6.1 Identify the three processes of memory.

• Memory can be defined as an active system that receives information

from the senses, organizes and alters it as it stores it away,
and then retrieves the information from storage.
• The three processes are encoding, storage, and retrieval.

6.2 Explain how the different models of memory work.

• In the levels-of-processing model of memory, information that

gets more deeply processed is more likely to be remembered.
• In the parallel distributed processing model of memory, information
is simultaneously stored across an interconnected neural
network that stretches across the brain.

6.3 Describe the process of sensory memory.

• Iconic memory is the visual sensory memory, in which an afterimage

or icon will be held in neural form for about one fourth to
one half second.
• Echoic memory is the auditory form of sensory memory and
takes the form of an echo that lasts for up to 4 seconds.

6.4 Describe short-term memory, and differentiate it from

working memory.

• Short-term memory is where information is held while it is conscious

and being used. It holds about three to five items of information
and lasts about 30 seconds without rehearsal.
• Whereas STM refers to simple storage of information, working
memory involves manipulation of the information within STM;
working memory consists of three interrelated systems: a central
executive, a visuospatial sketchpad, and a phonological loop.
• STM can be lost through failure to rehearse, decay, interference
by similar information, and the intrusion of new information
into the STM system, which pushes older information out.

6.5 Explain the process of long-term memory, including

nondeclarative and declarative forms.

• Long-term memory is the system in which memories that are to

be kept more or less permanently are stored and is unlimited in
capacity and relatively permanent in duration.
• Information that is more deeply processed, or processed according
to meaning, will be retained and retrieved more efficiently.
• Nondeclarative, or implicit, memories are memories for skills,
habits, and conditioned responses. Declarative, or explicit, memories
are memories for general facts and personal experiences
and include both semantic memories and episodic memories.
• Implicit memories are difficult to bring into conscious awareness,
whereas explicit memories are those that a person is aware
of possessing.
• LTM is organized in the form of semantic networks, or nodes of related
information spreading out from a central piece of knowledge

6.6 Identify the effects of cues on memory retrieval.

• Retrieval cues are words, meanings, sounds, and other stimuli

that are encoded at the same time as a new memory.
• Encoding specificity occurs when context-dependent information
becomes encoded as retrieval cues for specific memories.
• State-dependent learning occurs when physiological or psychological
states become encoded as retrieval cues for memories
formed while in those states.

6.7 Differentiate the retrieval processes of recall and

recognition.

• Recall is a type of memory retrieval in which the information

to be retrieved must be “pulled” out of memory with few or no
cues, whereas recognition involves matching information with
stored images or facts.
• The serial position effect, or primacy or recency effect, occurs
when the first items and the last items in a list of information are
recalled more efficiently than items in the middle of the list.
• Loftus and others have found that people constantly update and
revise their memories of events. Part of this revision may include
adding information acquired later to a previous memory. That
later information may also be in error, further contaminating the
earlier memory.

6.8 Describe how some memories are automatically

encoded into long-term memory.

• Automatic encoding of some kinds of information requires very

little effort to place information in long-term memory.
• Memory for particularly emotional or traumatic events can lead
to the formation of flashbulb memories, memories that seem
as vivid and detailed as if the person were looking at a snapshot
of the event but that are no more accurate than any other
memories.

6.9 Explain how the constructive processing view

of memory retrieval accounts for forgetting and
inaccuracies in memory.

• Memories are reconstructed from the various bits and pieces of

information that have been stored away in different places at the
time of encoding in a process called constructive processing.
• Hindsight bias occurs when people falsely believe that they
knew the outcome of some event because they have included
knowledge of the event’s true outcome in their memories of the
event itself.
• The misinformation effect refers to the tendency of people who
are asked misleading questions or given misleading information
to incorporate that information into their memories for a particular
event.
• Rather than improving memory retrieval, hypnosis makes the
creation of false memories more likely.
• False-memory syndrome is the creation of false or inaccurate
memories through suggestion, especially while hypnotized.
• Pezdek and colleagues assert that false memories are more
likely to be formed for plausible false events than for implausible
ones.

6.10 Describe the “curve of forgetting.”

• Ebbinghaus found that information is mostly lost within 1 hour

after learning and then gradually fades away. This is known as
the curve of forgetting.
6.11 Identify some common reasons people forget
things.
• Some “forgetting” is actually a failure to encode information.
• Memory trace decay theory assumes the presence of a physical
memory trace that decays with disuse over time.
• Forgetting in LTM is most likely due to proactive or retroactive
interference.

6.12 Explain the biological bases of memory in the brain.

• Evidence suggests that nondeclarative memories are stored in

the cerebellum, whereas short-term memories are stored in the
prefrontal and temporal lobes of the cortex.
• Semantic and episodic memories may be stored in the frontal
and temporal lobes as well but in different locations than shortterm
memory, whereas memory for fear of objects is most likely
stored in the amygdala.
• Consolidation consists of the physical changes in neurons that
take place during the formation of a memory.
• The hippocampus appears to be responsible for the formation of
new long-term declarative memories. If it is removed, the ability
to store anything new is completely lost.

6.13 Identify the biological causes of amnesia.

• In retrograde amnesia, memory of the past (prior to the injury)

is lost, which can be a loss of only minutes or a loss of several
years.
• ECT, or electroconvulsive therapy, can disrupt consolidation and
cause retrograde amnesia.
• In anterograde amnesia, memory for anything new becomes impossible,
although old memories may still be retrievable.
• The primary memory difficulty in Alzheimer’s disease is anterograde
amnesia, although retrograde amnesia can also occur as
the disease progresses.
• Alzheimer’s disease has multiple causes, many of which are not
yet identified.
• There are various drugs in use or in development for use with
the hopes of slowing, or possibly in the future halting, the progression
of Alzheimer’s disease.
• Most people cannot remember events that occurred before age 2
or 3. This is called infantile amnesia and is most likely due to the
implicit nature of infant memory.