memory process

• Memory


  A process of information flowing through a system
• Cognitive psychologists


  • Explain how information flows in mental systems
• Encoding


  Changing the form of information as it comes in so it can be stored in the brain
• Types of encoding


  • Mental imagery (visual)
  • Acoustic (voice)
  • Semantic (meaning)
• Storage


  Keeping all the information sometimes for your entire life
• Retrieval


  Getting the stored information and using it
• Short-term memory


  Holds information you pay attention to, lasts about 18 seconds
• Long-term memory


  Stores information for your entire life
• Types of long-term memory

  • Episodic (personal experiences)
  • Semantic (facts and meanings)
  • Procedural (skills)
• Episodic and semantic memories use different brain regions, suggesting they are separate processes
• HM lost ability to form new episodic and semantic memories but not procedural memories after surgery
• Memories are often complex combinations of different memory types