Memory & Forgetting Concepts

Memory & Forgetting

• Memory is the retention of information or experience over time, resulting from encoding, storage, and retrieval.
• Memory involves encoding, storage, and retrieval stages.
• Memory encoding is the initial stage, involving how information gets into memory storage. Effort is required, including attention, deep processing, elaboration (rehearsal and making stories), and using mental imagery.
• Attention is selective; our brains cannot attend to everything. There are three types to consider: selective, divided, and sustained.
• Selective attention focuses on one aspect of experience while ignoring others.
• Divided attention involves focusing on multiple activities simultaneously (multitasking).
• Sustained attention (vigilance) is maintaining attention to a stimulus for an extended period.
• Levels of processing influence memory, ranging from shallow (physical/perceptual) to intermediate (labeling), to deep (semantic/meaningful attributes).
• Elaboration involves forming multiple connections around a stimulus.
• Self-reference relates material to personal experience, improving encoding.
• Imagery involves using mental pictures, sounds, smells, textures, and tastes to enhance memory encoding.
• Memory storage is the retention of information over time and how it is represented in memory. Different types of memory include sensory, short-term, and long-term.
• Sensory memory briefly holds information in its original sensory form. -Echoic memory refers to auditory sensory memory. -Iconic memory refers to visual sensory memory. Sensory information is very brief, typically lasting a fraction of a second.
• Short-term memory has a limited capacity and retains information for roughly 30 seconds unless strategies like rehearsal are used.
• Long-term memory stores vast amounts of information.
• Working memory—a three-part system for temporary information storage during complex cognitive tasks—is frequently compared to a mental "workbench" where the brain manipulates and assembles information.
• Baddeley's model (2000) identifies three components: phonological loop (sound), visuospatial working memory (sight), and central executive (elaboration).
• Long-term memory can be divided into explicit (declarative) and implicit (non-declarative). -Explicit memory involves conscious recall of facts and events, including episodic memory (events) and semantic memory (facts and knowledge). -Implicit memory involves unconscious recall of skills and learned responses. -Procedural memory involves skills, and classical conditioning involves emotional responses associated with experiences.
• Retrieval involves the process of accessing stored information. -Retrieval cues are helpful in retrieving information.
• Cues and retrieval tasks influence the retrieval process.
  • The serial position effect means people are more likely to recall items at the beginning and end of a list.
• There exist special types of memory, including autobiographical memory (life experiences as a narrative), flashbulb memories (emotionally vivid memories of significant events), and recovered memories (memories recalled after a period of forgetting).

Forgetting

• Forgetting often stems from the inability to retrieve or recall information.
• Encoding failure means the information might never be encoded into long-term memory.
• Interference occurs when previously learned or later-acquired information disrupts the recall of another memory.
  • Proactive interference means prior information interferes with later learning.
  • Retroactive interference means later information interferes with learning earlier information.
• Decay theory suggests that memory traces fade over time if not rehearsed or accessed.
• Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon involves being conscious of knowing information but unable to retrieve it.
• Amnesia is a memory disorder that can result from trauma or neurological conditions.
  • Anterograde amnesia impairs the ability to form new memories.
  • Retrograde amnesia impairs the recall of past memories.

Study Tips

• Review course material regularly.
• Organize material for effective encoding.
• Utilize encoding strategies such as attention, elaboration, and using imagery.
• Practice rehearsal strategies.
• Utilize retrieval strategies: cues and asking questions.