Chapter 7: Memory
Basic Processes (text & lecture)
• Describe and differentiate between encoding, storage and retrieval
-Memory: retention of information over time
-Encoding: forming memory code, process of getting information into our memory banks
-Storage: maintaining the information in memory over time
-Retrieval: reactivation or reconstruction of experiences from our memory stores
o What is the role of attention in memory?
-Effects on memory and performance
-Attention: focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events
o What are different ways in which to enhance encoding?
• 1. Levels of processing: shallow, intermediate and deep
-Structural, phonemic (what it sounds like) and semantic (emphasize on the meaning)
2. Visual Imagery: creation of visual images to aid in memory formation
-Examples: high- juggler, house, ball, dress, low- truth, necessary, quality
3. Self-referent encoding: deciding how or whether information is personally relevant
-Promotes additional elaboration and additional organization of the information
o Understand and describe sensory, working, and long term memory
-Information processing theories:
-Sensory Memory: preserves information in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a
fraction of a second (e.g. iconic memory– visual, echoic memory- auditory)
-Short term memory: a limited capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information up to 20
seconds
-Rehearsal: the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about the information, 1. Maintenance
rehearsal 2. Elaborative rehearsal
-Capacity: chunk- a group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit
-STM as working memory (Baddley): limited capacity storage system that temporarily maintains and
stores information by providing an interface between, perception, memory and action
-Phonological loop: allows for recitation of information
-Visuo-spatial sketch pad: temporarily hold and manipulate visual images
-Central executive: coordinates the action of other modules- controls, focuses, divides attention
-Episodic buffer: interface between working and long-term memory, temporary limited capacity
store for integration of information from other modules
, -Long term memory: a relatively enduring store of information, retrieve short term memories
-Much larger than STM
-Much longer retention than STM
-Different kinds of mistakes than STM, semantic errors (LTM) vs. acoustic errors (STM)
-Explicit memory: involves intentional recollection of factual information or previous experiences
1. Semantic memory: general knowledge not tied to the time the information was first learned
2. Episodic memory: chronological, temporally dated, recollections of personal experiences
-Implicit memory: involves memory we don’t deliberately or consciously remember
1. Procedural: memories of how to execute specific actions skills and/or operations
2. Priming: the ability to identify a stimulus more easily or quickly when we’ve previously
encountered similar stimuli
3. Conditioning: memory based on what happened and react to it
4. Habituation: memory based on what happened and ignore it
Explain the methods and findings of Sperling’s study. What does it tell us about
sensory memory?
-Sperling: subject is asked to recall which letters are shown on the screen, they were
only able to recall 3 out of 4 letters. Shows that sensory memory only works for a
brief amount of time
How much information can we store in short- term (working) memory? What is its
capacity?
-Capacity = 7 +/- 2 items
-George Miller’s magic number: refers to the universal limit of short-term memory
Describe the different methods for testing duration and capacity of short-
term memory.
-Chunk: a group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit
-Maintenance rehearsal: repeating stimuli in their original form to retain
them in short-term memory
-Elaborative rehearsal: linking each stimulus to each other in a meaningful
way to improve retention of information in short-term memory
Describe the span and duration of long-term memory.
-Unlimited duration, might be a few minutes or a whole life span
Amnesia & Forgetting in the Healthy Brain (text & lecture)
• Describe the important lessons learned about memory from research on H.M.
-H.M.: bilateral temporal lobectomy
-Retrograde amnesia: inability to retrieve memories for some specific period of time prior to that
time which the brain damage occurred
Basic Processes (text & lecture)
• Describe and differentiate between encoding, storage and retrieval
-Memory: retention of information over time
-Encoding: forming memory code, process of getting information into our memory banks
-Storage: maintaining the information in memory over time
-Retrieval: reactivation or reconstruction of experiences from our memory stores
o What is the role of attention in memory?
-Effects on memory and performance
-Attention: focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events
o What are different ways in which to enhance encoding?
• 1. Levels of processing: shallow, intermediate and deep
-Structural, phonemic (what it sounds like) and semantic (emphasize on the meaning)
2. Visual Imagery: creation of visual images to aid in memory formation
-Examples: high- juggler, house, ball, dress, low- truth, necessary, quality
3. Self-referent encoding: deciding how or whether information is personally relevant
-Promotes additional elaboration and additional organization of the information
o Understand and describe sensory, working, and long term memory
-Information processing theories:
-Sensory Memory: preserves information in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a
fraction of a second (e.g. iconic memory– visual, echoic memory- auditory)
-Short term memory: a limited capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information up to 20
seconds
-Rehearsal: the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about the information, 1. Maintenance
rehearsal 2. Elaborative rehearsal
-Capacity: chunk- a group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit
-STM as working memory (Baddley): limited capacity storage system that temporarily maintains and
stores information by providing an interface between, perception, memory and action
-Phonological loop: allows for recitation of information
-Visuo-spatial sketch pad: temporarily hold and manipulate visual images
-Central executive: coordinates the action of other modules- controls, focuses, divides attention
-Episodic buffer: interface between working and long-term memory, temporary limited capacity
store for integration of information from other modules
, -Long term memory: a relatively enduring store of information, retrieve short term memories
-Much larger than STM
-Much longer retention than STM
-Different kinds of mistakes than STM, semantic errors (LTM) vs. acoustic errors (STM)
-Explicit memory: involves intentional recollection of factual information or previous experiences
1. Semantic memory: general knowledge not tied to the time the information was first learned
2. Episodic memory: chronological, temporally dated, recollections of personal experiences
-Implicit memory: involves memory we don’t deliberately or consciously remember
1. Procedural: memories of how to execute specific actions skills and/or operations
2. Priming: the ability to identify a stimulus more easily or quickly when we’ve previously
encountered similar stimuli
3. Conditioning: memory based on what happened and react to it
4. Habituation: memory based on what happened and ignore it
Explain the methods and findings of Sperling’s study. What does it tell us about
sensory memory?
-Sperling: subject is asked to recall which letters are shown on the screen, they were
only able to recall 3 out of 4 letters. Shows that sensory memory only works for a
brief amount of time
How much information can we store in short- term (working) memory? What is its
capacity?
-Capacity = 7 +/- 2 items
-George Miller’s magic number: refers to the universal limit of short-term memory
Describe the different methods for testing duration and capacity of short-
term memory.
-Chunk: a group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit
-Maintenance rehearsal: repeating stimuli in their original form to retain
them in short-term memory
-Elaborative rehearsal: linking each stimulus to each other in a meaningful
way to improve retention of information in short-term memory
Describe the span and duration of long-term memory.
-Unlimited duration, might be a few minutes or a whole life span
Amnesia & Forgetting in the Healthy Brain (text & lecture)
• Describe the important lessons learned about memory from research on H.M.
-H.M.: bilateral temporal lobectomy
-Retrograde amnesia: inability to retrieve memories for some specific period of time prior to that
time which the brain damage occurred
