Chapter: Human Memory 

Nature of memory
 Memory refers to retaining and recalling information over a
period of time, depending upon the nature of cognitive task
you are required to perform.
 Memory is conceptualized as a process consisting of three
independent, though interrelated stages. These are
encoding, storage, and retrieval. Any information
received by us necessarily goes through these stages.
1. Encoding: It is the first stage which refers to a process by
which information is recorded and registered for the first
time so that it becomes usable by our memory system.
2. Storage: It is the second stage of memory. Information
which was encoded must also be stored so that it can be put
to use later. It refers to the process through which
information is retained and held over a period of time.
3. Retrieval: It is the third stage which refers to bringing the
stored information to his/her awareness so that it can be
used for performing various cognitive tasks such as
problem solving or decision making.

Information processing approach: The stage model

1st model of memory ,was proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin
in 1968,Known as Stage model.
The process of memorisation in the lines of computer and
suggest that incoming information is processed through three
stages i.e. sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term
memory.

Memory systems: Sensory, short-term and long-term

memory
The sensory memory, the short-term memory and the long term
memory, each of these systems have different features and
perform different functions with respect to the sensory inputs.

Sensory memory: (sensory register/sensory memories)

 The incoming information first enters the sensory memory
 Sensory memory has a large capacity.
  Very short duration i.e. less than a second.
 Memory system that registers information from each of the senses
with the reasonable accuracy.
 Information from all the senses are register here as exact replica of
the stimulus.

Short-term memory:
 Information that is attended to enters the second memory store.
 Holds small amount of information for a brief period of time.
 Atkinson and shiffrin propose that information in STM is
primarily encoded acoustically i.e. in terms of sound and unless
rehearsed continuously

Long-term memory:
 Permanent storehouse of all information that may be as recent as
what you ate for breakfast.
 Once any information enters the long term store it is never
forgotten because it gets encoded semantically( attaching a
meaning).

 How does information travel from one store to another? 4m

Ans Atkinson and shiffrin propose the notion of control processes
Which function to monitor the flow of information through various
memory stores.
1) Selective attention: Attention is a cognitive process through
which we select certain information by filtering out many
others. Activation, concentration and search are important
properties of attention. Selective attention is mainly selection of
a limited numbers of objects from a large number of stimuli.
2) Maintenance rehearsal: To retain the information for as much
time as required. As the name suggest , these kind of rehearsals
simply maintain information through repetition and when such
repetition discontinues the information is lost.
3) Chunking: Through chunking it is possible to expand capacity
of STM which is otherwise 7+_2 e.g. if your are told to
remember a string of digits such as 194719492004, you may
create the chunks as 1947, 1949, 2004 and remember them.
4) Elaborative rehearsals: This rehearsal attempts to connect the
‘to be retained information’ to the already existing information
in long term memory. E.g. the task of remembering the meaning
of the word humanity will be easier of the meaning of concepts
such as compassion, truth, and benevolence are already in
place . the number of association you can create around the new
information will determine its permanence. In this one attempts
to analyses the information in terms of various associations it
arouses. It involves organization of the incoming information in
as many ways as possible. You can expand the information in
some kind of logical framework, link it to similar memories or
else can create a mental image.

 Experiments, which were carried out of the test the stag model
of memory; have produced mixed results. Some experiments
unequivocally show that the STM and LTM are indeed two
 separate memory stores. But later experiments evidences show
that information can also be encoded semantically in STM and
acoustically in LTM.
Shallice and Warrington in the year 1970 had cited the case of a
man known as KF who met with an accident and damaged a
portion of the left side of his cerebral hemisphere.
It was found that his long term memory was intact but the short
term memory was seriously affected. The stage model suggest that
information are committed to the long-term memory via STM and
if KF‘s STM was affected, memory processes are similar
irrespective of whether any information is retained for a few
seconds or for many years and that memory can be adequately
understood without positing separate memory stores.
All these evidences led to the development of another
conceptualization memory.

Levels of processing (Second stage of memory)

The levels of processing view was proposed by Craik and Lockhart
in 1972. This view suggest that the processing of any new
information relates to the manner in which it is perceived, analysed
and understood which in turn determines the extent to which it will
eventually be retained. Let us examine this view in greater details.
Craik and Lockhart proposed that it is possible to analyse the
incoming information at more than one level. One may analyse it in
terms of its physical or structural features.
This is the first and the shallowest level of processing . At an
intermediate level one might consider and attend to the phonetic
sounds that are attach to the letters and therefore the structural
features are transformed into at least one meaningful word sat, a word
cat that has three specific letters.
Analysing information at these two levels produce memory that is
fragile and is likely to decay rather quickly .However, there is a third
and the deepest level at which information can be processed. In order
to ensure that the information is retained for a longer period , it is
important that it gets analysed and understood in terms of its
meaning.
Analysing information in terms of its structural and phonetic features
amounts to shallower processing while encoding it in terms of the
meaning it carries (the semantic encoding) is the deepest processing
level that leads to memory that resists forgetting considerably.

Types of Long-term memory

 Episodic

Declarative

LTM Sematic
Procedure/non-
declarative

Long term memory too is not unitary because it contains a wide

variety of information. In view of this, contemporary formulations
envisage long-term memory as consisting of various types.

LTM is that of Declarative and procedural memories.

Declarative memories consists of facts, names ,dates.

Procedural memories consists of memories relating to

procedure for accomplishing various tasks and skills.
Facts retained in the declarative memory are amenable to
verbal descriptions while contents of procedural memory
cannot be described easily. Explain?
2m
 Ans when asked you can describe how the game of cricket is played
but if someone asked you how do you ride a bicycle, you may find it
difficult to narrate.

Episodic
Tulving
(declarative
memory)
Semantic

Tulving (Founder) has proposed yet another classification and has

suggested that the declarative memory can either be Episodic or
Semantic.
Episodic memory contains biological details of our lives. Memories
relating to our personal life experience constitute the episodic memory
and it is for this reason that its content are generally emotional in nature.
experiences are hard to forget, yet it is equally true that many events
take place continuously in our lives and that we do not remember all of
them. Besides, there are painful and unpleasant experiences which are
not remembered in as much details as pleasant life experiences.
e.g. how did you feel when you stood first in your class..
Semantic memory, on the other hand, is the memory of general
awareness and knowledge. All concepts, ideas and rules of logic are
stored in semantic memory. It is affect-neutral and not susceptible to
forgetting.
e.g. we remember the meaning of non-violence or remember that 2+4=8.

Classifications of long-term memory

Flashbulb memories: These are memories of events that are very
arousing or surprising . such as memories are very detailed . they are like
a photo taken with an advanced model camera .you can push the
button , and after one minute you have a recreation of the scene
Flashbulb memories are like images frozen in memory and tied to
particular places, dates, and times. Perhaps, people put in greater effort
in the formation of these memories, and highlighting details might lead
to deeper levels of processing as well as offer more cues for retrieval.

Autobiographical memory: These are personal memories. They are

not distributed evenly throughout our lives. Some periods in our lives
produce more memories than others no memories are reported pertaining
to early childhood particularly during the first 4 to 5 years.
This is called childhood amnesia. There is a dramatic increase in the
frequency of memories just after early adulthood. Perhaps emotionality,
novelty, and importance of events contribute to it.
During old age, the most recent years of life are likely to be well
remembered. However, before this, around 30 years of age, decline in
certain kinds of memory starts.

Implicit Memory : That many of the memories remain outside the

conscious awareness of a person. Implicit memory is a kind of memory
that a person is not aware of. It is a memory that is retrieved
automatically.
One interesting example of implicit memory comes from the experience
of typing. If someone knows typing that means s/he also knows the
particular letters on the keyboard. But many typists cannot correctly
label blank keys in a drawing of a keyboard. Implicit memories lie
outside the boundaries of awareness.
We are not conscious of the fact that a memory or record of a given
experience exists. Nevertheless, implicit memories do influence our
behavior .
This kind of memory was found in patients suffering from brain injuries.
Implicit memories are also observed in people with normal memories.

Nature and cause of Forgetting

The first systematic attempt to understand the nature of forgetting was
made by Hermann Ebbinghaus , who memorised lists of nonsense
syllables (CVC trigrams such as NOK or SEP etc.) and then measured
the number of trials he took to relearn the same list at varying time
intervals. He observed that the course of forgetting follows a certain
pattern which you can see in the following graph
As the figure indicates, the rate of forgetting is maximum in the first
nine hours, particularly during the first hour. After that the rate slows
down and not much is forgotten even after many days. Although
Ebbinghaus’s experiments constituted initial explorations and were not
very sophisticated yet they have influenced memory research in many
important ways. It is now upheld, almost unanimously, that there is always
a sharp drop in memory and thereafter the decline is very gradual.

Forgetting due to Trace Decay

Trace decay( also called disuse theory) is the earliest theory of

forgetting. The assumption here is that memory leads to modification in
the central nervous system, which is akin to physical changes in the
brain called memory traces. When these memory traces are not used for
a long time, they simply fade away and become unavailable. This theory
has been proved inadequate on several grounds.
 If forgetting takes place because memory decay due to disuse, then
people who go to sleep after memorising should forget more compared
to those who remain awake, simply because there is no way in which
memory traces can be put to use during sleep. Results, however, show
just the opposite.

Those who remain awake after memorising (waking condition) show

greater forgetting than those who sleep (sleeping condition). Because
trace decay theory did not explain forgetting adequately, it was soon
replaced by another theory of forgetting which suggested that new
information that enters the long-term memory interferes with the recall
of earlier memories and therefore, interference is the main cause of
forgetting.

Forgetting due to interference

Forgetting due to Interference If forgetting is not due to trace decay then

why does it take place? A theory of forgetting that has perhaps been the
most influential one is the interference theory which suggests that
forgetting is due to interference between various information that the
memory store contains. This theory assumes that learning and
memorising involve forming of associations between items and once
acquired, these associations remain inntact in the memory. People keep
acquiring numerous such associations and each of these rests
independently without any mutual conflict.

However, interference comes about at a time of retrieval when these

various sets of associations compete with each other for retrieval. This
interference process will become clearer with a simple exercise.

E.g. Request your friend to learn two separate lists of nonsense syllables
(list A and list B) one after the other and after a while ask her/him to
recall the nonsense syllables of list A. If while trying to recall the items
of list A, s/he recalls some of the items of list B, it is because of the
association formed while learning list B are interfering with the earlier
association which were formed while learning list A.

There are atleast two kinds of interferences that may result in forgetting.
Interference can be proactive (forward moving) which means what you
have learnt earlier interferes with the recall of your subsequent learning
or retroactive (backward moving) which refers to difficulty in recalling
what you have learnt earlier because of learning a new material.
In other words, in proactive interference, past learning interferes with
the recall of later learning while in retroactive interference the later
learning interferes with the recall of past learning. For example, if you
know English and you find it difficult to learn French, it is because of
proactive interference and if, on the other hand, you cannot recall
English equivalents of French words that you are currently memorising,
then it is an example of retroactive interference. A typical experimental
design that is used to demonstrate proactive and retroactive interference.

Forgetting due to Retrieval Failure

Forgetting can occur not only because the memory traces have decayed
over time (as suggested by the disuse theory) or because independent
sets of stored associations compete at the time of recall (as suggested by
the interference theory) but also because at the time of recall, either the
retrieval cues are absent or they are inappropriate.
Retrieval cues are aids which help us in recovering information stored in
the memory. This view was advanced by Tulving and his associates who
carried out several experiments to show that contents of memory may
become inaccessible either due to absence or inappropriateness of
retrieval cues that are available/employed at the time of recall.

ENHANCING MEMORY
After learning about various memory related processes, you certainly
would like to know how your memory can be improved. There are a
number of strategies for improving memory called mnemonics
(pronounced ni-mo-nicks) to help you improve your memory.
Some of these mnemonics involve use of images whereas others
emphasise self-induced organisation of learned information

Mnemonics using Images

 Mnemonics using images require that you create vivid and interacting
images of and around the material you wish to remember.
The two prominent mnemonic devices, which make interesting use of
images, are the keyword method and the method of loci.

(a) The Keyword Method : Suppose you want to learn words of

any foreign language. In keyword method, an English word (the
assumption here is that you know English language) that sounds
similar to the word of a foreign language is identified. This
English word will function as the keyword. For example, if you
want to remember the Spanish word for duck which is ‘Pato’, you
may choose ‘pot’ as the keyword and then evoke images of
keyword and the target word (the Spanish word you want to
remember) and imagine them as interacting.
You might, in this case, imagine a duck in a pot full of water. This
method of learning words of a foreign language is much superior
compared to any kind of rote memorisation.

(b) The Method of Loci : In order to use the method of loci, items
you want to remember are placed as objects arranged in a physical
space in the form of visual images. This method is particularly
helpful in remembering items in a serial order. It requires that you
first visualise objects/places that you know well in a specific
sequence, imagine the objects you want to remember and associate
them one by one to the physical locations.
For example, suppose you want to remember bread, eggs, tomatoes,
and soap on your way to the market, you may visualise a loaf of bread
and eggs placed in your kitchen, tomatoes kept on a table and soap in
the bathroom. When you enter the market all you need to do is to take a
mental walk along the route from your kitchen to the bathroom recalling
all the items of your shopping list in a sequence

Mnemonics using Organisation

Organisation refers to imposing certain order on the material you want
to remember. Mnemonics of this kind are helpful because of the
framework you create while organisation makes the retrieval task fairly
easy.

(a) Chunking : While describing the features of short-term

memory, we noted how chunking can increase the capacity of
short-term memory. In chunking, several smaller units are
combined to form large chunks. For creating chunks, it is
important to discover some organisation principles, which can
link smaller units.
Therefore, apart from being a control mechanism to increase the
capacity of short-term memory, chunking can be used to improve
memory as well

(b) First Letter Technique : In order to employ the first letter

technique, you need to pick up the first letter of each word you
want to remember and arrange them to form another word or a
sentence. For example, colours of a rainbow are remembered in
this way (VIBGYOR- that stands for Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green,
Yellow, Orange and Red).
Mnemonic strategies for memory enhancement are too simplistic and
perhaps underestimate complexities of memory tasks and difficulties
people experience while memorising. In place of mnemonics, a more
comprehensive approach to memory improvement has been suggested
by many psychologists. In such an approach, emphasis is laid on
applying knowledge about memory processes to the task of memory
improvement. Let us examine some of these suggestions.

It is suggested that one must :

(a) Engage in Deep Level Processing : If you want to memorise

any information well, engage in deep level processing. Craik and
Lockhart have demonstrated that processing information in terms
of meaning that they convey leads to better memory as compared
to attending to their surface features.
Deep processing would involve asking as many questions related to the
information as possible, considering its meaning and examining its
relationships to the facts you already know. In this way, the new
information will become a part of your existing knowledge framework
and the chances that it will be remembered are increased.

(b) Minimise Interference : Interference, as we have read, is a

major cause of forgetting and therefore you should try to avoid it
as much as possible. You know that maximum interference is
caused when very similar materials are learned in a sequence.
Avoid this. Arrange your study in such a way that you do not learn
similar subjects one after the other.
Instead, pick up some other subject unrelated to the previous one. If that
is not possible, distribute your learning/practice. This means giving
yourself intermittent rest periods while studying to minimise
interference.
(c) Give Yourself enough Retrieval Cues : While you learn
something, think of retrieval cues inherent in your study material.
Identify them and link parts of the study material to these cues.
Cues will be easier to remember compared to the entire content
and the links you have created between cues and the content will
facilitate the retrieval process.
(d) Thomas and Robinson : have developed another strategy to
help students in remembering more which they called the methods
of PQRST. This acronym stands for Preview, Question, Read,
Self-recitation, and Test. Preview refers to giving a cursory look at
the chapter and familiarising oneself with its contents. Question
means raising questions and seeking answers from the lesson.
Now start reading and look for answers of questions you had raised.
After reading try to rewrite what you have read and at the end test how
much you have been able to understand.
At the end, a note of caution must be sounded. There is no one method
that can solve all problems related to retention and bring about an
overnight memory improvement. In order to improve your memory, you
need to attend to a wide variety of factors which affect your memory
such as your health status, your interest and motivation, your familiarity
with the subject matter and so on.
In addition, you must learn to use strategies for memory improvement
depending upon the nature of memory tasks you are required to
accomplish.