MEMORY

MOLLIKA ROY
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY
DU
 WHAT IS MEMORY?

• Memory is the ability to store information so that it can be used at a later

time.
• Human memory appears to have an extraordinary capacity to store
information.
• Although we typically think of memory as a single process, it can actually
be broken down into three systems: sensory memory, short-term memory,
and long-term memory.
 Information processing approach

• Encoding means putting information into memory. This often requires

changing the information into a form that a human or computer can handle.
• Storage refers to how a system maintains or remembers information.
• Retrieval refers to getting the stored information out of memory. Both
computers and humans retrieve information by scanning or searching the
contents of memory for the desired information.
• Forgetting refers to the inability to recall a particular piece of information
accurately. Forgetting can occur because of a breakdown in either encoding,
storage, or retrieval.
 Sensory Memory

• Sensory memory has two important characteristics:

• (1) It can store an enormous amount of information, almost everything that we
see or hear &
• (2) It can store this information for only a very brief period of time.

• Encoding in sensory memory is related to the process of transduction

(process whereby sensory neurons transform stimuli from the environment
into neural impulses).
 Sensory Information

• Getting information into sensory memory is a straightforward process.

• In visual sensory memory anything that we see, or is encoded in, the
memory system.
• In auditory sensory memory, it is anything that we hear.
• There are also separate sensory memory systems for smell and taste.
Sensory Information
 Significance of sensory memory

• Why should we have a memory system that lasts only a few tenths of a second?
• The best way to answer this question is to consider what would happen if we did not
have this system.
• Without visual sensory memory we would experience a pause in the stream of visual
information each time we blinked.
• auditory memory must have a longer duration than visual sensory memory (Darwin,
Turvey, &Crowder, 1972).

• Estimates range from a fraction of a second to as long as three or four seconds

(Klatzky, 1980).
 Short Term Memory (STM)

• A set of active, temporary memory stores that actively manipulate and

rehearse information
• Similarly, information in short-term memory can come from either
sensory or long-term memory.
• The Transfer from Sensory to STM
• Pattern Recognition:
• Attention:
 Short Term Memory (STM)

• Pattern Recognition: Information held in sensory memory is called raw

sensory information because it hasn’t been analyzed for meaning yet.
• To recognize the pattern of received information (dots & lines) we have to
compare the received information with the information stored in long term
memory.
• This process of recognizing information in sensory memory is familiar or
meaningful is called pattern recognition.
• information in sensory memory has no meaning, but information in STM
does.
 Short Term Memory (STM)

• Attention: Sensory memory can hold a large amount of information, but

short-term memory has a very limited capacity.
• Thus, only a small portion of the information in sensory memory can be
passed along to STM.
• The control process that governs which information will go from
sensory to short-term memory is “Attention”.
• Attention involves selecting the small portion of the information in
sensory memory that will be passed along to short-term memory.
 Short Term Memory (STM)

• Encoding in Short-Term Memory

• The information in sensory memory is encoded by an actual replica of the
physical stimulus.
• But by the time the information gets to short-term memory it is encoded
in a different way.
• Experiments on STM encoding: In one experiment subjects were shown a
series of six letters &asked to recall them immediately after presentation.
• when subjects made errors during recall, they were much more likely to
recall letters that sounded like the letters that looked like them.
• This indicates that most verbal information (not all)in short-term memory
is coded acoustically (through sound) even when it is presented visually.
 Short Term Memory (STM)

• Storage in Short-Term Memory

• Short-term memory is a temporary storage system with the capacity to
store a limited amount of information for a limited length of time or
duration.
• Capacity:
7494
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• Memory Span task
• Capacity of STM is : 7 2
 Short Term Memory (STM)

• Storage in Short-Term Memory

10 min

Maintenance Rehearsal
If people are allowed to rehearse constantly, they could
maintain information in short-term memory indefinitely.

But if they were not allowed to rehearse, the subjects began to

lose information after three seconds and forgot almost all the
information after eighteen seconds
 LONG TERM MEMORY

• Through Elaborative Rehearsal some memories enter to the relatively

permanent storage of our memory
• Elaborative Rehearsal involves understanding the meaning of the
content and memorizing the gist of that content instead of the entire
content word by word
Types of Long term memory
 Types of Long term memory

Procedural memory Memory for skills and habits, such as riding a bike
or hitting a baseball; sometimes referred to as nondeclarative memory

Declarative memory Memory for factual information: names, faces,

dates, and the like. Two types.
Semantic memory Memory for general knowledge and facts about
the world, as well as memory for the rules of logic that are used to
deduce other facts.
Name of the capital of Egypt
Name of Largest mammal Alive
2X9+10-3 = ?

Episodic memory Memory for events that occur in a particular time, place, or
context

BD vs India Cricket Match

NSU concert
Rag Day / Farewell
Process in human memory
system
 THEORY OF FORGETTING
• Decay Theory of forgetting holds that the memory trace
spontaneously fades or decays with the passage of time.
• At first the memory trace loses its sharp detail, and eventually
it fades beyond recognition.
• Time act as a reason of decay here. Without rehearsal the
memory started to loose it’s sharpness.
• Interference Theory. Other memories interfere with the retrieval of
the particular memory we are searching for.
• Two types of interference.
• Retroactive interference, meaning that new information interferes
with the recall of old information.
• If you can not remember previously learned material due to the
learning of new information, indicates you have retroactive
interference.
• Interference Theory.
• Proactive interference. Old information interferes with the
recall of new ones.
• Retrieval Failure : retrieval failure, agrees with
interference theory that all the information in memory is
still available, but suggests that memories cannot be
recalled not because other memories interfere. Because the
proper retrieval cues are not available.
• Motivated Forgetting A fourth theory of forgetting is called
motivated forgetting.
• According to this view, we are more likely to forget memories
associated with unpleasant events.
• Sigmund Freud (1914) first proposed the idea that we tend to forget
painful or unpleasant memories.
• According to Freud, unpleasant memories are repressed, or not al
• lowed to enter consciousness.
• Although experimental evidence indicates that
interference is the primary cause of forgetting, both
decay and retrieval failure also appear to be
important.
 FLASHBULB MEMORY
• A vivid, enduring memory associated with a personally significant
and emotional event, often including such vivid details as if still the
individual is locating at the time of the event.
• People often believe that such memories have the quality of a
photograph taken at the moment they experienced the event.
• & they believe with high confidence that these memories are
accurate.
• Flashbulb memories are most likely to form when there is a crisis of
widespread cultural and emotional significance.
 FLASHBULB MEMORY

• Such as 9/11, birth of one's child , Victory day, collapse of

Rana Plaza, Land on moon, Atom bomb explosion in
Nagasaki Etc.
 Memory is fragile

• People often think of memory as something like a video

recorder, accurately documenting and storing everything that
happens with perfect accuracy and clarity.
• In reality, memory is very prone to fallacy. People can feel
completely confident that their memory is accurate, but this
confidence is no guarantee that a particular memory is correct.
 False memory and detail

• How do psychologists define false memory?

• Mental experiences that people believe are accurate
representations of past events.
• It ranges from trivial details (believing you put your keys
on the table when you got home) to much more serious
(believing you saw someone at the scene of a crime)
 False memory and detail

• Everyone experiences memory failures from time to time,

false memories are unique in that they represent a distinct
recollection of something that did not actually happen.
• It is not about forgetting or mixing up details of things that
we experienced; it is about remembering things that we
never experienced in the first place.