Memory involves encoding, storing, and retrieving information. There are three main types of memory: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Information is encoded through the senses and either quickly decays or is transferred to short-term memory. Short-term memory has limited capacity and relies on rehearsal for information to be transferred to long-term memory, where it can last a lifetime. There are different ways information can be forgotten, such as through passive decay, retrieval failure, or neurological damage.

1. Memory

2. Memory
• Amount of previously learned material that has
been retained
• Involves (1) encoding, (2) storage, and (3)retrieval
• Memory is a net, not a bucket
• Memory = retention

5. Standard Model of Memory

6. Memory
• Sensory registers
o Encoding of information retrieved through senses
o Holds information about a stimulus only a few
seconds at best
o Iconic (visual) memory
o Echoic (auditory) memory
o Haptic (cutaneous) memory

7. Memory
• Short-term memory (STM)
o STM takes over when information in sensory
memory transferred to consciousness/awareness
o Limited capacity
o STM memories easy to access and retrieve

8. 1 4 9 1 6 2 5 3 6 4 9 6 4 8 1

9. 1 4 9 16 25 36 49 64 81

10. How is information stored in STM?
1) Primacy effect – information occurring first is
remembered better than information
occurring later
2) Recency effect – information presented last is sometimes
remembered better because not as
much time has passed
3) Serial position effect – information most likely to be
remembered is what comes first and
and last, while what is most likely to
be forgotten is whatever is crowded
in the middle

12. How is information stored in STM?
4) Frequency effect – rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal
5) Distinctiveness – any distinctive information stands out
from other information around it and
is remembered better
6) Associations – associating/attaching information
to other information

13. Memory
• Long-term memory (LTM)
o Enduring
o May last a lifetime
o Unlimited capacity?
o LTM memories harder to access/retrieve

14. Memory
• Subcategories of LTM
o Declarative memory = Memories for facts, life events,
information about environment
• Semantic memory = Factual knowledge about world
(names, dates, #s)
• Episodic memory = Tied to specific events, situations
(“flashbulb memories”)

15. Memory
• Subcategories of LTM (con’t)
o Implicit memory = Memories expressed in behavior
but do not require conscious
recollection
• Procedural memory = “How to” knowledge of
procedures or skills (ride a
bike, tie a shoe, drive a car)
o Prospective memory = Remembering things that
need to be done in the future
(“remembering to remember”)

16. Forgetting
• Passive decay
o Memory loss associated with lack of use
o Can occur in LTM
• Encoding failure
o Information never consolidated beyond initial sensory
register stage

17. Forgetting
• Retrieval failure
o Difficulty accessing LTM
o “Tip of the tongue” phenomenon
• Repression
o Unconscious motive to forget an emotionally
traumatic memory
o Pain/trauma of some experience creates a mental
block preventing retrieval of that memory

18. Forgetting
• Retrograde amnesia
o Inability to recall memories of the past (The Bourne Identity)
o Can form new LTM
• Anterograde amnesia
o Inability to form new LTM (Memento)
o New events contained in STM are not transferred to LTM
memory

19. Forgetting
• Causes of amnesia
o Damage to hippocampus
o Acute stress
o Neurodegenerative causes
• Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s

20. Forgetting

21. Memory
• Improving memory
o Mnemonics
• Adding additional cues for retrieval
• Acronyms = PEMDAS, GRE, Roy G. Bv
• “Geography” = George Eagle’s Old Grandmother
Rode A Pig Home Yesterday
o Eidetic images
• Pairing semantic memories w/visual cues
o Method of loci

22. Memory
• Best practices for improving memory
o Spaced practice
o Sleeping right after learning
o Mood congruence
o Environmental restructuring