CHAPTER FOUR

MEMORY AND FORGETTING

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 Encoding: Getting Information into Memory
• Memory
• Tip of-the-tongue phenomenon
• The three key processes in memory
• Information processing in computers and human
memory
• The Role of Attention
– Cocktail party phenomenon
– Next-in-line effect
• Levels of Processing
– Levels-of-processing theory (main Idea)
• Enriching Encoding
– Elaboration
– Visual Imagery
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– Self-Referent Encoding
 Storage: Maintain Information in Memory

• Concept of storage
• Information-processing theories was to subdivide
memory into three separate memory stores..
Atkinson and Shiffrin
– Sensory memory
– Short-term memory (rehearsal/chunk/working
memory/4 components of STM)
– Long-term memory (flash-bulb memories)
• Contents of information
• Durability of storage
• Capacity of storage
• Are STM and LTM really separate
• How is knowledge represented and organized in
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memory
Retrieval: Getting Information out of Memory
• Retrieval
• Using Cues to Aid Retrieval
• Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
• Reinstating the Context of an Event
• Reconstructing Memories and the
Misinformation Effect
• Source Monitoring and Reality Monitoring
• Forgetting: When Memory Lapses
• How Quickly We Forget
• Measures of Forgetting
(retention/recognition/ recall/relearning) 5
 Why We Forget
• Forgetting
• Ineffective Encoding (pseudoforgetting)
• Decay
• Interference (proactive and retroactive)
• Retrieval Failure
• Motivated Forgetting (repression)
• The Recovered Memories Controversy

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 In Search of the Memory Trace: The
Physiology of Memory
• Memory trace
• The Biochemistry of Memory (synaptic
transmission/hormonal fluctuations)
• The Neural Circuitry of Memory (localized
neural circuits /Long-term potentiation/)
• The Anatomy of Memory
– organic amnesia (Retrograde
amnesia /Anterograde
amnesia/Consolidation)

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 Systems and Types of Memory

Based on the type of information they

handle
• Declarative Versus Procedural
Memory
• Semantic Versus Episodic Memory
• Prospective Versus Retrospective
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 Improving Everyday Memory
• Mnemonic devices
• Engage in Adequate Rehearsal (serial-position
effect)
• Schedule Distributed Practice and Minimize
Interference
• Engage in Deep Processing and Organize
Information
• Enrich Encoding with Verbal Mnemonics
(Acrostics and Acronyms/Narrative
Methods/Rhymes)
• Enrich Encoding with Visual Mnemonics (Link
Method/Method of Loci)
• Eyewitness Accounts 9
 PREVIEW QUESTIONS
• What does attention have to do with
memory?
• What types of encoding produce deeper
processing?
• How do levels of processing relate to
retention?
• How does elaboration enhance encoding?
• How does the use of visual imagery
improve memory?
• What is self-referent encoding?
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 Key Concepts
• Memory
• Tip of-the-tongue phenomenon (information storage
isn’t enough to guarantee that you’ll remember
something)
• Information processing in computers and human
memory
• Next-in-line effect
• Three key processes in memory
– Encoding (How does information get into
memory)
– Storage (How is information maintained in
memory)
– Retrieval (How is information pulled back out of
memory) 11
• People’s memories change over time and are
rough reconstructions rather than exact copies
of past events.

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 PREVIEW QUESTIONS
• What is sensory memory?
• What is the duration and capacity of the short
term store?
• What are the components of working
memory?
• Is long-term storage permanent?
• Why have some theorists questioned the
distinction between short-term and long-term
memory?
• How is information organized and represented
in memory? 13
 Key Concepts
• Concept of storage
• Information-processing theories was to subdivide
memory into three separate memory stores..
Atkinson and Shiffrin
– Sensory memory
– Short-term memory (rehearsal)
– Long-term memory
• Contents of information
• Duration
• Capacity
• flash-bulb memories
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• Theorists originally believed that the loss of
information from short-term memory was
due purely to time-related decay of memory
traces, but follow-up research showed that
interference from competing material also
contributes.
• Why short-term memory call as a working
memory

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 Key Concepts
• How Is Knowledge Represented and Organized
in Memory?
– Clustering and Conceptual Hierarchies
– Schemas
– Semantic Networks
– Connectionist Networks and Parallel Distributed
Processing (PDP) Models

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 PREVIEW QUESTIONS
• What does the tip-of the-tongue
phenomenon reveal about memory?
• Why does reinstating the context of an
event aid in its recall?
• What are the misinformation effect and
imagination inflation?
• How can source monitoring errors shed
light on eyewitness suggestibility and
inadvertent plagiarism?
• What is reality monitoring? 17
 Brain storming Question
• What is the meaning of memory?
• What is the function of memory?
• What are the stage of memory model
proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin.
• Why do we call STM as a working memory?
• What is forgetting?
• How forgetting occur or what causes
forgetting?

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 Meaning and Processes of Memory
• It is the retention of information/what is
learned earlier over time.
• It is the way in which we record the past for
later use in the present.
• Memory is a blanket label for a large
number of processes that form the bridges
between our past and our present.

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 Processes of Memory
• It is the mental activities we perform to put information
into memory, to keep it there, and to make use of it later.
• This involves three basic steps:
a) Encoding
b) Storage
c) Retrieval
a) Encoding
- the term encoding refers to the form (i.e. the code) in
which an item of information is to be placed in
memory.
- the process by which information is initially recorded
in a form usable to memory.
- In encoding we transform a sensory input into a
form or a memory code that can be further
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processed.
 Cont…

b) Storage
• To be remembered the encoded experience must leave
some record in the nervous system (the memory
trace); it must be squirreled away and held in some
more or less enduring form for later use.
• Storage is the persistence of information in memory.
c) Retrieval
- is the point at which one tries to remember to dredge up
a particular memory trace from among all the others we
have stored.
- In retrieval, material in memory storage is located,
brought into awareness and used.

Memory is the process by which information is encoded (phase

1), stored (phase 2) and later retrieved (phase 3). 21
 Stages/Structure of Memory
According to Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968), memory has
three structures:
1. Sensory Memory/Sensory Register
2. Short-Term Memory
3. Long Term Memory
1) Sensory Memory/Sensory Register
• It is the entry way to memory (first information
storage area).
• It acts as a holding bin, retaining information until
we can select items for attention.
• It gives us a brief time to decide whether
information is extraneous or important.
• It can hold virtually all the information reaching
our senses for a brief time. 22
 Cont…
• For instance,
– Visual images (Iconic memory) remain in
the visual system for a maximum of one
second.
– Auditory images (Echoic memory) remain
in the auditory system for a slightly longer
time, by most estimates up to two second
or so.

• Information is accurate representation of the

environmental information but unprocessed.
• However, some of the information that has
got attention and recognition pass on short-23
 Short-Term Memory
• It holds the contents of our attention.
• It consist memories of the by-products or end results
of perceptual analysis.
• Also called working memory, immediate memory, active
memory, and primary memory.
• It has four characteristics:
– It is active (workspace to process new information )there
is consciously processing, examining, or manipulating
information
– Rapid accessibility: Information is readily available for
use
– Preserves the temporal sequence of information:
maintain the information in sequential manner for a
temporary period of time
– Limited capacity: the magic number seven plus or
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minus
 Cont…
Chunking
- grouping or packing of information into higher
order units that can be remembered as single units.
- It expands working memory by making large
amounts of information more manageable.
- The real capacity of short-term memory, therefore,
is not a few bits of information but a few chunks.

• STM memory holds information received from SM

for up to about 30 seconds by most estimates.
• It is possible to prolong STM indefinitely by
rehearsal- the conscious repetition of information.
• Material in STM is easily displaced unless we do
something to keep it there. 25
 Long Term Memory

• It is a memory system used for the relatively

permanent storage of meaningful
information.
• The capacity of LTM seems to have no practical
limits.
• The vast amount of information stored in LTM
enables us to learn, get around in the
environment, and build a sense of identity and
personal history.
• LTM stores information for indefinite periods. It
may last for days, months, years, or even a
lifetime. 26
 Sub Systems of LTM
• Declarative/ explicit memory- the conscious recollection of
information such as specific facts or events that can be verbally
communicated. Divided into two:
– Semantic memory- factual knowledge like the meaning of words,
concepts and our ability to do math. They are internal
representations of the world, independent of any particular context.
– Episodic memory- memories for events and situations from
personal experience. They are internal representations of personally
experienced events.
• Non-declarative/ implicit memory- behavior is affected by prior
experience without that experience being consciously recollected.
One of the most important kinds of implicit memory is procedural
memory. It is the how to knowledge of procedures or skills: Knowing
how to comb your hair, use a pencil, or swim.

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 Serial Position Effect
• The three-box model of memory is often
invoked to explain interesting phenomenon
called the serial position effect.
• If you are shown a list of items and are then
asked immediately to recall them, your
retention of any particular item will depend on
its position in the list.
• That is, recall will be best for items at the
beginning of the list (the primacy effect) and
at the end of the list (the recency effect).
• When retention of all the items is plotted, the
result will be a U-shaped curve. 28
 Factors Affecting Memory
- Ability to retain: good memory traces left in the brain
by past experiences.
- Good health: good health can retain the learnt material
better
- Age of the learner: Youngsters can remember better
than the aged.
- Maturity: Very young children cannot retain and remember
complex material.
- Will to remember: Willingness to remember helps for
better retention
- Intelligence: More intelligent person will have better
memory
- Interest: will learn and retain better.
- Over learning: over learning will lead to better memory.
- Speed of learning: Quicker learning leads to better 29
 Forgetting

• The apparent loss of information already

encoded and stored in the long-term memory.
• The first attempts to study forgetting were
made by German psychologist Hermann
Ebbinghaus (1885/1913).
• 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 a scratch 30
 Theories of Forgetting
• Psychologists have proposed five
mechanisms to account for forgetting:

1) The Decay Theory

2) Replacement of old memories by new
ones
3) Interference
4) Motivated forgetting
5) Cue dependent forgetting

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 Cont…
The Decay Theory
• memory traces or engram fade with time if they are not
accessed now and then.
• In decay, the trace simply fades away with nothing left
behind, because of the passage of time.
Interference Theory
• It occurs because similar items of information interfere
with one another in either storage or retrieval.
• There are two kinds of interference :
– In Proactive Interference, information learned earlier interferes
with recall of newer material.
– If new information interferes with the ability to remember old
information the interference is called Retroactive Interference.
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 Cont…
New Memory for Old/ Displacement Theory
- This theory holds that new information entering memory
can wipe out old information, just as recording on an audio
or videotape will obliterate/wipe out the original material.
Motivated Forgetting
- Sigmund Freud maintained that people forget because they
block from consciousness those memories that are too
threatening or painful to live with, and he called this self-
protective process Repression.
Cue Dependent Forgetting
• When we lack retrieval cues, we may feel as if we have lost
the call number for an entry in the mind‘s library.
• In long-term memory, this type of memory failure may be the
most common type of all. 33
 Improving Memory
• Pay Attention: It seems obvious, but often we fail to remember
because we never encoded the information in the first place.
• Encode information in more than one way: The more elaborate
the encoding of information, the more memorable it will be
• Add meaning: The more meaningful the material, the more likely it
is to link up with information already in long-term memory.
• Take your time: If possible, minimize interference by using study
breaks for rest or recreation. Sleep is the ultimate way to reduce
interference.
• Over learn: Studying information even after you think you already
know it- is one of the best ways to ensure that you‘ll remember it.
• Monitor your learning: By testing yourself frequently, rehearsing
thoroughly, and reviewing periodically, you will have a better idea
of how you are doing.
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 Critical Questions
• What were the main assumptions of the Atkinson-
Shiffrin model (1971)? How did they describe the
process of memory?
• According to Baddeley (2001), what the four main
components of working memory and Explain it?
• The text states that forgetting is due to both decay
and interference. Do you feel like one might play a
bigger role than the other? Why?
• According to theories of independent memory
systems, what are the various memory systems
that are distinguished primarily by the types of
information they handle and explain it?
• What do synaptic transmission and hormonal
fluctuations have to do with memory? 35