Memory: Processes, Systems, and Strategies in Psychology

Memory

Chapter Overview

• Studying Memory

• Building Memories: Encoding

• Memory Storage

• Retrieval: Getting Information Out

• Forgetting

• Memory Construction Errors

• Improving Memory

Studying Memory

Disorders and Exceptionalities

Memory can be affected by neurological disorders and can also show exceptional capabilities in certain individuals.

• Alzheimer's disease: A neurodegenerative disorder that strips memory as brain centers deteriorate.

• Super-recognizers: Individuals with exceptional memory for faces, facts, and events.

Definition and Models

Memory is the persistence of learning over time through encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.

• Information-processing model: Compares human memory to computer operations, involving encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Stages in Forming Memories (Atkinson and Shiffrin)

• Sensory memory: Fleeting recording of to-be-remembered information.

• Short-term memory: Information is encoded through rehearsal.

• Long-term memory: Information is stored for later retrieval.

• Working memory: Active processing of incoming and retrieved information.

• Automatic processing: Unconscious encoding of information.

Working Memory

Working memory is a modern understanding of short-term memory, involving conscious, active processing of information.

• Processes both new and previously stored information.

• Influenced by cultural traditions in encoding and retrieval.

Building Memories: Encoding

Two-Track Memory System

• Implicit (nondeclarative) memory: Retention of learned skills or conditioned associations without conscious awareness; formed via automatic processing.

• Explicit (declarative) memory: Retention of facts and personal events that can be consciously retrieved; formed via effortful processing.

Types of Processing

• Automatic processing: Unconscious encoding of everyday and well-learned information.

• Effortful processing: Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.

Implicit and Explicit Memories

• Implicit memories include automatic skills and conditioned associations.

• Information about space, time, and frequency can be processed without conscious effort.

• Explicit memories become automatic with practice; processed in parallel.

Sensory Memory

The first stage in forming explicit memories, sensory memory records immediate and brief information.

• Iconic memory: Picture-image memory of a scene.

• Echoic memory: Sensory memory of sounds.

Capacity of Short-Term and Working Memory

• Short-term memory: Miller's research suggests about seven bits of information can be stored; other studies suggest about six letters or five words.

• Working memory: Capacity varies with age and other factors; young adults outperform children and older adults in multitasking.

• Focus and lack of distraction improve memory performance.

Decay of Unrehearsed Information

Verbal information may be quickly forgotten unless rehearsed.

Effortful Processing Strategies

• Chunking: Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs naturally.

• Mnemonics: Memory aids using vivid imagery and organizational devices.

Spaced Study and Self-Assessment

• Spacing effect: Distributed study or practice yields better long-term retention than massed practice.

• Distributed practice: Produces better long-term recall.

• Massed practice (cramming): Produces speedy short-term learning and confidence, but poorer long-term retention.

Testing Effect

• Repeated self-testing enhances memory more than rereading information.

• Also known as retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced learning.

Making Information Meaningful

• Spaced practice is most effective when new information is meaningful.

• Encoding errors can be avoided by rephrasing information into personally meaningful terms.

• Ebbinghaus found that learning meaningful material requires much less effort than learning nonsense material.

• Self-reference effect: Information related to oneself is more easily remembered.

Memory Storage

Capacity and Research Findings

Humans have a vast capacity for storing long-term memories, with no known limit.

• Flashbacks during surgery are new creations of a stressed brain, not real memories.

• Information is not stored in a single spot; brain networks are involved in perception, language, and emotion.

Explicit Memory System

• Semantic memory: Memory for facts and general knowledge.

• Episodic memory: Memory for personal experiences and events.

• Hippocampus: Temporarily stores aspects of events before transferring them to other regions for long-term storage.

Memory Consolidation

• Memories migrate for storage via the memory consolidation process.

• Frontal lobes process different types of information.

• Sleep supports memory consolidation; hippocampus and cortex show rhythmic activity during sleep.

Implicit Memory System

• Cerebellum: Forms and stores memories created by classical conditioning.

• Basal ganglia: Involved in motor movement and helps form memories for physical skills.

The Amygdala, Emotions, and Memory

• Excitement or stress triggers hormone production, activating the amygdala and boosting memory formation.

• Flashbulb memories: Clear memories of emotionally significant events, retained due to rehearsal and hormonal changes.

Key Memory Structures in the Brain

Structure	Function
Frontal lobes & Hippocampus	Explicit memory formation
Cerebellum & Basal ganglia	Implicit memory formation
Amygdala	Emotion-related memory formation

Synaptic Changes and Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

• Kandel and Schwartz's research on sea slugs showed that learning increases serotonin release and synaptic efficiency.

• Number of synapses increases with experience and learning.

• Long-term potentiation (LTP): Increase in a synapse's firing potential, providing a neural basis for learning and memory.

$\text{LTP:} \quad \text{Repeated stimulation} \rightarrow \text{Increased synaptic strength}$

Memory Processing Table

Type	Implicit (Nondeclarative)	Explicit (Declarative)
Recall	Without conscious recall	With conscious recall
Brain Regions	Cerebellum, Basal ganglia	Hippocampus, Frontal lobes
Examples	Space, time, frequency; motor/cognitive skills; classical conditioning	Semantic memory (facts); episodic memory (personal events)

Retrieval: Getting Information Out

Measuring Retention

• Recall: Retrieving information learned earlier (e.g., fill-in-the-blank test).

• Recognition: Identifying previously learned items (e.g., multiple-choice test).

• Relearning: Time saved when learning material again.

Retrieving a Memory

• Memories are stored in a web of associations.

• Retrieval cues: Anchor points for accessing memories, best formed at encoding.

• Priming: Activation of associations in memory, often unconsciously.