CHAPTER 6 - HUMAN By
MEMORY Sumedha Pawar
INTRODUCTION
•Memory refers to retaining and recalling
information over a period of time, depending
upon the nature of cognitive task you are
required to perform.
•It might be necessary to hold an information
for a few seconds.
INTRODUCTION
•Memory is conceptualized as a process
consisting of three independent, though
interrelated stages.
•These are encoding, storage, and retrieval.
Any information received by us necessarily
goes through these stages.
ENCODING
•It refers to a process by which information is
recorded and registered for the first time so
that it becomes usable by our memory
system.
•Whenever an external stimulus impinges on
our sensory organs, it generates neural
impulses. These are received in different
areas of our brain for further processing.
STORAGE
•Refers to the process through which information
is retained and held over a period of time
RETRIEVAL
•It refers to bringing the stored information to
her/ his awareness so that it can be used for
performing various cognitive tasks such as
problem solving or decision-making.
•It may be interesting to note that memory
failure can occur at any of these stages.
INFORMATION PROCESSING
APPROACH :
THE STAGE MODEL
•Initially it was seen as a vast storehouse.
•But with the advent of the computer, human
memory came to be seen as a system that
processes information in the same way as a
computer does.
•Human beings too register information, store
and manipulate the stored information
depending on the task that they need to
perform.
MEMORY SYSTEMS :
SENSORY, SHORT-TERM AND
LONG-TERM MEMORIES
•According to the Stage Model, there are three
memory systems : the Sensory Memory, the
Short-term Memory and the Long-term
Memory.
•Each of these systems have different features
and perform different functions with respect
to the sensory inputs
SENSORY MEMORY
•Sensory memory has a large capacity.
However, it is of very short duration, i.e. less
than a second.
•It is a memory system that registers
information from each of the senses with
reasonable accuracy.
SHORT-TERM MEMORY
•Information that is attended to enters the
second memory store called the short-term
memory (abbreviated as STM), which holds
small amount of information for a brief period
of time (usually for 30 seconds or less).
•Information in STM is primarily encoded
acoustically, i.e. in terms of sound and unless
rehearsed continuously, it may get lost from
the STM in less than 30 seconds.
LONG-TERM MEMORY
•It has been shown that once any information
enters the long-term memory store it is never
forgotten because it gets encoded
semantically, i.e. in terms of the meaning
that any information carries.
HOW DOES INFORMATION
TRAVEL FROM ONE STORE
TO ANOTHER?
•Atkinson and Shiffrin propose the notion of control
processes which function to monitor the flow of
information through various memory stores.
1. Selective attention is the first control process that
decides what will travel from sensory registers to STM.
2. The STM then sets into motion another control process
of maintenance rehearsal to retain the information
for as much time as required.
3. Another control process, which operates in STM to
expand its capacity, is Chunking. (7±2).
ACTIVITY TIME..!
Try to memorize this number:
194719492004
Chunking:
You may create the chunks as 1947, 1949, and
2004.
HOW DOES INFORMATION
TRAVEL FROM ONE STORE
TO ANOTHER?
•From the STM, information enters the long-term
memory through elaborative rehearsal.
•This rehearsal attempts to connect the ‘to be
retained information’ to the already existing
information in long-term memory.
•The number of associations you can create
around the new information will determine its
permanence.
EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE
•Some experiments unequivocally show that
the STM and LTM are indeed two separate
memory stores, other evidences have
questioned their distinctiveness.
EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE
•Shallice and Warrington in the year 1970 had cited
the case of a man known as KF who met with an
accident and damaged a portion of the left side of
his cerebral hemisphere. Subsequently, it was
found that his long-term memory was intact but
the short-term memory was seriously affected. The
stage model suggests that information are
committed to the long-term memory via STM and if
KF’s STM was affected, how can his long-term
memory be normal?
EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE
•Some experiments unequivocally show that the
STM and LTM are indeed two separate memory
stores, other evidences have questioned their
distinctiveness.
•Several other studies have also shown that
memory processes are similar irrespective of
whether any information is retained for a few
seconds or for many years and that memory can be
adequately understood without positing separate
memory stores.
SUMMARY
ACTIVITY TIME..!
Make a list of objects, things, etc that
are a part of sensory register, STM and
LTM that you must have retrieved until
now.
HOME ASSIGNMENT
Make a case study of movies that depict
memory disorder seen in different
stages.
LEVELS OF PROCESSING
The levels of processing view was
proposed by Craik and Lockhart in 1972.
Processing of any new information relates
to the manner in which it is perceived,
analysed, and understood which in turn
determines the extent to which it will
eventually be retained.
Although this view has undergone many
revisions since then.
LEVELS OF PROCESSING
Craik and Lockhart proposed that it is
possible to analyze the incoming
information at more than one level.
One may analyze it in terms of its
physical or structural features.
This is the first and the shallowest
level of processing.
LEVELS OF PROCESSING
At an intermediate level one might
consider and attend to the phonetic
sounds that are attached to the letters
and therefore the structural features are
transformed into at least one meaningful
word.
Analysing information at these two
levels produces memory that is fragile
and is likely to decay rather quickly.
LEVELS OF PROCESSING
However, there is a third and the deepest
level at which information can be
processed.
Information should get analyzed and
understood in terms of its meaning to
retain it for a longer duration.
LEVELS OF PROCESSING
To sum up, analysing information in terms
of its structural and phonetic features
amounts to shallower processing
while encoding it in terms of the meaning
it carries (the semantic encoding) is the
deepest processing level that leads to
memory that resists forgetting considerably
LEVELS OF PROCESSING
Understanding memory as an outcome of the
manner in which information is encoded initially
has an important implication for learning.
This view of memory will help you realise that
while you are learning a new lesson, you must
focus on elaborating the meaning of its contents
in as much detail as possible and must not
depend on rote memorisation.
TYPES OF LONG-TERM
MEMORY
Major classification within the LTM is that of
Declarative and Procedural (sometimes
called non-declarative) memories.
All information pertaining to facts, names,
dates, etc., are part of declarative
memory.
TYPES OF LONG-TERM
MEMORY
Procedural memory, on the other hand,
refers to memories relating to procedures
for accomplishing various tasks and skills.
Facts retained in the declarative memory
are amenable to verbal descriptions while
contents of procedural memory cannot be
described easily.
TYPES OF LONG-TERM
MEMORY
Tulving has proposed yet another
classification and has suggested that the
declarative memory can either be Episodic or
Semantic.
TYPES OF LONG-TERM
MEMORY
Episodic memory contains biographical
details of our lives. Memories relating to
our personal life experiences constitute the
episodic memory and it is for this reason
that its contents are generally emotional in
nature.
TYPES OF LONG-TERM
MEMORY
Semantic memory, on the other hand, is the
memory of general awareness and knowledge. All
concepts, ideas and rules of logic are stored in
semantic memory.
It is not dated.
Since the contents of semantic memory relate to
facts and ideas of general awareness and knowledge,
it is affect-neutral and not susceptible to forgetting.
TYPES OF LONG-TERM
MEMORY
Flashbulb Memories : These are memories of
events that are very arousing or surprising.
Such memories are very detailed. They are like
a photo taken with an advanced model camera.
Autobiographical Memory : These are personal
memories. They are not distributed evenly
throughout our lives. Some periods in our lives
produce more memories than others.
TYPES OF LONG-TERM
MEMORY
Implicit memory is a kind of memory
that a person is not aware of. It is a
memory that is retrieved automatically.
Similar to procedural memory (ex:
typing).
NATURE AND CAUSES OF
FORGETTING
The first systematic attempt to understand
the nature of forgetting was made by
Hermann Ebbinghaus, who memorised lists
of nonsense syllables (CVC trigrams such as
NOK or SEP etc.) and then measured the
number of trials he took to relearn the same
list at varying time intervals.
FORGETTING DUE TO TRACE
DECAY/
DISUSE THEORY
The assumption here is that memory leads to
modification in the central nervous system,
which is akin to physical changes in the brain
called memory traces.
When these memory traces are not used for a
long time, they simply fade away and become
unavailable.
FORGETTING DUE TO
INTERFERENCE
This theory assumes that learning and
memorising involve forming of associations
between items and once acquired, these
associations remain intact in the memory.
However, interference comes about at a time
of retrieval when these various sets of
associations compete with each other for
retrieval.
FORGETTING DUE TO
INTERFERENCE
Interference can be proactive (forward
moving) which means what you have learnt
earlier interferes with the recall of your
subsequent learning. It is known as Proactive
Interference.
Retroactive (backward moving) which refers
to difficulty in recalling what you have learnt
earlier because of learning a new material. It
is also known as Retroactive Interference.
FORGETTING DUE TO
RETRIEVAL FAILURE
Forgetting can occur also because at the time
of recall, either the retrieval cues are absent
or they are inappropriate.
This view was advanced by Tulving and his
associates who carried out several
experiments to show that contents of memory
may become inaccessible either due to
absence or inappropriateness of retrieval cues
that are available/employed at the time of
recall.
ENHANCING MEMORY
Strategies or techniques that use familiar
associations in storing new information to be
more easily retrieved is called Mnemonics.
Some of these mnemonics involve use of
images whereas others emphasise self-
induced organisation of learned information.
MNEMONICS USING IMAGES
The two prominent mnemonic devices, which
make interesting use of images, are the
keyword method and the method of loci.
(a) The Keyword Method : Suppose you
want to learn words of any foreign language.
In keyword method, an English word that
sounds similar to the word of a foreign
language is identified. This English word will
function as the keyword.
MNEMONICS USING IMAGES
(b) The Method of Loci : In order to use the
method of loci, items you want to remember
are placed as objects arranged in a physical
space in the form of visual images. This
method is particularly helpful in remembering
items in a serial order.
MNEMONICS USING
ORGANISATION
a) Chunking: In chunking, several smaller units
are combined to form large chunks. For
creating chunks, it is important to discover
some organisation principles, which can link
smaller units.
b) First Letter Technique : In order to employ
the first letter technique, you need to pick
up the first letter of each word you want to
remember and arrange them to form
another word or a sentence.
ENHANCING MEMORY
a) Engage in Deep Level Processing: Craik
and Lockhart have demonstrated that
processing information in terms of meaning
that they convey leads to better memory as
compared to attending to their surface
features.
- In this way, the new information will become
a part of your existing knowledge framework
and the chances that it will be remembered
are increased.
ENHANCING MEMORY
(b) Minimise Interference : You know that
maximum interference is caused when very
similar materials are learned in a sequence.
Avoid this.
ENHANCING MEMORY
(c) Give Yourself enough Retrieval Cues :
Cues will be easier to remember compared to
the entire content and the links you have
created between cues and the content will
facilitate the retrieval process.
-Thomas and Robinson have developed
another strategy to help students in
remembering more which they called the
methods of PQRST.
-This acronym stands for Preview, Question,