Storage of memory

In mental memory, storage is one of three fundamental stages along with encoding and
retrieval. Memory is the process of storing and recalling information that was previously
acquired. Storing refers to the process of placing newly acquired information into memory,
which is modified in the brain for easier storage. Encoding this information makes the process of
retrieval easier for the brain where it can be recalled and brought into conscious thinking.
Modern memory psychology differentiates between the distinct types of memory
storage: sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. Several models of
memory have been proposed over the past century, some of them suggesting different
relationships between short- and long-term memory to account for different ways of storing
memory.

presentation title 2
20XX presentation title 3
Types
SENSORY MEMORY
In the Atkinson-Shiffrin model, stimuli from the environment are processed first in sensory
memory: storage of brief sensory events, such as sights, sounds, and tastes. It is very brief
storage—up to a couple of seconds. We are constantly bombarded with sensory information. We
cannot absorb all of it, or even most of it. And most of it has no impact on our lives. For
example, what was your professor wearing the last class period? As long as the professor was
dressed appropriately, it does not really matter what she was wearing. Sensory information
about sights, sounds, smells, and even textures, which we do not view as valuable information,
we discard. If we view something as valuable, the information will move into our short-term
memory system.
One study of sensory memory researched the significance of valuable information on short-term
memory storage. J. R. Stroop discovered a memory phenomenon in the 1930s: you will name a
color more easily if it appears printed in that color, which is called the Stroop effect. In other
words, the word “red” will be named more quickly, regardless of the color the word appears in,
than any word that is colored red. Try an experiment: name the colors of the words you are
given in Figure 2. Do not read the words, but say the color the word is printed in. For example,
upon seeing the word “yellow” in green print, you should say “green,” not “yellow.” This
experiment is fun, but it’s not as easy as it seems

presentation title 5
presentation title 6
SHORT TERM MEMORY
Short-term memory is encoded in auditory, visual, spatial, and tactile forms. Short-term memory is closely
related to working memory. Baddeley suggested that information stored in short-term memory continuously
deteriorates, which can eventually lead to forgetting in the absence of rehearsal. George A. Miller
suggested that the capacity of the short-term memory storage is about seven items plus or minus two, also
known as the magic number 7,but this number has been shown to be subject to numerous variability,
including the size, similarity, and other properties of the chunks. Memory span varies; it is lower for
multisyllabic words than for shorter words. In general, the memory span for verbal contents i.e. letters,
words, and digits, relies on the duration of time it takes to speak these contents aloud and on the degree of
lexicality (relating to the words or the vocabulary of a language distinguished from its grammar and
construction) of the contents. Characteristics such as the length of spoken time for each word, known as
the word-length effect, or when words are similar to each other lead to fewer words being recalled.

presentation title 7
CHUNKING
Chunking is the process of grouping pieces of information together into “chunks”. This allows for the brain
to collect more information at a given time by reducing it to more-specific groups. With the processes of
chunking, the external environment is linked to the internal cognitive processes of the brain.Due to the
limited capacity of the working memory, this type of storage is necessary for memory to properly
function. The exact number of chunks that can be present in the working memory is not definite, but ranges
from one to three chunks. The recall is not measured in terms of the items that are being remembered, but
they chunks that they are put into.This type of memory storage is typically effective, as it has been found
that with the appearance of the first item in a chunk, the other items can be immediately recalled.Though
errors may occur, it if more common for the errors to occur at the beginning of the chunk than in the middle
of the chunk.Chunks can be recalled with long-term or working memory. Simple chunks of information can
be recalled without having to go through long term memory, such as the sequence ABABAB, which would
use working memory for recollection.More difficult sequences, such as a phone number, would have to be
split into chunks and may have to pass through long-term memory to be recalled.The spacing used in
phone numbers is a common chunking method, as the grouping in the numbers allows for the digits to be
remembered in clusters and not individually.

presentation title 8
Chunking was introduced by George A. Miller who suggested that this way of organizing and processing
information allows for a more effective retention of material from the environment. Miller developed the idea
that chunking was a collection of similar items and when that chunk was named, it allowed for the items in
that chunk to be more easily recalled.Other researchers described the items in these chunks as being
strongly connected to each other, but not to the other items in other chunks. Each chunk, in their findings,
would hold only the items pertaining to that topic, and not have it be relatable to any other chunk or items in
that chunk. The menu for a restaurant would display this type of chucking, as the entrée category would
not display anything from the dessert category, and the dessert category would not display anything form
the entrée category.
Psychologist and master chess player Adriaan de Groot supported the theory of chunking through his
experiment on chess positions and different levels of expertise. When presented positions of pieces from
chess tournament games, the experts were more accurate at recalling the positions. However, when the
groups were given random positions to remember, De Groot found that all groups performed poorly at the
recalling task regardless of the participants knowledge of chess. Further research into chunking greatly
impacted the studies of memory development, expertise, and immediate recall.Research into behavioral
and imaging studies have also suggested that chunking can be applied to habit learning, motor skills,
language processing, and visual perception.

presentation title 9
Rehearsal
Rehearsal is the process by which information is retained in short-term memory by conscious repetition of
the word, phrase or number. If information has sufficient meaning to the person or if it is repeated enough,
it can be encoded into long-term memory.

There are two types of rehearsal: maintenance rehearsal and elaborate rehearsal. Maintenance rehearsal
consists of constantly repeating the word or phrase of words to remember.

Remembering a phone number is one of the best examples of this. Maintenance rehearsal is mainly used
for the short-term ability to recall information. Elaborate rehearsal involves the association of old with new
information.

presentation title 10
LONG TERM MEMORY
In contrast to the short-term memory, long-term memory refers to the ability to hold information for a
prolonged time and is possibly the most complex component of the human memory system. The
Atkinson–Shiffrin model of memory (Atkinson 1968) suggests that the items stored in short-term memory
moves to long-term memory through repeated practice and use. Long-term storage may be similar to
learning—the process by which information that may be needed again is stored for recall on demand.The
process of locating this information and bringing it back to working memory is called retrieval. This
knowledge that is easily recalled is explicit knowledge, whereas most long-term memory is implicit
knowledge and is not readily retrievable. Scientists speculate that the hippocampus is involved in the
creation of long-term memory. It is unclear where long-term memory is stored, although there is evidence
depicting long-term memory is stored in various parts of the nervous system. Long-term memory is
permanent. Memory can be recalled, which, according to the dual-store memory search model, enhances
the long-term memory. Forgetting may occur when the memory fails to be recalled on later occasions.

presentation title 11
There are two types of long-term memory: explicit and implicit (Figure 8.6). Understanding the
difference between explicit memory and implicit memory is important because aging, particular types of
brain trauma, and certain disorders can impact explicit and implicit memory in different ways. Explicit
memories are those we consciously try to remember, recall, and report. For example, if you are studying
for your chemistry exam, the material you are learning will be part of your explicit memory. In keeping
with the computer analogy, some information in your long-term memory would be like the information
you have saved on the hard drive. It is not there on your desktop (your short-term memory), but most of
the time you can pull up this information when you want it. Not all long-term memories are strong
memories, and some memories can only be recalled using prompts. For example, you might easily recall
a fact, such as the capital of the United States, but you might struggle to recall the name of the restaurant
at which you had dinner when you visited a nearby city last summer. A prompt, such as that the restaurant
was named after its owner, might help you recall the name of the restaurant. Explicit memory is
sometimes referred to as declarative memory, because it can be put into words. Explicit memory is
divided into episodic memory and semantic memory.

presentation title 12
presentation title 13
Episodic memory is information about events we have personally experienced (i.e., an episode). For
instance, the memory of your last birthday is an episodic memory. Usually, episodic memory is reported
as a story. The concept of episodic memory was first proposed about in the 1970s (Tulving, 1972). Since
then, Tulving and others have reformulated the theory, and currently scientists believe that episodic
memory is memory about happenings in particular places at particular times—the what, where, and when
of an event (Tulving, 2002). It involves recollection of visual imagery as well as the feeling of familiarity
(Hassabis & Maguire, 2007). Semantic memory is knowledge about words, concepts, and language-
based knowledge and facts. Semantic memory is typically reported as facts. Semantic means having to do
with language and knowledge about language. For example, answers to the following questions like
“what is the definition of psychology” and “who was the first African American president of the United
States” are stored in your semantic memory.

presentation title 14
Implicit memories are long-term memories that are not part of our consciousness. Although implicit
memories are learned outside of our awareness and cannot be consciously recalled, implicit memory is
demonstrated in the performance of some task (Roediger, 1990; Schacter, 1987). Implicit memory has
been studied with cognitive demand tasks, such as performance on artificial grammars (Reber, 1976),
word memory (Jacoby, 1983; Jacoby & Witherspoon, 1982), and learning unspoken and unwritten
contingencies and rules (Greenspoon, 1955; Giddan & Eriksen, 1959; Krieckhaus & Eriksen, 1960).
Returning to the computer metaphor, implicit memories are like a program running in the background,
and you are not aware of their influence. Implicit memories can influence observable behaviors as well as
cognitive tasks. In either case, you usually cannot put the memory into words that adequately describe the
task. There are several types of implicit memories, including procedural, priming, and emotional
conditioning.

presentation title 15
Implicit procedural memory is often studied using observable behaviors (Adams, 1957; Lacey & Smith,
1954; Lazarus & McCleary, 1951). Implicit procedural memory stores information about the way to do
something, and it is the memory for skilled actions, such as brushing your teeth, riding a bicycle, or
driving a car. You were probably not that good at riding a bicycle or driving a car the first time you tried,
but you were much better after doing those things for a year. Your improved bicycle riding was due to
learning balancing abilities. You likely thought about staying upright in the beginning, but now you just
do it. Moreover, you probably are good at staying balanced, but cannot tell someone the exact way you
do it. Similarly, when you first learned to drive, you probably thought about a lot of things that you just
do now without much thought. When you first learned to do these tasks, someone may have told you how
to do them, but everything you learned since those instructions that you cannot readily explain to
someone else as the way to do it is implicit memory.

presentation title 16
Primacy and recency effects are phenomena also
associated with LTM.

•Recall of information is enhanced when individuals

have no information stored in STM and their attention
to new stimuli is at its peak (a situation known as
the primacy effect), as happens, for example, in more
easily recalling words presented at the beginning of a
list
•Recall of the most recently presented information is
also enhanced (a situation known as the recency
effect), as happens, for example, in more easily
recalling the words presented at the end of a list.
The plot of the likelihood of recalling items from a list
is illustrated in the U‐shaped curve (known as
the serial position curve) in Figure .

presentation title 17
Thank you