Module - III

Memory
Memory is the process of storing and recalling information that was
previously acquired. Our cognitive system(s) for storing and retrieving
information.
The ability to retain information or a representation of past experience,
based on the mental processes of learning or encoding, retention across some
interval of time, and retrieval or reactivation of the memory.
Three key processes in memory. Memory depends on three sequential
processes:
1. Encoding:
The process through which information is converted into a form that
can be entered into memory. It is defined as the initial learning of
information. This is a physiological process that starts with attention.
A memorable event causes the neurons to fire more rapidly,
organizing the information into a systematic array that can be recalled later.
How we encode information determines how it will be stored, and what
cues will be effective when we try to retrieve it.
TYPES OF ENCODING:
1. Acoustic encoding
It is the processing and encoding of sound, words, and other auditory inputs for
storage and later retrieval.
Examples: Repetition of words, putting information into a song or rhythm etc.
2. Visual encoding
It is the process of encoding images and visual sensory information.
Examples: Remembering what the car that you want looks like.
If you think of Christmas you will be able to see a Christmas tree.
3. Tactile encoding
It is the encoding of how something feels, normally through the sense of touch.
Smell and tastes may also lead to encode.
Example: The taste of your favorite meal.
 4. Semantic encoding
• Semantic encoding is when sensory information is encoded in a way that
gives it meaning.
Example: crane: It can refer to the bird or the machinery used in building.
2. Storage: The process through which information is retained in memory.
It refers to how you retain encoded information in memory.
“How can you get information into storage for later use?”
Engaging in rehearsal- the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking
about information.
Two types of Rehearsal: maintenance and elaborative.
Maintenance rehearsal:
Also known as rote memorization.
It involves the repetition of information in its original, unaltered form.
Information rehearsed in this way is not reliably retained in long-term memory.
Example: Repeating a phone number, silently or out loud, until one can get to a
phone and dial that number. As soon as that task is completed, the phone number
no longer needs to be remembered.
Elaborative rehearsal
It is a memory and learning technique that involves the formation of
associations and connections between new information and knowledge that has
already been learned.
Example: Imagine meeting someone whose name is Sandy, then making an
association with a sandy beach to remember that name. The goal is to create a
memorable, personalized association with a new piece of information one wants
to remember.
3. Retrieval:
The process through which information stored in memory is located and
accessing specific information when it is needed at later times. Some theorists
have drawn an analogy between these processes and elements of information
processing by computers.
It refers to how you gain access to information stored in memory.
 Three Types of Retrieval
1. Recall:
The mental process of retrieval of information from the past.
2. Recognition:
The ability to identify as familiar a stimulus or a situation that has
been encountered previously.
3. Relearning:
Relearning information that has been previously learned.
According to Atkinson and Shiffrin three models/ types of memory:
1. Sensory memory
2. Short term memory
3. Long term memory

1. Sensory memory:
It is the first stage of information storage. It consists of the immediate, initial
recording of data that enters through the senses. The temporary storage of
sensory information.
Capacity: High
Duration: less than one second (vision) or a few seconds (hearing).
Psychologists believe that each of the five senses has a register.
Visual sensory memory = Iconic memory
Auditory sensory memory = Echoic memory
Touch sensory memory = Haptic memory
Smell sensory memory = Olfactory memory
Taste sensory memory = Gustatory memory
 2. Short Term Memory/working memory:
It holds information briefly before it is either stored in long-term memory or
forgotten. Short-term memory is a temporary solution to the problem of
remembering information. It is the bridge between sensory memory and long-
term memory. Information subject to elaborative rehearsal or deep processing
(e.g., consideration of its meaning) is transferred to long-term memory.
Capacity: limited
Duration: less than twenty seconds
The primacy effect:
The tendency to recall the initial item or items in a series.
The recency effect:
The tendency to recall the last item or items in a series is called the recency
effect. There is no definitive explanation of the primacy effect or the recency
effect.
Chunking:
The organization of items into familiar or manageable units is called
chunking.
Interference:
Interference occurs when new information appears in short-term memory
and takes the place of what was already there.
3. Long- Term Memory:
Long-term memory is the third and final stage of information storage. It is the
stage of memory capable of large and relatively permanent storage. Memory is
reconstructed from our experiences. We shape memories according to the
personal and individual ways in which we view the world. We tend to remember
things in accordance with our beliefs and needs.
Capacity: unlimited (?)
We do not store all of our experiences permanently. Our memory is limited by
the amount of attention we pay to things.
Duration: long or permanent (?)
Psychologists have not yet discovered a limit to how much can be stored in
a person’s long-term memory.
Schemas:
Schemas are the mental representations that we form of the world by
organizing bits of information into knowledge. Schemas influence the ways we
perceive things and the ways our memories store what we perceive.
Levels of Processing:
Robert S. Lockhart and Fergus I. M. Craik introduced this concept.
The greater the effort expended in processing information, the more readily
the information will be recalled later. The depth of mental processing will affect
memory function. Memories that were deeply processed led to longer-lasting
memories while shallow processing led to memories that decayed easily.
Shallow processing occurs in four ways:
Structural: Processing how an object or sound looks
Phonemic: When we process how something sounds
Graphemic: Processing letters contained in a word
Orthographic: Processing the shape of something
Deep or semantic processing occurs in three ways:
* The process of relating an object/situation etc. to something else
* When the meaning of something is thought of
* When we process the importance of something
FORGETTING:
Forgetting is the apparent loss or modification of information already encoded
and stored in an individual's long term memory. It is inability to encode, to store
and retrieve the previously learned information from long-term memory over
varying periods of times.
CAUSES OF FORGETTING:
• Ineffective encoding:
Person’s inability to pay attention or lack of cognitive engagement
required to understand the information completely which brings
problem in retrieving the information or storing in the long term
memory.
 • Decay:
Decay theory proposes that forgetting occurs because memory traces
fade with time.
 Interference:
Interference theory proposes that people forget information because of
competition from other material. There are two kinds of interference:
retroactive and proactive
- Retroactive interference occurs when new information impairs the
retention of previously learned information. Retroactive interference
occurs between the original learning and the retest on that learning.
- Proactive interference occurs when previously learned information
interferes with the retention of new information. Proactive interference is
rooted in learning that comes before exposure to the test material
The evidence indicates that both types of interference can have
powerful effects on how much you forget.

 Retrieval Failure:
It is the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, forgetting may be due to
breakdowns in the process of retrieval.
 Motivated Forgetting:
The tendency to forget things one doesn’t want to think about is called
motivated forgetting, or to use Freud’s terminology, repression. In Freudian
theory, repression refers to keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in
the unconscious.
 Amnesia:
Loss of memory stemming from illness, injury, drug abuse, or other causes.
There are two types of Amnesia:
- Retrograde Amnesia: Loss of memory of events that occurred prior to an
amnesia-inducing event.
- Anterograde Amnesia: The inability to store in long-term memory
information that occurs after an amnesia-inducing event.

STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING MEMORY

MNEMONICS
With training, practice and motivation memory can be improved. There are
variety of mnemonics or memory tricks to remember things better. People with
super memories sometimes use mnemonics.
E.g. colors of rainbow are associated with name “VIBGYOR” i.e. Violet,
Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red.
USE OF IMAGERY:
Imagery is simply the formation of any mental pictures. This is a memory
technique in which we construct mental images when learning new information
in order to better recall the information later. Mental imagery plays a core role
in many mental health disorders and plays an increasingly important role in their
treatment.
a. Peg Word Technique:
It is the strategy used to remember lists whereby each item is associated in
imagination with a number–word pair (the peg). A memory aid that
involves linking words with numbers.
 Example for Peg word:

b. Method of Loci:
It relies on spatial relationships between “loci” (e.g., locations on a familiar
route or rooms in a familiar building) to arrange and recollect memorial
content.
Visualize a scene and fit the items to be remembered in that scene:
The scene can be a street, a building with rooms, the layout of a college
campus, a kitchen, or just about anything that can be visualized clearly and
contains a number of discrete items in specific locations to serve as
memory pegs.
CHUNKING:
George Miller suggested that memory span is limited to a certain number of
chunks. Chunking - Grouping a series of random items into a smaller number of
meaningful segments to enhance recall, often related to language patterns. A
chunk is a group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit.
Chunking can also be based on the prosody (rhythm) of the presentation list,
like the alphabet.
Example: Remember as many letters as possible.
N-F, L-C-G, S-U-S, A-V-C, R-F-B, I
• Chunking: NFL, CBS, USA, VCR, FBI
FIRST LETTER TECHNIQUE
Memory strategy in which the initial letters of words in a sentence are used to
recall information in a particular order. There are two types of First-letter
mnemonic:
 1. Acronyms:
In this strategy initial letters form a meaningful word.

Example:
BEDMAS — the order of mathematical operations:
Brackets; Exponent; Division; Multiplication; Addition; Subtraction

2. Acrostics:
In this, initial letters are used as the initial letters of other words to make
a meaningful phrase.
Example: The seven articles of the United States Constitution.
“Large Elephants Jump Slowly And Sink Rapidly”
Legislative
Executive
Judicial
Supremacy
Amendment
Statehood
Ratification

NARRATIVE METHOD:
It is also known as storytelling. They create a learning situation that allows
minds to reach beyond prior experiences and problem-solve in creative ways.
This instructional design technique allows students to identify with a theme or
character. This is where students can realize their own errors in thinking.
When executed correctly, narrative techniques are powerful tools that
empower learners and increase information retention.
Some of the narrative techniques used:
Case studies:
It focus on real-world situations that can be analyzed to determine
individual or group reactions.
Digital portfolio:
It focuses on providing learners with an opportunity to curate their
achievements over time using media and tools that reflect their mastery and
learning.
Stories:
They are useful for retelling experiences and situations from a personal point-
of-view.
Open-ended questions
It challenge learners by forcing them to identify what they know in
relation to a problem then shifting to aspects of a problem they do not know.

PQRST - method:
It was developed by Thomas & H.A. Robinson, Spache and Berg and R.P.
Robinson. This method serves to help readers retain information longer and
with clarity.
The “PQRST” method is a step-by-step plan that has been proven to raise
students’ test scores.
“P”— PREVIEW
“Q”— QUESTION
“R”— READ
“S”— SUMMARIZE
“T” — TEST
The Five Steps in PQRST method:
Preview – Read the introduction, conclusion, bold headings, and
vocabulary.
Question – pose questions to yourself about what you are reading.
Read – read with a deep level of processing.
Summarize – after reading, think back to what you’ve read. Recite it aloud
or write it down.
Test – Create study materials that challenge your understanding of
the material Summarize.