have
read, and then answer them. Asking questions will enable you to make connections
and see relationships between the various specific facts, thereby promoting the
professing of the material at a deeper level. As the levels-of-processing approach to
memory that we discussed earlier suggests, doing so will aid later recall (Royer &:
Feldman, 1984). For example, you might at this moment ask yourself, "What are the
major techniques for remembering material in textbooks?" and then try to answer the
question.

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■ Organization of lecture notes. "Less is more" is perhaps the best advice for
taking lecture notes that aid in recall. Rather than trying to jot down every detail of a
lecture, it is better to listen and think about the material, taking down the main points
after you have considered them in a broader context. In effective note taking,
thinking about the material initially is more important than writing it down. This is one
reason that borrowing someone else's notes is a bad pr opposition, since you will
have no framework in memory to use in understanding them (Peper & Mayer, 1978).

■ Practice and rehearsal. Although practice does not necessarily make perfect, it does
help. By studying and rehearsing material past the point of initial mastery—a process called
overlearning—people are able to show better long-term recall than if they stop
practicing after their initial learning of the material.
Eventually, of course, practice has little or no effect; you probably already
know your address so well that no amount of additional practice will make you recall
it any better than YOU already do. But it is safe to say that, given the volume of
material covered ill most courses, academic material is rarely so securely retained,
and you would generally be wise to review material a few times even after you feel
vou have learned it, in order to reach a true level of overlearning.

Research on the outcomes of elaborative rehearsal, discussed earlier in the

chapter, also suggests that it is important that the practice of asking and rehearsing
the answers to questions be as active as possible. In this way, the connections
between the parts of the material are likely to become explicit, aiding in later recall by
providing ample retrieval cues.

Finally, people who cram for tests should note that the best retention comes
from practice that is distributed over many sessions, rather than left for one long
session. Research clearly demonstrates that fatigue and other factors prevent long
practice sessions from being as effective as distributed practice.

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