Assignment

Introduction to Psychology
Course No: PSY- 2217

Submitted to:
Rezwana Sultana
Course Instructor
School of Business & Economics
United International University

Submitted by:
Md. Omor Faruk
ID: 111 142224
Section: G
Trimester: Summer 2015
School of Business & Economics
United International University

UNITED INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

September 3, 2015
1

Table of Content
Reason behind choosing

01

Memory

02

Sensory Memory

02

Iconic Memory

03

II

Echoic Memory

03

Short-term Memory

03

Repetitive Rehearsal

04

II

Elaborative Rehearsal

04

Long-term Memory

04

Types of long-term memory

04

Declarative Memory

05

Procedural Memory

05

Why we forget

05

Decay Theory

06

II

Interference

06

Proactive Interference

06

Retroactive Interference

06

III

Cue-dependent Theory

06

About Introduction to Psychology

07

Reason for choosing Memory

The reason for choosing the chapter the foundation of memory for my assignment is
many. First of all while studying the chapter about memory I found it very interesting.
When I read the chapter I came to know about many important things how our memory
works actually. Additionally, I also researched myself about memory after reading this
chapter. They met many question of my mind. In our lives often some question come to
our mind and they are, what the thing actually memory is and how it does works etc. It is
really a mysterious matter how the informations are saved in our brain. And this chapter
unveiled many of the answers. From this chapter I came to know that, our memory is
built on three basic processes. They are encoding, storage and retrieval. And there are
three types of memory and they are sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term
memory. This chapter is full of surprising information. Like, information initially
recorded by the persons sensory system enters sensory memory which momentarily
holds the information. Then the information moves to short-term memory where it stays
for 15 to 25 seconds and it moves to long-term memory which is relatively permanent
time basis. In this chapter, the biological base of memory is also deserved. It clarifies the
lobes and spaces of our brain where our memories stored and processed. I also found out
the transformation of information into a memory reflected at the level of neurons. At the
end I have to say any other topic than memory could make me very interested to know. I
have found this chapter fit with my curiosity thats why I have chosen this chapter for my
assignment.

Memory
In psychology, memory is the process in which information is encoded, stored and
retrieved. In another way we say that memory refers to the processes that are used to
acquire, store, retain and later retrieval information. There are three major processes
involved in memory: Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval.
In order to form new memories, information must be changed into a usable form, which
occurs through the process known as encoding. Encoding is the first stage in
remembering something. Encoding allows information that is from the outside world to
reach our senses in the forms of chemical and physical stimuli. We must change the
information so that we may put the memory into the encoding process. Once information
has been successfully encoded, it must be stored in memory for later use. This entails that
we maintain information over periods of time. If the information is not stored adequately,
it cant be recalled later. The last stage of this process is retrieval. Information in memory
storage has to be located and brought into awareness to be useful. So we say it the
retrieval process allows us to bring stored memories into conscious awareness.
The three-system memory theory proposes the existence of the three separate memory
stores. These are:

Sensory Memory:
Sensory memory is the earliest stage of the memory. It is the initial, momentary storage
of information. Here information lasting only an instant. The ability to look at an item
and remember what it looked like with just a split second of observation, or
memorization is the example of sensory memory. It is out of cognitive control and is an
automatic response. The first experiments exploring this form of sensory memory were
conducted by George Sperling (1963). He briefly exposed that people to a series of 12
letters arranged in the following pattern. When exposed to this pattern of letters for just
one twentieth of a second, most people could recall only four or five of the letters
accurately. Although, they knew that they had seen more, the memory of those letters had
faded by the time they reported the first few letters. It was get possibility if the
information had initially and accurately stored in sensory memory. But it was very short
time and in this time it took to verbalize the first four or five letters, the memory of the
other letters faded away.

There are several types of sensory memory each related to a different source of sensory
information.

I.

Iconic Memory: Iconic Memory is a fast decaying store of visual information.

That means its a type of sensory memory that briefly stores an image which has
been perceived for a small duration. While sensory memory can store information
for only a very short time. If information does not pass into short-term memory, it
is lost for good. For instance, iconic memory seems to last less than a second.

II.

Echoic Memory: Echoic memory is a fast decaying store of auditory

information. It is another type of sensory memory that briefly store sound that has
been perceived for short duration. Here if information does not pass into shortterm memory, it is lost for good. And Echoic memory typically fades within two or
three seconds.

Short-term Memory:
Short-term memory known as active memory and it is simply about these information we
are currently aware of or thinking about it. Short-term memory holds information for 1525 seconds. So we say about the short-term memory is that it is the memory store in
which information first has meaning and although the maximum length of retention there
is relatively short. Its capacity is very limited. An experiment by George A. Miller
showing that the store of short-term memory was 7(+ or -) items. Short-term memory is
believed to rely mostly on an acoustic code for storing information and to a lesser extent
a visual code.

There is no specific process by which sensory memories are transformed into short-term
memories. But some theories suggest that the information is first translated into graphical
representations or image, and others hypothesize refers that the transfer occurs when the
sensory stimuli are changed to word. These theories or way to transfer from sensory
memory to short-term memory is described in below.

I.

Repetitive Rehearsal: It is occurs simply repeated information over and over

again. As an example we might do with a telephone number. Think that we rush a
phone number from the phone book to the phone. It is kept current in short-term
memory because of we repeat over and over that specific phone number. But it
will not necessarily be placed in long-term memory. Instead, as soon as possible if
we stop punching in the phone number, the number is likely to be replaced by
other information and will be completely forgotten.

II.

Elaborative Rehearsal: Elaborative rehearsal occurs when the information is

considered and organized in some fashion. It is much more likely to be transferred
into long-term memory. The organization might include expanding the information
to make it fit into a logical framework, linking it to another memory, turning it into
an image or transforming it in some other way.

Long-term Memory:
Long-term memory refers to the continuing storage of information. In psychology longterm memory would be call the preconscious and unconscious. This information is
largely outside of our awareness, but can be called into working memory to be used when
needed. Some of this information is fairly easy to recall, while other memories are much
more difficult to access. The storage of sensory memory and short-term memory
generally has a strictly limited capacity and duration. By contrast, long-term memory can
store much larger quantities of information for potentially unlimited limitation. Its
capacity is immeasurably large. For example, given a random 7 digit number we may
remember it for only a few second before forgetting. That means it was stored in our
short-term memory. On the other hand, we can remember telephone numbers for many
years through repetition, this information is said to be stored in long-term memory.
Through the process of association and rehearsal, the content of short-term memory can
become long-term memory. While long-term memory is also susceptible to the forgetting
process, long-term memories can last for a matter of days to as long as many decades.
Types of Long-Term Memory: Long-term memory is usually divided into two types declarative (explicit) memory and procedural (implicit) memory.

Declarative includes all of the memories that are available in consciousness.

Declarative memory can be further divided into episodic memory (specific events)
and semantic memory (knowledge about the world).

Procedural memory involves memories of body movement and how to use

objects in the environment. How to drive a car or use a computer are examples of
procedural memories.

Why we forget our saved memories:

Forgetting typically involves a failure in memory retrieval. While the information is
somewhere in your long-term memory, you are not able to actually retrieve and
remember it. Of course, many factors can help contribute to forgetting. Sometimes you
might be distracted when you learn new information, which might mean that you never
truly retain the information long enough to remember it later. That means the reason for
your memory failure is that you probably never encoded the information into long-term
memory initially. And if the information was not placed in memory to start with, there is
no way the information can be recalled. Well-known memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus
has proposed four key explanations for why forgetting occurs.

The forgetting curve also showed that forgetting does not

continue to decline until all of the information is lost. At
a certain point, the amount of forgetting levels off. What
exactly does this mean? It indicates that information
stored in long-term memory is surprisingly stable.

What are some of the major reasons why we forget information? Several processes
account for memory failure, including decay, interference, and cue-dependent forgetting.
These three process works for forgetting our information from our long-term memory.

I.

Decay theory: Decay is the loss of information through non-use. According to

this theory, a memory trace is created every time a new theory is formed.
Decay theory suggests that over time, these memory traces begin to fade and
disappear. If information is not retrieved and rehearsed, it will eventually be
lost. Although there is evidence that decay does occur, this does not seem to be
the complete explanation for forgetting.

II.

Interference: In interference, information in memory disrupts the recall of

other information. When information is very similar to other information that
was previously stored in memory, interference is more likely to occur. There
are actually two sorts of interference that influence forgetting:
a. Proactive interference.
b. Retroactive interference.

III.

a.

Proactive interference: Proactive is occurring when an old memory

makes it more difficult or impossible to remember a new memory.

b.

Retroactive interference: In contrast, Retroactive refers to difficulty in

the recall of information because of later exposure to different material.
That means it occurs when new information interferes with your ability
to remember previously learned information.

Cue-dependent theory: Finally, forgetting may occur because of cuedependent theory. Forgetting that occurs when there are insufficient retrieval
cues to rekindle information that is in memory. For example, once you realize
that you lost your cars key and you may not be able to remember where you
lost your key until you mentally walk through your day, thinking of each place
you visited.

Most research suggests that interference and cue-dependent forgetting are key processes
in forgetting. We forget things mainly because new memories interfere with the retrieval
of old ones or because appropriate retrieval cues are unavailable, not because the memory
trace has decayed.

About Introduction to Psychology

8

The course Introduction to Psychology has been a very useful and informative for me.
As a human we all need to have at least a bit of knowledge about psychology. And this
course met the need of us. At first, from the chapter Introduction to Psychology I
learned about the controversies centre on how much human behaviour is a product of
nature, conscious or unconscious thought, observe actions internal thoughts etc. And we
also got ideas about how in future psychology will be specialized. Secondly, from the
chapter learning how we learn and how learning new things changed our behaviours we
gather about this knowledge. From this chapter I also came to know about classical
conditioning stimulus and extinction. After that we read about Memory and in this
chapter we found much precious information about how our memory works and the
classification of memory. This chapter also contains information about the biological
bases of memories besides how psychology has been applying in 21 st century. We also
find the reason why do we forget and the reason of a common disease Alzheimers and
brain Deterioration. After that Motivation and Emotion chapter teach us what is emotion,
the functions of emotion etc. The theories given by various neuron scientists are also
given in this chapter. The identification of specific parts of the brain that are activated
during the experience of particular emotions is also mentioned here. Additionally, we also
learned how motivation is related with various factors. The various approaches about
motivation are also mentioned. After that come development this chapter describes how
we get developed ourselves in the various stages of our life. The theories about child
rearing practices and child protector case works are found here. Finally, Health
psychology and Stress teach us how psychology can be applied to prevent, diagnosis and
treatment of medical problems. Stress is also described in this chapter. And the way to
reduce stress is shown here. In this chapter we see the psychology factors affect health
and health related problems, such as coronary heart disease, cancer and smocking. This
chapter also shows us why it is necessary to diagnosis psychological stages of a person
along with physical problems.
To sum up, I must say this course is very useful and valuable to us. I got a lot of
experience of my life from psychology. To interact with other people we have to know
about our psychology. To evaluate any person even sometimes ourselves we have to
know some certain things about our mental condition. So, this course will help us to
know, judge and understand people around us as well as ourselves better.