Course Instructor:

Sidra Tanvir (Clinical Psychologist)

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Memory Processes
• Encoding: refers to making mental
representations of information so that it can be
placed into our memories.
• Storing: placing encoded information into
relatively permanent mental storage for later
recall.
• Retrieving: Getting or recalling information that
has been placed into short-term or long-term
storage.
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Memory Process

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Types of Memory
• Memory is divided into three types:
• Sensory Memory
• Short-term Memory
• Long-term Memory

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Sensory Memory
• Initial process that receives and holds
environmental information in its raw form for a
brief period of time, from an instant to several
seconds.
• It is a process of momentary preservation.
• If individual will not pay attention to sensory
stimulus, it will disappear.

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Types of Sensory Memory
• Momentary preservation of information is categorized into two
categories:
• Iconic Memory:
• It is a form of sensory memory that automatically holds visual
information for about a quarter of a second or more; as soon as
you shift your attention, the information disappears.
• Iconic memory is not the same as eidetic imagery, or
photographic memory.
• Echoic Memory:
• Type of sensory memory that holds auditory information for 1 or
2 seconds.
• Echoic memories are easily displaced by new information which is
similar to the sensory experience. 6
Functions of Sensory Memory
• Prevent being overwhelmed
• Give decision time
• Provide stability, playback and recognition

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Short-term Memory
• Built-in mechanism for focusing cognitive
resources on a small set of mental
representations
• It is an active process.
• Limited capacity that can hold a limited amount
of information an average of seven items.
• George Miller proposed the concept of “Magic
number”
• Also Known as Working Memory
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• Working Memory allows retrieval of existing
memories
• Working memory is comprised of three
components:
• a) Phonological loop
• b) Visuospatial sketchpad
• c) Central executive

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Characteristics of Short-term
Memory
• Limited Duration
• Short-term memory remains for a brief time, usually
from 2 to 30 seconds then disappear.
• Duration of short-term memory could be increased by
Maintenance rehearsal and Chunking.
• Limited Capacity
• You can up to remember maximum 9 words.
• Memory span test
• Reason why information disappears from short-term
memory is interference
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Functions of Short-term
Memory
• There are three important functions of short-term
memory:
• 1: Paying attention transfers information into short-term
memory.
• It allows To selectively attend to information that is
relevant and disregard everything else
• 2: After a short time, information disappears unless it is
rehearsed
• Permit to hold information for a short period of time
until you decide what to do with it.
• 3: Some information is eventually transferred from short- 13
term memory into permanent storage.
Long-term Memory
• Long-term memory is the storehouse of all the
experiences, events, information, emotions, skills, words,
categories, rules, and judgments that have been acquired
from sensory and short-term memories
• It is best when there is a good match between encoding
and retrieval conditions

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Features
• Unlimited capacity to store information
• Potential to last a lifetime
• Chances of Retrieval
• 1: how it was encoded
• 2: The amount of interference from related
information
• Accuracy of long-term memory

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Process of Long-term memory
Sensory memory

Attention

Short-term

Encode

Long-term
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Retrieve
Types of Long-term Memory

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 Types of Long-term Memory
• Declarative
• Involves memories for facts or events, such as scenes,
stories, words, conversations, faces, or daily events
• Semantic memory: is a type of declarative memory
and involves knowledge of facts, concepts, words,
definitions, and language rules
• Episodic memory: is a type of declarative memory
and involves knowledge of specific events, personal
experiences (episodes), or activities, such as
naming or describing favorite restaurants, movies,
songs, habits, or hobbies.
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Types of Long-term Memory
• Non- Declarative
• Involves the recollection of how to do things
• Memories for motor skills (playing tennis), some
cognitive skills (learning to read), and emotional
behaviors.
• Also known as Procedural memories.
• Procedural memories greatly influence our behavior,
we have neither awareness of nor ability to recall
these memories

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Memory Testing
• Three basic methods for testing memory:
1. Recognition
2. Recall
3. Re-learning
• Recognition:
• It is evidenced when recall is wither weak or absent.
• Recognition involves deciding whether we have
encountered information before.
• It is easier then recall.
• It can definite and indefinite.
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Memory Testing
• Recall:
• It is an activity by which residues of experiences are
brought back to the conscious level.
• This involves remembering information spontaneously
or on the basis of cues.
• There are two types of recall:
• Serial Recall: Material is recalled in the order in
which it was learnt.
• Free Recall: Material can be freely recalled without
following any specific orders.
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Memory Testing
• Re-learning
• This involves learning material once and re-
learned the material on second occasion.
• Also known as Saving method
• When individual is instructed to relearn the
material again, it take less time and trails to
learn.
• Relearning indicated that human mind record its
surroundings even when it can’t make sense of
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them.
Memory Related Disorders
• Different types of memory related disorders are:
• Agnosia
• Dementia
• Alzheimer's disease
• Amnesia
• Huntington's disease
• Parkinson's disease
• Wernicke-Korsakoff’s Syndrome

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Memory Related
Disorders
• Agnosia
• Inability to recognize certain objects, persons or sounds.
• It is caused by damage to the brain (most commonly in the
occipital or parietal lobes) or from a neurological disorder.
• Treatments vary depending on the location and cause of the
damage.
• Recovery is possible depending on the severity of the disorder
and the severity of the damage to the brain.
• Dementia
• It is characterized by the progressive deterioration of thinking
ability and memory as the brain becomes damaged.
• Dementia can be categorized as reversible (e.g. thyroid disease)
or irreversible (e.g. Alzheimer's disease) 24
Memory Related
Disorders
• Alzheimer's disease (AD)
• It is a progressive, degenerative and fatal brain disease, in which
cell to cell connections in the brain are lost.
• It is most common form of dementia. 
• Amnesia
• Amnesia is an abnormal mental state in which memory and
learning are affected out of all proportion to other cognitive
functions
• Types of amnesia: Anterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia
• Anterograde amnesics show difficulty in the learning and
retention of information encountered after brain damage.
• Retrograde Amnesics shows difficulty in remembering that
events which occur before the brain damage. 25
Memory Related
Disorders
• Huntington’s disease
• It is an inherited progressive disorder of the brain
• This leads to uncontrolled movements, emotional
instability, and loss of intellectual faculties.
• Parkinson's disease (PD)
• This is a neurodegenerative disease.
• The most common symptoms include: tremors,
slowness, stiffness, impaired balance, rigidity of the
muscles, memory dysfunction and fatigue.
• As the disease progresses, non-motor symptoms may
also appear, such as depression, difficulty swallowing, 26
sexual problems or cognitive changes.
Memory Related Disorders
• Wernicke-Korsakoff’s Syndrome
• Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (WKS) is a severe neurological
disorder caused by thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency, and is usually
associated with chronic excessive alcohol consumption.
• It is also characterized by profound amnesia, disorientation and
frequent confabulation (making up or inventing information to
compensate for poor memory)

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Seven Sins of Memory
1. Transience: the fact that memories fade
2. Absent-mindedness: the failure to remember something when
attention is elsewhere
3. Misattribution: misremembering the source of a memory—
something advertisers rely on when they tell half-truths about
competing brands and people remember the half-truth but forget
its source
4. Blocking: when the brain tries to retrieve or encode information,
but another memory interferes with it
5. Suggestibility: thinking we remember an event that someone
actually implanted in our minds
6. Bias: distortions in the way we recall events that often tell the
story in a way we would rather remember it 28
7. Persistence: memories that we wish we could get rid of but that
keep coming back
Memory Improvement
• Human memory can be improve by various means:
• Organization
• Meditation
• Imagery
• SQ3R method
• Elaborative Rehearsal
• Maintenance Rehearsal
• Chunking
• Mnemonic
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Memory Improvement
• Organization
• People tend to remember organized information more
than scattered information.
• It helps them to recall the information later on.
• The greater abilities of organization which learner can
impose on material, it makes the subsequent recall
better.
• Meditation
• It is a bridging technique.
• This involves association of two items by using the
third item which ties them together. 30
Memory Improvement
• Imagery
• It involves making mental pictures of events which you
want to remember.
• By forming visual images it will be easier for one to
remember.
• SQ3R Method
• This method is a systematic way to improve your abilities
to learn and remember new material or information.

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Memory Improvement
• S: Survey
• Q: Question
• R: Read
• R: Recite
• R: Review
• Elaborative rehearsal
• It involves using effort to actively make meaningful
associations between new information that you wish
to remember and old or familiar information that is
already stored in long-term memory.

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Memory Improvement
• Maintenance rehearsal
• This refers to simply repeating or rehearsing the
information rather than forming any new associations.
• Maintenance rehearsal works best for maintaining or
keeping information longer in short-term memory.
• Chunking
• Chunking is a method to improve memory by dividing
the information into smaller chunks.
• This is another useful method to improve the short-
term memory.
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Memory Improvement
• Mnemonic
• Mnemonic is a device which helps to improve
memory. With expensive or time consuming aids.
• It involve two basic steps:
• Pay close attention what you want to remember
• Organize your thoughts
1. Method of Loci
• Method of remembering by associating things or objects with
places which we are familiar with.
• It require little practice

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Memory Improvement
• 2. Peg method
• It is an encoding technique that creates
associations between number-word rhymes
and items to be memorized.
• E.g. rhymes act like pegs on which you hang
items to be memorized.

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