Psychology Memory Concepts

Memory

• Memory is the ability to store and retrieve information over time.
• Three key functions of memory include encoding, storage, and retrieval.
• Encoding is the process of transforming perceptions, thoughts, and feelings into enduring memories.
• Storage is the process of maintaining information in memory over time.
• Retrieval is the process of bringing previously encoded and stored information to mind.

Encoding: Transforming Perceptions into Memories

• Memories are created by combining existing information with new information.
• Memories are constructed.
• Three major ways to encode information include semantic encoding, visual imagery encoding, and organizational encoding.
• Semantic encoding is the process of actively relating new information to existing knowledge.
• Visual imagery encoding involves converting new information into mental pictures.
• Organizational encoding is the process of categorizing information based on relationships between items.

Encoding of Survival-Related Information

• Memory mechanisms that aid survival are often passed down through evolution.
• An experiment showed that encoding survival-related information, in opposition to other conditions, resulted in better recollection, possibly due to elaborate, visual imagery-based encoding, and organization.
• Superior recall is demonstrated with scenarios involving planning but not survival.

Storage

• Sensory storage holds sensory information for a few seconds or less.
• Iconic memory is a fast-decaying store of visual information.
• Echoic memory is a fast-decaying store of auditory information.

Short-Term Memory

• Short-term storage and working memory hold non-sensory information for a few seconds to a minute; typically can hold about seven items.
• Rehearsal is the process of keeping information in STM by repeating it mentally.
• Chunking involves combining small pieces of information into larger clusters which are easier to hold in STM.
• Working memory is an active STM storage that maintains and manipulates information.

Working Memory

• Working memory stores and manipulates information.
• The working memory model includes a limited-capacity memory system.
• Two subsystems—visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop—use episodic buffers to encode information.

Long-Term Storage

• Long-term memory (LTM) stores information for hours, days, weeks, or years.
• LTM has no known capacity limits.
• People can frequently recall items from LTM even after several years.

The Hippocampus

• In the case of H.M., the hippocampus was removed, preventing the transfer of information from short-term to long-term storage.
• Retrograde amnesia is the inability to retrieve information before a specific date, typically the date of an injury or operation.
• Anterograde amnesia is the inability to transfer new information from short-term to long-term storage.
• Consolidation is the brain process that stabilizes memories.
• During recall, memories can become vulnerable to disruption, requiring reconsolidation.

Memories, Neurons, and Synapses

• Connections between neurons (synapses) specifically in the hippocampus strengthen memories.
• Long-term potentiation (LTP) is a process where communication across synapses between neurons strengthens connections, facilitating easier communication.
• The NMDA receptor in the hippocampus influences information flow by controlling the initiation of LTP.

Retrieving Memories

• Retrieval cues are external events that help retrieve information from LTM.
• Retrieval cues refer to external information linked with stored information facilitating recollection.

Retrieval Cues: Internal and External Cues

• The encoding specificity principle suggests that retrieval cues are effective when they recreate the initial encoding of information.
• State-dependent retrieval occurs when the recall environment matches the encoding environment.
• Increased recall likely happens when encoding and retrieval situations align.

Consequences of Retrieval

• Retrieval can strengthen memories (especially long-term).
• Retrieval can lead to forgetting.
• In some cases, retrieval can improve subsequent memory.
• In other cases, retrieval can impair subsequent memory.
• In some cases, retrieval changes subsequent memory.

Types of Long-Term Memory

• Explicit memory is consciously or intentionally retrieving past experiences.
• Implicit memory is the influence of past experiences on later behavior without consciously retrieving that experience.

Implicit Memory

• Procedural memory involves gradually acquiring skills through practice, representing "knowing how" to do things.
• Priming refers to the ability to process a stimulus more easily due to recent exposure.
• Perceptual priming and conceptual priming are two types of priming.
• Priming is not reliant on the hippocampus, but rather utilizes reduced cortical activity in different parts of the brain.

Explicit Memory: Semantic and Episodic

• Semantic memory is a network of associated facts and concepts forming general knowledge.
• Episodic memory is a collection of personal experiences from specific time periods.

Episodic Memory

• Episodic memory allows imagining personal futures through divergent creative thinking.
• Episodic memory enables combining elements of past experiences into new scenarios.

Why do we Forget?

• Decay theory proposes that memories fade gradually due to disuse.
• Forgetting sometimes follows a specific pattern, called the forgetting curve.
• Interference: Forgetting is affected by what happens before and after learning.
  • Proactive interference: competing previously learned information hinders new learning.
  • Retroactive interference: newly acquired information disrupts recollection of previously learned information.

Memory Failures

• Transience
• Absentmindedness
• Blocking
• Misattribution
• Suggestibility
• Bias
• Persistence

Transience

• Transience refers to forgetting over time.
• Memory fades quickly initially, then more slowly.
• There's a shift from recalling specific memories to recalling more general memories.

Absentmindedness

• Absentmindedness refers to lapses in attention, leading to memory failures.
• Mental activity reduces in the frontal lobe when attention is divided.
• Prospective memory involves remembering to do something in the future.
• External reminders and intention offloading assist with prospective memory.

Blocking

• Blocking describes failing to retrieve readily available information despite trying.
• Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon illustrates this difficulty, especially in relation to age and injury.

Misattribution

• Misattribution is mistakenly assigning a recollection to the wrong source.
• Correct memories can be linked to wrong sources.
• Source memory involves remembering the origin of the information.
• Misattribution can include false recognition (believing something familiar is previously encountered).

Suggestibility

• Suggestibility is easily influenced by external information, potentially creating inaccurate memories.
• People potentially develop false memories in response to suggestions.
• Visual imagery and social pressures contribute to suggestibility.

Bias

• Bias refers to present knowledge, beliefs, or feelings potentially distorting previous recollections.
• Consistency bias suggests reconstructing the past to align with the present.
• Change bias exaggerates differences between past and present feelings or beliefs.
• Egocentric bias is the tendency to exaggerate personal changes (positively) during recollection.

Persistence

• Persistence involves intrusive recollection of unwanted events.
• These events often follow disturbing or traumatic experiences.
• Emotional experiences are often better recalled than unemotional ones.
• Flashbulb memories are detailed memories of significant events.
• The amygdala plays a role in emotional memory.

The Amygdala's Influence on Memory

• The amygdala plays an important role in encoding and retrieving memories, particularly emotional ones.
• Individuals with amygdala damage often have difficulty distinguishing between emotional events and non-emotional events, particularly in comparison.

Additional Concepts

• Seven "sins" of memory (transience, absentmindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence) and their potential adaptive advantages.
• Other memory mishaps (Jamais Vu, Time-Gap Experience, and Cryptomnesia) are noted.

Explore the fascinating aspects of memory, including its key functions like encoding, storage, and retrieval. Understand how semantic, visual imagery, and organizational encoding work to shape our memories. Test your knowledge and learn how we construct and recall information over time.