This document provides an overview of memory from an information processing perspective. It discusses the main stages of memory as encoding, storage, and retrieval. It also describes the different types of memory, including sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Various concepts related to memory are explained such as forgetting, déjà vu, flashbulb memories, and improving memory through techniques like chunking and mnemonic devices.

2. MEMORY AS AN INFORMATION
PROCESSING APPROACH
Conversely, memory
failure—for example,
forgetting an important
fact—reflects a breakdown
ENCODING in one of these stages of
memory.
the initial perception and
STORAGE
registration of
information.
the retention of encoded
information over time.
RETRIEVAL
Whenever people successfully recall
a prior experience, they must have the processes involved in
encoded, stored, and retrieved using stored information.
information about the experience.

4. TYPES OF MEMORY
SENSORY MEMORY
SHORT TERM MEMORY
LONG TERM MEMORY

5. SENSORY MEMORY
 are momentary recordings of information in
our sensor systems. In fact, most information
only lasts a few seconds and is replaced with
something else that captures our attention.
 Recorded from
 Iconic memory – visual
 Echoic memory – auditory
 Transfer to short term memory is controlled by
attention

6. SHORT TERM / WORKING MEMORY
 Psychologists originally used the term short-term
memory to refer to the ability to hold information
in mind over a brief period of time.
 The term working memory is now commonly used
to refer to a broader system that both stores
information briefly and allows manipulation and
use of the stored information.
 Limited amount of information for a brief period
of time.
 Roughly seven plus minus two

7. SHORT TERM / WORKING MEMORY
 Information is held from 15 to 20 seconds and
if not transferred to long term memory it is
lost primarily through interference and decay.
 Memories are transferred to long term
memory through rehearsal.
 If you need to store more, you may be helped
by the use of CHUNKING, or grouping items
into categories which will be easier to store
and to retrieve later. The successful formation
of a chunk is known as CLOSURE.

8. LONG TERM MEMORY
 Generally, long-term memory describes a
system in the brain that can store vast
amounts of information on a relatively
enduring basis.
 When you play basketball, remember that
you had lunch at Jack in the Box
yesterday, recall your first birthday party at a
club, play the Wii, or sing your favorite
song, you draw on information and skills
stored in long-term memory.

9. LONG TERM MEMORY
 Holds very large amount of information for long
periods of time.
 Information in the long term memory become
relatively permanent.
 Three kinds of Long Term Memory:
 Episodic - refers to memories of specific
episodes in one’s life and episodic memories
are connected with a specific time and place.
 Semantic - refers to our general knowledge of
the world and all of the facts we know
 Procedural - refers to the skills that humans
possess

10. THEORIES OF FORGETTING
 Interference Theory – the ability to learn new
information is disrupted by what we have
learned before and what we will learn in the
future.
 Proactive – when previous learning interferes with
later learning
 Retroactive – when later learning disrupts earlier
learning
 Decay Theory – if information is not used with
time, forgetting occurs
 Repression - refers to forgetting an unpleasant
event or piece of information due to its
threatening quality.

11. OTHER CONCEPTS
 Déjà Vu and Jamais Vu
 The sense of déjà vu (French for “seen
before”) is the strange sensation of having
been somewhere before, or experienced
your current situation before, even though
you know you have not.
 The sense of jamais vu (French for “never
seen”) arises when people feel they are
experiencing something for the first
time, even though they know they must
have experienced it before.

12. OTHER CONCEPTS
 Flashbulb memory
 is an unusually vivid memory of an especially
emotional or dramatic past event.
 May also be associated with vivid emotional
experiences in one’s own life: the death of a family
member or close friend, the birth of a baby, being in a
car accident, and so on.
 Tip-of-the-tongue state.
 Refers to the situation in which a person tries to
retrieve a relatively familiar word, name, or fact, but
cannot quite do so.

13. OTHER CONCEPTS
 Eidetic imagery or photographic memory
 the ability to recall every detail after
looking at a picture or page for a few
seconds
 Persons with this unusual form of
memory must be able to hold visual
images much longer and form very
numerous associations in a short time
 Mnemonist

14. AMNESIA
 Inability to recall information
 Types
 Anterograde amnesia – inability to
remember information/ events after the
accident or brain injury
 Retrograde amnesia – inability to
remember information/ events that
occurred prior to the accident

15. BRAIN DAMAGE & ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
 Brain Damage
 Tumors, strokes, surgery can produce
various types of memory impairment
 Alzheimer’s Disease
 A progressive mental deterioration
that occurs most commonly in old
age.

16. IMPROVING MEMORY
 Chunking
 Mnemonic Devices
 Overlearning
 Organization of text materials
 Organization of lecture notes
 Method of Loci
 Peg Word Method
 PQ4R Method -
Preview, Questions, Read, Reflect, Recite, Review
 Spaced Learning