MEMORY

CHAPTER
OUTLINE:
Forgetting
Process of • Nature and
Definition memory theories

Nature Stages of Biological

memory basis of
memory
DEFINITION OF
MEMORY
• Mental capacity to store, recall or recognize the events
that were previously experienced
• “Memory is the process of maintaining information
over time.” (Matlin, 2005)
NATURE OF
MEMORY
Memory is the glue that binds our mental life together and provides a sense
of continuity in our lives

Memory is not exact copy of our experience, rather its selective like
perception (memorize some information but leave some as well)

Largely depends on how much attention we are paying at a time.

• We have a lot of bombardment of stimuli every waking hour. Because the brain’s capacity to process sensory
information is limited, therefore we can not pay attention to every stimulus.
MEMORY PROCESS
MEMORY PROCESS

Storage • Recall
• Recognition
• Recollection
• Relearning

Encoding Retrieval
STAGE 1:
ENCODING
Refers to the process of depositing something into memory.

It is translation of incoming stimulus energy into unique neural code so that

brain can process it.
Encoding process involves acquiring information and then repeating it in mind.
 3 Principles of Encoding

Attention: Automatic Various Codes

Its an automatic process, Sensory information is put

To attend to selected/ into various memory codes;
usually we are unaware of
specific stimulus and which are mental
this process while doing it.
representations of physical
stimuli

To identify distinctive
features of that experienced Automated process of
event
 REFERS TO RETENTION OF
ENCODED MATERIAL OVERTIME.

Stage 2:
Storage Maintaining information
overtime
IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES OF
STORAGE
Duration

• Not all information is stored forever

• Only the ones that is rehearsed and practiced are stored
• More you rehearse/ practice, its more likely that information will be stored for longer
duration.

Neural Trace

• We encode each of our experiences within the structures of the nervous system, making new
impressions in the process—and each of those impressions involves changes in the brain.
• Neurobiologists suggest that our experiences leave memory traces.
• Memories have to be stored somewhere in the brain, so in order to do so, the brain
biochemically changes itself and its neural tissue.
STAGE 3:
RETRIEVAL

Occurs when we find information stored in

Retrieval is the ability to access information
memory and bring it into consciousness
when you need it
 Simple process of remembering something without any cues, and in the
physical absence of that thing.
Recall
Recalling the name of a person or answering to a question are some examples of
recall
Types of Retrieval

Identifying the information of a previously known thing after seeing the thing or
experiencing it in memory again.
Recognition
Recognizing and remembering someone’s name by seeing their picture is an
example of recognition.

Refers to rebuilding or piecing together of memory.

Recollection
Remembering the details of an event using partial memories, clues and logic is a
good example of this type of memory retrieval.

Refers to relearning of the information that has already been learned in the past
but is not remembered.
Relearning
Relearning shows improvement in retrieval of the information as it strengthens the
neuronal connections
STAGES OF
MEMORY
SENSORY Short term Long term
MEMORY memory memory

Atkinson and Shiffrin

1. SENSORY MEMORY

First stage of memory.

Major function: To hold information long enough for it to be

processed further

Information from our senses (sight, sound, taste, tough, smell, and
others) is stored for a few milliseconds and up to 1 seconds, which
allows time for the information to be analyzed and used before it
fades away.
• Separate register for each sensory modalities
• Visual sensory memory is stored in an iconic memory
• auditory sensory memory is stored in
an echoic memory.
 STEPS: (E.S.P)
ENCODING FOR STORAGE IN SENSORY PROCESSING FOR
SENSORY MEMORY MEMORY TRANSFER TO STM

For information to be stored in sensory Requirement for

Each sensory register has a specific
register, physical stimuli must be
capacity information to be
encoded into biochemical processes that
give rise to sensation and perception sent to short term
memory:
Since new information is constantly information must be
SELECTIVITY occurs: prioritize
coming in, old information must be attended; delete
processed, so that new can come unnecessary sensory
important stimuli over others.
stimuli
• Familiar information gets
Old information just lasts long enough to processed easily
sense of continuity and not long enough to
interfere with new information • e.g. ODCKEKN might not
be processed easily,
while KNOCKED will be
processed quickly.
2. SHORT TERM MEMORY
When we attend to and perceive a stimulus, a
representation of stimulus enters short term memory.

The information in Short term memory is usually available

for much longer time.

STM is intermediate memory process between the SM and

LTM

Also called working memory

 2 MAJOR
FUNCTIONS OF STM

Allows us to construct a Working memory makes it

continually updated model of possible to think and solve
world and where we are in it problems
THIS SYSTEM ALLOWS US
TO STORE, ORGANIZE
AND INTEGRATE FACTS.

In situations, where we have to

remember information for few
seconds, our memory involves
encoding, storage and retrievals
 Encoding in STM

When information is
encoded into memory, it is
deposited in certain code
of representation

Rehearsal

It is popular strategy when

the information consists of
verbal items, such as digits,
letters or words.
 Storage of STM

The limited brief storage capacity for STM is called

immediate memory span

Limited Capacity REHEARSAL Duration

If information is
Repetition of
On average, the limit rehearsed, it can be
information . CHUNKING
is 7+- 2 Maintenance & maintained in STM for
Elaborative longer time.

Unrehearsed
splitting up into small information only lasts for
Min 5 maximum 9 units of information not more than 20
seconds

Fixed capacity suggests that It keeps information in working

when number of items memory and prevents
exceeds, one of the old ones competing inputs from pushing
must go out.
3. LONG TERM MEMORY
• Constitutes of individuals total knowledge of the
world and of self.
• It’s the storehouse of all experienced events,
information,
emotions, skills, words, rules etc
FUNCTIONS OF LTM
•Helps retain record of past events or thoughts
•Helps us deal with and store new information
•Makes it possible for us to solve new
information, reasons, think and create
information
ENCODING AND LONG-
TERM MEMORY
• Encoding information
into LTM is result of
• Conscious attempt to
memorize it.
• Deep level of
conscious processing.
 Sometimes items we need to remember are meaningful but the
connections between them is not meaningful.

MEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS Make sentences of unrelated E.g. ACCA. Can be

words. remembered as , ALL CATS
In such cases, real or artificial CAN ACT
links can be established
between the items
Usage of imagery

We remember information which is

meaniningful

When information is organized, its more likely toget

stores
MEANINGFUL
ORGANIZATION
Information about the meaning of sentence is more
likely to be stored as compared to exact structureof
sentence

Make meaningful categories of data

Strategy to associate new information withfamiliar

Use of Mnemonics one or previously encoded one, so that they can be
remembered easily

Context and State Its easier to retrieve a particular episode if we

Dependence are same context in which we encodedit.
STORAGE IN LTM
• Extremely large capacity
• Unlimited
 All information
here is stored
permanently

RETREIVAL

Recall and Retrieval failure

recognition are the occurs when retrieval
most useful location is forgotten.
methods.
 TYPES OF LTM

Declarative Memory/ explicit memory Non declarative memory

Inludes processes by which

Conscious recollection of factual people deliberately try to Involves skill learning
information remember something.

Episodic memory Semantic memory Acquired by practice and

observation

Remembering of Contains
events being generalized Memories which people are not aware of,
personally knowledge of but can improve subsequent performance
experienced. world. and behaviors

Doesn’t include Related to ones skill of remembering skills at

Stores memory of specific nonconscious level
autobiographic event
information

Includes basic meanings

of words and concepts
without reference to
their time and place in
experience.
FORGETTING
 FORGETTING
• Memory process has three phases:

• encode
• storage
• and retrieval

• failure at any of these phase leads to forgetting

 REASONS OF
FORGETTING
Unavailability of
Information is not Competing information,
information; When
accessible. It is due to might interfere the
memory trace is not
retrieval failure. retrieval process
available at time of recall.

Might be because cues at

the time of learning are
not present at time of
recall.
 THEORIES OF FORGETTING

INTERFERENCE THEORY OF
CONSOLIDATION
DECAY THEORY THEORY OF MOTIVATED
THEORY
FORGETTING FORGETTING
1. DECAY THEORY
• States: if we don’t access memories, they will fade over time.
• When we learn something new, the brain undergoes neurochemical
changes called memory traces.
• Memory retrieval requires us to revisit those traces that the brain
formed when encoding the memory.
• The trace decay theory implies that
• The length of time between the memory and recalling determines whether
we will retain or forget a piece of information.
• The shorter the time interval in recalling, the more we will remember, and vice versa.
INTERFERENCE THEORY OF FORGETTING
• It asserts that the ability to remember can be disrupted both by our
previous learning and by new information.
• We forget because memories interfere with and disrupt one another.
• For example
• By the end of the week, we won’t remember what we ate for breakfast on
Monday because we had many other similar meals since then.
 TYPES
Retroactive interference
Occurs when Old memories
are changed by new ones.
Just like with proactive
interference, they often
happen with two similar sets
of memories.
Let’s say you used to study
Spanish and are now learning
French. When you try to speak
Spanish, the newly acquired
French words may interfere
with your previous knowledge.
Proactive interference
Occurs when New memories
are changed by old ones
Often occurs when memories are
created in a similar context or include
near-identical items.
E.g: Remembering a new code for the
combination lock might be more difficult
than we expect. Our memories of the
old code interfere with the new details
and make it harder to retain.
• Retroactive interference
• Retroactive interferences occurs when NEW information interfere with the
memory of OLD information
EXAMPLE: Let’s say you first learnt Spanish and are now learning French.
When you try to speak Spanish, the newly learned French words may interfere
with your previous knowledge.

• Proactive interference
• Proactive interferences occurs when OLD information interfere with the
memory of NEW information. In the above example, when you try to speak
newly learnt French, words from Spanish may interfere with the new
knowledge.
THEORY OF MOTIVATED
FORGETTING
• Sometimes we forget because we don’t want to remember.
• we may push certain memories out of conscious awareness because
they are too frightening or too painful
• Freud called it as REPRESSION, a mental process by which a person
unconsciously protects its body from remembering painful
information by pushing it out of consciousness.
 CONSOLIDATION THEORY OF
FORGETTING
• Memory consolidation includes formation of trace in brain
• Once information is consolidated, memory is moved from short term to a
more permanent long-term storage, becoming much more resistant to
forgetting.
• It is the critical process of stabilizing a memory and making it less
susceptible to disruptions.
• However, before or during the process of consolidation, these memory
traces can easily be destroyed.
• Theory focuses on memory storage and maintains that memory failure
can be due to inadequate storage.
BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF
MEMORY
Karl Lashley experimented to identify
the memory trace in brain that holds
specific memories.
Trained rats, then destroyed parts of
their brain.
Conclusion:
 Memory is not stored in one specific part
 The degree to which memory is hurt depends on
the amount of brain destroyed.
 Memory depend upon the size of total brain
and not of any specific location.
Different brain sites are involved in
different types of memories (procedural,
semantic and episodic)
Cerebellum plays an important role in
procedural memory.
 Experiment: rabbits were taught to blink their eyes
when stimulus were presented, the neural circuits in
cerebellum were activated.

Hippocampus, amygdala and thalamus are

involved in development of semantic and
episodic memory.
Patients with damage to hippocampus are
not able to form new memories.
Neurochemistry of brain
Epinephrine significantly increases memory
Deficiency of acetylcholine is related to Alzheimer's
disease( brain degenerative disease)
THE END