MEMORY

BPSY 90: COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

REMEMBER THIS!!!
What is Memory?
Memory is the process involved in retaining,
retrieving, and using information about stimuli,
images, events, ideas, and skills after the original
information is no longer present
Memory is active any time some past experience has an
effect on the way you think or behave now or in the future
( Joordens, 2011).
 “How do I remember
My first memory of you was thee, let me count the ways”
brief and dramatic. It was the And the rest is history, because I have
Fourth of July, and everyone countless memories of all the things we have
was looking up at the sky to done. I especially remember that crisp fall
see the fireworks. But what I day when we went bike riding to that place
saw was your face—illuminated in the woods where we had a picnic.
for just a moment by a flash,
and then there was darkness.
But even in the darkness
I held your image in my mind
for a moment.

Luckily, I had the presence of mind to

“accidentally” meet you later so we could
exchange
phone numbers. Unfortunately, I didn’t I must admit, however, that as much as I
have my cell phone with me or anything remember many of the things we have done, I
to write with, so I had to keep repeating have a hard time remembering the address of
your number over and over until I could the first apartment we lived in, although,
write it down. luckily for me, I do remember your birthday.
 The Modal Model of Memory
Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968)

Control Process

SHORT TERM LONG TERM

SENSORY MEMORY MEMORY
INPUT MEMORY

OUTPUT

1. Sensory memory is an initial stage that holds all incoming

information for seconds or fractions of a second (3 sec.)
SENSORY MEMORY
the retention, for brief periods of time (3 secs.), of the effects of sensory stimulation.

Persistence of vision is the continued

perception of a visual stimulus even after
it is no longer present. This persistence
lasts for only a fraction of a second, so it
isn’t obvious in everyday experience when
objects are present for long periods.
TYPES OF SENSORY MEMORY
1. Iconic Memory
2. Echoic Memory
3. Haptic Memory
ICONIC MEMORY
iconic memory include situations where you briefly have
an image in your head after the sight is gone.
ECHOIC MEMORY
the ultra-short-term memory for things you hear.

HUH???
HAPTIC MEMORY
brief memory of something brushing up against your
skin.
SHORT TERM MEMORY
Short-term memory is that brief period of time where you can recall information you were just
exposed to. Short-term often encompasses anywhere from 30 seconds to a few days, depending
on who is using the term.
 How Many Items Can Be Held in
Short-Term Memory?

suggested by George Miller (1956), who summarized

the evidence for this limit in his paper “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two,”
WORKING MEMORY
which was introduced in a paper by Baddeley and
Hitch (1974), is defined
as “a limited-capacity system for temporary storage
and manipulation of information
for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning,
and reasoning.”

cognition (for example, remembering numbers while reading a paragraph) and solving
Math problems
LET’S TEST YOUR WORKING MEMORY

7149
LET’S TEST YOUR WORKING MEMORY
Baddeley concluded that working memory must be dynamic and must also
consist of a number of components that can function separately
The phonological loop consists of two components: the phonological
store, which has a limited capacity and holds information for only a few
seconds, and the articulatory rehearsal process, which is responsible for
rehearsal that can keep items in the phonological store from decaying. The
phonological loop holds verbal and auditory information.
The visuospatial sketch pad holds visual and spatial information. When you form a
picture in your mind or do tasks like solving a puzzle or finding your way around
campus,
you are using your visuospatial sketch pad
The central executive is where the major work of working memory occurs. The central
executive pulls information from long-term memory and coordinates the activity of the
phonological loop and visuospatial sketch pad by focusing on specific parts of a task and deciding how to divide
attention between different tasks. The central executive is therefore the “traffic
cop” of the working memory system.
WORKING MEMORY AND THE BRAIN

Amazingly, Gage survived, but reports from the

time noted that the accident had
changed Gage’s personality from an
upstanding citizen to a person with low
impulse
control, poor ability to plan, and poor social
skills. Apparently, there is some uncertainty
as to the accuracy of these early descriptions
of Gage’s behavior (Macmillan,
2002).

In fact, it has been suggested that one reason we

can describe the memory
behavior of very young infants as “out of sight,
out of mind”
LONG TERM MEMORY

Long-term memory encompasses memories that

range from a few days to decades. In order for
successful learning to take place, information has to
move from the sensory or the short-term memory to
the long-term memory.
Short-Term VS
Long-Term
Memory Processes
LONG TERM MEMORY
IMPLICIT MEMORY
memories weren’t aware of. . Implicit memory
occurs when learning from experience is not
accompanied by conscious remembering.
 EXPLICIT MEMORY
memories we are aware of. This may seem like a strange
statement, because aren’t we aware of all of our
memories? We tell someone about our vacation or give
directions to a lost traveler, and not only are we aware of
our memories (episodic for describing the vacation;
semantic for knowing the directions), but we are making
someone else aware of our memories.
NOW DID YOU REMEMBER THIS??