Download - Memory English
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MEMORY
The Nature of Memory:Mathematician John Griffith estimated that, in an average
lifetime, a person will have stored roughly five hundred times as
much information as can be found in all the volumes of the
Encyclopedia Britannica. The impressive capacity of human memory
depends on the operation of a complex mental system.
Basic Memory Processes:Remembering something requires, first, that the item be
encoded - put in a form that can be placed in memory. It must thenbe stored and, finally, retrieved, or recovered. If any of these
processes fails, forgetting will occur:
]1[Encoding:)Its the active process of putting information into memory code and
put into memory:(
Types of memory codes* :a) Acoustic codes: represent information as sequences of sound
represent stimuli as pictures b) visual codes:c) Semantic codes: represent an experience by its general meaning
]2[Storage:Is the process of holding encoded information in memory until the
time of retrieval (maintain in memory(
*Types of long term memories:a)Episodic Memories:
Are those that record and store our life experiences and events.
They are somewhat autobiographical and time ordered. Here westore our life events and experiences e.g. When did you first learn to
drive a car or what did you have for lunch yesterday.
b)Procedural Memories:
Which involve the skill learning i.e. provide the memory for
how to do things e.g. How to ride a bike, typing, read a map or
driving a car.
c) Semantic Memories:
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Are those that contain generalized knowledge of the world that
doesnt involve memory of a specific event? (They store our facts,
knowledge and vocabularies e.g. what is the capital of Egypt, how
many colors are there in the Egyptian flag).
[3]-Retrieval: (recover from memory)Its the process of removing and using information that is
stored in memory.
*Types of Retrieval:a) Recall
b) Recognition
To Recall information; as on an essay test, you have to
retrieve it from memory without much help. Recognition: is aided by clues, such as the alternatives given
in a multiple choice test item. Accordingly, recognition tends
to be easier than recall.
To summarize
EncodingCode& put into
memory StorageMaintain In
memory Retrievalrecover from
memory
Types of memory
codes:
Acoustic
Visual
Semantic
Types of a long-
term memories:
Episodic
Procedural
Semantic
Types of retrieval
Recall
Recognition
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Types of memory:
A. Sensory Memory:Sensory Memory involves the very brief storage or shallow
processing of large amounts of information. It is assumed that this
information is stored in the form in which it is received by our sense
receptors. Visually presented material lasts in sensory memory for a
fraction of a second, auditorially processed material may last for 3 or
4 seconds.
B. Short Term Memory [working memory] (STM)This store or level of memory has a limited Capacity (7 + 2 bits
of information) and limited duration. This assumes that at first the
information is unrelated and meaningless. By grouping bits and
pieces of information together into meaningful clusters, more can be
processed at the level of STM.
Information can be held in short term memory for approximately 15-
20 seconds before fading or being replaced by new information.
Processing information to this memory or to this depth requires thatwe pay attention to this information. We can keep material in STM
by reattending to it, a process called maintenance rehearsal.
Information in our short term memory may be processed there in
any number of forms. Words that sound alike are more likely to
cause STM confusion than are words that mean the same thing.
C. Long term Memory (LTM)This part of memory has virtually an unlimited capacity and a
very long or may be permanent duration.
Although long-term memory may hold information for a very long
time it should not necessarily be thought of as a literally permanent
memory. Information in LTM may be subjected to distortion or
replacement.
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Although the simple repetition of information (maintenance
rehearsal) may sometimes be sufficient to encode material from STM
into LTM, it is almost certain that the best mechanism for placing
information into LTM is elaborative rehearsal. This is to think about
the material which we wish to store and form associations or imagesof that material, relating it to something already stored in LTM. The
deeper the elaboration, the better will be retrieval.
Causes Of forgetting:
1-Passage of time
2-Interference Theory:a- Retroactive interference occurs, when previously learned
material cannot be retrieved because its inhibited or
blocked by material or information learned later.
b- Proactive Interference occurs when information cannot
be retrieved because it is inhibited or blocked by material
learned earlier.
3-Repression:
Its sometimes called motivated forgetting. It occurswhen anxiety producing or traumatic events are forced into the
unconscious level of the mind.
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