Introduction to Psychology PSY101

Lecture no: 23

MEMORY

Memory refers to the processes by which people and other organisms

encode, store, and retrieve information. Memory is critical to humans and all other living
organisms. Practically all of our daily activities—talking, understanding, reading, and
socializing—depend on our having learnt and stored information about our environments.
Memory allows us to retrieve events from the distant past or from moments ago. It
enables us to learn new skills and to form habits. Without the ability to access past
experiences or information, we would be unable to comprehend language, recognize our
friends and family members, find our way home, or even tie a shoelace. Life would be a
series of disconnected experiences, each one new and unfamiliar. Without any sort of
memory, it would be impossible for humans to survive.

Philosophers, psychologists, writers, and other thinkers have long been fascinated by
memory. They have always been wondering about, and working on problems like:

•How does the brain store memories?

•Why do people remember some bits of information but not others?
•Can people improve their memories?
•What is the capacity of memory?
Memory also, frequently, is a subject of controversy because of questions about its
accuracy. An eyewitness’s memory of a crime can play a crucial role in determining a
suspect’s guilt or innocence. Psychologists agree that people do not always recall events
as they actually happened, and sometimes people mistakenly recall events that had never
happened.

MEMORY AND LEARNING ARE CLOSELY RELATED:

The two terms often describe roughly the same processes. The term learning is often used
to refer to processes involved in the initial acquisition or encoding of information,
whereas the term memory more often refers to later storage and retrieval of information.
However, this distinction is not hard and fast. After all, information is learned so that it
can be retrieved later, and retrieval cannot occur unless information was learned. Thus,
psychologists often refer to the learning/memory process as a means of incorporating all
facets of encoding, storage, and retrieval.

o Memory is usually considered as the storehouse of information alone but, as just

mentioned, it is more than just that.
o Memory is the process of encoding, storing and retrieving information.
Woodworth defined memory as:

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Memory = L - I - R
Where;
o “L” is the act of “ learning”.
o “I” is the time interval, or duration between the act of learning and remembering;
and
o “R” refers to the act of “ remembering”.

The recollection and reinstatement of the past experiences is a part of memory, in

which the new conscious experiences also are, or may be, added all the time.

Functions of Memory:
i. Encoding
ii. Storage
iii. Retrieval

Storage

Encoding Retrieval

Memory

Encoding and Recoding:

The process of initial recording of information: information is recorded in a form that is
ready for use by our memory any time.
Encoding is the process of perceiving information and bringing it into the memory
system. Encoding is not simply copying information directly from the outside world into
the brain. Rather, the process is properly conceived as recoding, or converting
information from one form to another. The human visual system provides an example of
how information can change forms. Light from the outside world enters the eye in the
form of waves of electromagnetic radiation. The retina of the eye converts this radiation
into bioelectrical signals that the brain interprets as visual images. Similarly, when people
encode information into memory, they convert it from one form to another to help them
remember it later.
Storage:
In the storage part of the memory processes information saved in the memory is
maintained in an identifiable form.
Retrieval:
The information recorded and stored is approached, located, brought into awareness, and
used under the memory retrieval system.

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Encoding and storage are necessary to acquire and retain information. But the crucial
process in remembering is retrieval, without which we cannot access our memories.
Unless we retrieve an experience, we do not really remember it. In the broadest sense,
retrieval refers to the use of stored information.

For many years, psychologists considered memory retrieval to be the deliberate

recollection of facts or past experiences. However, in the early 1980s, psychologists
began to realize that people could be influenced by past experiences without any
awareness that they are remembering them. For example, a series of experiments showed
that brain-damaged amnesic patients, who had lost certain types of memory functions,
were influenced by previously viewed information even though they had no conscious
memory of having seen the information before. Based on these and other findings,
psychologists now distinguish two main classes of retrieval processes: explicit memory
and implicit memory, i.e., one that is vividly remembered and the other that is not.

The Memory Storage Systems: Memory Storehouses

i. Sensory Memory
ii. Short - term Memory
iii. Long - term Memory

THE MEMORY STORAGE SYSTEMS: MEMORY STOREHOUSES

Sensory Short-term Long- term

Memory Memory Memory

o These three are not separate, mutually exclusive, entities found in separate brain
centers;
o They differ in terms of the functions they perform and their capacity for retaining
information for a specific period of time i.e., for how long can they keep the
information stored.
o These are abstract divisions on the basis of their primary characteristics.
Sensory Memory:

• Storage of memory lasting for a while; this is the initial momentary stage.
• Sensory memory refers to the initial, momentary recording of information in our sensory
systems. When sensations strike our eyes, they linger briefly in the visual system. This
kind of sensory memory is called iconic memory and refers to the usually brief visual
persistence of information as it is being interpreted by the visual system. Echoic memory
is the name applied to the same phenomenon in the auditory domain: the brief mental
echo that persists after information has been heard. Similar systems are assumed to exist
for other sensory systems (touch, taste, and smell). However researchers have studied
these senses less thoroughly. American psychologist George Sperling demonstrated the
existence of sensory memory in an experiment in 1960.

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• The person’s sensory system records information as a raw and non-meaningful stimulus:
e.g., a fly that sat on your nose in the park this morning, the sound of the car that passed
by you, or the feel of the dry leaf that landed on your head when you were waiting for the
bus.
• Sensory memory systems typically function outside of awareness and store information
for only a very short time. Iconic memory seems to last less than a second. Echoic
memory probably lasts a bit longer; estimates range up to three or four seconds. Usually
the incoming sensory information replaces the old information. For example, when we
move our eyes, new visual input masks or erases the first image. The information in
sensory memory vanishes unless it captures our attention and enters the working
memory.

Types of Sensory Memories:

i. Iconic Memory
ii. Echoic Memory
iii. Memories related to other senses
Iconic Memory:
The information gathered by our visual sense is reflected by the iconic memory; memory
in the visual domain
Echoic Memory:
The information coming from our auditory sense is dealt with by the echoic memory; i.e.,
Memory for sounds:
o Sensory memory is short lived. Ranging from just about one second to a few seconds,
its duration depends upon the intensity of the stimulus too.
o Iconic memory may fade in less than a second, whereas the echoic memory may last
for 3-4 seconds.
o The stimuli that have a high intensity may stay for a bit longer
o Sensory memory is like a temporary image that may vanish forever, and may be
replaced by another if it is not shifted to another processing system or memory
storehouse
The representation of the world around us captured by sensory memory is relatively
complete, full and detailed.
Short-term Memory/ Working Memory:
• Psychologists originally used the term short-term memory to refer to the ability to hold
information in mind over a brief period of time. As conceptions of short-term memory
expanded to include more than just the brief storage of information, psychologists created
new terminology. The term working memory is now commonly used to refer to a broader
system that both stores information briefly and allows manipulation and use of the stored
information.
• This system is higher in functioning than sensory memory, as it stores information in
terms of meaning and not just simple sensory stimulation.
• Sensory information is meaningless and therefore discarded.
• If it is sent to the short- term memory then a meaning is added to it.
• Since now it is meaningful it will be retained, though for not very long.

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• Short-term memory retains information for 15 to 25 seconds, unless it is moved into the
long- term memory.
How is sensory memory transformed into short-term memory?
o The exact process is not yet clearly known
o There are two main theories in this regard:
a) The transformation takes place when the sensory stimulus is converted into words
b) The transformation takes place after the sensory information is converted into
graphic representations or images.

Chunking and the capacity of Short-term memory:

o The information stored in short-term memory is in the form of a single unit,
comprising several chunks.
o A chunk is an understandable or meaningful set or grouping of stimuli e.g.,
“001023” can be learnt as “0 0 1 0 2 3” OR “00 10 23”.
o Short-term memory can carry seven chunks at a time on average; the capacity
may be two more or two less than seven (George Miller).

Chunking is a process whereby the items to be learnt are configured by grouping them
considering their similarity, or combining them into larger patterns based upon
information residing in long-term memory, or on the basis of some other principle
of organization.
For example see “111222333444”; you do not usually learn it as “11 12 22 33 34 44”; but
as “111 222 333 444” Or even as: “triple one, triple two, triple three, triple four”.

No restrictions on the size of the chunks.

The Role of Rehearsal in Short-term memory:

How can short-term memory be more effective, considering its limited
capacity?
If the material in the short-term memory is rehearsed, or repeated, it may enter the

long-term memory; but not necessarily, not always e.g., learning someone’s e-mail

address, or a phone number.

The information may be with you just temporarily.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER YOU GET OUT OF THE EXAMINATION ROOM?

CAN YOU TAKE THE SAME TEST AGAIN, SOON AFTER YOU HAVE JUST
FINISHED IT?
o Several repetitions help retain information in the short-term memory but do not
ensure its admittance to long-term memory.
o For transferring short-term memory information into long-term memory we need
other aids and processes like elaborative rehearsal and mnemonics.

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Elaborative Rehearsal:
o A technique or process whereby the material to be learnt or remembered is
elaborated upon in order to improve encoding of information.
o The information is organized in a manner easy to be stored or encoded.

Examples of Elaborative Rehearsal:

o Imagining a relationship that strengthens the association between material to be
learnt e.g., learning a new name by relating it to an emperor with the same name.
o The information may be expanded to fit into an already existing logical framework
e.g., learning a car’s number “2346” by considering the relationship i.e., 23 x 2 = 46
o Making a story line also helps e.g., “foot-in-the-door” can be remembered by
forming a story in mind.
o Forming a mental image can also be used e.g., if you forgot to make a list of
toiletries to be bought from the super market, you can simply imagine your toilet
from corner to corner and see what items are required for which point.
Mnemonics:
o Strategies used for organizing material to be learnt in such a way that encoding
and recall is facilitated.
o These are short, verbal devices that help form association between material to be
learnt and material that is familiar and is already stored in memory.
Method of loci:
o Associating names, people, or objects to be remembered with places you are
familiar with e.g. you have to learn names of six famous people. You mentally
place each one in separate room of your home. For learning you start, mentally,
and enter from the main door and using the way you usually do; you find one
person in one room. The same is repeated for recall.

• Ancient Greeks used this method. Loci is the plural of locus i.e., place.

Acrostic-like Mnemonic:
o Learning material by using the first letter of each word to be learnt as a cue e.g.,
BODMAS, or USA, or MIS (the names of the tiny bones in the ear).
Acronym Mnemonics:
o Each letter in a word to be retained in memory represents a name or familiar piece
of information e.g., Joseph L.D can be learnt with reference to your friends Javed,
Omer, Sana, Ehsan, Pasha, and Hassan who live in Lahore’s Defense.
o Or the famous example by Zimbardo and Gerrig: Roy G.Biv can be associated
with the colors in the spectrum i.e., red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo,
violet.
Short-term Memory As Working Memory:
o Short-term memory is not a single system but a process that consists of a number
of components.
o Alan Baddeley’s Theory:
o Short-term memory is a three-part working memory’.

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Components of Working Memory:

i. Central Executive:
Coordination of material to focus on during reasoning and decision making; two sub
components.
ii. Visuospatial Sketch Pad:
Concentrates upon visual and spatial information.
iii. Phonological loop:
Holds and manipulates material related to speech, words, and numbers.

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