8.1 How memory works - Introduction to psychology (2023)

In the information processing model of human memory, stimuli from the environment are processed first. Sensory memory: storage of brief sensory events such as images, sounds, and tastes. Sensory memory is extremely limited in retaining information, until a few seconds before the information is classified, which is processed in the next stage, short-term memory. We are constantly bombarded with sensory information through the transduction of our various types of sensory receptors. We cannot absorb all or even most of this information, and each individual level of the memory process acts as a filter as the information travels from sensory memory to short-term memory and eventually to long-term memory. where the information is stored. Recovery. For example, what did your teacher wear in the last class? Most of the time, as long as the teacher is dressed appropriately, a teacher's attire is not immediately important, and therefore generally not considered important enough to rehearse and store in long-term memory. We discard sensory information about sights, sounds, smells, and even textures that we don't consider valuable information. Consider driving an hour or more. You obviously absorb information around you while driving, as evidenced by your ability to successfully navigate to your destination, but you probably won't be able to remember small specific details about your driving, such as: How many blue cars you passed or the names of all the signs of the streets that passed on the way. When we consider something valuable, the information is placed in our short-term memory system, but most of the information we process is filtered out so that we can focus on what we consider to be important.

A sensory memory study examined the importance of valuable information in short-term memory storage. In one of the best-known experimental projects in psychology, J.R. Stroop discovered a memory phenomenon in the 1930s: it will name a color more easily if it is printed in that color, which is called a color.syrup effect🇧🇷 In other words, the word "red" is named faster, regardless of what color the word appears in, than any word colored in red. Do an experiment: name the colors of the words given to you in the image below. Do not read the words, but say the color the word is printed in. For example, if you see the word "yellow" written in green, you should say "green" and not "yellow." This experiment is fun and not as easy as it seems.

Figure 8.03.The Stroop effect describes why we have trouble naming a color when the word and the color of the word are different.

SHORT TERM MEMORY

Short Term Memory (STM) is a temporary storage system that processes incoming sensory memories. Although some advocate not distinguishing between short-term memory and working memory (Cowen, 2008; Rose, Myerson, Roediger, & Hale, 2010), for consistency with other introductory psychology texts (Licht, Hull, & Ballantyne, 2014) Let us consider this short-term memory as a stage in the information processing model, as well as a place where information is stored, and working memory as a set of processes that allow us to obtain and manipulate information. Memory within working memory allows you to rehearse strategies or assign meaning to information to ensure accurate retrieval later.

The capacity of working memory is limited and works in aBottleneck model in information processing🇧🇷 The bottleneck analogy refers to the flow of information through memory, starting at the bottom of a hypothetical bottle where large amounts of information are processed through the senses, and when information is processed in memory work, the amount of information that can pass through the bottleneck and in long-term memory the information stored is drastically reduced (due to the tight bottleneck) compared to what was originally processed in the encoding step. Working memory processes exist right where you squeeze the bottle, allowing us to hold information in working memory for about 20 seconds, increasing the likelihood that the information will be safely stored in memory at long term. George Miller (1956), in his research on memory capacity that contributed to the early days of cognitive psychology, found that most people can retain about 7 items on the MTS. Some remember 5, others 9, so he called the STM capacity 7 plus or minus 2. Recent research reassessing working memory capacity suggests that working memory capacity is even lower, on average about four plus or minus one unit. The ability found by Miller may be related to the use of heuristics (discussed later), such as information clustering (Cowan, 2001).

Think of short-term memory like the information you've displayed on your computer screen: a document, a spreadsheet, or a web page. Information goes from short-term memory to long-term memory (you save it to your hard drive) or is discarded (delete a document or close a web browser). The conscious repetition of information known asAl finalallows information to move from temporary short-term memory to long-term memory, a process known asmemory consolidation.

You may be wondering, "How much information can our memory process at one time?" To test the capacity and duration of your short-term memory, have a partner read the series of random numbers below aloud, labeling each series with the words "Ready?" Begin and end each one by saying “Remember.” At this point, you should try to write the sequence of numbers from memory.

Figure 6.Work through this sequence of numbers using the memory exercise above to determine the longest sequence of digits you can memorize.

Write the longest string where you hit the series. As mentioned above, Miller capacity reviews of seven plus or minus two on average suggest that most people will have a working memory capacity of about 4 plus or minus one unit unless they use a memory technique like fragmentation. Memory is a little better for random numbers than for random letters (Jacobs, 1887), and also generally a little better for information we hear (auditory coding) than we see (visual coding) (Anderson, 1969), but processed consequently. top Information with higher processing depth tends to be more readily available compared to less deep information encoding.

THEORIES OF WORKING MEMORY

In humans, working memory is made up of several organized processes and consists of at least two distinct mechanisms that are used to obtain and manipulate verbal and visuospatial information, a mediating mechanism that mixes the different forms of information, and a global mechanism of allocation of attention, which focuses on the use of cognitive resources between subareas of working memory. This structured organization of working memory processes was first proposed by Baddeley and Hitch (1974) and was originally thought to consist of three distinct subsystems known asvisual-spatial sketchbook, aepisodic puffer,It's inphonological loop.These three subsystems are then coordinated by an attentional steering mechanism known asCentral administration.

According to Baddeley's (2000; Baddeley & Hitch, 1994) model, the phonological loop is primarily concerned with the processing and maintenance of verbal and auditory information. This mechanism has also been likened to what we understand as our internal monologue, which we use to recite and rehearse information to build strong leadership to remember later. We use the phonological cycle when we read, try to solve problems in our minds, or learn new vocabulary. Studies have shown that, on average, people can actively manipulate about two seconds of verbal information without relying on repetition practice (Baddeley, 2002).

The visuospatial notebook, for its part, represents a mechanism separated from the phonological loop that allows the maintenance and manipulation of visual and spatial information. This system allows us to navigate a room without his vision, drink his coffee without spilling it on his new pants, and also helps manipulate spatial perspective. Using the visuospatial sketchpad, we can imagine a map of the campus and determine which route to take to get to a conference you want to attend, or take alternative routes to avoid traffic jams. Studies examining the visuospatial sketchpad have shown that people have difficulty performing two visuospatial tasks simultaneously, suggesting that this aspect of working memory is quite demanding in terms of cognitive resource load (Repovš & Baddeley, 2006). ).

The central executive represents an attention distribution mechanism. Much like a group leader or manager of lower-level workers, the core leader is the process of determining what information to focus on and what working memory to use. The central executive also decides what information to ignore and also has limited capacity, which explains why people are less productive on individual tasks when they are doing many different tasks at the same time (texting, eating, and driving at the same time). EastEriksen's flanking taskrepresents a method widely used in cognitive science to quantify the ability of the central executive to quickly and accurately suppress (ignore distractions) distractors in its recognition of and response to target stimuli (Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974).

LONG TERM MEMORY

Long-term memory (MLP) is the continuous storage of information. Unlike short-term memory, there are no limits to the storage capacity of LTM. It includes everything you can remember that happened more than a few minutes ago, up to everything you can remember that happened days, weeks, and years ago. To use the computer analogy, the information on your LTM would be like the information you have stored on your hard drive. It's not on your desktop (your short-term memory), but you can access this information whenever you want, at least most of the time. Not all long-term memories are strong memories. Some reminders can only be accessed through command prompts. For example, you can easily remember a fact: "What is the capital of the United States?" - or a procedure - "How do you ride a bike?" - but you may have trouble remembering the name of the restaurant, remember where you had dinner when you were on holiday in France last summer. A warning, p. For example, the fact that the restaurant is named after the owner, who told you about their mutual interest in soccer, can help you remember the name of the restaurant.

Long-term memory is divided into two types:explicitmiimplicitly🇧🇷 Understanding the different types is important because a person's age or certain types of trauma or brain disorders can leave certain types of TML intact while wreaking havoc on other types.

Figure 8.05.There are two components of long-term memory: explicit and implicit. Explicit memory includes both episodic and semantic memory. Implicit memory includes procedural memory and things learned through conditioning.

explicit memories(Also know asdeclarative memories) are the ones we remember and remember consciously. Explicit memory has to do with storing facts and events and is the type of memory that you know and can consciously express. For example, if you are studying for a chemistry test, the material you are studying will be part of your explicit memory. Explicit memory consists of two parts: semantic memory and episodic memory.

semantic memoryIt has to do with language and knowledge about language. An example would be the question “What are you doing?argumentativeKnowledge about words, concepts, and language-based knowledge and facts are stored in our semantic memory. For example, the answers to the following questions are stored in your semantic memory:

• Who was the first president of the United States?
• What is democracy?
• What is the longest river in the world?

episodic memoryit is information about events we personally experience. The concept of episodic memory was first proposed about 40 years ago (Tulving, 1972). Since then, Tulving and others have analyzed the scientific evidence and reformulated the theory. Scholars currently believe that episodic memory is the recollection of events in specific places at specific times, the what, where, and when of an event (Tulving, 2002). It includes the recall of visual images, as well as a sense of familiarity (Hassabis & Maguire, 2007).

Often our most vivid episodic memories are associated with intense emotions. AFlash memoryis a highly detailed and extraordinarily vivid episodic reminiscence of the circumstances surrounding surprising, important, or exciting news. With flash memories, people often remember the exact moment they learned of the event and specific details about it: where you were, who or what source informed you, what you did next, and how you felt. Flash memories, in particular, are not firsthand memories.experienced the eventinstead of the experiences associated with itlearn about an event(Hirst and Phelps, 2016). Although memories appear intense and vivid, research suggests that flash memories are prone to inaccuracy and may be missing some important details (Hirst et al., 2015).

implicit memories(also known as non-declarative memories) are memories that are not part of our conscious mind. They are memories formed from behaviors. A common example of implicit memory is the callrepeat primer🇧🇷 Repetition priming represents a general form of implicit memory in which a prior encounter with information facilitates subsequent processing of the same information (Ashcraft & Radvansky, 2013). Repeated preparation has been documented in several tasks, such as: B. Word identification and lexical decision-making tasks (Morton, 1979), word and picture naming tasks (Brown et al., 1991), and reading tasks. fluid rereading (Masson, 1984) . In all of these studies, prior experience with the stimuli leads to faster performance on a subsequent task, even if the subject does not remember encountering the stimuli before.

A classic demonstration of readiness for repetition, described by Jacoby and Dallas (1981), asked participants to study a list of known words and answer a question about each word as they progressed through the task. Participants were sometimes asked about the physical form of the word, for example, B. “Does the word contain the letter?r?” participants were sometimes asked about the sound of the word, as in “the word rhymesZug🇧🇷 and sometimes participants were asked about the semantic features of the word, such as B. "Is the word in the center of the nervous system?" Referring to Craik and Lockhart's (1972) depth processing theories, asking participants about the physical form of the word should produce superficial processing of information, while asking about sound should produce deeper processing. and semantic questions should produce the deepest levels of information processing. After encoding the information, explicit memory was tested with a simple recognition and recall task. This task showed that recognition and recall were higher for information encoded at deeper levels (semantic encoding), while superficially encoded information was less available for recall and recognition. In the implicit memory task, participants were given the words one at a time for just 35ms, followed by a series of asterisks as a mask. The participants had to repeat the spoken words, demonstrating that the participants did not need to remember which words they had already seen before, they only identified which words were presented very briefly. On average, regardless of how they were studied, word recognition was around 80%, compared to 65% for control words that had not been presented before. This is a typical finding in implicit memory tasks, as even without conscious recall of previously presented stimuli, a faster and more accurate response to previously presented words compared to non-presented words.

Another important implicit memory task created by Blakemore (1977) demonstrates implicit learning processes in amnesic patients. As patients like H.M., who suffered bilateral damage to the hippocampus and lateral temporal lobes, were unable to form new memories (anterograde amnesia), these patients were asked to complete a drawing exercise in which they were asked to draw internal patterns. and specific shapes while tracing his moving hands he saw in a mirror. Initially, this task is extremely difficult and shows that the participants have great trouble staying within the lines. However, patients with amnesia who do not remember performing the task previously show significant improvement over time, showing clear implicit processes related to learning and memory.

Figure 8.06.H.M., a patient with anterograde amnesia, completes a motor learning task in a mirror for a few days. Improvement on task over time is evidence of implicit learning and memory. (after Kalat, 2015)

procedure memoryit's a kind of implicit memory: it stores information about how to do things where you can perform actions without consciously supervising the threads that need to be configured to perform the task. It is the memory of skillful actions such as B. Brushing teeth, driving and swimming. By learning to swim freestyle, you will practice the stroke of swimming: how to move your arms, how to turn your head to alternate breathing from side to side, and how to kick with your legs. You will practice this many times until you become good at it. Once you learn to freestyle and your body knows how to move in the water, you'll never forget freestyle swimming, even if you haven't swum for a few decades. If you give a guitar to a talented guitarist, they'll still be able to play reasonably well long after they haven't played.

emotional conditioningit is also a type of implicit memory. Memories acquired through classical conditioning are also classified as implicit, like feeling hungry when you smell your favorite food truck. Associations are implicitly generated between stimuli that often occur together, evoking thoughts of the associated stimulus when the first occurs. Evidence for implicit memory can be found in studies withprimerProcedures, which are processes by which individuals are measured on how well they do on tasks when, under conscious experience, they are instructed on how to respond to a task. Implicit memory also contributes to the illusion of the truth effect, in which people are more likely to evaluate statements as true if they have experienced that statement before, regardless of whether it is true or not.

CAN YOU REMEMBER EVERYTHING YOU HAVE DONE OR SAID?

Episodic memories are also known as autobiographical memories. Let's quickly test your autobiographical memory. What were you wearing exactly five years ago today? What did you have for lunch on April 10, 2009? You may find it difficult, if not impossible, to answer these questions. Can you remember all the events you have experienced throughout your life: meals, conversations, clothing choices, weather conditions, etc.? Most likely, none of us can remotely answer these questions; however, the American actress Mariluchicken, best known for the television programTaxi,can remember. She has an amazing and extremely superior autobiographical memory.

Marilu Henner's super-autobiographical memory is known as hyperthymesia. (Credit: Mark Richardson)

Very few people can remember events in this way; Currently only 12 known individuals have this ability and only a few have been studied (Parker, Cahill and McGaugh 2006). and althoughhyperthymesiatwo children in the United States seem to have memories long before their tenth birthday.