Memory

Stages of Memory
Types of Memory
Models of Memory
What is Memory?
“Memory is the storage of an internal representation of
knowledge”
Blakemore (1988)

• Memory is the process of encoding, retaining,

retrieving, and using information about stimuli,
images, events, ideas, and skills after the
original information is no longer present.
Things to consider in the study of memory
• How much information can you get into memory?
• Capacity
• How long do your memories last for?
• Duration
• How do memories get in our head?
• Encoding
 Stages of Memory Processing

• Encoding-refers to how you transform a physical, sensory input into a

kind of representation that can be placed into memory

• Storage-refers to how you retain encoded information in memory

• Retrieval-refers to how you gain access to information stored in

memory
Processes of Forgetting and Memory
Distortion
• Interference theory: Forgetting occurs because recall of certain words
(or memories) interferes with recall of other words (or memories)
• Retroactive interference: Memory interference caused by activity occurring
after we learn something but before we are asked to recall it.
• Encoding a phone number, being interrupted, then failing to remember phone number
• Proactive interference: Occurs when the interfering material occurs before
learning of to-be-remembered item
• Recall of new phone number is made difficult because of memory for old number
• Decay theory: Information is forgotten because of the gradual
disappearance, rather than displacement, of the memory trace
Enduring Long Term Memories

• People were asked about high

school year books
• Had to identify old classmates
• People seem quite good at this
Bahrick et. al. 1975
Recall of an Early Memory
An Experiment on Childhood
Amnesia
• We forget a lot before the age 16
of 4 14

Questions Answered Correct

• When people were asked 12

10
questions about the birth of a 8
younger sibling the older 6

children could recall more 4

(Sheingold & Tenney 1982) 2

0
1 to 2 3 to 4 5 to 6 7 to 8 9+
Age when sibling was born
 Types of Memories
Short term memories: Long term memories:
• Limited size • Unlimited size
• About 7 bits of info • Infinite
• Does not last long • Last forever
• About 15 seconds • A lifetime
• Favours acoustic sounds • Favours a semantic
form of coding
Types of Long Term Memories

Long Term Memory

Explicit Implicit
(declarative) (procedural)

Facts, Conditione
Personal Cognitive
general Motor Skills d
Experience Skills
knowledge Responses
 Auditory coding sound

How is
information
Visual coding appearance
coded in STM?

Semantic coding meaning

Capacity of short term memory

• Digit span: how many digits a person

can remember
• Typical result: 5-8 items
• But what is an item?
• Memory list
1456208397
→ you remember 7 or so digits
HLQTUZXPSMN
→you remember 7 or so letters
Jane, Ken, Steve, Kate, Mary, Brad, Tom, Ellen, Les, Pete, Jun,
Susan,
→ you remember 7 or so names

Not absolute digits or letters that you remember but

groups (chunks) of things that you remember.
• Chunking – small units can be
combined into larger meaningful
units
• Chunk: collection of elements strongly
associated with one another but
weakly associated with elements in
other chunks
What is short-term memory (STM) for?

• Is STM for transferring information to long-term memory (LTM)?

• Is it a passive terminal for information transfer?
Short term memory becomes working memory
Features of Working Memory
There are two storage
components linked to a
Central Executive

1. Articulatory or phonological
(speech-sounds)
2. Visual and spatial
 Sensory Memory

• Persistence of vision:
retention of the
perception of light
• Sparkler’s trail of light
• Frames in film
Sensory Memory

• How big is sensory memory?

• Sperling (1960)
• array of letters flashed quickly on a screen
• participants asked to report as many as possible
• CogLab: Partial report demonstration
Sensory Memory
• Whole report: participants asked to
report as many as could be seen
• Report average of 4.5 out of 12 letters

• Partial report: participants heard

tone which told them which row of
letters to report
• Report average of 3.3 out of 4 letters
 Sensory Memory
• Short-lived sensory memory registers all or
most information that hits our visual
receptors
• Information decays very quickly
• Brief sensory memory
• Iconic memory
• Visual icon
• Corresponds to sensory memory
Models of Memory
Models of Memory: Atkinson and Shiffrin
Modal Model of Memory
Control processes: Active processes that
can be controlled by the person
• Rehearsal
• Strategies used to make a stimulus more
memorable (mnemonic strategies)
• Strategies of attention
Phone book example

Control process:
active processes that
can be controlled by
the person

Rehearsal Strategies
used to make a
stimulus more
memorable Strategies
of attention
The Working Memory Model
Central Executive
(limited capacity)

Articulatory loop Visuo-spatial

Verbal rehearsal scratch pad
system Spatial or visual
‘inner voice’ coding
Primary acoustic store ‘inner eye’
Accessed directly from the
attentional system
Or indirectly via the articulatory
loop
‘the inner ear’
Temporary storage of information
• Working memory is used in reading and mathematics

• In order to answer questions, you need temporary storage of

information.

• Working memory → a buffer for information manipulation

Computer metaphor
• Working memory → Random Access Memory (RAM)

• Long-term memory
• Hard drive

• After shutting down your computer, you lose the information stored
in RAM.
• But the information stored in your hard drive is kept.
The phonological loop The visuospatial scketch
holds verbal and auditory pad holds visual and
information spatial information

Fig. 5-13, p. 155

The central executive
coordinates verbal and visual
information
Divide attention between
different tasks
Help focus your attention

Fig. 5-14, p. 156

The phonological loop
Word-Length Effect

• Memory for lists of words is better for

short words than for long words
• It takes longer to rehearse long words
and to produce them during recall
Demo: Which is more difficult?
• Read the following letters, look away, count to 10, and
recall.

• Beast, bronze, wife, golf, inn, limp, dirt, star

• Read the following letters, look away, count to 10, and

recall.

• Alcohol, property, amplifier, officer, gallery, mosquito,

orchestra, bricklayer
Other Models of Memory
• Levels of processing
• Parallel distributed processing
Demonstration

• You are about to be presented with a list of

words and a statement. Your task is to decide if
the statement about the word is true or false.
 Are these statements true or false?
• House has five letters
• Scissors are used for cutting
• Drum is a musical instrument
• Clocks tell the time
• CHAIR is printed in capitals
• Kettle has four letters
• Chips go with fish
• Honey is what spiders make
• Knife is spelled correctly
• Cold is the opposite of hot
• Book has four letters
• BLACK is written in capitals
• Horse has five letters
• Purple is not a colour
• Green is spelled correctly
• Mother is always female
• Find has three letters
• Table may be made of wood
• Lake has six letters
• Shoes come in pairs
• June is printed in capitals
• Fruit can be eaten
• Write down all the words you remember.
Which words were remembered?

Shallow processing Semantic /deep processing

House has five letters Shoes come in pairs
CHAIR is printed in capitals Table may be made of wood
Kettle has four letters Mother is always female
Knife is spelled correctly Purple is not a colour
Book has four letters Cold is the opposite of hot
BLACK is written in capitals Fruit can be eaten
Horse has five letters Chips go with fish
Green is spelled correctly Honey is what spiders make
Find has three letters Drum is a musical instrument
Lake has six letters Clocks tell the time
June is printed in capitals Scissors are used for cutting
Craik & Lockhart Model: Levels of Processing
They did an •table
experiment similar
to the previous Is the word in capital letters?
one.
•HOUSE
Although they used Does the word rhyme with
slightly different mouse?
processes
•Fence
They also did not tell Does the word fit with the
people that they following statement;
would be expected to
recall the words The man fixed the ____
because the wind blew it over
Levels of Processing Model
Incidental Learning
0.3

words recalled
0.25

Proportion of 0.2 Answ er to the

question is "Yes"
0.15 Answ er is "No"

0.1

0.05

0
Case Rhyme Sentance

Level of Processing
Levels of Processing Model
Intentional Learning
0.25

words recalled
Proportion of
0.2

0.15

0.1 Answ er is "Yes"

Answ er is "No"
0.05

0
Case Rhyme Sentance

Level of process
Evaluation:
• The problem with external validity?
• Is there anything wrong with using words to recall?
• Separate memory stores?
• Emotional factors?
• Expectations – personal information
Connectionist Perspective
• Parallel distributed processing model
• Memory uses a network
• Meaning comes from patterns of activation across the
entire network