8.1 How memory works - Psychology 2e | OpenStaxName (2023)

sensory memory

In the Atkinson-Shiffrin model, stimuli from the environment are first processedsensory memory: Storage of short sensory events such as images, sounds and tastes. It's a very short storage - even a few seconds. We are constantly bombarded with sensory information. We cannot absorb all, or even most of it. And most of it doesn't affect our lives. For example, what did your teacher wear to the last class? As long as the teacher was dressed appropriately, it didn't matter what she wore. We discard sensory information about sights, sounds, smells and even textures that we don't consider valuable information. When we see something as valuable, the information flashes into our short-term memory.

short term memory

Short term memory (STM)it is a temporary storage system that processes incoming sensory memories. The terms short-term and working memory are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are not exactly the same thing. Short-term memory is described in more detail as a component of working memory. Short-term memory takes information from sensory memory and sometimes associates that memory with something already in long-term memory. Short-term memory storage takes 15-30 seconds. Think of it like the information you displayed on your computer screen, for example. a document, spreadsheet, or website. The information in the STM then goes into long-term storage (you save it to your hard drive) or is discarded (you delete a document or close a web browser).

In the endmoves information from short-term memory to long-term memory. Active practice is a way of caring for information to move it from short-term memory to long-term memory. In active practice, you repeat (practice) the information to be memorized. If you repeat it often enough, it can be committed to long-term memory. For example, many children learn the ABCs through this type of active practice by singing the alphabet song. Alternatively, extensive practice is relating new information you are trying to learn to existing information you already know. For example, if you meet someone at a party and your phone is dead, but you want to remember their phone number, which starts with the area code 203, remember that your uncle Abdul lives in Connecticut and has the area code 203. If you're trying to remember your potential new boyfriend's phone number, it'll be easier to remember the area code. Craik and Lockhart (1972) proposed the levels of processing hypothesis, which states that the more deeply someone thinks about something, the better they remember it.

You might be wondering, "How much information can our memory process at once?" To examine the capacity and duration of your short-term memory, ask a partner to read the sequences of random numbers (Figure 8.5) aloud, beginning each string with "Ready?" and end each one by saying "Remember". At this point, you should try to write down the sequence of numbers from memory.

Figure8.5 Work through this sequence of numbers using the memorization exercise explained above to determine the longest sequence of digits you can memorize.

Write the longest string where you hit the series. For most people, capacity will likely be around 7 plus or minus 2. In 1956, George Miller reviewed most of the research on short-term memory capacity and found that humans can retain between 5 and 9 items, then he reported that short-term memory capacity was the "magic number" 7 plus or minus 2. However, more recent research found that working memory capacity is 4 plus or minus 1 (Cowan, 2010). In general, memory is slightly better for random numbers than for random letters (Jacobs, 1887) and also slightly better for information we hear (auditory encoding) than for information we see (visual encoding) (Anderson, 1969) .

Decay and interference of memory traces are two factors that affect short term memory. Peterson and Peterson (1959) studied short-term memory using three sequences of letters called trigrams (eg, CLS) that had to be retrieved after various time intervals ranging from 3 to 18 seconds. Participants recalled about 80% of the trigrams after a 3-second delay, but only 10% after an 18-second delay, leading them to conclude that short-term memory declined by 18 seconds. During decay, the memory trail becomes less active over time and information is forgotten. However, Keppel and Underwood (1962) examined only early attempts at the trigram task and found that proactive interference also affected short-term memory. During proactive interference, previously learned information interferes with the ability to learn new information. Both memory trace deterioration and proactive interference affect short-term memory. Once information arrives in long-term memory, it must be consolidated both at the synaptic level, which takes a few hours, and in the memory system, which can take weeks or more.

long term memory

Long term memory (LTM)is the continuous storage of information. Unlike short-term memory, long-term memory is believed to have unlimited storage capacity. It covers all the things you can remember that happened more than just a few minutes ago. You really can't look at long-term memory without thinking about how it's organized. Very quickly, what's the first word that comes to mind when you hear "peanut butter"? Did you think about jelly? If so, you probably have peanut butter and jelly on your mind. It is generally accepted that memories are organized into semantic (or associative) networks (Collins & Loftus, 1975). A semantic network is made up of concepts and, as you may remember from what you learned about memory, concepts are categories or groupings of linguistic information, images, ideas or memories, such as B. Life experiences. Although individual experiences and knowledge can influence the ordering of concepts, it is believed that concepts are organized hierarchically in the mind (Anderson & Reder, 1999; Johnson & Mervis, 1997, 1998; Palmer, Jones, Hennessy, Unze & Pick, 1989; Rosch, Mervis, Gray, Johnson & Boyes-Braem, 1976; Tanaka & Taylor, 1991). Related concepts are linked, and the strength of the link depends on the number of times two concepts have been linked.

Semantic networks differ according to personal experiences. Important for memory, activating any part of a semantic network also activates, to a lesser extent, the concepts associated with that part. The process is known as scattering activation (Collins & Loftus, 1975). When part of a network is activated, it is easier to access related concepts because they are already partially activated. When you remember or remember something, you activate a concept, and related concepts are more easily remembered because they are partially activated. However, activations do not spread in just one direction. When you remember something, you usually have multiple ways to get the information you want to access, and the more links you have to a concept, the better your chances of being remembered.

There are two types of long-term memory:explicitEimplicitly(Figure 8.6). It is important to understand the difference between explicit and implicit memory because aging, certain types of brain trauma, and certain disorders can affect explicit and implicit memory in different ways.Explicit Memoriesthey are the ones we consciously try to remember, remember and report. For example, if you are studying for a chemistry test, the material you are studying will be part of your explicit memory. To use the computer analogy, some information in your long-term memory would be like the information you have stored on your hard drive. It's not on your desktop (your short-term memory), but most of the time you can access this information whenever you want. Not all long-term memories are strong memories, and some memories can only be accessed using prompts. For example, you might easily remember a fact, such as the capital of the United States, but have trouble remembering the name of the restaurant you ate at when you visited a nearby city last summer. A prompt, e.g. B. the fact that the restaurant is named after the owner can help you remember the name of the restaurant. Explicit memory is sometimes called declarative memory because it can be put into words. Explicit memory is divided into episodic memory and semantic memory.

episodic memoryit is information about events that we personally experience (i.e. an episode). For example, remembering your last birthday is an episodic reminder. Typically, episodic memory is reported as a story. The concept of episodic memory was first proposed around the 1970s (Tulving, 1972). Since then, Tulving and others have reformulated the theory, and scientists now believe that episodic memory is the recall of events in specific places at specific times – the what, where, and when of an event (Tulving, 2002). It includes recall of visual images as well as a sense of familiarity (Hassabis & Maguire, 2007).semantic memoryit is knowledge of words, concepts, and language-based knowledge and facts. Semantic memory is normally reported as facts. Semantics means dealing with language and knowledge about language. For example, the 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.

implicit memoriesthey 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 evident when performing a task (Roediger, 1990; Schacter, 1987). Implicit memory has been examined with cognitively demanding tasks such as B. Performance in artificial grammar (Reber, 1976), word memory (Jacoby, 1983; Jacoby & Witherspoon, 1982), and learning contingencies and unspoken and unwritten 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 its influence. Implicit memories can influence observable behaviors as well as cognitive tasks. In either case, you often can't put your memory into words that adequately describe the task. There are different types of implicit memories, including procedural, preparatory, and emotional conditioning.

Figure8.6 There are two components of long-term memory: explicit and implicit. Explicit memory includes both episodic and semantic memory. Implicit memory includes procedural memory and things learned through conditioning.

Implicitlyprocedural memoryit is often studied in terms of observable behaviors (Adams, 1957; Lacey & Smith, 1954; Lazarus & McCleary, 1951). Implicit procedural memory stores information about how to do something and is the memory for skillful actions like brushing your teeth, riding a bike, or driving a car. When you first tried it, you probably weren't that good at riding a bike or driving a car, but after doing those things for a year, you were so much better. His improvement in cycling was due to learning balance skills. you probablyThoughtabout standing up straight at first but now you're straightAgainThis. Also, you're probably good at keeping your balance, but you can't tell anyone exactly how you do it. When you first learned to drive, you probably thought about many things that you now do without much thought. When you first learned how to do these tasks, someone might have told you how to do them, but whatever you learned from those instructions that you cannot readily explain to someone else as a procedure is Implicit Memory.

Implicit priming is another type of implicit memory (Schacter, 1992). During priming, exposure to one stimulus affects the response to a subsequent stimulus. Stimuli can vary and can include words, pictures, and other stimuli to elicit a response or increase recognition. For example, some people really like picnics. They love to go out into nature, spread a blanket on the ground and eat a tasty meal. Now unscramble the following letters to form a word.

$$\mathrm{AETPL}$$

What word did you think of? Chances are it was "dish".

You read: “Some people really like to grow flowers. They love to go into the garden, fertilize the plants and water the flowers”, you probably thought of the word “petal” instead of dish.

Remember the earlier discussion of semantic networks? The reason people are more likely to think of "plate" after reading about a picnic is that the plate is associated (connected) with the picnic. Plate was prepared by enabling the semantic web. Likewise, “petal” is related to and initiated by the flower. Priming is also why you've probably been told that jelly is the answer to peanut butter.

Implicit emotional conditioning is the type of memory involved in classically conditioned emotional responses (Olson & Fazio, 2001). These emotional relationships cannot be reported or retrieved, but they can be associated with various stimuli. For example, certain smells can evoke certain emotional responses in some people. If there's an odor that makes you feel positive and nostalgic, and you don't know where that reaction is coming from, it's an implicit emotional reaction. Likewise, most people have a song that elicits a specific emotional response. The effect of this music can be an implicit emotional memory (Yang, Xu, Du, Shi & Fang, 2011).

daily connection

Can you remember everything you've ever done or said?

Episodic memories are also known as autobiographical memories. Let's quickly test your autobiographical memory. What were you wearing exactly five years ago today? What did you have for lunch on April 10, 2009? You may find it difficult, if not impossible, to answer these questions. Can you remember all the events you've experienced throughout your life - meals, conversations, choice of clothes, weather conditions and so on? Most likely none of us can remotely answer these questions; however, American actress Mariluhen, best known for the television showTaxi,can remember She has an amazing and extremely superior autobiographical memory (Figure 8.7).

Figure8.7 Marilu Henner's superautobiographical memory is known as hyperthymesia. (Credit: Mark Richardson)

Very few people can remember events this way; Less than 20 people with this ability have been identified to date, and only a few have been studied (Parker, Cahill, and McGaugh 2006). and althoughhyperthymesiaOccurring usually in adolescence, two children in the United States seem to have memories well before their tenth birthday.