Lecture: Memory

L6- Memory

The psychology of human memory aims to understand the structure + the processes that
define memory by constructing theories that are tested empirically

When do you use memory?
 Way finding

 Talking + listening

 Cooking

 Reading

 Making sense of the world around us

Why study memory?
 Critical part of our mental life

 Encoding + retrieving information is part of every moment of our life- with or without
awareness

 We seem aware of memory only when we lose it

Living without a memory
 Clive Wearing was a patient with brain damage

 He had no STM + nearly no LTM

 Memory span= only a few seconds

 He was only aware of the present

Metaphors for memory
 How to think about or visualise memory:
- Memory= figure of speech

 Spatial metaphor: memory as a space

 Pre-scientific metaphors (philosophy)
- Aviary (Plato), cave (St. Augustine), automaton (Descartes) + empty cabinet (Locke)

Plato’s birdcage
 Memory contains varieties of knowledge

 Memories are based on associations
Memories as impressions

,  Writing/impressions on wax- ‘memory foam’

 Pictorial metaphors
- Mirror
- Photography

 Laid down into a pre-existing medium + can retain their shape/representation therein

 Study the medium as well as the process of memory

Memory metaphors (in the scientific era)
 Advances in technology led to new metaphors
- Telephone system/information theory
- Memory as information processing system

 Computer metaphor
- Random access memory- read only memory
- Memory is modular (linked)
- Spatial BUT emphasise processes too
- CD-R= read only + CD-RW= read + write

 The study of human memory is that of its structure + processes:




The cow metaphor