Information Processing

1. UNIT FOUR
INFORMATION PROCESSING AND
MEMORY

2. THE NATURE OF MEMORY
Memory is the mental function that enables
you to acquire, retain and recall sensations,
impressions, information and thoughts you
have experienced.
Put another way, memory is the means by
which we draw our past experiences in order
to use the information in the present.
What is the nature of memory?

3. Memory consists of three processes namely:
encoding, storage and retrieval. Psychologists
researching into the works of memory have
had to wrestle with three important
questions. These are:
how does information get into memory
(encoding)?
how is information maintained in memory
(storage)? and
how is information retrieved from memory
(retrieval)?.

4. Functions of Memory
The three basic processes of memory
(encoding, storage and retrieval) serve as
the main functions of the memory
Encoding:
When information comes into our memory
system, it needs to be converted into a
form that the system can cope with, so
that it can be stored.
Think of this as similar to changing your
memory into different currency when you
travel from one country to another

5. Storage:
It involves maintaining the encoded
information in memory overtime. Storage
includes where information is kept, how
long the information lasts for (duration),
how much can be stored at any time
(capacity) and what kind of information is
held.
Storage may be for a few seconds or many
years. It concerns what happens to the
information overtime, irrespective of how
it was encoded, and irrespective of how it
is ultimately utilised.

6. Retrieval:
It is the process by which stored
information is recovered from memory.
 Similar to the everyday use of the term,
retrieval of information from memory
involves pulling out stored information from
memory.
Recalling your student ID number, your
phone number, or producing answers at
exams are all retrieval tasks.

7. Types of Memory Storage
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) posited
three distinct memory stores:
1. sensory register, 2. short term
memory and 3. long term memory.
According to the model, information
that we encounter on daily basis move
through three stages of memory


8. However, not all information makes its
way through all the three stages. Most of
it is forgotten somewhere along the way.
What determines which information makes
its way through the different stages
depends on what the individual pays
attention to and processes.
Information processing begins in the
sensory memory, moves to short term
memory, and eventually into long term
memory.


9. Nature of Sensory Memory
The sensory memory is the first part to
receive environmental stimulus or
stimuli.
 Once the information is perceived, it
holds it for a brief period of time,
typically for no longer than a second.
Sensory memory retains impressions of
sensory information after the original
stimulus has stopped

10. There are three ways to conceptualize sensory
memory. These are:
 Iconic memory- It is the visual sensory memory
that holds the mental representation of your
visual stimuli.
 Echoic memory – This is the auditory sensory
memory that holds information that you can hear.
 Haptic memory- It is the tactile sensory memory
that holds information from your sense of
feeling.
 Most of the information that gets into sensory
memory is forgotten, but information that we pay
attention to passes to the short term memory.
 I want us to now turn our attention to the short
term memory.

11. The Nature of Short Term Memory
 Some of the information in the sensory memory
transfer to the short term memory. Information in
the short term memory is not stored permanently.
 Most of the information are kept for approximately
20 to 45 seconds.
 the short term memory is noted for having a
limited capacity. It holds only a few items.
 It can store about seven pieces of information, plus
or minus two pieces.
 These pieces of information can be small, such as
individual numbers or letters, or large such as
familiar strings of numbers, words or sentences.


12. How can you get the short term memory to hold
more information?
 One of the strategies that can be used is
called chunking.
 Chunking is the method used to help increase
the capacity of the short term memory.
 Chunking combines small bits of information
into bigger familiar pieces.
 For instance, a person confronted with this
sequence of ten digits of phone number
(0208447643) would probably have difficulty
remembering it ten seconds later.

13.  However, this information can be
remembered when grouped into
four pieces of (020-844-76-43)
because short term memory can
hold six pieces of information

14. The Nature of Long Term Memory
Information can be transferred from
short term memory into the long term
memory.
Long term memory refers to the storage
of information over an extended period.
It embraces all the memories we hold for
periods longer than a few seconds.
 Information can last in our long term
memory for hours, days, months, or
years.


15.  However, this does not mean that people will
always be able to remember what’s in their
long term memory- they may not be able to
retrieve some of the information that is
there.
 Also, while we sometimes forget some
information that we learn, other things may
stay forever.
 Unlike the short term memory, the capacity
for long term memory is seemingly unlimited.

16. Types of Long Term Memory
There are two types of long term memory. These
are: implicit and explicit or declarative memory
Implicit or procedural memory–It describes
knowledge you remember unconsciously and
effortlessly. It is remembering without
awareness.
We use implicit memory with our prior
experiences and the performance of a task
without conscious awareness of these prior
experiences.

17.  For instance, you would use your implicit memory
to ride a bike or drive a car because you can
perform these activities without having to
consciously think about it.
 Explicit Memory/declarative –They are those
experiences and information that you have to
consciously think about to remember.
 When you purposely attempt to recall something
such as the first phone you acquired or a list of
items to pick up at the grocery store, then the
information is stored in your explicit memory.
 This type of information is also known as
declarative memory, since you consciously recall
and explain the information.

18. Explicit or declarative memory can further be broken into two kinds
Episodic memory:
The episodic memory system contains
chronological or temporarily dated information
and, recollections of personal experiences.
It retains information regarding things you have
done, seen or heard.
For example, it contains information about your
first day at the university, visiting the zoo or
attending a concert show.

19. The semantic memory system:
Like the episodic, it contains general
knowledge but that is not tied to the time
when the information was learned.
 Examples of such information are Accra is
the capital city of Ghana, orange is a fruit
and dogs bark. You probably don’t
remember when you learned these facts

20. ENCODING, RETENTION AND RECALL
Encoding is the process of getting information into
memory.
Why is encoding important?
Encoding is an important process in memory.
Without effective encoding, information may be
lost in memory. Can you imagine forgetting the
names of people familiar to you?
In order to form a memory, the brain must
process, or encode new facts and other types of
information into a storable form so that it can be
recalled at a later time.


21. The brain can do this using visual (sight)
coding, acoustic (sound) coding or
semantic (meaning) coding.
For example, when trying to remember a
password, you have several options to
encode the information into your memory.
You could form a mental image of the
number or letters in a row (visual coding),
repeat it aloud over and over, probably in
a sing-song voice (acoustic coding), or
give the numbers and/or letters certain
form of meaning (semantic).

22. Strategies of Encoding
 It is important to note that the ways we
encode information is key to enhancing one’s
memory.
 Acoustic coding has been shown to be the
brain’s primary technique for short term
memory (STM), while semantic coding is the
most successful strategy for long term memory
(LTM).
 Another way to describe encoding strategies is
to use structural, phonemic and semantic
encoding.

23. Structural Encoding:
 It involves translating visual information from written
words into its physical structure.
 In short, various characteristics of the visual input, such as
the number of letters in a word or whether the word was
written in upper- or lower-case letters, are encoded.
 In encoding words for example, structural encoding
focuses on what words look like. For instance, one might
be interested in noting whether words are long or short, in
uppercase or lowercase, or handwritten or typed.
 For a word like benefit- it is in lowercase, has few letters
that is a relatively short word, and also it has been typed
and italicised.

24. Phonemic encoding: What does phonemic encoding mean? Write
down your answer in your jotter before you continue.
 Phonemic encoding involves translating the visual input from
written words into sounds.
 Put another way, phonemic encoding is the process by which
verbal language (words) are translated into spelled words that
follow phonetic rules and guidelines.
 For instance, the word "cat" consists of three separate sounds --
"c" the hard consonant sound that starts the word, "a" the soft
vowel sound in the middle of the word, and "t," the hard
consonant sound that ends the word.
 These three sounds are then combined to form the word itself.

25. Semantic encoding:
 It is a specific type of encoding in which the
meaning of something (a word, phrase, picture,
event, whatever) is encoded as opposed to the
sound or the visual form of it.
 It involves translating the visual information from
written words into their meanings (for example,
being able to define them or to form a mental
image of the objects they refer to).
 Semantic encoding requires deeper levels of
processing than structural or phonemic encoding
and usually results in better memory.
 Do you agree to the assertion that we have better
memory for things we associate meaning to and
store using semantic encoding

26. Storage-Maintaining Information in Memory
 The mental “location” in which the encoded
information is held is referred to as a memory
store. For example, long-term memories would
be held in the long-term memory store.
 Information processing theorists in their efforts
to understand memory storage have historically
related it to the technologies of their age. For
instance, Aristotle and Plato compared memory
to a block of wax that differed in size and
hardness for various individuals. Remembering
according to this analogy was like stamping an
impression into the wax. As long as the image
remained in the wax, the memory would remain
intact.

27.  What about contemporary times?
 Current theories of memory draw analogy between
information storage by computers and information
storage in human memory. The information processing
theories emphasize how information flows through a
series of separate memory stores.
 The act of moving information from short-term to
long-term memory can be done in a variety of ways.
 Learning information initially is critical, but you must
also find ways to organize information based on
meaning and store that information into long-term
memory for later retrieval (Sousa, 2001).
 “Going over” a reading will not store that information in
a way that allows you to retrieve the information later.

28. Retrieval- Getting Information out of Memory
 Putting information into the long term memory is an
important goal of learners and teachers alike. However, this
is not complete if the information cannot be retrieved when
needed for use.
 Fortunately, recall does usually occur without too much
effort, but sometimes, a planned search of the long term
memory becomes necessary. For example, let’s assume you
were asked to recall all the fifteen (15) lecturers in your
department.
 You would perhaps have to conduct your memory search
systematically; recalling their names by the courses they
teach and whether they are males or females.

29. Strategies that can be used to facilitate
retrieval of information from memory
1. Using cues to aid retrieval
There are many things that can help
someone remember a past event. Whether
it’s a picture, a song, or looking through
your texts from the night before.
All of these things can act as a retrieval
cue, or a stimulus for remembering.
Simply described, it is anything that jogs
your memory.

30. When people attempt to recall a piece of
information by thinking of what it means and
how it fits in with what they already know, they
are giving themselves cues for meaning in
addition to sound.
The more cues stored with a piece of
information, the easier the retrieval of that
information will be (Roediger, 2000; Roediger
& Guynn, 1996).
 For example, during exams at the university I
always used this one kind of pen (BIC pen).

31. Reinstating the Context of an Event
 Trying to recall an event by putting yourself back in the
situation is described as reinstating the context of an event.
 Context cues facilitate the retrieval of information. We have
all experienced retrieval facilitation in this context before.
 Sometimes, you go into a room to pick something only to
forget what you went in for.
 However, when you return to the first room where you were,
you suddenly remember what you were after.
 This strategy has been widely employed in legal
investigations to enhance eyewitness recall.
 The eyewitness may be encouraged to retrieve information
about a crime by replaying the sequence of events

32. THEORIES OF FORGETTING
 Meaning of the Term Forgetting
 What does the term forgetting mean?
 Did you have as your answer: Forgetting is the inability to
remember? You are right, but it goes beyond that.
 Psychologists largely use the term forgetting to mean the
apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in
long term memory. You should be interested in the use of the
word ‘apparent’.
 By implication, the memory has either disappeared and no
longer available or the information is still stored in the
memory system but, for some reason, it cannot be retrieved.
 The first relates to forgetting in short term memory, whereas
the second describes forgetting in long term memory.

33. Theories of Forgetting
we shall discuss four principal theories of forgetting:
the decay theory, interference theory, disuse theory
and the theory of motivated forgetting.
the decay theory:
 The decay theory attributes forgetting to the
impermanence of memory storage. Thus, we forget
something because the memory of it fades with time.
 In other words, information becomes less available for
later retrieval as time passes and memory strength
wears away.
 The assumption is that decay occurs in the physiological
mechanism responsible for memories.
 It has been shown that people with Alzheimers seem to
lose memories, rather than be unable to retrieve them

34. The Interference Theory:
 The negative impact of competing information on
retention is called interference.
 According to the interference theory, people
forget information because of competition from
other materials
 There are two forms of interference:
Proactive interference:
 It occurs when previously learned information
blocks the retention of new information.
Proactive interference is rooted in learning that
comes before exposure to the test material. For
example, recalling your new University Student ID
number may be difficult because of the previously
learned old SHS Student ID number

35. Retroactive Interference:
It occurs when new information inhibits or
blocks the retention and recall of previously
learned information. For example, if the
social studies you learnt today prevents you
from recalling the citizenship education you
learnt last week, then you have been
affected by retroactive interference.
 Superficially, that is when the new
material pushes out the old information
learnt

36. The Disuse Theory
 What does the term disuse mean? It simply means “to
abandon”. Now, guess what the disuse theory conceptualizes.
Write it in your jotter before you read on.
 The disuse theory hypothesizes that we forget information
even those we wish to remember because we do not use them
often.
 For example, one is likely to forget his or her student ID
number if the student ID card is put out of use for some time.
 In the Unit 2 session 2, you learned that E. L. Thorndike is
the main proponent of the disuse theory. He asserted that we
tend to forget what we learn largely because of lack of
practice with the passage of time.
 I hope you do not confuse this theory with the decay theory.

37. The Subsumption or Integration Theory
 The subsumption or integration theory suggests that our mind has a
way to subsume information in a hierarchical or categorical manner
if the new information is linked to prior knowledge or familiar
patterns.
 Ausubel is the main advocate of this theory.
 He contends that forgetting occurs when information is not
incorporated or organized in one’s cognitive structure.
 To Ausubel, if information is understood and related to one’s body
of knowledge, it will be retained and made readily available.
 But if the information is not related and remains isolated, then it will
be forgotten.
 We shall now discuss our last theory for this session- motivated
forgetting.

38. Motivated Forgetting
 In motivated forgetting, there is the assumption that
mental self-defence blocks out painful or unpleasant
memories.
 Some memories are so painful or upsetting that
thinking about them would produce overwhelming
anxiety.
 Instead, they are repressed (pushed below conscious
awareness) and so become inaccessible.
 There are two types of motivated forgetting

39. Suppression –
 This has to do with forgetting one’s thoughts
and memories consciously. An example is a
woman who has experienced rape by a
stranger.
 After a few years, someone asks her if she has
ever had such an experience, she replies NO
even though it has happened before. She is
suppressing her bad thought consciously.
 Another example is asking someone who failed
his major exam, how he fared. If he tells you
he cannot remember, then he is consciously
suppressing the upsetting memory.

40. Repression –
The concept of forgetting ones
feeling unconsciously. For example, when
asked at what age we talked and walked, we
reply 'I don't know’.
This is because we were still young. When a
young girl was physically abused, but during
her later years of life she cannot remember.
However she has difficulty trusting and
relating to others, therefore there is
difficulty forming relationships.

41. STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING ON RETENTION & RECALL
In this session, we shall discuss five (5) of such strategies.
Mnemonic devices as techniques for improving memory
 Mnemonic is another word for memory tool.
 Mnemonics are techniques for remembering information that is otherwise quite
difficult to recall.
 Put another way, mnemonic is a technique that people use to remember long lists or
a lot of commonly-grouped information in an easy-to-remember way

42. There are different types of mnemonic devices. These include:
Acronym:
 An acronym is a word formed by the first letter of each of the words you want to
remember. For example, in writing instructional objectives you
might use the term SMART to remind you of the principles
governing instructional objectives.
 That is the instructional objective should be Simple,
Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound. Is this not
an easy way of recalling information?

43. Acrostic:
It is a technique of making a phrase of
all the first letters of the words. For
instance, if you are taking a math test
and you have challenges in recalling the
order of operations, remembering the
following sentence will assist you:
“Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally,”
because the order of mathematical
operations is Parentheses, Exponents,
Multiplication, Division, Addition,
Subtraction.

44. Jingles:
 these are rhyming tunes that contain key words
related to the concept.
 A typical example is the '30 days hath September'
rhyme for remembering the number of days in each
calendar month.
 Mnemonics are awesome techniques for learning
large amounts of information that helps in retaining
and memorizing information into the long-term
memory.

45. Instead of just using your short-term
memory to learn the information and later
forget it, mnemonics can assist you in
utilizing your long-term memory for
faster, easier retention of the data.
In summary, mnemonics are great ways to
remember life-long information and keep
your brain working at its best

46. Engage in adequate rehearsal
Retention of information improves with
increased rehearsal.
Rehearsal is a term used by memory
researchers to describe the mental
techniques for helping us remember
information.
Its technical definition does not vary from the
everyday use of the word.
There are different types of rehearsals and
they include the following:

47. Maintenance rehearsal-
 this involves continuously repeating the to-be-
remembered material.
 This method is effective in maintaining information over
the short term. We have all had the experience of
looking up a phone number in a directory and
subsequently forgetting it (or part of it) before we have
dialled it.
 This illustrates the fact that new material will fade
from memory relatively quickly unless we make a
purposeful effort to remember it.
 Maintenance rehearsal typically involves rote
repetition, either out loud or covertly.
 It is effective for maintaining relatively small amounts
in memory for brief periods, but is not likely to affect
retention in the long term

48. Elaborative Rehearsal-
 in order to retain information for longer periods of time,
elaborative rehearsal is more useful. This type of rehearsal involves
associating new material with information that already exists in
long-term memory.
 Elaboration can take a variety of forms. For example the learner
can generate personal examples that help illustrate concepts or
principles.
 Enriching the material by concentrating on its meaning not only
makes it more understandable, it also helps establish potential
pathways for subsequent retrieval.
 Study groups for example, serve as an aid to elaborative rehearsal.
Debates about various topics enrich the subject matter and add to
its meaningfulness.
 The most effective studying techniques are those that enhance
understanding.
 Trying to explain a concept to a friend is a good way of testing your
own grasp of it, and at the same time engages you in a form of
elaborative rehearsal.

49. Engage in Distributed Practice
 Distributed practice is a technique whereby the
student dispenses his or her study effort in a given
course over many study sessions that are relatively
short in duration.
 This can be compared to massed practice (otherwise
referred to as cramming) whereby the student
conducts few but long study sessions for a given
course.
 It has also been shown that meaningful learning is
promoted when distributed practice is conducted,
whereas massed practice promotes rote learning.
 Distributed practice is the most natural way to
achieve long term retention. We need to space our
learning sessions intelligently and quiz ourselves.

50. Reduce Interference
To reduce the likelihood of interference,
study during quiet time without interruptions
or distractions (like television or music).
Also, do not study similar subjects together.
Because we noted that forgetting increases
when the task materials look alike.
Hence, we can study Maths for example,
after history.

51. Employ deep processing
 The theory suggests that, the deeper information is processed,
the longer a memory trace will last.
 Depth according to Craik is the meaningfulness extracted from a
stimulus rather than in terms of the number of analyses
performed upon it.
 Deep processing involves semantic processing.
 Do you remember semantic memory in previous session 2?
Semantic processing occurs when we encode the meaning of a
word and relate it to similar words in meaning.
 Deep processing involves elaborative rehearsal which requires
a more meaningful analysis (e.g. images, thinking, associations
etc.) of information and leads to better recall.
 For example, giving words meaning or linking them with
previous knowledge are all techniques for improving on your
memory.

52. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF INFORMATION
PROCESSING AND MEMORY
Ways Teachers can Help Reduce………….
 The following are some of the ways that teachers
and students alike could adopt to reduce
forgetting in teaching and learning
Attract and sustain student’s attention
 As teachers, how can we minimize forgetting in
teaching and learning by attracting and sustain
our student’s attention?

53. Gain students attention at the beginning and throughout the lesson.
 This will aid in retention and recall of what we teach. This could be
done by using rhymes, and reviewing student’s relevant previous
knowledge before presenting the learning material. In the nursery
schools, rhymes are impressive ways to get their attention.
Ensure that students are psychologically and physiologically ready for
lessons, so that you can gain their attention for effective teaching and
learning to take place.
 If a student is hungry, he will be unwilling to learn and his attention
mode will therefore be deactivated, hence he might not pay attention.
Start lesson in ways that make children believe that they know something
little and that will enhance attention and retention of what you teach.
 This echoes the importance of reviewing their previous knowledge
before introducing the new material.


54. Present information in an organized manner
 Teachers must show a logical sequence to concepts and
skills in the materials they present in the classroom.
 As a basic rudiment of teaching, you should always start
from simple content to the complex ones or from the
known to the unknown when presenting new materials.
 This will help students to organise their information in a
suitable order.
 For example, you should multiplication before division,
“myself” in English before you teach how to write about
“my school”.

55. Provide for repetition of learning
 Do you remember mental activities in the primary
school days? Where you were required to recite the
multiplication table as well as some mental drills?
How did that help you?
 The implication of the memory and information
processing topic is that, repetition improves retention
and recall.
 As teachers, we should always state important
principles several times in different ways during
presentation of information.

56. Show students how to categorize (chunk) related information
 As a teacher, you should present information in categories.
 This is achieved by presenting information in pieces that students
can chunk.
 Also guide students on how to chunk information.
Provide for distributed practice
 As teachers we should not cram our teaching towards say the end
of the semester. Whichever lists you have on your course outline
should be fairly distributed among the teaching weeks and for the
semester.
 It is not a good practice as some teachers do to refuse to attend
classes and push all their teaching towards the end of the
semester.
 This will breed cramming in students which is leads to
forgetting.

57. Avoid interference
 One major technique used to reduce interference is block scheduling.
 In block scheduling, students have approximately four 90-minute classes
each day. If teachers use the 90 minutes wisely (i.e., they do not simply
lecture for 90 minutes instead of 45 minutes), they can provide students
with opportunities to engage in activities that will actually enhance the
consolidation of the new to-be-learned information in long-term memory.
Encourage students to use distributed practice
 Well, it takes motivation and determination to get this all rolling. Probably,
one good way is to schedule study times on a week to week basis at the
beginning of each semester.
 That is, set aside one 50 minute study session each day for each course.
 For example, you may do this from Monday through Saturday, leaving
Sunday as an off-day or catch-up day or even as a total relaxation day or
family day. After the semester gets rolling, adjustments may need to be
done.