Memory involves three main processes - encoding, storage, and retrieval. There are two main types of memory - explicit memory which we are consciously aware of, and implicit memory which is unconscious. The Atkinson-Shiffrin model describes memory as having three stages - sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Information is encoded and either maintained briefly in sensory memory or transferred to short-term memory through rehearsal before being consolidated into long-term memory. Factors like decay, interference, and insufficient cues can lead to forgetting over time.

1. Memory
By Wasaf Basit

2. Memory
• What is Memory
it refers to the retention of information
•
The process by which we encode, store and retrieve information
• Encoding
Converting information into a form in which it will be retained in memory or
the act of inputting information into memory.
Information is encoded in memory in the form of Memory traces (the stored
code that represents a piece of information that has been encoded into
memory.
Storage
Holding information in memory for later use.
• Retrieval
Recovering information from storage in memory

3. Implicit Memory and Explicit Memory
• Explicit Memory: The conscious use of
memory or the memory that we know at a
conscious level.
• Implicit Memory: The unconscious use of memory
or Memory that we don’t know at a conscious level.
For example: when we brush our teeth, tie our shoes, make our bed, we
usually do so without conscious awareness.

4. Atkinson-Shiffrin model
• The best known model of memory. It has three main storage areas.
• Sensory memory
• Short term memory
• Long term memory
• Sensory Memory
a system of memory that very briefly stores sensory impressions so
that we can extract relevant information from them for further
processing
The initial, momentary storage of information, lasting only an instant
(very short time) or hold an exact copy of what you see or hear, for
a few seconds or less.
Sensory memory has two types; iconic memory and echoic memory

5. • Iconic Memory
Iconic memory (like an icon) is the sensory store for visual information.
Duration: less then a second
• Echoic Memory
Sensory memory for auditory information
Duration: 2 or 3 seconds

6. • Short term Memory
Memory that holds information for 15 to 20 seconds. According to miller, the capacity of short term
memory is sever (plus or minus two) items. It applies to such items as numbers, words, and other
small bits of information
• Sensory information is not meaningful to us.
• To make sensory information meaningful it must be transferred to next stage.
• hold an exact copy of what you see or hear, for a few seconds or less.
• Chunking
The process of using one’s limited short-term memory recourses more efficiently by combining
small bits of information to form larger bits of information, or chunk.
How can we keep some information in STM for more than 20 seconds? By rehearsal.
• Rehearsal
To repeat information to hold it in short-term memory and transfer it to long term memory.

7. • Maintenance rehearsal
Repeating information over and over again to keep it in short term memory for an extended period of
time.
• Elaborative rehearsal
• Forming Associations or links between information one is trying to learn with
information already stored in long term memory so as to facilitate the transfer of
this new information into long-term memory. w

8. • Primacy effect
• The tendency for people to recall words from the beginning of a list
better then that appeared in the middle of the list.
• Recency effect
• The tendency for people to recall words from the end of a list better
than words that appeared in the middle of the list.

9. • Working Memory
A memory system that holds information temporarily while actively
manipulating and rehearsing that information.
The function of working memory is to access, move and information that we
are currently using.
working memory holds what you are currently thinking about, that is, what
you are working with. So short-term memory and working memory are
similar. However, we might say that the working memory model suggests that
short-term memory is composed of several different components. This view
also suggests that short-term memory involves active processing. It is
working memory, in contrast to a mere (small, scanty) storage area.

10. • Long-term Memory
• Material that makes its way from short-term memory to long term memory
enters a storehouse of almost unlimited capacity.
• The information in LTM is filled and coded so that we can retrieve it when
we need it.
• A relatively permanent store.
• A system of memory that works to store memories in long-term, or perhaps
even a permanent fashion.
• The largest memory storage system.
• It has a limitless capacity.

11. • Modules of long-term memory
• Declarative memory
• Semantic memory
• Episodic memory
• Procedural memory
• Declarative memory
Memory for knowledge that that can be easily verbalized; names, faces, dates, concepts and so on. It
has two more types; Semantic Memory and Episodic Memory.

12. • Semantic memory
Memory for general knowledge and facts about the world, as well as memory for the rules of logic that used to deduce the facts. It is a
conceptual memory.
• Episodic memory
Memory for events that occur in a particular time, place, or context
• Procedural memory
Memory for skills and habits, such as riding a bike or hitting a baseball.

13. • Amnesia
A condition in which a person cannot recall certain declarative
memories. It has two types.
1. Retrograde Amnesia; in which one is unable to retrieve previously
stored memories in LTM.
2. Anterograde Amnesia; in which one is unable to store new memories
in LTM.
Amnesia majorly causes by Brain injury or illness.

14. • Recall and Recognition
• Recall
• To supply or reproduce memorized information with a minimum
of external cues or To supply or reproduce memorized information with a minimum of external
cues.
• Recall involves retrieving previously learned information without the aid of or with very few
external cues.
• Recognition
An ability to correctly identify previously learned information or a type of retrieval process in which
the probe or cue contains a great deal of information, including the item being sought
Recognition involves identifying previously learned information
with the help of external cues

15. Improving memory
• There are several strategies of improvement of the memory.
• Pay attention: Attention is the first step in getting information into memory. If you are
distracted while studying, you won’t be able to devote your full attention to the information
you are trying to learn, and your ability to recall the information later may be affected.
• Use elaborative rehearsal: To study efficiently, you must process the information at a deeper
level, finding ways to elaborate on the meaning of the material in your memory. This means
you must form connections or associations among the bits of information you are trying to
learn and the information you already know.
• Use Overlearning: Overlearning is a technique in which you learn the material until you feel
that you have mastered it, and then you continue to study it some more. By doing this, you
help ensure that you will be able to retrieve it at a later date, because every time you activate
information in long-term memory, you help to make it more available for retrieval.

16. Improving memory
• Mnemonic Device
A cognitive procedure or mental trick that is
designed to improve one’s memory
For example
• Acronyms: To create an acronym, you take the first letter of each word you want to
remember and use these first letters to form a word. For example, USA stands for United
States of America. ESR could stand for the three memory processes of encoding, storage,
and retrieval.

17. • Why we forget?
• Several processes account for memory failures, including decay,
interference, and cue-dependent forgetting.
Decay
“The loss of information in memory through its nonuse”.
This explanation for forgetting assumes that memory traces, the physical changes that take place in
the brain when new material is learned, simply fade away or disintegrate over time
interference
The phenomenon by which information in memory disrupts
the recall of other information.

18. • Why we forget?
• Proactive Interference
Interference in which information learned earlier disrupts
the recall of material learned later
• Retroactive interference
Interference in which material that was learned later
disrupts the retrieval of information that
was learned earlier
• Cue-dependent Forgetting
Forgetting that occurs when there are insufficient
retrieval cues to rekindle information that is in memory.