DEVELOPMENT

PSYCHOLOGY:
MEMORY
Sahar Soomro
Assistant Professor
ION&M, DUHS

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OBJECTIVES:

 Define memory ?
 What are the three stages of memory ?
 Define and describe the various types of memories?
 Demonstrate an understanding of the processes of forgetting from long
term memory?
 Demonstrate an understanding of the processes of forgetting from short
term memory?

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WHAT IS MEMORY ?

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DEFINITION:

“Memory is the process of maintaining information over time.”

Memory is essential to all our lives.
Without a memory of the past we cannot operate in the present or
think about the future.
We would not be able to remember what we did yesterday, what
we have done today or what we plan to do tomorrow.

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Three stages of memory

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1. MEMORY ENCODING:

When information comes into our memory system (from sensory

input), it needs to be changed into a form that the system can cope
with, so that it can be stored. There are two main way in which
information can be encoded.
1. Visual (picture)
2. Acoustic (sound)

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2. STORAGE:

Storage means that the information is maintained

over a consistent period of time. (duration)
(capacity) and what kind of information is held .

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3. RETRIEVAL:

This refers to getting information out storage. If we can’t

remember something, it may be because we are unable to
retrieve it

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Types of memory:
Sensory memory
Short term memory
Long term memory

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SENSORY MEMORY:

 Sensory memory processes information gathered through your five

senses. It holds information for an extremely brief period of time (less
than a second) after the original stimulus has stopped.
 Sensory memory is the first type of memory.
 Its purpose is to give your brain time to process the incoming
information.

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 Most of the information that gets into sensory memory is forgotten.
 It never makes its way into the second stage of memory because it was never attended to.
 Sensory memory can be observed if you look at an object then close your eyes. As your eyes close, you can notice
how the visual image is maintained for a fraction of a second before fading. It is your sensory memory that is
holding that image.

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TYPES OF SENSORY MEMORY:

Iconic Memory:
Iconic memory is the visual sensory memory that holds the mental representation of your visual
stimuli.
Echoic Memory:
Echoic memory is the auditory sensory memory that hold information that you hear.
Haptic Memory:
Haptic memory is the tactile sensory memory that holds information from your sense of feeling.

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SHORT TERM MEMORY:

 Short-term memory (STM) is also known as working or active memory. It holds the information you are currently
thinking about. This information will quickly be forgotten unless you make a conscious effort to retain it.
 Like sensory memory, short-term memory holds information temporarily, pending further processing. However,
unlike sensory memory which holds the complete image received by your senses, short-term memory only stores
your interpretation of the image

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 Information passes from sensory memory into short-term memory, where again it is held for only a short period
of time.
 Most of the information stored in short-term memory will only be kept for approximately 20 to 45 seconds.
 While many of your short-term memories are quickly forgotten, paying attention to the information and
processing (encoding) it allows it to continue into long-term memory.

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 Short-term memory not only has a limited time, it also has a limited capacity. It is believed to only hold a few
items. Research shows the number is around 7 +/- 2 items.
For example:
 If a person is asked to listen to a series of 20 names, he or she normally retains only about seven names. Typically,
it is either the first few or last few. The reason is because if you focuses on the first few items, your STM becomes
saturated, and you cannot concentrate on and recall the last series of items.

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LONG TERM MEMORY:

 Long-term memory (LTM) refers to the storage of information over an extended period.
 It is all the memories you hold for periods longer than a few seconds.
 The information can last in your long-term memory for hours, days, months, or even years.
 Although you may forget some information after you learn it, other things will stay with you forever.

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 Some information retained in STM is processed or encoded into long-term memory.
 This information is filed away in your mind and must be retrieved before it can be used.
 Some of the information in your LTM is easy to recall, while other memories are much more difficult to retrieve.
 Unlike short-term memory, long-term memory has seemingly unlimited capacity.
 You may remember numerous facts and figures, as well as episodes in your life from years ago.

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TYPES OF
LONG TERM
MEMORY:

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IMPLICIT MEMORY:
 Implicit memory is one of the two main types of
long term memory.
 One of its most common forms is a procedural
memory, which helps people performing certain
tasks without conscious awareness of these
previous experiences.
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PROCEDURAL MEMORY:
procedural memory is a part of long term memory and
is responsible for knowing how to know things, i.e.
memory of motor skills. It does not involve conscious
thought and is not declarative. For example, procedural
memory would involve knowledge of how to ride a
bicycle.

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EXPLICIT MEMORY:

Explicit memory (or declarative memory) is one of the

two main types of long term memory. Explicit memory
can be divided into two categories: episodic memory,
which stores specific personal experiences, and semantic
memory which stores factual information

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SEMANTIC MEMORY:

Semantic memory is a part of long term memory

responsible for storing information about the world. This
includes the knowledge about meaning of words, as well
as general knowledge. For example, London is the
capital of England. It involves conscious thought and is
declarative

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EPISODIC MEMORY:

Episodic memory is a part of long term memory

responsible for storing information about events that we
have experienced in our lives. It involves conscious
thought and is declarative. An example would be a
memory of our 1st day of school.

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 Understanding On the
process of forgetting long
and short term memory

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LONG TERM MEMORY:

Why do we forget long term memory ?

You store information in your memory but are unable to
remember it when you need to In this case, information
is inaccessible.
The human memory simply forgets information,
permanently, in this case information is unavailable.

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There are three different theories of forgetting long
term memory.
 Interference
 Lack of consolidation
 Retrieval failure

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INTERFERENCE:
Forgetting occurs because that learned in past and in future,
memories interfere with one another.
In other words forgetting occurs because of interference from
other memories.
It's sometimes difficult to remember information if you've been
trying to memories stuff that's similar,
There are two ways in which interference can cause forgetting:

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Proactive interference:
 Old learning interfere with retrieval of more
recently learned material, e.g. you get a new
phone number and later you can’t remember
your old one.
Retroactive interference:
 New learning interfere with the retrieval of old
learning, e.g. someone changes her last name
but you can only remember her previous name.
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LACK OF CONSOLIDATION:
 Failure to permanently store memories from the STM
into the LTM due to an interruption of following of
storage to the brain cell in the nervous system called
lack of consolidation.
 Anything which interfere acetylcholine could disturb
consolidation process, would lead to forgetting.
 experiment drachman and sahakian 1979
 Henry molaison’s surgery.
 The main problem experienced by HM is his inability
to remember and learn new things.
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SHORT TERM MEMORY:

 Memory loss amnesia is unusual forget fullness, you may not be able to remember new events, recall
one or more memories of past, or both.
 The memory loss maybe for short time then resolve ( transient)
 The STM may not go away, and depending on the cause, it can get worse over time.

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When a person experiences short-term memory loss, he
or she can remember incidents from 20 years ago but is
fuzzy on the details of things that happened 20 minutes
prior.
People who have been victims of or witnessed a
traumatic event such as a violent crime or accident can
also have their short-term memories affected.
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  A brain aneurysm may cause short-term memory
loss, aneurysm are weak bulging spots on the walls of
the arteries. Brain aneurysm do not always rupture but
when they do, they can cause bleeding in the
apartments of the brain.
 A brain tumor may affect memory. Cancer treatment,
head trauma or concussion, brain infections and
strokes may also bring about short-term memory loss.
conditions such as seizures, epilepsy, heart bypass
surgery and depression can also impact short-term
memory.

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THEORIES:

Rehearsal :-
 Rehearsal is the process where information is kept in short-term memory by mentally repeating it.
 When the information is repeated each time, that information is reentered into the short-term memory, thus
keeping that information for another 10 to 20 seconds (the average storage time for short-term memory).

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Chunking :
 Chunking is a process by which one can expand his/her ability to
remember things in the short term.
 Chunking is also a process by which a person organizes material
into meaningful groups. Although the average person may retain
only about four different units in short-term memory, chunking can
greatly increase a person's recall capacity. For example, in recalling
a phone number, the person could chunk the digits into three
groups: first, the area code (such as 123), then a three-digit chunk
(456), and, last, a four-digit chunk (7890). This method of
remembering phone numbers is far more effective than attempting
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Factors affecting:
 It is very difficult to demonstrate the exact capacity of short-term
memory (STM) because it will vary depending on the nature of the
material to be recalled.
 There is currently no way of defining the basic unit of information to be
stored in the STM store. It is also possible that STM is not the store
described by Atkinson and Shiffrin. In that case, the task of defining the
task of STM becomes even more difficult.

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THANK YOU

Sahar Soomro
Email address
Phone #

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