Human Memory PDF

Chapter 6 Human Memory After reading this chapter, you would be able to understand the nature of memory, distinguish between different types of memory, understand the nature and causes of...

Chapter 6 Human Memory After reading this chapter, you would be able to understand the nature of memory, distinguish between different types of memory, understand the nature and causes of forgetting, and learn the strategies for improving memory. Contents Introduction Nature of Memory Information Processing Approach : The Stage Model Memory Systems : Sensory, Short-term and Long-term Memories Working Memory (Box 6.1) Levels of Processing Types of Long-term Memory Declarative and Procedural; Episodic and Semantic Long-term Memory Classification (Box 6.2) Methods of Memory Measurement (Box 6.3) Nature and Causes of Forgetting Forgetting due to Trace Decay, Interference and Retrieval Failure Repressed Memories (Box 6.4) The advantage of bad Enhancing Memory Mnemonics using Images and Organisation memory is that one enjoys several times, Key Terms the same good things Summary for the first time. Review Questions Project Ideas – Friedrich Nietzsche 2024-25  Introduction All of us are aware of the tricks that memory plays on us throughout our lives. Have you ever felt embarrassed because you could not remember the name of a known person you were talking to? Or anxious and helpless because everything you memorised well the previous day before taking your examination has suddenly become unavailable? Or felt excited because you can now flawlessly recite lines of a famous poem you had learnt as a child? Memory indeed is a very fascinating yet intriguing human faculty. It functions to preserve our sense of who we are, maintains our interpersonal relationships and helps us in solving problems and taking decisions. Since memory is central to almost all cognitive processes such as perception, thinking and problem solving, psychologists have attempted to understand the manner in which any information is committed to memory, the mechanisms through which it is retained over a period of time, the reasons why it is lost from memory, and the techniques which can lead to memory improvement. In this chapter, we shall examine all these aspects of memory and understand various theories which explain the mechanisms of memory. The history of psychological research on memory spans over hundred years. The first systematic exploration of memory is credited to Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist of late nineteenth century (1885). He carried out many experiments on himself and found that we do not forget the learned material at an even pace or completely. Initially the rate of forgetting is faster but eventually it stabilises. There are other psychologists who have influenced memory research in a major way. We shall review their contributions in this chapter at appropriate places. process consisting of three independent, NATURE OF MEMORY though interrelated stages. These are Memory refers to retaining and recalling encoding, storage, and retrieval. Any information over a period of time, depending information received by us necessarily goes upon the nature of cognitive task you are through these stages. required to perform. It might be necessary to (a) Encoding is the first stage which refers to a hold an information for a few seconds. For process by which information is recorded and example, you use your memory to retain an registered for the first time so that it becomes unfamiliar telephone number till you have usable by our memory system. Whenever an reached the telephone instrument to dial, or external stimulus impinges on our sensory for many years you still remember the organs, it generates neural impulses. These are techniques of addition and subtraction which received in different areas of our brain for you perhaps learned during your early further processing. In encoding, incoming schooling. Memory is conceptualised as a information is received and some meaning is 96 Psychology 2024-25 derived. It is then represented in a way so that does. Both register, store, and manipulate large it can be processed further. amount of information and act on the basis of (b) Storage is the second stage of memory. the outcome of such manipulations. If you Information which was encoded must also be have worked on a computer then you would stored so that it can be put to use later. Storage, know that it has a temporary memory (random therefore, refers to the process through which access memory or RAM) and a permanent information is retained and held over a period memory (e.g., a hard disk). Based on the of time. programme commands, the computer (c) Retrieval is the third stage of memory. manipulates the contents of its memories and Information can be used only when one is able displays the output on the screen. In the same to recover it from her/his memory. Retrieval way, human beings too register information, refers to bringing the stored information to her/ store and manipulate the stored information his awareness so that it can be used for depending on the task that they need to performing various cognitive tasks such as perform. For example, when you are required problem solving or decision-making. It may be to solve a mathematical problem, the memory interesting to note that memory failure can occur at any of these stages. You may fail to relating to mathematical operations, such as recall an information because you did not division or subtraction are carried out, encode it properly, or the storage was weak so activated and put to use, and receive the you could not access or retrieve it when output (the problem solution). This analogy led required. to the development of the first model of memory, which was proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968. It is known as Stage Model. INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH : THE STAGE MODEL MEMORY SYSTEMS : SENSORY, SHORT-TERM Initially, it was thought that memory is the AND LONG-TERM MEMORIES capacity to store all information that we acquire through learning and experience. It was seen According to the Stage Model, there are three as a vast storehouse where all information that memory systems : the Sensory Memory, the we knew was kept so that we could retrieve Short-term Memory and the Long-term and use it as and when needed. But with the Memory. Each of these systems have different advent of the computer, human memory came features and perform different functions with to be seen as a system that processes respect to the sensory inputs (see Fig.6.1). Let information in the same way as a computer us examine what these systems are: Sensory Memory Short-term Long-term Iconic (Sight) Memory Memory Echoic (Sound) Store Capacity - Elaborative Permanent and other senses Attention small Rehearsals Store Capacity - Information Store Capacity - Duration - less unlimited large than 30 seconds Duration - upto Duration - less a lifetime than one second Fig.6.1 : The Stage Model of Memory 97 Chapter 6 Human Memory 2024-25 Sensory Memory registers where the information decays automatically in less than a second. The incoming information first enters the sensory memory. Sensory memory has a large Long-term Memory capacity. However, it is of very short duration, i.e. less than a second. It is a memory system Materials that survive the capacity and that registers information from each of the duration limitations of the STM finally enter senses with reasonable accuracy. Often this the long-term memory (abbreviated as LTM) system is referred to as sensory memories or which has a vast capacity. It is a permanent sensory registers because information from all storehouse of all information that may be as the senses are registered here as exact replica recent as what you ate for breakfast yesterday of the stimulus. If you have experienced visual to as distant as how you celebrated your sixth after-images (the trail of light that stays after birthday. It has been shown that once any the bulb is switched off) or when you hear information enters the long-term memory reverberations of a sound when the sound has store it is never forgotten because it gets ceased, then you are familiar with iconic encoded semantically, i.e. in terms of the (visual) or echoic (auditory) sensory registers. meaning that any information carries. What you experience as forgetting is in fact retrieval Short-term Memory failure; for various reasons you cannot retrieve the stored information. You will read about You will perhaps agree that we do not attend retrieval related forgetting later in this chapter. to all the information that impinge on our So far we have only discussed the structural senses. Information that is attended to enters features of the stage model. Questions which the second memory store called the short-term still remain to be addressed are how does memory (abbreviated as STM), which holds information travel from one store to another small amount of information for a brief period and by what mechanisms it continues to stay of time (usually for 30 seconds or less). in any particular memory store. Let us examine Atkinson and Shif frin propose that the answers to these questions. information in STM is primarily encoded How does information travel from one store acoustically, i.e. in terms of sound and unless to another? As an answer to this question, rehearsed continuously, it may get lost from Atkinson and Shiffrin propose the notion of the STM in less than 30 seconds. Note that control processes which function to monitor the STM is fragile but not as fragile as sensory the flow of information through various B o x 6.1 Working Memory In recent years, psychologists have suggested that holds a limited number of sounds and unless rehearsed the short-term memory is not unitary, rather it may they decay within 2 seconds. The second component consist of many components. This multi- visuospatial sketchpad stores visual and spatial component view of short-term memory was first information and like phonological loop the capacity of proposed by Baddeley (1986) who suggested that the sketchpad too is limited. The third component, which the short-term memory is not a passive storehouse Baddeley calls the Central Executive, organises but rather a work bench that holds a wide variety information from phonological loop, visuospatial of memory materials that are constantly handled, sketchpad as well as from the long-term memory. Like manipulated and transformed as people perform a true executive, it allocates attentional resources to be various cognitive tasks. This work bench is called distributed to various information needed to perform a the working memory. The first component of the given cognitive operation and monitors, plans, and working memory is the phonological loop which controls behaviour. 98 Psychology 2024-25 memory stores. As suggested earlier, all as many ways as possible. You can expand informations which our senses receive are not the information in some kind of logical registered; if that be the case, imagine the kind framework, link it to similar memories or else of pressure that our memory system will have can create a mental image. Figure 6.1, that to cope with. Only that information which is presents the stage model of memory, also attended to enters the STM from sensory depicts the arrows to show the manner in registers and in that sense, selective attention, which information travels from one stage to as you have already read in Chapter 5, is the another. first control process that decides what will Experiments, which were carried out to travel from sensory registers to STM. Sense test the stage model of memory, have produced impressions, which do not receive attention, mixed results. While some experiments fade away quickly. The STM then sets into unequivocally show that the STM and LTM motion another control process of are indeed two separate memory stores, other maintenance rehearsal to retain the evidences have questioned their information for as much time as required. As distinctiveness. For example, earlier it was the name suggests, these kinds of rehearsals shown that in the STM information is encoded simply maintain infor mation through acoustically, while in LTM it is encoded repetition and when such repetitions semantically, but later experimental evidences discontinue the information is lost. Another show that information can also be encoded control process, which operates in STM to semantically in STM and acoustically in LTM. expand its capacity, is Chunking. Through chunking it is possible to expand the capacity of STM which is otherwise 7+2. For example, Activity 6.1 if you are told to remember a string of digits such as 194719492004 (note that the number I. Try to remember the following list of digits exceeds the capacity of STM), you may create (individual digits) 19254981121 the chunks as 1947, 1949, and 2004 and Now try to memorise them in the following remember them as the year when India became groups: independent, the year when the Indian 1 9 25 49 81 121 Constitution was adopted, and the year when Finally memorise them in the following the tsunami hit the coastal regions of India and manner: South East Asian countries. 12 32 52 72 92 112 From the STM, information enters the long- What difference do you observe? term memory through elaborative rehearsals. II. Read out the lists given below in a row at the As against maintenance rehearsals, which are speed of one digit per second to your friend carried through silent or vocal repetition, this and ask her/him to repeat all the digits in rehearsal attempts to connect the ‘to be the same order: retained information’ to the already existing List Digits infor mation in long-term memory. For 1 (6 digits) 2-6-3-8-3-4 example, the task of remembering the meaning 2 (7 digits) 7-4-8-2-4-1-2 of the word ‘humanity’ will be easier if the 3 (8 digits) 4-3-7-2-9-0-3-6 meanings of concepts such as ‘compassion’, 4 (10 digits) 9-2-4-1-7-8-2-6-5-3 5 (12 digits) 8-2-5-4-7-4-7-7-3-9-1-6 ‘truth’ and ‘benevolence’ are already in place. The number of associations you can create Remember that your friend will recall the around the new information will determine its digits as soon as you finish the list. Note how many digits are recalled. The memory score permanence. In elaborative rehearsals one of your friend will be the number of digits attempts to analyse the information in terms correctly recalled by her/him. Discuss your of various associations it arouses. It involves findings with your classmates and teacher. organisation of the incoming information in 99 Chapter 6 Human Memory 2024-25  Shallice and Warrington in the year 1970 produces memory that is fragile and is likely had cited the case of a man known as KF who to decay rather quickly. However, there is a met with an accident and damaged a portion third and the deepest level at which of the left side of his cerebral hemisphere. information can be processed. In order to Subsequently, it was found that his long-term ensure that the information is retained for a memory was intact but the short-term memory longer period, it is important that it gets was seriously affected. The stage model analysed and understood in terms of its suggests that information are committed to the meaning. For instance, you may think of cat long-term memory via STM and if KF’s STM as an animal that has furs, has four legs, a was affected, how can his long-term memory tail, and is a mammal. You can also invoke an be normal? Several other studies have also image of a cat and connect that image with shown that memory processes are similar your experiences. To sum up, analysing irrespective of whether any information is information in terms of its structural and retained for a few seconds or for many years phonetic features amounts to shallower and that memory can be adequately processing while encoding it in terms of the understood without positing separate memory meaning it carries (the semantic encoding) is stores. All these evidences led to the the deepest processing level that leads to development of another conceptualisation memory that resists forgetting considerably. about memory which is discussed below as Understanding memory as an outcome of the second model of memory. the manner in which information is encoded initially has an important implication for learning. This view of memory will help you LEVELS OF PROCESSING realise that while you are learning a new The levels of processing view was proposed lesson, you must focus on elaborating the by Craik and Lockhart in 1972. This view meaning of its contents in as much detail as suggests that the processing of any new possible and must not depend on rote information relates to the manner in which it memorisation. Attempt this and you will soon is perceived, analysed, and understood which realise that understanding the meaning of in turn determines the extent to which it will information and reflecting on how it relates eventually be retained. Although this view has to other facts, concepts, and your life undergone many revisions since then, yet its experiences is a sure way to long-term basic idea remains the same. Let us examine retention. this view in greater detail. Craik and Lockhart proposed that it is TYPES OF LONG-TERM MEMORY possible to analyse the incoming information at more than one level. One may analyse it in As you have read in Box 6.1, the short-term terms of its physical or structural features. memory is now seen as consisting of more than For example, one might attend only to the one component (working memory). In the same shape of letters in a word say cat - inspite of way it is suggested that long-term memory too whether the word is written in capital or small is not unitary because it contains a wide letters or the colour of the ink in which it is variety of information. In view of this, written. This is the first and the shallowest contemporary formulations envisage long- level of processing. At an intermediate level term memory as consisting of various types. one might consider and attend to the phonetic For instance, one major classification within sounds that are attached to the letters and the LTM is that of Declarative and Procedural therefore the structural features are (sometimes called nondeclarative) memories. transformed into at least one meaningful word All information pertaining to facts, names, say, a word cat that has three specific letters. dates, such as a rickshaw has three wheels or Analysing information at these two levels that India became independent on August 15 100 Psychology 2024-25 1947 or a frog is an amphibian or you and Episodic memory contains biographical your friend share the same name, are part of details of our lives. Memories relating to our declarative memory. Procedural memory, on personal life experiences constitute the the other hand, refers to memories relating to episodic memory and it is for this reason that procedures for accomplishing various tasks its contents are generally emotional in nature. and skills such as how to ride a bicycle, how How did you feel when you stood first in your to make tea or play basketball. Facts retained class? Or how angry was your friend and what in the declarative memory are amenable to did s/he say when you did not fulfil a promise? verbal descriptions while contents of If such incidents did actually happen in your procedural memory cannot be described life, you perhaps will be able to answer these easily. For example, when asked you can questions with reasonable accuracy. Although describe how the game of cricket is played but such experiences are hard to forget, yet it is if someone asks you how do you ride a bicycle, equally true that many events take place you may find it difficult to narrate. continuously in our lives and that we do not Tulving has proposed yet another remember all of them. Besides, there are classification and has suggested that the painful and unpleasant experiences which are declarative memory can either be Episodic or not remembered in as much detail as pleasant Semantic. life experiences. B o x 6.2 Long-term Memory Classification The study of memory is a fascinating field and events contribute to it. During old age, the most recent researchers have reported many new phenomena. years of life are likely to be well remembered. However, The following phenomena show the complex and before this, around 30 years of age, decline in certain dynamic nature of human memory. kinds of memory starts. Flashbulb Memories : These are memories of Implicit Memory : Recent studies have indicated events that are very arousing or surprising. Such that many of the memories remain outside the memories are very detailed. They are like a photo conscious awareness of a person. Implicit memory is taken with an advanced model camera. You can a kind of memory that a person is not aware of. It is push the button, and after one minute you have a a memory that is retrieved automatically. One recreation of the scene. You can look at the interesting example of implicit memory comes from photograph whenever you want. Flashbulb the experience of typing. If someone knows typing memories are like images frozen in memory and that means s/he also knows the particular letters tied to particular places, dates, and times. on the keyboard. But many typists cannot correctly Perhaps, people put in greater effort in the label blank keys in a drawing of a keyboard. Implicit formation of these memories, and highlighting memories lie outside the boundaries of awareness. details might lead to deeper levels of processing In other words, we are not conscious of the fact that as well as offer more cues for retrieval. a memory or record of a given experience exists. Autobiographical Memory : These are personal Nevertheless, implicit memories do influence our memories. They are not distributed evenly behaviour. This kind of memory was found in patients throughout our lives. Some periods in our lives suffering from brain injuries. They were presented a produce more memories than others. For instance, list of common words. A few minutes later the patient no memories are reported pertaining to early was asked to recall words from the list. No memory childhood particularly during the first 4 to 5 years. was shown for the words. However, if s/he was This is called childhood amnesia. There is a prompted to say a word that begins with these letters dramatic increase in the frequency of memories and two letters are given, the patient was able to just after early adulthood, i.e. in the twenties. recall words. Implicit memories are also observed in Perhaps emotionality, novelty, and importance of people with normal memories. 101 Chapter 6 Human Memory 2024-25  Semantic memory, on the other hand, is various other classifications of long-term the memory of general awareness and memory. knowledge. All concepts, ideas and rules of logic are stored in semantic memory. For instance, it is because of semantic memory that Activity 6.2 we remember the meaning of say ‘non-violence’ 1. Think about your early school days. Write or remember that 2+6=8 or the STD code of down two separate events that occurred during New Delhi is 011 or that the word ‘elaphant’ is those days, and which you remember vividly. misspelt. Unlike episodic memory this kind of Use separate sheets for writing about each memory is not dated; you perhaps will not be event. able to tell when you learnt the meaning of non- 2. Think of the first month in Class XI. Write down violence or on which date you came to know two separate events that occurred during the that Bangalore is the capital of Karnataka. month, and which you remember vividly. Use separate sheets for each event. Since the contents of semantic memory relate to facts and ideas of general awareness and Compare these in terms of length, felt emotions, knowledge, it is affect-neutral and not and coherence. susceptible to forgetting. See Box 7.2 for Activity 6.3 Write the sentences given below on separate cards. Invite some junior students to play this game with you. Seat her/him across a table in front of you. Tell her/him “In this game you will be shown some cards one by one at a steady pace, you have to read the question written on each card and answer it in yes or no”. Note down the answers. 1. Is the word written in capital letters? BELT 2. Does the word rhyme with the word crew? grew 3. Does the word fit in the following sentence? “____________ study in school”. Students 4. Does the word rhyme with the word gold? mood 5. Is the word written in capital letters? bread 6. Does the word fit in the following sentence? “The son of my uncle is my ____________.” cousin 7. Does the word fit in the following sentence? My _________ is a vegetable. home 8. Does the word fit in the following sentence? “__________ is a piece of furniture”. Potato 9. Is the word written in capital letters? TABLE 10. Does the word rhyme with the word wears? bears 11. Is the word written in capital letters? marks 12. Does the word rhyme with the word clear? five 13. Does the word fit in the following sentence? “Children like to play __________.” games 14. Does the word fit in the following sentence? “People usually meet __________ in the bucket.” friends 15. Does the word fit in the following sentence? “My class room is filled with ________.” shirts 16. Does the word fit in the following sentence? “My mother gives me enough pocket __________.” money After completing the task of reading the cards, ask the students to recall the words about which the questions were asked. Note down the words recalled. Count the number of words recalled in the structural, phonological, and semantic types of processing required by the question. Discuss results with your teacher. 102 Psychology 2024-25  B o x 6.3 Methods of Memory M easurement There are many ways in which memory is semantic memory is not amenable to any measured experimentally. Since there are many forgetting because it embodies general knowledge kinds of memories, any method appropriate for that we all possess. In sentence verification task, studying one type of memory may not be suited the participants are asked to indicate whether the for studying another. The major methods which given sentences are true or false. Faster the are used for memory measurement are being participants respond, better retained is the presented here : information needed to verify those sentences (see a) Free Recall and Recognition (for measuring Activity 7.3 for use of this task in measurement of facts/episodes related memory) : In free recall semantic knowledge). method, participants are presented with c) Priming (for measuring information we cannot some words which they are asked to report verbally) : We store many kinds of memorise and after some time they are asked information that we can’t report verbally - for to recall them in any order. The more they instance, information necessary to ride a bicycle are able to recall, the better their memory is. or play a sitar. Besides, we also store information In recognition, instead of being asked to that we are not aware of, which is described as generate items, participants see the items implicit memory. In priming method, participants that they had memorised along with are shown a list of words, such as garden, distracter items (those that they had not seen) playground, house, etc. and then they are shown and their task is to recognise which one of parts of these words like gar, pla, ho, along with those they had learnt. The greater the parts of other words they had not seen. number of recognition of ‘old items’, better is Participants complete parts of seen words more the memory. quickly than parts of words they had not seen. b) Sentence Verification Task (for measuring When asked, they are often unaware of this and semantic memory) : As you have already read, report that they have only guessed. NATURE CAUSES FORGETTING 100 AND OF Amount retained (per cent) Amount0forgotten (per cent) Each one of us has experienced forgetting and 25 75 20 min. its consequences almost routinely. Why do we Amount 1 hr. forgotten forget? Is it because the information we commit 8.8 hrs. 50 50 to our long-term memory is somehow lost? Is it because we did not memorise it well enough? Is it because we did not encode the information 75 25 correctly or is it because during storage, it got Amount distorted or misplaced? Many theories have retained been forwarded to explain forgetting and now you will read about those that seem plausible 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 30 31 100 and have received considerable attention. Time since learning (in days) The first systematic attempt to understand the nature of forgetting was made by Hermann Fig.6.2 : Ebbinghaus’s Curve of Forgetting Ebbinghaus, who memorised lists of nonsense syllables (CVC trigrams such as NOK or SEP As the figure indicates, the rate of forgetting etc.) and then measured the number of trials is maximum in the first nine hours, particularly he took to relearn the same list at varying time during the first hour. After that the rate slows intervals. He observed that the course of down and not much is forgotten even after forgetting follows a certain pattern which you many days. Although Ebbinghaus’s can see in Figure 6.2. experiments constituted initial explorations 103 Chapter 6 Human Memory 2024-25 and were not very sophisticated yet they have Forgetting due to Interference influenced memory research in many If forgetting is not due to trace decay then why important ways. It is now upheld, almost does it take place? A theory of forgetting that unanimously, that there is always a sharp drop has perhaps been the most influential one is in memory and thereafter the decline is very the interference theory which suggests that gradual. Let us now examine the main theories, forgetting is due to interference between various which have been advanced to explain information that the memory store contains. This forgetting. theory assumes that learning and memorising involve forming of associations between items Forgetting due to Trace Decay and once acquired, these associations remain Trace decay (also called disuse theory) is the intact in the memory. People keep acquiring earliest theory of forgetting. The assumption numerous such associations and each of these here is that memory leads to modification in rests independently without any mutual conflict. However, interference comes about at a the central nervous system, which is akin to time of retrieval when these various sets of physical changes in the brain called memory associations compete with each other for traces. When these memory traces are not used retrieval. This interference process will become for a long time, they simply fade away and clearer with a simple exercise. Request your become unavailable. This theory has been friend to learn two separate lists of nonsense proved inadequate on several grounds. If syllables (list A and list B) one after the other forgetting takes place because memory traces and after a while ask her/him to recall the decay due to disuse, then people who go to nonsense syllables of list A. If while trying to sleep after memorising should forget more recall the items of list A, s/he recalls some of the compared to those who remain awake, simply items of list B, it is because of the association because there is no way in which memory formed while learning list B are interfering with traces can be put to use during sleep. Results, the earlier association which were formed while however, show just the opposite. Those who learning list A. remain awake after memorising (waking There are atleast two kinds of interferences condition) show greater forgetting than those that may result in forgetting. Interference can who sleep (sleeping condition). be proactive (forward moving) which means Because trace decay theory did not explain what you have learnt earlier interferes with the forgetting adequately, it was soon replaced by recall of your subsequent learning or another theory of forgetting which suggested retroactive (backward moving) which refers to that new information that enters the long-term difficulty in recalling what you have learnt memory interferes with the recall of earlier earlier because of learning a new material. In memories and therefore, interference is the main other words, in proactive interference, past cause of forgetting. Table 6.1 Experimental Designs ffor or Retroactive and PProactive roactive Interf erence Interference Retroactive Interference Phase 1 Phase 2 Testing Phase Experimental participant/group Learns A Learns B Recalls A Control participant/group Learns A Rests Recalls A Proactive Interference Experimental participant/group Learns A Learns B Recalls B Control participant/group Rests Learns B Recalls B 104 Psychology 2024-25  Box 6.4 Repressed Memories Some individuals undergo experiences that are in highly generalised amnesia. One of the results of traumatic. A traumatic experience emotionally such flights is the emergence of a disorder known as hurts a person. Sigmund Freud posited that such ‘fugue state’. Persons who become victims of such a experiences are repressed into the unconscious state assume a new identity, name, address, etc. and are not available for retrieval from memory. They have two personalities and one knows nothing It is a kind of repression — painful, threatening, about the other. and embarrassing memories are held out of Forgetfulness or loss of memory under stress consciousness. and high anxiety is not uncommon. Many hard In some persons, traumatic experiences may working and ambitious students aspire for high give rise to psychological amnesia. Some scores in final examinations and to achieve such individuals experience crisis, and are utterly ends they put in long hours in studies. But when incapable of coping with such events. They close they receive the question paper, they become their eyes, ears and mind to such harsh realities extremely nervous and forget everything they had of life, and take mental flight from them. It results prepared well. learning interferes with the recall of later learning of meaningful words like hut, wasp, cottage, while in retroactive interference the later learning gold, bronze, ant, etc. in which words belonged interferes with the recall of past learning. For to six categories (like places of living, names of example, if you know English and you find it insects, types of metal, etc.). If after a while you difficult to learn French, it is because of proactive are asked to recall those you may recall a interference and if, on the other hand, you couple of them but if during the second recall cannot recall English equivalents of French attempt, you are also provided with category words that you are currently memorising, then names, then you may find that your recall is it is an example of retroactive interference. A near total. Category names in this example act typical experimental design that is used to as retrieval cues. Besides category names, the demonstrate proactive and retroactive physical context in which you learn also interference has been presented in Table 6.1. provides effective retrieval cues. Forgetting due to Retrieval Failure ENHANCING MEMORY Forgetting can occur not only because the memory traces have decayed over time (as All of us desire to possess an excellent memory suggested by the disuse theory) or because system that is robust and dependable. Who, independent sets of stored associations after all, likes to face situations of memory compete at the time of recall (as suggested by failures that lead to so much of anxiety and the interference theory) but also because at the embarrassment? After learning about various time of recall, either the retrieval cues are absent or they are inappropriate. Retrieval cues memory related processes, you certainly would are aids which help us in recovering like to know how your memory can be information stored in the memory. This view improved. There are a number of strategies for was advanced by Tulving and his associates improving memory called mnemonics who carried out several experiments to show (pronounced ni-mo-nicks) to help you improve that contents of memory may become your memory. Some of these mnemonics inaccessible either due to absence or involve use of images whereas others inappropriateness of retrieval cues that are emphasise self-induced organisation of learned available/employed at the time of recall. infor mation. You will now read about Let us understand this with the help of an mnemonics and some suggestions given for example. Suppose you have memorised a list memory improvement. 105 Chapter 6 Human Memory 2024-25  Activity 6.4 Given below are two lists of words. First memorise the list in such a way that you are able to recall the words without any error. Now you take up the second list and memorise it to the criterion of correct recall error. Forget about the list and read something else for an hour. Now recall the words in the first list and write them down. Note the total number of words correctly recalled and the number of words incorrectly recalled. List 1 Goat Sheep Leopard Jackal Monkey Camel Mule Deer Squirrel Horse Cheetah Wolf Snake Rabbit Parrot List 2 Pig Elephant Donkey Pigeon Cobra Tiger Mynah Lion Calf Bears Fox Crow Buffalo Mouse Get the cooperation of one of your friends and request her/him to memorise the words of List 1 to the criterion as stated above. Request her/him to sing a song and have a cup of tea with you. Keep her/him engaged in some conversation for an hour or so. Then request her/him to write down the words s/he had memorised earlier. Compare your recall with the one made by your friend. Mnemonics using Images (b) The Method of Loci : In order to use the method of loci, items you want to remember Mnemonics using images require that you are placed as objects arranged in a physical create vivid and interacting images of and space in the form of visual images. This method around the material you wish to remember. The is particularly helpful in remembering items two prominent mnemonic devices, which make in a serial order. It requires that you first interesting use of images, are the keyword visualise objects/places that you know well in method and the method of loci. a specific sequence, imagine the objects you (a) The Keyword Method : Suppose you want want to remember and associate them one by to learn words of any foreign language. In one to the physical locations. For example, keyword method, an English word (the suppose you want to remember bread, eggs, assumption here is that you know English tomatoes, and soap on your way to the market, language) that sounds similar to the word of a you may visualise a loaf of bread and eggs foreign language is identified. This English placed in your kitchen, tomatoes kept on a word will function as the keyword. For example, table and soap in the bathroom. When you if you want to remember the Spanish word for enter the market all you need to do is to take a duck which is ‘Pato’, you may choose ‘pot’ as mental walk along the route from your kitchen the keyword and then evoke images of keyword to the bathroom recalling all the items of your and the target word (the Spanish word you want shopping list in a sequence. to remember) and imagine them as interacting. You might, in this case, imagine a duck in a pot Mnemonics using Organisation full of water. This method of learning words of a foreign language is much superior compared Organisation refers to imposing certain order to any kind of rote memorisation. on the material you want to remember. 106 Psychology 2024-25 Mnemonics of this kind are helpful because of remembered are increased. the framework you create while organisation (b) Minimise Interference : Interference, as we makes the retrieval task fairly easy. have read, is a major cause of forgetting and (a) Chunking : While describing the features therefore you should try to avoid it as much of short-term memory, we noted how chunking as possible. You know that maximum can increase the capacity of short-term interference is caused when very similar memory. In chunking, several smaller units are materials are learned in a sequence. Avoid this. combined to form large chunks. For creating Arrange your study in such a way that you do chunks, it is important to discover some not learn similar subjects one after the other. organisation principles, which can link smaller Instead, pick up some other subject unrelated units. Therefore, apart from being a control to the previous one. If that is not possible, mechanism to increase the capacity of short- distribute your learning/practice. This means term memory, chunking can be used to giving yourself intermittent rest periods while improve memory as well. studying to minimise interference. (b) First Letter Technique : In order to employ (c) Give Yourself enough Retrieval Cues : While the first letter technique, you need to pick up you learn something, think of retrieval cues the first letter of each word you want to inherent in your study material. Identify them remember and arrange them to form another and link parts of the study material to these word or a sentence. For example, colours of a cues. Cues will be easier to remember rainbow are remembered in this way compared to the entire content and the links (VIBGYOR- that stands for Violet, Indigo, Blue, you have created between cues and the content Green, Yellow, Orange and Red). will facilitate the retrieval process. Mnemonic strategies for memory Thomas and Robinson have developed enhancement are too simplistic and perhaps another strategy to help students in underestimate complexities of memory tasks remembering more which they called the and difficulties people experience while methods of PQRST. This acronym stands for memorising. In place of mnemonics, a more Preview, Question, Read, Self-recitation, and comprehensive approach to memory Test. Preview refers to giving a cursory look at improvement has been suggested by many the chapter and familiarising oneself with its psychologists. In such an approach, emphasis contents. Question means raising questions is laid on applying knowledge about memory and seeking answers from the lesson. Now start processes to the task of memory improvement. reading and look for answers of questions you Let us examine some of these suggestions. had raised. After reading try to rewrite what It is suggested that one must : you have read and at the end test how much (a) Engage in Deep Level Processing : If you you have been able to understand. want to memorise any information well, engage At the end, a note of caution must be in deep level processing. Craik and Lockhart sounded. There is no one method that can solve have demonstrated that processing all problems related to retention and bring information in terms of meaning that they about an overnight memory improvement. In convey leads to better memory as compared to order to improve your memory, you need to attending to their surface features. Deep attend to a wide variety of factors which affect processing would involve asking as many your memory such as your health status, your questions related to the information as interest and motivation, your familiarity with possible, considering its meaning and examining its relationships to the facts you the subject matter and so on. In addition, you already know. In this way, the new information must learn to use strategies for memory will become a part of your existing knowledge improvement depending upon the nature of framework and the chances that it will be memory tasks you are required to accomplish. 107 Chapter 6 Human Memory 2024-25  Key Terms Chunking, Control process, Echoic memory, Encoding, Episodic memory, Elaborative rehearsals, Fugue state, Information processing approach, Maintenance rehearsals, Memory making, Mnemonics, Semantic memory, Serial reproduction, Working memory Summary Memory is seen as consisting of three interrelated processes of encoding, storage and retrieval. While encoding is registering the incoming information in a way that it becomes compatible to the memory system, storage and retrieval refers to holding the information over a period of time and bringing the information back to one’s awareness, respectively. The Stage Model of Memory compares memory processes with the working of a computer and suggests that incoming information is processed through three distinct stages of sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. Levels of processing view of memory contends that the information can be encoded at any of the three levels, namely, the structural, the phonetic and the semantic. If an information is analysed and encoded semantically, which is the deepest level of processing, then it leads to better retention. Long-term memory has been classified in many ways. One major classification is that of declarative and procedural memory and another is that of episodic and semantic memory. Forgetting refers to loss of stored information over a period of time. After a material is learnt, there is a sharp drop in its memory and then the decline is very gradual. Forgetting has been explained as resulting from trace decay and interference. It may also be caused due to absence of appropriate cues at the time of retrieval. Mnemonics are strategies for improving memory. While some mnemonics use images, other emphasise organisation of the learnt material. Review Questions 1. What is the meaning of the terms ‘encoding’, ‘storage’ and ‘retrieval’? 2. How is information processed through sensory, short-term and long-term memory systems? 3. How are maintenance rehearsals different from elaborative rehearsals? 4. Differenciate between declarative and procedural memories? 5. Why does forgetting take place? 6. How is retrieval related forgetting different from forgetting due to interference? 7. Define mnemonics? Suggest a plan to improve your own memory. Project Idea Recall and write down an event of your life that you remember very clearly. Also request others (those who were participants of that event such as your brother/sister, parents or other relatives/friends) to do the same. Compare the two recalled versions and look for discrepancies and similarities. Try to reason why there are similarities and discrepancies. 108 Psychology 2024-25