Memory and Its Importance

Memory

• Memory refers to the processes by which people and other organisms encode, store, and retrieve information.
• Memory is critical to humans and all other living organisms.
• It allows us to retrieve events from the distant past or from moments ago and enables us to learn new skills and form habits.

Importance of Memory

• Without memory, we would be unable to comprehend language, recognize our friends and family members, find our way home, or even tie a shoelace.
• Life would be a series of disconnected experiences, each one new and unfamiliar.
• Without memory, it would be impossible for humans to survive.

Controversies Surrounding Memory

• Memory is often a subject of controversy because of questions about its accuracy.
• An eyewitness's memory of a crime can play a crucial role in determining a suspect's guilt or innocence.
• Psychologists agree that people do not always recall events as they actually happened, and sometimes people mistakenly recall events that had never happened.

Memory and Learning

• Memory and learning are closely related and often describe roughly the same processes.
• The term learning is often used to refer to processes involved in the initial acquisition or encoding of information, whereas the term memory more often refers to later storage and retrieval of information.
• The learning/memory process includes all facets of encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Definition of Memory

• Woodworth defined memory as: Memory = L - I - R, where "L" is the act of "learning", "I" is the time interval, or duration between the act of learning and remembering, and "R" refers to the act of "remembering".
• Memory is the process of encoding, storing, and retrieving information, not just a storehouse of information.

Functions of Memory

• Encoding: the process of initial recording of information, where information is recorded in a form that is ready for use by our memory any time.
• Storage: the process of maintaining information in an identifiable form.
• Retrieval: the process of approaching, locating, bringing into awareness, and using stored information.

Encoding and Recoding

• Encoding is the process of perceiving information and bringing it into the memory system.
• Encoding is not simply copying information directly from the outside world into the brain, but rather converting information from one form to another.
• The human visual system provides an example of how information can change forms, such as converting light into bioelectrical signals that the brain interprets as visual images.