CHAPTER SIX
MEMORY
PROCESSES
EXPLORING COGNITIVE
PSYCHOLOGY
1. What have cognitive psychologists discovered regarding how
we encode information for storing it in memory?
2. What affects our ability to retrieve information from
memory?
3. How does what we know or what we learn affect what we
remember?
MEMORY PROCESSES
Encoding – you transform sensory data into a form of
mental representation
Storage – you keep encoded information in memory
Retrieval – you pull out or use information stored in
memory
ENCODING AND TRANSFER OF INFORMATION
Transfer of Information from Short-Term Memory to
Long-Term Memory
o One method to of accomplishing this goal is by deliberately attending
to information to comprehend it.
o Another is by making connections or associations between the new
information and what we already know and understand.
➢ Consolidation – the process of integrating new information into
stored information.
➢ To preserve or enhance the integrity of memories during
consolidation, we may use various metamemory strategies.
ENCODING AND TRANSFER OF INFORMATION
o Metamemory Strategies involve reflecting on our own memory
processes with a view to improving our memory.
➢ Rehearsal – the repeated recitation of an item. One technique
people use for keeping information active (may be covert or overt)
✓ Maintenance Rehearsal – repeating information silently to prolong
its presence in STM
✓ Elaborative Rehearsal – links new information with existing
memories and knowledge in LTM (good way to transfer STM
information into LTM)
ORGANIZATION OF INFORMATION
Clustering – organizing items into related groups during recall
from long-term memory
Mnemonic Devices – specific techniques to help us memorize lists
of words. Devices that add meaning to meaningless or arbitrary lists
of items.
✓ Categorical Clustering – one organizes a list of items into a set of
categories.
✓ Interactive Images – one imagines the objects represented by words
one has to remember interacting with each other in some active way.
✓ Pegword System – one associates each word with a word on a
previously memorized list and forms an interactive image between
the two words.
ORGANIZATION OF INFORMATION
✓ Method of Loci – one visualizes walking around an area with
distinctive landmarks that one knows well. One then links various
landmarks to specific items to be remembered.
✓ Acronyms – one devises a word or expression in which each of its
letters stands for a certain other word or concept.
✓ Acrostics – one forms a sentence rather than a single word to help
one remember new words.
✓ Keyword System – one forms an interactive image that links the
sound and meaning of a foreign word with the sound and meaning
of a familiar word.
RETRIEVAL
Retrieval Cues: words, meanings, sounds and other stimuli that
are encoded at the same time as a new memory
Encoding Specificity: physical surroundings become retrieval
cues for specific memories
State-Dependent Learning: when physiological or
psychological states become encoded as retrieval cues for
memories formed while in those states
RETRIEVAL
Serial Position Effect: when first and last items in a list of
information are recalled more efficiently than items in the
middle of the list
➢ Primacy Effect: information at the beginning is better
remembered than the information that follows
➢ Recency Effect: information at the end is better
remembered than the information ahead of it
Flashbulb Memories
Memories created during times of personal tragedy, accident, or
other emotionally significant events that are especially vivid
Includes both positive and negative events
Not always accurate
Great confidence is placed in them even though they may be
inaccurate
FORGETTING
Hermann Ebbinghaus: Curve of Forgetting - information is
mostly lost within one hour after learning and then gradually
fades away
Memory trace - physical change in the brain that occurs when
a memory is formed
Decay - loss of memory due to the passage of time, during
which the memory trace is not used
Memory Trace Decay Theory: assumes the presence of a
physical memory trace that decays with disuse over time
The curve of forgetting. This graph shows the amount remembered (measured by relearning)
after varying lengths of time. Notice how rapidly forgetting occurs. The material learned was
nonsense syllables. Forgetting curves for meaningful information also show early losses
followed by a long gradual decline, but overall, forgetting occurs much more slowly.
FORGETTING
Proactive interference: older information prevents or
interferes with the retrieval of newer information
Retroactive interference: newer information prevents or
interferes with the retrieval of older information
Encoding failure: information is not attended to and fails
to be encoded
Retroactive and proactive interference. The order of learning and testing shows whether
interference is retroactive (backward) or proactive (forward).
FORGETTING
Repression - unconsciously pushing painful, embarrassing or
threatening memories out of awareness/consciousness
Suppression - consciously putting something painful or
threatening out of mind or trying to keep it from entering
awareness
MEMORY DISTORTIONS
There are seven specific ways in which these distortions tend to
occur, refers to as the “Seven Sins of Memory”:
o 1. Transience
o 2. Absent-mindedness
o 3. Blocking
o 4. Misattribution
o 5. Suggestibility
o 6. Bias
o 7. Persistence
