CHAPTER7
Memory:
Remembrance of
Things Past—and
Future
Learning Outcomes
• Define memory and differentiate between types
of memories.
• Explain the process of memory.
• Explain the stages of memory.
Learning Outcomes
• Identify contributors to forgetting.
• Describe the biological aspects of memory.
Truth or Fiction?
❑ A woman who could not remember who she was
automatically dialed her mother’s number when
the police gave her a telephone.
❑ Learning must be meaningful if we are to
remember it.
Truth or Fiction?
❑ If you can see, you have a photographic
memory.
❑ All of our experiences are permanently imprinted
on the brain, so the proper stimulus can cause
us to remember them exactly.
Truth or Fiction?
❑ It may be easier for you to recall the name of
your first-grade teacher than the name of
someone you just met at a party.
❑ You may always recall where you were and
what you were doing on the morning of
September 11, 2001.
Truth or Fiction?
❑ If you study with the stereo on, you would
probably do better to take the test with the
stereo on.
❑ Learning Spanish can make it harder to
remember French – and vice versa.
Memory Systems
Explicit Versus Implicit Memories
• Explicit memory – declarative memory
– Memory for specific information; that can be
stated or declared
– Information can be autobiographical or general
• Implicit memory – nondeclarative memory
– Memory of how to perform a procedure or skill
– Skill memories
– Can endure even not used in years
Explicit Memory
• Episodic memory – autobiographical memory
– Memories of things that happen to us or take
place in our presence
– Autobiographical memories
– “I remember”
• Semantic memory-
– General knowledge
– “ I know”
Implicit Memory
• Procedural memory – Skill memory
– Things people do, not things stated clearly
– Things done repeatedly – habits
Priming
• Memory of things that reflect repetition that
makes associations automatic
– Memory of the alphabet or multiplication tables
– Requires less neural activity
Retrospective Memory Versus
Prospective Memory
• Retrospective memory
– Recalling information previously learned
• Episodic, semantic and implicit memories
• Prospective memory
– Remembering to do things in the future
– May fail due to preoccupation or distraction
Prospective Memory
• Prospective memory tasks
– Habitual tasks
• Easier to remember than occasional tasks
– Event-based tasks(brushing teeth after eating)
• Triggered by events
– Time-based tasks
• Performed at a certain time or after a certain
time has elapsed
Influences on Retrospective and
Prospective Memory
• Age related decline
– More related to speed of cognitive processing
than loss of information
• Moods and attitudes and prospective memory
– Depressed people less likely to push to remind
themselves to do what they intend to do
Processes of Memory
Encoding
• Transforming information into psychological
formulas that can be represented mentally
– Visual – represented as a picture - to maintain a
mental image of the letters
– Auditory – represented as sounds – to read the
letters to yourself
– Semantic – represented in terms of meanings
– Used an acronym to remember the letters or grouped the letters
for them to have a meaning
Storage
• Maintaining information over time
• Methods of storing information
– Maintenance rehearsal- mentally repeating the
list
• Metamemory -our awareness of the
functioning of our memory
– Elaborative rehearsal-encode the list of letters
by relating it to something that you already
know
Retrieval
• Locating information and returning it to
consciousness
• Fast retrieval for well known information
• Large amounts of info may be difficult
• Retrieval relies on cues (acronym-it could lead to fast,
flawless recollection)
Definition of Memory
• Process by which information is encoded,
stored, and retrieved
Stages of Memory
Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of Memory
• Three stages of memory
– Sensory memory
– Short-term memory (STM)
– Long-term memory (LTM)
• Stages determine whether, and how long,
information is stored
Three Stages of Memory
Sensory Memory
• First stage of memory encountered by a stimulus
• Holds impressions briefly, but long enough so
series of perceptions become psychologically
continuous
– Memory trace
• Decays within a second
• Visual sensory register
Iconic Memory
• Icons
– Mental representations of visual stimuli
• Brief, but accurate, photographic memories
– Photographic or Eidetic imagery
• mental representations of visual stimuli over
long periods of time
• Iconic memory is common, eidetic memory is not
Echoic Memory
• Echoes
– Mental representations of sounds
• Memory traces of echoes last longer than icons
Short-Term Memory
• Focusing on a stimulus in the sensory register,
retains it in short-term memory (STM) for a
minute or so after the trace decays
– Also called working memory
• Rehearsal allows information to be retained
indefinitely
• The image tends to fade significantly after ten to twelve seconds if it
is not repeated or rehearsed.
• We need to rehearse to save information
Serial Position Effect
• Tendency to recall the first and last items in a
series
– May be more attention to first and last items
– May rehearse first item more often and last
most recently
Chunking
• A grouping of stimuli that is perceived as a
discrete piece of information
• Number of items held in STM –
– Seven (plus or minus two)
– Chunking stimuli allows for semantic coding
Interference in Short-Term Memory
• Attention to distracting information interferes with
STM
• Appearance of new information in STM displaces
old information
The Effect of Interference on Short-Term Memory
Long-Term Memory
• Vast storehouse of information
• Long-term memories are distorted
– Schemas bias our memories
• No known limit known for amount of information
stored in long-term memory (LTM)
• Long-term memories may last a life-time
– Not lost by displacement
Memory as Reconstructive
Levels of Processing Model of Memory
• Memories endure when processed deeply
– Attention, encoding, storing, retrieval all
involved
Flashbulb Memories
• Tend to remember events that are important and
emotionally stirring
– Memories are more distinctive
– Increased networks of association
– Elaborative rehearsal
– Secretion of stress hormones
Organization in Long-Term Memory
• Categorization of information
– Hierarchical structure
• Superordinate classes of information
Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon
• “Feeling of knowing”
– Acoustic and semantic coding may help
provide a useful retrieval cue
– May reflect incomplete learning
Context and State Dependent Memory
• Context dependent
– Context in which information was originally
acquired
• State dependent
– Biological or emotional state
Forgetting
How do We Measure Forgetting?
• Nonsense syllables
– Depend on acoustic coding and maintenance
rehearsal
• Three tasks for measurement
– Recognition
– Recall
– Relearning
• Method of Savings
Ebbinghaus’s Classic Curve of Forgetting
Interference Theory
• Retroactive interference
– New learning interferes with the retrieval of old
learning
• Proactive interference
– Older learning interferes with the capacity to
retrieve more recently learned material
Repression
• Freudian concept of motivated forgetting
– Automatic ejection of painful memories from
conscious awareness
– Dissociative amnesia
Recovered Memories
• Recovery of repressed memories has little
scientific support
• Implanting false memories
Infantile Amnesia
• Freud – repression
• Immature hippocampus
• Cognitive explanations
– No interest in remembering the past
– Specific episodes versus networks of memories
– Unreliable use of symbolic language
Anterograde and Retrograde Amnesia
• Anterograde Amnesia
– Unable to remember events that occur after
physical trauma
• Retrograde Amnesia
– Unable to remember events that occur prior to
physical trauma
The Biology of Memory
Neural Activity and Memory
• Experience increases dendrites and synapses in
cerebral cortex
• Long-term potentiation
– Following brief, rapid stimulation an enhanced
efficiency in synaptic transmission
• Neurotransmitters and hormones
One Avenue to Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
Brain Structures and Memory
• Hippocampus
– new memories; episodic memories
– relays sensory information to cortex
• Sensory cortex areas
– Store sensory information
– Integrated by limbic system
Brain Structures and Memory
• Prefrontal cortex
– Ability to represent and be aware of past,
present and future events
• Thalamus
– Formation of verbal memories
