MEMORY

• MEMORY A system that encodes stores, and retrieves information
• Memory enables learning
• Human memory is an interpretative system that takes in information, discards certain details and organizes the rest into meaningful patterns
• Hence, our memories represents our unique perceptions of events rather than being accurate representations of the events themselves
• We don’t technically retrieve memories – we reconstruct them!
• INFORMATION PROCESSING MODEL - It is the cognitive approach to memory, It emphasizes the systematic changes information undergoes on its way to becoming a permanent memory, This model emphasizes that memory is functional
• . ENCODING -Modification of information to fit psychological formats (through visual, acoustic, semantic codes) so that it can be placed in memory
• Encoding can be automatic or needs deliberate effort to establish a usable memory
• Elaboration is an attempt to connect a new concept with existing information in memory
• Automatic Processing - Usually done without any conscious awareness
• Effortful Processing - Requires a lot of work and attention in order to encode the information
• Semantic Encoding – encoding of words and their meanings. Most effective form of encoding. Attaching meaning to information makes it easier to recall later Involves a deeper level of processing.
• Visual Encoding – encoding of images. Words that create a mental image, such as car, dog and book (concrete words) are easier to recall than words such as level, truth and value (abstract words)
• Acoustic Encoding – encoding of sounds
• Self Reference Effect – the tendency for an individual to have better memory for information that relates to oneself in comparison to material that has less personal relevance.
• STORAGE Is the creation of a permanent record of information ➢ Involves the retention or maintenance of encoded material over time
• Baddeley and Hitch Model proposed a model of storage where short-term memory has different forms depending on the type of information received. -Storing memories is like opening different files on a computer and adding information
• According to the model, a central executive supervises the flow of information between the systems
• THE ATKINSON- SHIFFRIN MODEL (A-S Model) Proposed by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin which assumes there are three unitary (separate) memory stores, and that information is transferred between these stores in a linear sequence.
• SENSORY MEMORY storage of brief sensory events, such as sights, sounds, and tastes. Stored for up to a couple of seconds. First step of processing stimuli from the environment. If the information is not important, it is discarded. If the information is valuable then it moves into our short-term memory
• THE STROOP EFFECT It was discovered while studying sensory memory
• SHORT TERM MEMORY / WORKING MEMORY – a temporary storage system that processes incoming sensory memory. - Lasts about 20 seconds. - Capacity is usually about 7 items +/-2 (discovered by George Miller). Short-term memories are either discarded or stored in long-term memory
• Memory consolidation – Transfer of STM to long term memory. One way memory consolidation can be achieved is through rehearsal.
• Rehearsal the conscious repetition of information to be remembered.
• LTM is the continuous storage of information It has no limit and is like the information you store on the hard drive of a computer There are two components of long-term memory: explicit and implicit.
• Explicit Memory memories of facts and events we can consciously remember and recall/declare and personally experienced
• Semantic knowledge about words, concepts and language.
• Episodic information about events we have personally experienced
• A small number of people have a highly superior autobiographical memory known as HYPERTHYMESIA
• Implicit Memory memories that are not part of our consciousness. Formed through behaviors.
• Procedural stores information about how to do things
• Implicit memory also includes behaviors learned through emotional conditioning
• RETRIEVAL the act of getting information out of memory storage and back into conscious awareness
• Recall being able to access information without cues. Used for an essay test
• Recognition being able to identify information that you have previously learned after encountering it again.
• Relearning learning information that you previously learned
• PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY Technically refers to Eidetic Imagery ➢ A photographic image renders everything in minute detail while an eidetic image portrays the most interesting and meaningful parts of the scene most accurately and is subject to the same kind of distortions found in normal memories
• Eidetic images are visualized as being “outside the head”
• The vivid imagery clutters the mind
• Karl Lashley was looking for evidence of the engram – the group of neurons that serve as the “physical representation of memory”