Department of Psychology 1
UNIT 1
ORGANIZATION OF MEMORY
Introduction
Memories stored in the memories are organized. One way to show this organization is free
recall. This refers to our individually determined way of organizing our memories. To measure
subjective organization, researchers may give participants multi- trials during which to learn to
recall in any order they choose a list of unrelated words. Recall that if sets of test words can be
divided into categories (Ex. Names of fruits, furniture etc). Participants spontaneously will
cluster their recall output by these categories. They do so if the order of presentation is random.
Similarly, participants will tend to show consistent patterns of words order in their recall
protocols even if they are no appearance relations among words in their list. In other words
participants create their own consistent organization. They then group these recall by the
subjective units they create. Although most adults frequently tends to cluster items into
categorize. Categorical clustering also may be used intentionally as an aid to memorization.
MNMONIC DEVICES
Specific techniques to help you memorize list of words is Mnmonics. Essentially such
devices add meaning to otherwise meaningless or arbitrary list of items.
CATEGORICAL CLUSTERING
Organizes a list of items into a set of categories. For example one might organize one’s
shopping list by the types of foods to be bought(Ex. Fruits, vegetables and meat).
IN INTERACTIVE IMAGES
One imagined the objects represented by words one has to remember interacting with
each other in some active way.
IN THE PEGWORD SYSTEM
One associates each word with a word on a previously memorized list and forms an
interactive image between the two words. Like one is Bun, two is shoe and three is tree.
IN THE METHOD OF LOCI
One visualizes walking around an area with distinctive land marks that one knows well.
One that links various landmarks to specific items to be remembered.
Prepared by Dr. G. K. Sellakumar, Associate Professor in Psychology, Sree Narayana Guru College,
Coimbatore-105.
Department of Psychology 2
IN USING ACRONYMS
One forms a sentence rather than a single word to help one remember new words.
USING A KEY WORD SYSTEM
One forms an interactive image that links the sound and meaning of a foreign word with
the sound and meaning of a familiar word.
The relative effectiveness of the method for encoding is influenced by the kind of task.
(Free recall Vs serial recall) requires at the time of retrieval. Thus, when choosing a method for
encoding information for subsequent recall, one should consider the purpose of recalling the
information. The individual should choose not only strategy that allow for effectively encoding
the information. The use of mnemonic devices and techniques for aiding memory involves meta-
memory. Most adults spontaneously use categorical clustering.
Most of the time we try to improve a retrospective memory – our memory for the past.
And also we try to improve our prospective memory- memory for things we need to do or
remember in the future. Prospective memory like retrospective memory is subjective to declines
as we age. Over the years we retain more of our prospective memory than of our retrospective
memory. This retention is likely the result of the use of the external cues and strategy that can be
used to bolster prospective memory. In the laboratory older adults show decline in prospective
memory. However, outside the lab they show better performance than young adults. The
difference may be due to greater reliance on strategies to aid in remembering as we age.
Errors in Memory
Finally we arrive at the errors or disorders. A definition of Memory: "Memory is the ability of an
organism to store, retain, and subsequently recall information." So we are on our way to discover
what blocked processes or defective mechanisms of the brain are leading to what kind of
dysfunction. We like to divide the errors in biochemical and hardware (like a brain injury or
operation).
Prepared by Dr. G. K. Sellakumar, Associate Professor in Psychology, Sree Narayana Guru College,
Coimbatore-105.
Department of Psychology 3
Biochemical
A biochemical error is for example alzheimer where patients show a depletion of acetylcholine
and glutamate. "Alzheimer disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive
cognitive deterioration together with declining activities of daily living and neuropsychiatric
symptoms or behavioral changes." Alzheimer – Wikipedia.
But there are many more Neurodegenerative Diseases. Commonly known are Parkinson,
Multiple sclerosis and Creutzfeld-Jakob. A Neurodegenerative Disease is a "disease caused by
the irreversible deterioration of essential cell and tissue components of the nervous system.". So
the basis gets lost and the brain loses its cognitive functions.
Hardware Errors
The most studied patient with a so called hardware error is Henry M. H.M.'s History. A
man who had as child a bicycle accident and suffered from epilepsy. In an experimental
surgery Dr. William Scoville removed H.M.'s hippocampus and other parts of the brain.
Good for Henry was that the frequency of the epilepsy was reduced, bad was that he was
not able to store any new memories. By the way, his Short Term Memory was normal.
Corkin showed in 1968 that he could learn new simple tasks. So he concluded that his
procedural memory was working. H.M. is suffering from Anterograde amnesia. Amnesia
- Wikipedia
Forgetting
Forgetting is the inability of the individual to retrieve information stored in the long-term
memory to short- term memory. Several theories of forgetting are discussed next. However, as
Baddeley (1997, p. 176) pointed out, “We know surprisingly little about this most fundamental
aspect of human memory.”
We forget many things in our day to day life such as forgetting the name of the people, phone
numbers, address etc. Several theories have been proposed as why we forget information stored
in working memory. The two most well known theories are interference theory and decay theory.
Prepared by Dr. G. K. Sellakumar, Associate Professor in Psychology, Sree Narayana Guru College,
Coimbatore-105.
Department of Psychology 4
Interference theory
The dominant approach to forgetting during much of the 20th century was based on interference
theory. It was assumed that our ability to remember what we are currently learning can be
disrupted or interfered with by what we have previously learned or by what we learn in the
future. When previous learning interferes with later learning, we have proactive interference.
When later learning disrupts earlier learning, there is retroactive interference.
Trace decay theory
Various theorists, including Ebbinghaus (1885/ 1913) have argued that forgetting occurs because
there is spontaneous decay of memory traces over time. The main assumption is that forgetting
depends crucially on the length of the retention interval rather than on what happens during the
time between learning and test. Jenkins and Dallenbach (1924) tested trace decay theory in a
study in which two students were either awake or asleep during the retention interval. According
to trace decay theory, forgetting should have been equal in the two conditions. In fact, there was
much less forgetting when the students were asleep between learning and test. Jenkins and
Dallenbach (1924) concluded that there was more interference with memory when the students
were awake during the retention interval.
Hockey, Davies, and Gray (1972) pointed out a confounding of variables in the study by Jenkins
and Dallenbach (1924). In the asleep condition, learning always occurred in the evening, whereas
it mostly occurred in the morning in the awake condition. Thus, it is not clear whether forgetting
depended on what happened during the retention interval or on the time of day at which learning
took place. Hockey et al. (1972) unconfounded these variables. The time of day at which
learning took place was much more important than whether or the participants slept between
learning and test.
Minami and Dallenbach (1946) carried out a study on cockroaches, which learned to avoid a
dark box. There was then a retention interval of up to 24 hours, during which the cockroaches
were either active or lying inactively in a paper cone. The active cockroaches showed much more
forgetting than the others, which favors an interference explanation. However, trace decay may
have happened more slowly in the inactive cockroaches because of their slower metabolic rate.
Prepared by Dr. G. K. Sellakumar, Associate Professor in Psychology, Sree Narayana Guru College,
Coimbatore-105.
Department of Psychology 5
There is very little direct support for trace decay theory. If all memory traces are subject to
decay, it is perhaps surprising how well we can remember many events that happened several
years ago and which are rarely thought about.
Interference versus Decay theory
Interference occurs when competing information causes us to forget something; Decay occurs
simply the passage of time causes us to forget.
Interference theory refers to the view that forgetting occurs because recall of certain words
interferes with recall of other words. At least two kinds of interference occur according to the
theory and research.
1. Retroactive inhibition (or interference) - is caused by activity occurring after we
learn something but before we are asked to recall that thing. It interferes with our
ability to remember information we learned previously.
2. The second kind of interference is proactive interference (or inhibition) – occurs
when the interfering material occurs before, rather than after, learning of the to-be
remembered material. Proactive as well as retroactive interference may play a role in
short term memory.
Another method often used for determining the causes of forgetting draws inferences
from a serial position curve. The serial position curve represents the probability of recall
of a given its serial position (order of presentation) in a list.
The Recency Effect – refers to superior recall of words at and near the end of a list. The
Primacy effect refers to superior recall of words at and near the beginning of a list. Both
the recency and primacy effect seems to influence the recall. The serial position curve
makes sense in terms of interference theory. Words at the end of the list are subject to
proactive interference but not at to retroactive interference. Words are at the beginning of
the list are subject to retroactive but not to proactive interference. And words at the
middle of the list are subject to both types of interference. Hence recall would be
expected to poorest in the middle of the list. Indeed, it is poorest.
The amount of proactive interference generally climbs with increases in the length of
time between the information are presented and when the information is retrieved. Also
you might expect, proactive interference increases as the amount of prior- and potentially
Prepared by Dr. G. K. Sellakumar, Associate Professor in Psychology, Sree Narayana Guru College,
Coimbatore-105.
Department of Psychology 6
interfering – learning increases. Proactive interference seems to be associated with in the
frontal cortex. In particular, it activates Brodman area 45 in the left hemisphere. In
alcoholic patients, proactive interference is seems to a lesser degree than in nonalcoholic
patients. The findings suggest that the alcoholic patients have difficulty integrating past
information with new information. Thus, alcoholic patient may have difficulty binding
together unrelated items in a list. Taken together, these findings suggest that Brodman
area 45 is likely involved in the binding of items into meaningful groups. When more
information is gathered, an attempt to relate them to one another can occupy much of the
available resources, leaving limited processing ability for new items.
Yet another theory for explaining how we forget information is decay theory. Decay
theory asserts that information is forgotten because of the gradual disappearance, rather
than displacement of the memory trace. Thus decay theory views the original piece of
information as gradually disappearing unless something is done to keep it intact. This
view contrasts with interference theory, in which one or more pieces of information block
recall of another.
Repression (Motivated forgetting)
Freud (1915, 1943) emphasized the importance of emotional factors in forgetting. He argued that
very threatening or anxiety-provoking material is often unable to gain access to conscious
awareness, and he used the term repression to refer to this phenomenon. According to Freud
(1915, p. 86), “The essence of repression lies simply in the function of rejecting and keeping
something out of consciousness.” However, Freud sometimes used the concept to refer merely to
the inhibition of the capacity for emotional experience.
Freud’s ideas on repression emerged from his clinical experiences, with the repression he
claimed to have observed mostly involving traumatic events that had happened to his patients.
Researchers cannot produce such repression in their participants for obvious ethical reasons.
However, attempts have been made to study a repression-like phenomenon in the laboratory. The
evidence has come from studies on normal individuals known as repressors, having low scores
on trait anxiety (a personality factor relating to anxiety susceptibility) and high scores on
defensiveness. Repressors describe themselves as controlled and relatively unemotional.
Prepared by Dr. G. K. Sellakumar, Associate Professor in Psychology, Sree Narayana Guru College,
Coimbatore-105.
Department of Psychology 7
According to Weinberger, Schwartz, and Davidson (1979), those who score low on trait anxiety
and on defensiveness are the truly low-anxious, those high on trait anxiety and low on
defensiveness are the high-anxious, and those high on both trait anxiety and defensiveness are
the defensive high-anxious. All four groups were studied by Myers and Brewin (1994).
Repressors were much slower than the other groups to recall negative childhood memories . This
did not happen because repressors had enjoyed the happiest childhoods: semi-structured
interviews indicated they had experienced the most indifference and hostility from their fathers.
Prepared by Dr. G. K. Sellakumar, Associate Professor in Psychology, Sree Narayana Guru College,
Coimbatore-105.