Chapter 7

HUMAN MEMORY
Mangai
(Psychologist)
 Contents

Introduction
Nature of Memory
Information processing approach: The stage of model
Memory systems: Sensory, Short term & Long term Memories
Level of processing
Types of long term memory
- Declarative & procedural; Episodic & Semantic
- Long term memory classification
- Methods of memory measurement
Knowledge representation & organization in memory learning
- Memory Making: Eyewitness & False Memories
- Repressed Memory
Enhancing Memory
- Mnemonics using Images & Organizations.
Introduction
Memory is just one of many phenomena that demonstrate the brain's complexity.
On a basic level, memory is the capacity for storing and retrieving information, but
memories are not simply recorded and neatly stored.
- Hermann Ebbinghaus (24 January 1850 – 26 February 1909) was a German
psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for his
discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first person to
describe the learning curve.

Nature of Memory
The ability to retain information or a representation of past experience, based on
the mental processes of learning or encoding, retention across some interval of time, and
retrieval or reactivation of the memory. Human memory involves the ability to both
preserve and recover information.
The Stage Model of memory
 Long Term Memory Classifications
Flashbulb memories
The study of memory is really interesting, and researchers have discovered some amazing things about
how our memory works. One fascinating phenomenon is called "flashbulb memories." These are memories of
events that are super exciting or surprising. They're like high-quality photos in our minds - you can remember
them in great detail, almost like you took a picture with a really good camera.
Eg:-
Birth of a Child: Parents often have very clear and detailed memories of the day their child was born. They
remember the hospital room, the doctor, the emotions they felt – it's like a vivid snapshot in their minds.

Wedding Day: Many people have exceptionally clear and detailed memories of their wedding day. They can
recall the ceremony, the venue, the people in attendance, and the emotions they felt.

Natural Disasters: People who have experienced natural disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, or floods,
often have strong flashbulb memories of the event. They can remember the sights, sounds, and the fear they
felt during the disaster
 Autobiographical memory

Autobiographical memory is all about our personal memories, the ones unique to each of us. But here's
the interesting part: these memories don't happen evenly throughout our lives. Some times in our lives are
more memorable than others.

For example, if you try to remember things from when you were very young, like 4 or 5 years old, it's often
really hard. We call this "childhood amnesia." But as you get a bit older, especially in your twenties, you
start remembering a lot more. The reason? Well, it's because the things that happen in your twenties are
often very emotional, new, and important.

When you're older, the most recent years of your life are usually the ones you remember best. But around
the age of 30, you might notice that some types of memory start to decline. This could be due to various
reasons, but it's all a part of how our memory works as we go through life.
Here are some simple examples to illustrate autobiographical memory and the patterns described:

1. Childhood Amnesia: Think about when you were 3 or 4 years old. You probably can't remember much
from that time. Maybe you have a few vague snippets, but not many clear memories. This is what we call
childhood amnesia.

2. Vivid Twenties: When you were in your twenties, you likely have many vivid memories. Maybe you
remember your first job, your first love, or big life changes like moving to a new place. These memories are
often rich and detailed because they're emotionally charged and important.

3. Recent Memories: Now, think about the past year or two. You can probably remember a lot of things from
this time quite well. What you did on your last birthday, a vacation you took recently, or significant life events
like a new job or a wedding – these memories are fresh because they're recent.

4. Memory Changes at 30: As you approach the age of 30, you might notice that some aspects of your
memory, especially the ability to remember specific details, can start to decline. This is a natural part of how
our memory changes as we get older.
Implicit memory in simpler terms:
Implicit memory is a kind of memory that you're not consciously aware of. It's like a hidden
memory that your brain uses automatically.

Here's an example: If you know how to type on a keyboard, you might not be able to list all the
letters on the keyboard when asked. But when you're typing, your fingers automatically find the
right keys, showing that you have an implicit memory of where the keys are.

Even if you're not aware of these memories, they can affect your behaviour. People with brain
injuries who can't recall words from a list can still remember them when given hints. This hidden
type of memory isn't just in people with injuries; it's something everyone has, and it can impact how
we act, even if we don't realize it.
Here are a few more examples of implicit memory:

1. Riding a Bicycle: Once you've learned how to ride a bicycle, you don't consciously think about balancing or
pedalling. It becomes automatic, and your brain relies on implicit memory to perform these actions.

2. Driving a Car: Similar to biking, driving a car becomes second nature with practice. You don't need to
consciously think about every step, like shifting gears or turning the steering wheel.

3. Tying Shoelaces: After learning to tie your shoelaces, you can do it without actively recalling the steps. Your
fingers remember the movements.

4. Speaking Your Native Language: You don't consciously think about grammar rules or word meanings when
speaking your native language. Implicit memory helps you form sentences naturally.

5. Muscle Memory in Sports: Athletes develop implicit memories for specific movements, like shooting a
basketball or swinging a golf club. These actions become automatic through practice.
The concept of semantic memory:
Semantic memory is like your brain's library of general knowledge. It's where you store all the ideas,
facts, and rules of logic that you've learned over time. For example, in semantic memory, you remember that
"non-violence" means not using violence, or that 2+6 equals 8. You also remember things like the STD code for
New Delhi (011) or how to spell words correctly, like "elephant.“

• Examples "- Facts about Famous People: Knowing that Albert Einstein was a physicist or that William
Shakespeare wrote famous plays is stored in your semantic memory. You might not remember when you first
learned these facts.

• Vocabulary: Your understanding of the meanings of words and how to spell them is part of your semantic
memory. For example, knowing that "elephant" is spelled with an "e" and not an "i."
 Methods of memory measurements

1. Free Recall: Imagine you have to remember your grocery list without any written notes. You just think back and try
to list all the items you need, like apples, bread, and milk, purely from your memory.

2. Recognition: It's like a multiple-choice test. If you're shown a list of fruits, and you have to choose which one is a
fruit out of options like "carrot," "banana," and "shoe," you'd pick "banana" because you recognize it as a fruit.

3. Sentence Verification Task: This is similar to saying whether something is true or false. If you hear the sentence
"Birds can fly," you quickly respond with "true" because it's a fact. But if you're given the sentence "Fish can talk," you
say "false" because it's not true.

4. Priming: Imagine you see the word "ocean." It might prime your memory to think of related words like "beach,"
"waves," or "swimming." The word "ocean" triggers these other words in your mind because they're connected in
your memory.
 knowledge representation and organization with
simple examples

1. Knowledge Representation: Imagine your brain is like your smartphone. All the apps on your phone represent
different types of knowledge. For example, you have a "Contacts" app for people's phone numbers, a "Calendar" app
for your schedule, and a "Notes" app for important information. Each app stores and represents specific types of
information just like different sections in your brain store different knowledge.

2. Organization in Memory: Think of this like arranging your wardrobe. Your clothes are like information in your brain.
To find the right outfit quickly, you organize your wardrobe by separating shirts from pants, or summer clothes from
winter clothes. Similarly, in your brain, you organize information so that you can quickly find what you need. For
instance, you keep facts about animals in one mental "drawer" and cooking recipes in another, making it easier to
retrieve the information when you want it.
 Memory Making
"Memory Making" is like creating a mental diary of what we see and experience. It's how our brain records what
happens around us. One important part of this is "Eyewitness Memory.“

Eyewitness Memory:
Imagine you're like a detective or a witness in a movie. Your brain records what you see when something important
or interesting happens. It's like taking mental notes.
For example, If you see a car accident, your brain stores details like the colour of the cars, where they crashed,
and how it all happened. This information becomes your "eyewitness memory."
Now, it's really important because sometimes this eyewitness memory is used in investigations, like when the police
want to know what happened in a crime. But here's the tricky part: our memories can sometimes get things wrong,
just like in a detective story.
Sometimes we might remember things a little different from what actually happened, especially if we're under stress
or if a lot is going on around us. That's why eyewitness memory is important, but it's not always 100% accurate.
So, "memory making" is about how our brain records what we see and experience, and "eyewitness memory" is like
being a mental witness to events. However, we need to be aware that our memories can sometimes have errors or
changes, so they're not always perfectly reliable.
 Examples of false memory
1. Misplaced Items: Imagine you're convinced you left your phone on the kitchen table, but it's actually in your
bag. You falsely remembered where you put it.

2. School Day Details: You might think you wore a red shirt on your first day of school, but when you see a
photo and it's actually blue, your memory was wrong.

3. Misheard Song Lyrics: You could swear a song said one thing, but when you read the lyrics, you discover you
misheard it. Your memory of the song was incorrect.

4. Dream Confusion: Sometimes you dream something so vivid that you remember it as a real event. You might
tell a friend about your "trip to Hawaii," even though it was just a dream. That's a false memory.

5. Sibling Stories: Your older sibling might convince you that you once flew on a dragon when you were little.
You could grow up believing it, even though it never happened.
These everyday examples show how false memories can happen in simple, relatable situations when our
recollections don't match reality. It's like our memory playing tricks on us.
 Memory as a constructive process
Imagine your memory is like a big, constantly changing puzzle. Some early thinkers believed that your memory's
job was just to copy and replay what you've learned, like making a photocopy. They thought memory was about
quantity and accuracy – how much you store and how well you can recall it.

But then along came Bartlett. He said, "Wait, it's not that simple!" He believed that memory is much more than a
simple copy-paste job. It's like you don't just store information, you also change and build upon it.
For example, when you read a story or a text, your own experiences, thoughts, and ideas mix with what you've
read. So when you remember it, it's not an exact copy – it's a mix of your memory and your thoughts about it. This
is what Bartlett called a "constructive process."
He did some experiments where people read things and then recalled them after a break. What he found was that
they didn't remember things exactly as they were written; they changed and transformed the information to make
more sense to them.

Bartlett used the term "schema" to describe how our past experiences and knowledge organize our thoughts.
Think of schemas as mental templates that help us understand and remember things. So, when you remember
something, it's like building a new piece of the puzzle by mixing it with your own ideas and past experiences.
In simple terms, memory isn't just copying and pasting; it's more like being an editor, changing and organizing the
information in your head to fit with what you know and think. It's a creative process that makes your memories
uniquely yours.
 Examples
1. Reading a Book: Imagine you read a mystery novel. Your memory doesn't just replay the exact words; it combines
what you read with your thoughts and guesses about who the culprit might be. When you recall the story, you
remember it with your own interpretations.

2. Telling a Story: When you tell a story to a friend, you don't recite it word-for-word. Instead, you use your memory
to reconstruct the plot with your own words and add your thoughts and emotions to make it interesting.

3. Recalling a Vacation: If you remember a vacation, you don't remember every little detail like the time of day a
certain event happened. Your memory constructs a more general and meaningful version of the trip, focusing on the
most important and enjoyable parts.

4. Learning New Skills: When you learn something new, like a recipe or a dance move, your memory isn't just storing
exact instructions. It adapts and combines the steps with your previous knowledge, making it easier to remember
and perform.

5. Remembering a Conversation: After a chat with a friend, you don't recall the entire conversation verbatim.
Instead, your memory constructs a summary of what you talked about, including your friend's opinions and your
own feelings during the chat.
These examples illustrate how memory isn't a simple copy-paste process; it's more like adding your own twist to
what you remember, making your memories unique and tailored to your experiences and thoughts.
 Forgetting due to Trace Decay
Trace Decay (Disuse Theory):
This is one of the earliest theories of forgetting. It's like saying that our memory leaves marks on our brain, kind
of like footprints in the sand. But if we don't use these footprints for a long time, they start to fade away, just like
memories. So, according to this theory, if you don't use a memory, it disappears over time.

Why It Doesn't Quite Work:

Examples:
1. Forgotten Passwords: If you have an online account with a password you rarely use, you might forget the password
because you haven't "used" it recently. The memory of the password decays over time.
2. Phone Numbers: Think about a phone number you used to dial frequently but haven't used in a long time. It's
common to forget it because the memory trace has faded due to disuse.
 Replacement Theory - Interference
To make more sense of forgetting, another theory suggests that it's not just about memories fading away. Instead, it's
like having a crowded bookshelf in your brain. When you put new books (new memories) on the shelf, they can get in
the way of the old ones, making it harder to find and remember the old stuff. So, interference from new memories is a
big reason why we forget.

This is one of the earliest theories of forgetting. It's like saying that our memory leaves marks on our brain, kind of like
footprints in the sand. But if we don't use these footprints for a long time, they start to fade away, just like memories.
So, according to this theory, if you don't use a memory, it disappears over time.

In simpler terms, trace decay theory suggests memories fade if we don't use them, but it doesn't quite explain how
we forget. Interference theory says it's more like our new memories push the old ones to the back, making them
harder to recall, which makes more sense. It's like having a full bookshelf where the new books hide the old ones.
 Two Kinds of Interference
Proactive Interference:
1. Old and New Phone Numbers: Imagine you had an old phone number for years, and you
recently got a new one. You might sometimes dial your old number by mistake because your old
memory interferes with remembering the new one.

2. Learning New Dance Moves: If you've been dancing one way for a long time and try to learn a
different style, your old dance habits might interfere with your ability to learn the new moves.

Retroactive Interference:
1. Learning New Passwords: If you change your email password and then can't remember the old
one, it's because the new password interferes with your recall of the old one.

2. Learning a New Language: When you're trying to learn a new language, and you suddenly forget
words from a language you used to know, it's because the new language is interfering with your
ability to remember the old one.
 Forgetting due to retrieval failure
Retrieval Failure .This is when you forget something because you can't find the right clues or hints to help you
remember it.

Examples:
1. Tip of the Tongue: Have you ever been unable to recall someone's name or a word, but you know it's on the tip
of your tongue? That's retrieval failure. You can't find the right clue to pull the memory out.

2. Forgotten Password: When you can't remember your password, even though you've used it many times, it's
because you can't recall the right cues, like the combination of numbers and letters. - If you work well at your job
(behaviour), you receive a bonus (pleasant consequence), so you'll work well in the future.

2. Negative Reinforcement: This is about avoiding or escaping from unpleasant things, which also makes us more
likely to repeat a behaviour. For example:
- You put on warm clothes (behaviour) to escape the cold weather (unpleasant consequence).
- When you fasten your seatbelt (behaviour), you avoid getting fined by the police (unpleasant consequence).
It's important to note that negative reinforcement is not the same as punishment. Negative reinforcement
encourages avoiding or escaping from unpleasant things, whereas punishment aims to reduce or suppress a
behaviour. Punishment isn't always effective, and it may lead to negative feelings towards the one delivering the
punishment.
Repressed Memories

Traumatic Experiences and Repression

1. Repression of Painful Memories: Imagine someone who had a terrible car accident. The memory
of the accident is so distressing that they push it deep into their mind and try not to think about
it. It's like hiding that painful memory in a secret box.

2. Psychological Amnesia: Think about a person who goes through a very stressful situation, like
losing their job. They might forget not only the stress but even other details of their life, like
forgetting where they put their keys or their favourite book. It's like their mind goes on a little
vacation from reality.
Enhancing memory
We all want a great memory that works well and doesn't let us down. Who likes those moments when we forget
things and feel anxious or embarrassed? Now that you've learned about how memory works, you might be curious
about how to make your memory better.
Mnemonics:
These are special tricks and techniques (pronounced "ni-mo-nicks") to help you remember things more
effectively. Some of these tricks involve using mental images, like picturing a vivid scene in your mind. Others focus on
how you can organize the information you've learned.
.2. Memory Palace: Imagine you want to remember a list of things to buy at the store. You create a mental "memory
palace" by picturing your house, and in each room, you place one of the items you need to buy. Later, when you're at
the store, you walk through your memory palace in your mind, and it helps you remember your shopping list.
3. Acronyms: You might create an acronym like "PEMDAS" to remember the order of operations in math (Parentheses,
Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction).
3. Rhymes and Songs: Many people remember information better if it's in the form of a rhyme or a catchy song. For
example, "Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November" to remember the number of days in each month.
4. Chunking: If you have a long number, like a phone number, you can chunk it into smaller groups to make it easier to
remember. For instance, instead of remembering 10 individual digits, you might remember three groups of numbers.
 Mnemonics using images
Keyword Method:
- This is like using English words that sound like the foreign words you want to remember.
- For instance, if you're trying to learn the Spanish word for "duck" which is 'Pato,' you can pick a
similar English word, like "pot," and create a funny image in your mind. Imagine a duck sitting
inside a cooking pot, and this image helps you remember the word 'Pato.‘

Method of Loci:
-This technique involves placing items you want to remember as visual images in familiar locations.
- Let's say you're going to the market and you need to remember to buy bread, eggs, tomatoes, and
soap. You imagine these items in places you know well. Picture a loaf of bread and eggs in your
kitchen, tomatoes on a table, and soap in the bathroom.
- When you get to the market, mentally walk through your house from the kitchen to the
bathroom, and you'll recall the items in order.
 Mnemonics using organisations
Organisation for Memory: Organizing the information you want to remember is helpful because it creates a
framework that makes it easier to recall.
a. Chunking:
Chunking is like grouping smaller pieces of information into larger chunks. For example, instead of trying to
remember 12 random numbers, you can group them into three chunks of four numbers each, making it easier to
remember.
b. First Letter Technique:
This technique involves using the first letter of each word you want to remember to create a word or sentence.
For instance, to remember the colours of a rainbow, you can use the first letters of each color to create the word
"VIBGYOR."
c. Deep Level Processing:
If you want to remember something well, focus on understanding its meaning. For example, when studying,
don't just memorize facts; ask questions, understand the meaning, and relate it to what you already know. This deep
understanding makes it easier to remember.
 B) Minimize Interference

• Imagine you're studying for a history exam. Instead of studying all the World War I
topics one after the other, break it up with a chapter on a completely different
subject. This helps prevent confusion and interference.

• These methods help you organize and remember information more effectively and
avoid common memory challenges
THANK YOU