Memory

Understanding how our mind preserves

our past!
Introduction
• Memory plays a pivotal role in every aspect of our lives, from
learning and decision-making to forming our identity and
experiences.
• In this lecture, we will delve into the different types of memory, the
processes involved, and the factors that influence memory
retention.
• By the end of this session, you will gain a deeper understanding of
how memory works and how to optimize your memory
performance.
Human Memory
• What we usually think of as “memory” in day-to-day usage is long-
term memory, but there are also important short-term and sensory
memory processes, which must be worked through before a long-
term memory can be established.
• The different types of memory each have their own mode of
operation, but they all cooperate in the process of memorization.
• Memory is a sequence of three stages, from sensory to short-term to
long-term memory
Sensory Memory
• Sensory memory is the ability to retain impressions of sensory
information after the original stimuli have ended.
• It acts as a kind of buffer for stimuli received through the five senses
of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, which are retained
accurately, but very briefly.
• For example, the ability to look at something and remember what it
looked like with just a second of observation is an example of sensory
memory
• The stimuli detected by our senses can be either deliberately
ignored, in which case they disappear almost instantaneously,
or perceived, in which case they enter our sensory memory.
• Information is passed from the sensory memory into short-
term memory via the process of attention.
• Attention: Attention is the concentration of awareness on
some phenomenon to the exclusion of other stimuli. It is a
process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of
information, whether considered subjective or objective.
Example
• Students in the class attending lecture
• Doting down the notes and using sensory motor skills to
learn the information.
• Which can be further processed into storage of the
knowledge shared during the lecture.
• When does students retrieve the information?
• In examinations!
Short Term Memory (Working memory)
• It can be thought of as the ability to remember and process
information at the same time.
• It holds a small amount of information (typically around 7 items or
even less) in mind, in an active, readily-available state for a short
period of time (typically from 10 to 15 seconds, or sometimes up to a
minute).
• What is held in short-term memory, though, is not complete
concepts, but rather links or pointers (such as words, for example)
which the brain can flesh out from it is another accumulated
knowledge.
• However, this information will quickly disappear forever unless we
make a conscious effort to retain it by repetition of the information or,
even more effectively, by giving it a meaning and associating it with
other previously acquired knowledge.
• Motivation is also a consideration, in that information of interest to a
person, is more likely to be retained in long-term memory.
• "Chunking“ of information can lead to an increase in the short-term
memory capacity.
• The chunking definition is grouping related items together so that someone
can remember them more easily. An example of chunking is grouping the
everyday items someone needs to have in their pockets before leaving the
house. This might include house keys, car keys, cell phone, and a wallet or
purse.
Long-term memory
• Long-term memory is, obviously enough, intended for
storage of information over a long period of time.
• Long-term memory decays very little over time and can store
a seemingly unlimited amount of information almost
indefinitely.
• There is some debate as to whether we ever “forget”
anything at all, or whether it just becomes increasingly
difficult to access or retrieve certain items from memory.
Declarative Memory
• Declarative memory(“knowing what”) is memory of facts and
events and refers to those memories that can be consciously
recalled (or "declared").
• It is sometimes called explicit memory, since it consists of
information that is explicitly stored and retrieved, although it
is more properly a subset of explicit memory
Procedural Memory
• Procedural memory(“knowing how”) is the unconscious memory of
skills and how to do things, particularly the use of objects or
movements of the body, such as tying a shoelace, playing a guitar or
riding a bike.
• These memories are typically acquired through repetition and
practice. Once learned, these "body memories" allow us to carry out
ordinary motor actions automatically.
• Procedural memory is sometimes referred to as implicit memory,
because previous experiences aid in the performance of a task without
explicit and conscious awareness of these previous experiences,
although it is more properly a subset of implicit memory.
Explicit/Declarative: Episodic memory and
Semantic memory.
• Episodic memory represents our memory of experience
sand specific events in time from which we can reconstruct
the actual events that took place at any given point in our
lives.
• It is the memory of autobiographical events(times, places,
associated emotions and other contextual knowledge).
• Individuals tend to see themselves as actors in these events
and feel an emotional charge.
• Semantic memory, on the other hand, is a more structured record of
facts, meanings, concepts and knowledge about the external world that
we have acquired.
• It refers to general factual knowledge, shared with others and
independent of personal experience and of the spatial/temporal
context in which it was acquired.
• Semantic memories may once have had a personal context, but now
stand alone as simple knowledge.
• It therefore includes such things as types of food, capital cities, social
customs, functions of objects, vocabulary, understanding of
mathematics, etc.
Implicit & Explicit Memory
• Explicit memory refers to
intentional or conscious
recollection of information.
• When we try to remember a
name or date we have
encountered or learned about
previously, we are searching our
explicit memory.
• Implicit memory refers to memories
of which people are not consciously
aware but that can affect subsequent
performance and behavior.
• Skills that operate automatically and
without thinking, such as jumping out
of the path of an automobile coming
toward us as we walk down the side
of a road, are stored in implicit
memory.
• Similarly, a feeling of vague dislike for
an acquaintance, without knowing
why we have that feeling, may be a
reflection of implicit memories.
Flashbulb memories
• Flashbulb memories are memories related to a specific, important, or
surprising event that are recalled easily and with vivid imagery.
• Several types of flashbulb memories are common among college
students. For example, involvement in a car accident, meeting one’s
roommate for the first time, and the night of high school graduation
are all typical flashbulb memories

• Memories that are exceptional are more easily retrieved (although

not necessarily accurately) than are those relating to events that are
commonplace.
Autobiographical memory
• Autobiographical memory is our recollections of our own life
experiences.
• Autobiographical memories encompass the episodic memories we
hold about ourselves
• We tend to forget information about our past that is incompatible
with the way in which we currently see ourselves
• What is the earliest memory that you can recall correctly?
Process of Memory formation:
Memorization
• Memory is the ability to encode, store, and retrieve
information in our minds.
• Encoding involves transforming sensory input into a form
that can be stored in memory.
• Storage is the process of maintaining information over
time.
• Retrieval refers to the ability to access stored memories
when needed.
Encoding of Information
• Encoding is the process of transforming sensory input
into a form that can be stored in long term memory.
• Various encoding techniques facilitate memory
retention, including visual imagery, elaboration, and
chunking.
• The more deeply we process information, the better
we retain it (Attention).
• Encoding refers to the process through which information is learned.
• That is, how information is taken in, understood, and altered to better
support storage.
• Information is usually encoded through one (or more) of four methods:
• (1) Visual encoding (how something looks);
• (2) acoustic encoding (how something sounds);
• (3) semantic encoding (what something means); and
• (4) tactile encoding (how something feels).
• While information typically enters the memory system through one of
these modes, the form in which this information is stored may differ
from its original, encoded form.
Storage of Information
• Storage refers to how, where, how much, and how long encoded
information is retained within the memory system.
• The modal model of memory (storage) highlights the existence of two
types of memory: short-term and long-term memory.
• Encoded information is first stored in short-term memory and then, if
need be, is stored in long-term memory (Roediger & McDermott,
1995).
• Once information is stored within LTM or STM, individuals need to
recall or retrieve it to make use of said information
Retrieval of Information
• As indicated above, retrieval is the process through which individuals
access stored information.
• Retrieval is subject to error, because it can reflect a reconstruction of
memory.
• This reconstruction becomes necessary when stored information is
lost over time due to decayed retention.
 Retrieval Methods
• Teacher taking a test is a retrieval technique!
• 1. The testing effect: In most traditional educational settings, tests are
normally considered to be a method of periodic but infrequent
assessment that can help a teacher understand how well their students
have learned the material at hand.
• However, modern research in psychology suggests that frequent, small
tests are also one of the best ways to learn in the first place.
• The testing effect refers to the process of actively and frequently testing
memory retention when learning new information. By encouraging
students to regularly recall information they have recently learned, you
are helping them to retain that information in long-term memory, which
they can draw upon at a later stage of the learning experience
2. Spacing. According to the spacing effect, when a student repeatedly
learns and recalls information over a prolonged time span, they are
more likely to retain that information.
This is compared to learning (and attempting to retain) information in a
short time span (for example, studying the day before an exam).
3. Interleaving. The interleaving technique is another teaching and
learning approach that was introduced as an alternative to a technique
known as “blocking”.
• Blocking refers to when a student practices one skill or one topic at a time.
• Interleaving, on the other hand, is when students practice multiple related
skills in the same session.
• This technique has proven to be more successful than the traditional blocking
technique in various fields (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014).
What is the role of memory in cognition of
human brain?
• Memory is essential for the learning process to occur
• Without the process of memory there can no information
that can be learned or practiced
• The formation of memory is the base for decision making
and success
Forgetting
When memory fails
Why we forget?

• failure of encoding
• Can you remember the exact details of coin
of 5 rupee?
Decay
• Decay is the loss of information in memory through nonuse.
• This explanation for forgetting assumes that memory traces, the
physical changes that take place in the brain when new material is
learned, simply fade away or disintegrate over time
interference
• In interference , information stored in memory disrupts the recall of
other information stored in memory.
• For example, if I’m trying to recall my college classmate Jake’s name
and all I can remember is the name of another classmate, James,
interference may be at work
Cont
• To distinguish between decay and interference, think of the two
processes in terms of a row of books on a library shelf. In decay, the
old books are constantly crumbling and rotting away, leaving room for
new arrivals. Interference processes suggest that new books knock
the old ones off the shelf, where they become hard to find or even
totally inaccessible.
cue-dependent forgetting
• Cue-dependent forgetting, forgetting that occurs when there are
insufficient retrieval cues to rekindle information that is in memory.
• For example, you may not be able to remember where you lost a set
of keys until you mentally walk through your day, thinking of each
place you visited. When you think of the place where you lost the
keys—say, the library—the retrieval cue of the library may be
sufficient to help you recall that you left them on the desk in the
library.
• Without that retrieval cue, you may be unable to recall the location of
the keys.
proactive interference
• In proactive interference, information learned earlier disrupts the
recall of newer material.
• Suppose, as a student of foreign languages, you first learned French in
the 10th grade, and then in the 11th grade you took Spanish. When in
the 12th grade you take a college subject achievement test in Spanish,
you may fi nd you have difficulty recalling the Spanish translation of a
word because all you can think of is its French equivalent.
retroactive interference
• In contrast, retroactive interference occurs when material that was
learned later disrupts the retrieval of information that was learned
earlier.
• If, for example, you have difficulty on a French subject achievement
test because of your more recent exposure to Spanish, retroactive
interference is the culprit (see Figure 3).
Memory dysfunctions
• Alzheimer’s disease
• A progressive brain disorder that leads to a gradual and irreversible
decline in cognitive abilities.
• Amnesia
• Memory loss that occurs without other mental difficulties.
• Retrograde amnesia
• Amnesia in which memory is lost for occurrences prior to a certain
event, but not for new events.
Cont
• Anterograde amnesia, loss of memory occurs for events that follow
an injury. Information cannot be transferred from short-term to long-
term memory, resulting in the inability to remember anything other
than what was in long-term storage before the accident
• Korsakoff’s syndrome
• A disease that afflicts long-term alcoholics, leaving some abilities
intact but including hallucinations and a tendency to repeat the same
story.
How to improve memory?
• Use keyword technique
• Rely on organization cues
• Take effective notes
• Practice and rehearse
• Talk to yourself
• Don’t believe in magic claims