Memory involves encoding, storing, and retrieving information over time. Early models proposed separate short-term and long-term memory systems. Working memory models expanded on short-term memory to include additional components like the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad. Capacity limits in short-term memory are around 7 items on average. Information is retrieved from short-term memory through either parallel or serial search mechanisms. Long-term memory involves different codes like visual and semantic codes. Deeper levels of processing lead to stronger long-term memories according to levels of processing models. Memory is reconstructive in nature and influenced by schemas from long-term memory. False memories can also be constructed through suggestive questioning techniques.

1. Cognitive Psychology
Unit 3

2. MEMORY
“Memory is the process of maintaining information over time.” (Matlin, 2005)
“Memory is the means by which we draw on our past experiences in order to use this information in
the present’ (Sternberg, 1999).
Encoding → Storage → Retrieval

3. Dualist Models of Memory
James - Early 1800s
● Primary memory (immediate) & Secondary memory (indirect)
● Memory was dualistic in character, both transitory and permanent.
● An item enters primary memory and then may be held there by rehearsal or may be
forgotten. With rehearsal, the item enters secondary memory and becomes part of the
permanent memory.

4. Waugh and Norman (1965)
Improved on James’s model by quantifying the properties of primary memory.
They propose that the items could fade or decay from memory, or that they are replaced
(interference) by newer information.

5. Atkinson and Shriffin (1968)
Stages of memory
1. Sensory register
2. STM
3. LTM
Makes distinction between the concepts of memory
and memory stores
“memory” to refer to the data being retained
“store” refers to the structural component that
contains the information

6. Short Term Memory
Lloyd Peterson and Margaret Intons-Peterson (1959); J. A. Brown (1958)
Revolutionary finding of STM : “C-H-J, 5-0-6” , count backwards by 3’s
• Casual introspection suggests that some things are remembered for a short time and others
for a long time.
• Psychological experiments suggest that the retrieval of some information in memory is
characteristic of a short-term function, whereas retrieval of other information is characteristic
of long-term function, for example, primacy and recency data.
• Physiological studies indicate that short-term functions can be interrupted, whereas long-
term function seems to remain intact, which is discussed in the next section.

7. Working Memory Model (Braddeley)
Working memory can be conceptualized as a type of workbench in which new and old information
are constantly being transformed, combined, and updated.
● we can rehearse in the phonological loop only a
limited amount of information and one determinant
is the time to vocalize the word.
● visuospatial sketchpad-responsible for visual and
spatial tasks
● central executive, which coordinates attentional
activities and governs responses
● Baddeley (2000) updated his model to include the
episodic buffer - limited capacity system that
combines information from LTM

8. STM Capacity
William Hamilton (nineteenth-century philosopher)
“If you throw a handful of marbles on the floor, you will find it difficult to view at once more than
six, or seven at the most, without confusion.”
Jacobs (1887) read aloud a sequence of numbers, in no particular order, and asked his listeners to
write down immediately as many as they could recall, with seven being the average.
Miller (1956)- Our capacity to process information is limited to about seven- Magic Number 7 Plus
or Minus 2

9. STM and Chunking - He postulated a model of memory in which seven units or chunks
of information could be held.
LTM and Chunking - chunking cannot occur until our LTM has provided the meaning of
these units.
Bower and Springston (1970)
T, V, K, A, M, Q, B, R, J, L, E, W
VS
towel, music, boss, target, salad, church, money, helium, sugar, parrot, music, chicken,
CSI, LOL, MTV, IBM
VS
CS, ILO, LMT, VIB, M

10. Coding of information in STM
Auditory code - Conrad (1963) STM errors were made on the basis of auditory rather than visual characteristics
VIsual code - Posner (1969) Information represented in STM auditorily and visually.
Semantic code
● Delos Wickens and his colleagues (1972) semantic information is being processed in STM (PI)
● Wickens (1973) Release from PI would be greatest with categories with the least semantic
relationship

11. Retrieval of Information from STM
Parallel
SEARCH
Serial
Self
Terminating
Exhaustive

12. Sternberg (1966) - Experimental task (Letter search)
Argued that the retrieval of information from STM happens only through serial, exhaustive
search
Hunt (1978) - used diverse population, age groups
Showed consistent result but search rate varying with group
DeRosa & Tkacz (1976)
Memory processes work differently according to the stimuli.

13. Long Term Memory

14. Codes
● Visual
● Acoustic
● Semantic
Tip of the tongue (TOT) state

15. Levels of processing
Craik and Lockhart’s (1972)
● Series of analyses : shallow sensory→ deeper, more complex, abstract, and semantic analyses
● sensory and featural analyses → recognized by means of pattern recognition and extraction of
meaning → long-term associations
● No constant sequence? Just types of processing?

16. Criticisms:
(1) it seems to say little more than that meaningful events are well remembered, a mundane
conclusion;
(2) it is vague and generally untestable;
(3) it is circular in that any events that are well remembered are designated “deeply
processed,” with no objective and independent index of depth available.

17. Craik and Tulving (1975)
Tested the idea that words that are deeply processed should be
recalled better than those that are less so
● Deeper processing takes longer to accomplish
● Words engaging semantic aspects better recognized than
those engaging only the phonological or structural
aspects
Structural: Is the word in capital
letters?
Phonemic: Does the word rhyme
with WEIGHT?
Semantic: Would the word fit the
sentence
“He met a ________________ in the
street”?

18. Rogers, Kuiper, and Kirker (1977)
Self Reference Effect
General conclusions:
● we have a rich and elaborate internal network available for
storing self-information.
● complex internal self-structures, we can more easily
organize new information as it might refer to ourselves
than other, more mundane information.
Evaluate a list of 40 adjectives
Structural task: same size type as the cue
question? (“Big letters?”).
Phonemic task: rhymed with the
presented adjective (“Rhymes with?”).
Semantic task: synonymous or not with
the presented adjective (“Means same
as?”).
Self-referent task: (“Describes you?”).

19. A Connectionist Model of Memory
Rumelhart and McClelland and others (1986)
All of the characters’ attributes are connected in a mutually excitatory network

20. Schemas and Gist
Bartlett (1932) was able to analyze how memory is reconstructed:
• Omissions. Specific information drops out. Also, information that is illogical or does not fit into the participants’
expectations are not readily recalled.
• Rationalization. Some information is added that would help explain certain incongruous or illogical passages.
• Dominant theme. Some themes seem to become prominent, and other details are then related to the dominant
theme.
• Transformation of information. Unfamiliar words are transformed to more familiar ones.
• Transformation of sequence. Some events are characterized as happening earlier in the story, others later.
• Participant attitude. The attitude of a participant toward the material determines the degree of recollection.
Schema refers to an active organization of past reactions or past experiences. Incoming stimuli all
contribute to the buildup of an organized schema.

21. Types

22. Reconstructive nature of memory
Autobiographical memory:
Marigold Linton (1982) - studied her own recall of events from her own life.
Order the two exposed events; Recall the exact date of the left-hand card.
Brewer (1988) - 1st year college students
recognized more than 60% of the events.
Memory better for:
Actions than for thoughts; “Memorable” events than for events randomly prompted by
beepers; Unique or infrequent location; Rare actions were more likely to be recalled than
frequent actions.

23. Flashbulb memory:
R. Brown & Kulick (1977) coined the term
Pillemer (1984) - emotional reactions
Neisser (1982)- Result from retelling the story
Weaver (1993) - Exp: Meeting a friend/roommate Vs Persian Gulf bombing
● Very few differences in accuracy for the two memories
● Accuracy for both fell off in an Ebbinghaus-like pattern
● More confident in their memories of the Persian Gulf bombing than in their memory for
meeting their friend or roommate
● Increased confidence did not lead to increased accuracy.
No “flash” is necessary to form a flashbulb memory; “flash,” affects only our
confidence in our memory

24. Memory errors: False memory
Roediger and McDermott (1995)
Loftus and Palmer (1974) - false memories could be constructed based on the types of questioning
hit, smashed, collided, bumped, or contacted
Loftus and Pickrell (1995) - lost in the mall technique
Rest, Nap, Sheets, Night, Snooze, Bed, Doze, Pillow, Dream, Snore, Awake, Tired,
Wake, Blanket, Slumber, Nap, Yawn, Drowsy.

25. Eyewitness Memory:
Elizabeth Loftus - Extensive work in the area
Experiments:
1. Red Datsun - Stop sign or yield sign?
2. White sports car - Barn
Bransford, Barclay & Franks (1971)
“The ants were in the kitchen,” “The jelly was on the table,” “The jelly was sweet,” and “The
ants ate the jelly.”
VS
“The sweet jelly was on the table”, “The ants ate the sweet jelly on the
table”

26. Ways to ensure reliability of eyewitness memory
(task)

27. Forgetting
Failure to Encode - refers to the problem of failing to put material into LTM
Consolidation failure - memory loss due to organic disruption while the memory trace is
being formed, resulting in poorly formed memories that are experienced as forgetting.
Amnesia - forgetting caused by problems in the brain.

28. Decay - the fading of memory over time or through disuse.
Interference - the confusion or entanglement of similar memories
Retrieval failure - the inability to find the necessary memory cue for retrieval.
Motivated forgetting - the knowing repression of memories, usually to avoid dealing with
traumatic experiences.
Repression - the pushing (unknowingly) of threatening thoughts, memories, or feelings out
of conscious awareness.

29. Factors that enhance memory
→ Directing attentional resources to stimuli in the environment increases the likelihood of
memory entering the sensory system and entering STM.
→ Maintenance rehearsal will keep information looping in STM, and elaborative rehearsal
pushes information from STM into LTM.
→ Non-REM sleep aids in declarative memory, and REM sleep aids in procedural memory
→ Techniques designed to enhance encoding and aid in retrieval, called mnemonics.

30. Mnemonic Techniques:
● Method of loci
● Peg word system
● Keyword method
● Acronyms
● Acrostics
● Chunking