MEMORY

1
 MEMORY
• an active system that receives
information from the senses, puts that
information into a usable form, and
organizes it as it stores it away, and then
retrieves the information from storage

2
• encoding
the set of mental operations that
people perform on sensory information
to convert that information into a form
that is usable in the brain’s storage
systems.
• Storage
holding on to information for some
period of time.
retrieval
getting information that is in storage
into a form that can be used. 3
MODELS OF MEMORY

4
 1. Information-processing
Model
• model of memory that assumes the processing of
information for memory storage is similar to the
way a computer processes memory in a series of
three stages
• This approach focuses on the way information is
handled, or processed, through three different
systems of memory. The processes of encoding,
storage, and retrieval are seen as part of this
model.
• While it is common to refer to the three systems of
the information-processing model as stages of
memory, that term seems to imply a sequence of
events.
5
 2. Parallel Distributed
Processing (PDP) Model
• a model of memory in which memory
processes are proposed to take place
at the same time over a large network
of neural connections.
• In the AI world, PDP is related to
connectionism

6
 3. Levels-of-processing
Model
• model of memory that assumes information that is
more “deeply processed,” or processed
according to its meaning rather than just the
sound or physical characteristics of the word or
words, will be remembered more efficiently and
for a longer period of time.
• Numerous experiments have shown that thinking
about the meaning of something is a deeper
level of processing and results in longer retention
of the word (Cermak & Craik, 1979; Craik &
Tulving, 1975; Paul et al., 2005; Watson et al.,
1999).
7
 A. The Information-processing
Model/Multi Store memory System

• It was information-processing theorists

who first proposed that there are three
types of memory systems sensory
memory, short-term memory, and
long-term memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin,
1968).

8
 1. Sensory Memory
• Sensory memory is the first system in
the process of memory, the point at
which information enters the nervous
system through the sensory systems—
eyes, ears, and so on. ¼ to ½ second
• the very first stage of memory, where
raw information from the senses is held
for a very brief period of time.

9
 There are two kinds of sensory memory that have been
studied extensively. They are the iconic (visual) and echoic
(auditory) sensory systems

• ICONIC SENSORY MEMORY

• The visual sensory system is often called
iconic memory, and it only lasts for a
fraction of a second.
• Icon is the Greek word for “image.”
• visual sensory memory, lasting only a
fraction of a second.

10
• Iconic memory was studied in several classic
experiments by George Sperling (1960)

11
• Although it is rare, some people do
have what is properly called eidetic
imagery, or the ability to access a
visual sensory memory over a long
period of time.
• The popular term photographic
memory is often used to mean this rare
ability
• eidetic imagery the ability to access a
visual memory for 30 seconds or more

12
• ECHOIC SENSORY MEMORY
• auditory sensory memory, lasting only
2–4 seconds.
• A good example of echoic memory is
the “What?” phenomenon.
• Echoic memory is very useful when a
person wants to have meaningful
conversations with others.
• It allows the person to remember what
someone said just long enough to
recognize the meaning of a phrase
13
 2. Short-term Memory
• the memory system in which information is
held for brief periods of time while being
used. up to 30 seconds,
• Selective attention is the ability to focus on
only one stimulus from among all sensory
input (Broadbent, 1958).
• It is through selective attention that
information enters our STM system.
• COCKTAIL PARTY EFFECT (Bronkhorst, 2000;
Cherry, 1953; Handel, 1989
14
• Short-term memory tends to be encoded
primarily in auditory (sound) form.
• That simply means that people tend to “talk”
inside their own heads.
• Although some images are certainly stored in
STM in a kind of visual “sketchpad” (Baddeley,
1986), auditory storage accounts for much of
short-term encoding.
• Even a dancer planning out moves in her head
will not only visualize the moves but also be very
likely to verbally describe the moves in her head
as she plans.
• An artist planning a painting certainly has visual
information in STM but may also keep up an
internal dialogue that is primarily auditory. 15
• WORKING MEMORY
• an active system that processes the
information in short-term memory
• Working memory is thought to consist of
three interrelated systems: a central
executive (a kind of “CEO” or “Big Boss”)
that controls and coordinates the other two
systems, the visuospatial “sketchpad” of
sorts, and a kind of auditory action
“recorder” or phonological loop (Baddeley,
1986, 2012; Baddeley & Hitch, 1974;
Baddeley & Larsen, 2007; Engle & Kane,
2004

16
capacity: the magical number seven, or five, or
four
• George Miller (1956) wanted to know how much
information humans can hold in short-term memory at
any one time (or how many “files” will fit on the “desk”
• DIGIT SPAN (GEORGE MILLER)
• Miller to conclude that the capacity of STM is about
seven items or pieces of information, plus or minus two
items
• If the bits of information are combined into meaningful
units, or chunks, more information can be held in STM. If
someone were to recode the last sequence of numbers
as “654-789-3217,” for example, instead of 10 separate
bits of information, there would only be three “chunks”
that read like a phone number.
• This process of recoding or reorganizing the information
17
is called chunking
of 800

• Research has shown that short-term

memory lasts from about 12 to 30
seconds without rehearsal (Atkinson &
Shiffrin, 1968; J. Brown, 1958; Peterson &
Peterson, 1959).
• After that, the memory seems to rapidly
“decay” or disappear.
• maintenance rehearsal
• practice of saying some information to
be remembered over and over in one’s
head in order to maintain it in short Term
memory
18
• When rehearsal stops, the memory rapidly
decays and is forgotten. If anything
interferes with maintenance rehearsal,
memories are also likely to be lost.
• For example, if someone is trying to count
items by reciting each number out loud
while counting, and someone else asks
that person the time and interferes with the
counting process, the person who is
counting will probably forget what the last
number was and have to start all over
again.
19
 3. LONG TERM MEMORY
• the system of memory into which all the information is
placed to be kept more or less permanently.
• DURATION
• memories people have stored away for a long, long time—
even since childhood—may still be there.
• The memories may be available but not accessible,
meaning that they are still there, but for various reasons
people cannot “get to” them.
• Information that is rehearsed long enough may actually find
its way into long-term memory.
• Most people tend to learn poems and the multiplication
tables by maintenance rehearsal, otherwise known as rote
learning.
• Rote is like “rotating” the information in one’s head, saying
it over and over again 20
• LTM is encoded in meaningful form, a kind of mental
storehouse of the meanings of words, concepts, and
all the events that people want to keep in mind.
• Even the images, sounds, smells, and tastes involved
in these events have some sort of meaning attached to
them that gives them enough importance to be stored
long term.
• The best way to encode information into LTM in an
organized fashion is to make it meaningful through
elaborative rehearsal
• elaborative rehearsal a method of transferring
information from STM into LTM by making that
information meaningful in some way
21
 TYPES OF LONG-TERM
INFORMATION

• Long-term memories include general facts and

knowledge, personal facts, and even skills that can
be performed.
• Memory for skills is a type of nondeclarative
memory, or implicit memory, because the skills have
to be demonstrated and not reported.
• Memory for facts is called declarative memory, or
explicit memory, because facts are things that are
known and can be declared (stated outright)

22
• NONDECLARATIVE (IMPLICIT) LTM
• Memories for things that people know how to do, like
tying shoes and riding a bicycle, are a kind of LTM
called nondeclarative (implicit) memory.
• The fact that people have the knowledge of how to tie
their shoes, for example, is implied by the fact that
they can actually tie them.
• Nondeclarative memories also include emotional
associations, habits, and simple conditioned reflexes
that may or may not be in conscious awareness, which
are often very strong memories
• The amygdala is the most probable location for
emotional associations, such as fear, and the
cerebellum in the hind-brain is responsible for storage
of memories of conditioned responses, skills, and
habits 23
• Evidence that separate areas of the brain
control nondeclarative memory comes from
studies of people with damage to the
hippocampal area of the brain.
• This damage causes them to have
anterograde amnesia, in which new long-
term declarative memories cannot be formed
• Even people with Alzheimer’s disease, who
also suffer from anterograde amnesia, do not
forget how to walk, talk, fasten clothing, or
even tie shoes (although they do lose motor
ability because the brain eventually fails to
send the proper signals).
24
• DECLARATIVE (EXPLICIT) LTM
• type of long-term memory containing
information that is conscious and known.
• Nondeclarative memory is about the things
that people can do, but declarative (explicit)
memory is about all the things that people
can know—the facts and information that
make up knowledge
• People know things such as the names of the
planets in the solar system, that adding 2 and
2 makes 4, and that a noun is the name of a
person, place, or thing
25
• There are two types of declarative long-
term memories, semantic and episodic
(Nyberg & Tulving, 1996).
• semantic memory
• type of declarative memory containing
general knowledge, such as knowledge of
language and information learned in
formal education
• The word semantic refers to meaning, so
this kind of knowledge is the awareness of
the meanings of words, concepts, and
terms as well as names of objects, math
skills, and so on 26
• episodic memory
• type of declarative memory containing personal
information not readily available to others, such as
daily activities and events.
• Memories of what has happened to people each
day, certain birthdays, anniversaries that were
particularly special, childhood events
• Episodic memories that are especially meaningful,
such as the memory of the first day of school or
your first date, are more likely to be kept in LTM
• Episodic and semantic memories are explicit
memories because they are easily made
conscious and brought from long-term storage into
short-term memory.
27
28
B. Integrative Model: Working Memory
• The Working Memory Model, proposed by Alan Baddeley and
Graham Hitch in 1974, describes short-term memory as a
system with multiple components.
• Baddeley and Hitch proposed their three-part working
memory model as an alternative to the short-term store in
Atkinson and Shiffrin's 'multi-store' memory model (1968)
• Baddely suggested working memory comprises of 4
elements:
1. The central executive: Drives the whole system (e.g., the
boss of working memory)
Subsidiary slave systems
2. The phonological loop :stores verbal content
3. The visuospatial sketchpad :caters to visuo-spatial data
4. Episodic buffer 29
30
• Working memory is a limited capacity store for
retaining information for a brief period while
performing mental operations on that
information.
• Working memory is a multi-component system
that includes the central executive, visuospatial
sketchpad, phonological loop, and episodic
buffer.
• Working memory is important for reasoning,
learning, and comprehension.
• Working memory theories assume that
complex reasoning and learning tasks require a
mental workspace to hold and manipulate
information. 31
32
Phonological loop: Processes sound based
information

33
Phonological store: speech
perception

34
Inner ear: see object in
minds eye

35
36
Combining visual and
phonological
information to
remember

37
38
39
40
Episodic Buffer (2000)

41
42
 1. The Central Executive
• The central executive is the most important
component of the model
• It is responsible for monitoring and coordinating the
operation of the slave systems (i.e., visuospatial
sketchpad and phonological loop) and relates them
to long-term memory (LTM).
• The central executive decides which information is
attended to and which parts of the working memory
to send that information to be dealt with. For
example, two activities sometimes come into
conflict, such as driving a car and talking.
• The central executive directs attention and gives
priority to particular activities.
43
• The central executive is the most versatile and
important component of the working memory
system.
• Baddeley (1986) uses the metaphor of a
company boss to describe the way in which the
central executive operates. The company boss
makes decisions about which issues deserve
attention and which should be ignored.
• If we continue applying this metaphor, then we
can see the central executive in working memory
integrating (i.e., combining) information from
two assistants (the phonological loop and the
visuospatial sketchpad) and also drawing on
information held in a large database (long-term
memory). 44
 2. The Phonological Loop
• The phonological loop is the part of working
memory that deals with spoken and written
material. It consists of two parts
• The phonological store (linked to speech
perception) acts as an inner ear and holds
information in a speech-based form (i.e.,
spoken words) for 1-2 seconds. Spoken words
enter the store directly.
• Written words must first be converted into an
articulatory (spoken) code before they can
enter the phonological store.
45
• The articulatory control
process (linked to speech production)
acts like an inner voice rehearsing
information from the phonological store.
It circulates information round and round
like a tape loop. This is how we remember
a telephone number we have just heard. As
long as we keep repeating it, we can retain
the information in working memory.
• The articulatory control process also
converts written material into an
articulatory code and transfers it to the
phonological store. 46
47
 3. The Visuospatial Sketchpad
• The visuospatial sketchpad (inner eye) deals with
visual and spatial information.
• Visual information refers to what things look like.
• It is likely that the visuospatial sketchpad plays an
important role in helping us keep track of where we are
in relation to other objects as we move through our
environment (Baddeley, 1997).
• As we move around, our position in relation to objects is
constantly changing and it is important that we can
update this information.
• For example, being aware of where we are in relation to
desks, chairs and tables when we are walking around a
classroom means that we don”t bump into things too
often! 48
• The sketchpad also displays and
manipulates visual and spatial
information held in long-term
memory.

49
• Evidence suggests that working memory uses
two different systems for dealing with visual
and verbal information.
• A visual processing task and a verbal
processing task can be performed at the same
time.
• It is more difficult to perform two visual tasks
at the same time because they interfere with
each other and performance is reduced.
• The same applies to performing two verbal
tasks at the same time. This supports the
view that the phonological loop and the
sketchpad are separate systems within 50
 4. The Episodic Buffer
• The original model was updated by
Baddeley (2000) after the model failed to
explain the results of various experiments.
An additional component was added called
the episodic buffer.
• The episodic buffer acts as a “backup”
store which communicates with both long-
term memory and the components of
working memory.

51
52
 Critical Evaluation
• Strengths
• Researchers today generally agree that short-term memory
is made up of a number of components or subsystems
• The working memory applies to real-life tasks: reading
(phonological loop), problem-solving (central executive),
navigation (visual and spatial processing)
• The KF Case Study supports the Working Memory Model.
KF suffered brain damage from a motorcycle accident that
damaged his short-term memory. KF’s impairment was
mainly for verbal information – his memory for visual
information was largely unaffected.
• This shows that there are separate STM components for
visual information (VSS) and verbal information
(phonological loop).
• Dual task studies 53
• Weaknesses
• Working memory only involves STM, so it is not a
comprehensive model of memory (as it does not
include SM or LTM).
• Lieberman (1980) criticizes the working memory
model as the visuospatial sketchpad (VSS) implies
spatial and visual information are linked
• Lieberman points out that blind people have
excellent spatial awareness, although they have
never had any visual information. Lieberman argues
that the VSS should be separated into two different
components: one for visual information and one for
spatial
• Wolbers et 2011, blind participants
• Spatial awareness is based on touch not visual 54
• Little information about central executive
• Untestable
• Vague
• “the central executive is the most important but the
least understood component of the working memory”
Baddeley 2003
• Critics believe CE can be divided into three
components:
• Focusing
• Dividing attention
• Switching attention

55
 FORGETTING
• the apparent loss or modification of information already encode
d and stored in an individual's short or long-term
• EBBINGHAUS AND THE FORGETTING CURVE
• Hermann Ebbinghaus (1913) was one of the first researchers to
study forgetting, he created several lists of “nonsense
syllables,” pronounceable but meaningless (such as GEX and
WOL).
• He memorized a list, waited a specific amount of time, and
then tried to retrieve the list, graphing his results each time. The
result has become a familiar graph: the curve of forgetting
• curve of forgetting
• a graph showing a distinct pattern in which forgetting is very
fast within the first hour after learning a list and then tapers off
gradually 56
• distributed practice
• spacing the study of
material to be
remembered by
including breaks
between study periods
57
 1. ENCODING FAILURE
• failure to process information into memory.
• One of the simplest is that some things never get
encoded in the first place.
• Your friend, for example, may have said something
to you as he walked out the door, and you may have
heard him, but if you weren’t paying attention to
what he said, it would not get past sensory memory.
• This isn’t forgetting so much as it is encoding
failure, the failure to process information into
memory

58
 2. MEMORY TRACE DECAY THEORY

• One of the older theories of forgetting

involves the concept of a memory trace.
• A memory trace is some physical change
in the brain, perhaps in a neuron or in the
activity between neurons, which occurs
when a memory is formed (Brown, 1958;
Peterson & Peterson, 1959).
• Over time, if these traces are not used,
they may decay, fading into nothing
• .
59
• Forgetting in sensory memory and
short-term memory seems easy to
explain as decay:
• Information that is not brought to
attention in sensory memory or
continuously rehearsed in STM will
fade away.
• But When referring to LTM, decay
theory is usually called disuse, and
the phrase “use it or lose it” takes on
great meaning (Bjork & Bjork, 1992). 60
 3. INTERFERENCE THEORY

• Interference theory states that forgetting

occurs because memories interfere with
and disrupt one another, in other words
forgetting occurs because of interference
from other memories (Baddeley, 1999).
• There are two ways in which interference
can cause forgetting:

61
 A. PROACTIVE INTERFERENCE

• (pro=forward)
• memory problem that occurs when older
information prevents or interferes with the
learning or retrieval of newer information.

• when someone gets a new cell phone number.

People in this situation often find themselves
remembering their old cell phone number or
some of its digits instead of the new cell phone
number when they are trying to give the new
62
number to friends.
 B. RETROACTIVE INTERFERENCE
• (retro=backward)
• memory problem that occurs when
newer information prevents or
interferes with the retrieval of older
information.
• Moving from the India to USA ,
where people drive on the right
instead of the left side of the road.
63
• Proactive and retroactive Interference is
thought to be more likely to occur where
the memories are similar, for example:
confusing old and new telephone
numbers.
• Chandler (1989) stated that students who
study similar subjects at the same time
often experience interference.

64
• some important studies contributing to the development
of this theory
• In one of the first studies on interference, researcher John
A. Bergstrom had participants sort cards into two piles.
• He found that changing the location of the second pile
resulted in slower performance, suggesting that learning
the rules for the first task interfered with the memory of
rules for the second task.

65
 EVALUATION
• First, interference theory tells us little about
the cognitive processes involved in forgetting.
• Secondly, the majority of research into the role
of interference in forgetting has been carried
out in a laboratory using lists of words, a
situation which is likely to occur fairly
infrequently in everyday life (i.e. low
ecological validity).
• As a result, it may not be possible to
generalize from the findings. 66
 Biological basis of
memory
• 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.
67
• In retrograde amnesia, memory for 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.
68
• 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.

69
 Improving Memory
• Focus attention on the materials
• Avoid cramming by establishing regular study
sessions
• Structure and organize the information
• Utilize mnemonic devices
• Elaborate and rehearse the information
• Relate new information to things you already
know
• Visualize concepts to improve memory and
recall
• Teach new concepts to another person
• Reduce stress
70