Memory Processes and Encoding

Memory Processes

• Memory is the ability to store and retrieve information over time. It's a constructive, not a recording, process.
• Encoding transforms perceptions, thoughts, and feelings into memories.
• Storage maintains information over time.
• Retrieval brings stored information to mind.

Encoding Processes

• Semantic Encoding: Relates new info to existing knowledge, activating areas in the left frontal and temporal lobes. More activity = better recall. Involves semantic, visual, and organizational judgments.
• Visual Imagery Encoding: Stores info as mental pictures, creating visual and verbal placeholders. Activates visual processing regions in the occipital lobe.
• Organizational Encoding: Categorizes information based on relationships. Activates the upper surface of the left frontal lobe.

Memory Storage

• Sensory Storage: Holds sensory info briefly (seconds or less).

  • Iconic Memory: Visual sensory memory
  • Echoic Memory: Auditory sensory memory

• Short-Term Storage/Working Memory: Holds non-sensory info for ~15-20 seconds.

  • Rehearsal: Repeating information mentally to maintain it.
  • Serial Position Effect: Better recall of first and last items (primary and recency effects).
  • Chunking: Grouping info into larger units for easier recall.
  • Working Memory Components:
    • Visuospatial Sketchpad: Stores visual and spatial information
    • Phonological Loop: Stores verbal information
    • Episodic Buffer: Integrates visual and verbal information
    • Central Executive: Coordinates the above subsystems

• Long-Term Storage: Holds information for hours, days, weeks, or years. Capacity is unlimited. Linked to hippocampal index, which is critical initially, but potentially less so over time.

  • Types of Amnesia:
    • Anterograde amnesia: Inability to form new long-term memories.
    • Retrograde amnesia: Inability to retrieve memories from before a specific event (injury/surgery).
  • Consolidation: Memories become stable in the brain. Strengthened by sleep.
  • Reconsolidation: Recalling memories makes them vulnerable and needs to be consolidated again.
  • Long-Term Potentiation (LTP): Strengthening of synaptic connections to improve communication.

Retrieval

• Retrieval Cues: External information associated with stored information that helps recall.
• Encoding Specificity Principle: Effective recall when retrieval cue matches encoding context.
• State-Dependent Retrieval: Recall is better when the encoding and retrieval states are similar.
• Transfer-Appropriate Processing: Matching encoding and retrieval contexts increases memory transfer.
• Retrieval-Induced Forgetting: Retrieving an item can impair recall of related items.

Types of Memory

• Explicit Memory: Consciously retrieving past experiences.
  • Semantic Memory: General knowledge network.
  • Episodic Memory: Personal experiences at specific times and places (future envisioning).
• Implicit Memory: Past experiences influencing later behavior without conscious awareness.
  • Procedural Memory: Skills learned through practice (knowing how)
  • Priming: Enhanced ability to recognize a stimulus after prior exposure.

Memory Failures

• Transience: Forgetting over time, most forgetting happening immediately after an event.
• Retroactive Interference: Later learning impairing earlier learned information.
• Proactive Interference: Earlier learned information impairing later learning.
• Absentmindedness: Lapses in attention leading to memory failure (divided attention).
• Blocking: Inability to retrieve available information despite trying to recall it (names, places).
• Memory Misattribution: Assigning a memory to the wrong source (deja vu, source memory).
• Suggestibility: Incorporating misleading information into recollections.
• Bias: Present knowledge, beliefs, or feelings distorting past memory.
• Persistence: Intrusive recollection of unwanted events, especially from emotional experiences (flashbulb memories).

Collaborative Memory

• Collaborative Memory: Group remembering.
• Collaborative Inhibition: Groups recall fewer items than individuals.

Explore the various processes of memory including encoding, storage, and retrieval. This quiz delves into different encoding techniques such as semantic, visual imagery, and organizational encoding, as well as the characteristics of sensory memory. Test your understanding of how memory functions and the science behind it.