Human Memory

HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
PPSYCHOLOGYSYCHOLOGY
PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE
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Chapter 7
MEMORY
Section 1: Three Kinds of Memory
Section 2: Three Processes of Memory
Section 3: Three Stages of Memory
Section 4: Forgetting and Memory Improvement

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
What is Memory?
 Memory is the process by which we recollect
prior experiences and information and skills
learned in the past.
 One way to classify memory is according to
the different kinds of information it contains:
events, general knowledge, and skills.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
Question: What are the three kinds of memory?
THREE KINDS OF MEMORY
 Episodic memory – memory of a specific event that
took place in the person’s presence or through
experience
 Semantic memory – general knowledge that people
remember
 Implicit memory – a memory that consists of the
skills and procedures one has learned

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Episodic Memory
 Episodic Memory is memory of a specific event
 Flashbulb memories--Events so important that it seems as
if a flashbulb goes off and we photograph it in every
detail.
 There are several reasons why certain memories become
etched in our minds when the “flashbulb” goes off.
 Sometimes places or events make an impression on us
because they are connected to other events that are
important at the time, such as a major disaster or tragedy.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
Semantic Memory
 Semantic memory – general knowledge that people
remember
 We usually do not remember when we acquired the
information in our semantic memory.
 Examples of semantic memory
 You remember the alphabet, but you do not remember
where, when or how you learned it.
 Most of what you have learned in your classes at school
has become part of your semantic memory.
 Episodic and semantic memories are both examples of
explicit memory.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
Implicit Memory
 The opposite of explicit is implicit and another kind
of memory is implicit memory
 Implicit memory – a memory that consists of the
skills and procedures one has learned
 Things that are implicit are implied or not clearly
stated
 Memories consist of the skills or procedures you have
learned—throwing a ball, jumping rope, typing, using
a computer, playing a musical instrument.
 Once skills have been learned, they tend to stay
remembered for many years perhaps even a lifetime.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
Question: What are the three processes of memory?
THREE PROCESSES OF MEMORY
 Encoding – the translation of information into a form in
which it can be stored
 Storage – the second process of memory and is the
maintenance of encoded information over a period of
time
 Retrieval – third process of memory; consists of locating
stored information and returning it to conscious thought

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
Encoding
 The first stage of processing information
 When we place information into our memory like
computers, we encode it.
 We convert the physical stimulation we have received
into psychological formats that can be mentally
represented.
 On a sheet of paper write this list of letters
OTTFFSSENT
 Look at the letters for 30 seconds and memorize as
much of the list as possible.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
 Visual codes
 Did you try to see them in your mind as a
picture?
 If so, you used visual code.
 You tried to form a mental picture of the
letters in your mind.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
 Acoustic Codes—
 Did you read the list to yourself and repeat it
several times?
 You may have said the letters one after another
trying to remember the letters
 The acoustic code records the letter in your
memory as a sequence of sounds.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
 Semantic codes
 A semantic code represents information in terms of its
meaning.
 You may have tried to find words that begin with each
letter in the list.
 What you may not have realized when you first examined
the list is that the letters OTTFFSSENT
 By using semantic codes, you can memorize lists of
letters and other items more easily and will probably
remember them for a longer amount of time than you
would otherwise.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
Storage
 Once information is encoded it must be stored
 This is the second stage in the memory process.
 Human storage of information is not all that different
from a computer’s storage of information.
 With a computer, the user must instruct the machine
to save information in its memory.
 Otherwise it will lose the newly encoded information
when the user shuts off the computer.
 People who want to store new information in their
memory use a variety of strategies.

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 Maintenance Rehearsal—repeating information over and
over again to keep from forgetting.
 The more time spent in rehearsing or repeating
information the longer the information will be
remembered.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
Chunking
 Chunking—the organization of items into familiar or
manageable units.
 Most people can not remember more than 9 items at a
time in their short-term memory.

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Interference
 Only a limited amount of information can be retained in
short-term memory.
 Interference occurs when new information appears in
short-term memory and takes the place of what is already
there.
 Short-term memory is very useful but it is only a
temporary solution to the problem of remembering
information.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
Capacity of Memory
 Psychologists have yet to discover a limit to how
much can be stored in a person’s long-term memory.
 Even though there is no limit to how much we can
remember, we do not store all of our experiences
permanently.
 We are more apt to remember things that capture our
attention. If we get distracted or uninvolved with
what is occurring around us, we are not going to
remember as much as we will if we are interested or
paying attention.

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Recognition
 Recognition—is one of the three basic memory tasks.
 It involves identifying objects or events that have been
encountered before.
 It is the easiest of the learning tasks. For example—
Multiple Choice tests, you only have to recognize the
correct answer.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
Recall
 Recall something means to bring it back to mind.
 You try to reconstruct it in your mind.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
Relearning
 The third basic memory task is relearning.
 People who have been out of school for 25 years
might not remember the algebraic formulas they
learned when they were in high school. However,
they could probably relearn them very quickly if
someone showed them how to use them again.
 We can usually relearn fairly rapidly things we once
knew but forgotten.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
Repression
 We sometimes forget things on purpose
without even knowing we are doing it.
 We forget them by pushing them out of our
consciousness.
 Freud called this kind of forgetting repression.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
Amnesia
 Amnesia is severe memory loss caused by
brain injury, shock, fatigue, illness, or
repression.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
Infantile Amnesia
 Some people think that they can remember special
events that took place in their infancy, but they cannot.
 Freud found that they could not remember things that
had happened to them before the age of three. This
forgetting of early events is called infantile amnesia.
 People in their 70s and 80s have many precise
memories of their life between the ages of 6 and 10.
 College freshmen have difficulty remembering events
that occurred before the age of 6, even though these
events occurred only 13 or 14 years earlier.

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Chapter 7Chapter 7
Improving Memory
 Repetition is one fairly effective way to transfer
information from sensory memory to short-term
memory and from short-term memory to long-term
memory.

Human Memory

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