Introduction to the process and types of memory

1/19/2018
Introduction to the Process and Types of Memory | Submitted By:
Ghulam Mujtaba E/2017-211
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TO: SIR.
ALI AJMAL
INTRODUCTION TO MEMORY

Institute of Research and Education Page 2
Introduction to the Process and Types of Memory
Memory is the ability to take in information, encode it, store it, and retrieve it at a later time.
Key Points
 The three main stages of memory are encoding, storage, and retrieval. Problems can
occur at any of these stages.
 The three main forms of memory storage are sensory memory, short-term memory, and
long-term memory.
 Sensory memory is not consciously controlled; it allows individuals to retain impressions
of sensory information after the original stimulus has ceased.
 Short-term memory lasts for a very brief time and can only hold 7 +/- 2 pieces of
information at once.
 Long-term storage can hold an indefinitely large amount of information and can last for a
very long time.
 Implicit and explicit memories are two different types of long-term memory. Implicit
memories are of sensory and automatized behaviors, and explicit memories are of
information, episodes, or events.
Key Terms
 memory: The ability of an organism to record information about things or events with
the facility of recalling them later at will.
 rehearsal: Repetition of an item in short-term memory in order to store it in long-term
memory.
Memory is the ability to take in information, store it, and recall it at a later time. In psychology,
memory is broken into three stages: encoding, storage, and retrieval.
The Memory Process
1. Encoding (or registration): the process of receiving, processing, and combining
information. Encoding allows information from the outside world to reach our senses in
the forms of chemical and physical stimuli. In this first stage we must change the
information so that we may put the memory into the encoding process.
2. Storage: the creation of a permanent record of the encoded information. Storage is the
second memory stage or process in which we maintain information over periods of time.
3. Retrieval (or recall, or recognition): the calling back of stored information in response to
some cue for use in a process or activity. The third process is the retrieval of information
that we have stored. We must locate it and return it to our consciousness. Some retrieval
attempts may be effortless due to the type of information.

Problems can occur at any stage of the process, leading to anything from forgetfulness to
amnesia. Distraction can prevent us from encoding information initially; information might not
be stored properly, or might not move from short-term to long-term storage; and/or we might not
be able to retrieve the information once it’s stored.
Types of Memory
1: Sensory Memory
Sensory memory allows individuals to retain impressions of sensory information after the
original stimulus has ceased. One of the most common examples of sensory memory is fast-
moving lights in darkness: if you’ve ever lit a sparkler on the Fourth of July or watched traffic
rush by at night, the light appears to leave a trail. This is because of “iconic memory,” the visual
sensory store. Two other types of sensory memory have been extensively studied: echoic
memory (the auditory sensory store) and haptic memory (the tactile sensory store). Sensory
memory is not involved in higher cognitive functions like short- and long-term memory; it is not
consciously controlled. The role of sensory memory is to provide a detailed representation of our
entire sensory experience for which relevant pieces of information are extracted by short-term
memory and processed by working memory.
2: Short-Term Memory
Short-term memory is also known as working memory. It holds only a few items (research shows
a range of 7 +/- 2 items) and only lasts for about 20 seconds. However, items can be moved from
short-term memory to long-term memory via processes like rehearsal. An example of rehearsal
is when someone gives you a phone number verbally and you say it to yourself repeatedly until
you can write it down. If someone interrupts your rehearsal by asking a question, you can easily
forget the number, since it is only being held in your short-term memory.
3: Long-Term Memory
Long-term memories are all the memories we hold for periods of time longer than a few seconds;
long-term memory encompasses everything from what we learned in first grade to our old
addresses to what we wore to work yesterday. Long-term memory has an incredibly vast storage
capacity, and some memories can last from the time they are created until we die.
There are many types of long-term memory. Explicit or declarative memory requires conscious
recall; it consists of information that is consciously stored or retrieved. Explicit memory can be
further subdivided into semantic memory (facts taken out of context, such as “Paris is the capital
of France”) and episodic memory (personal experiences, such as “When I was in Paris, I saw
the Mona Lisa“).
In contrast to explicit/declarative memory, there is also a system for procedural/implicit memory.
These memories are not based on consciously storing and retrieving information, but on implicit
learning. Often this type of memory is employed in learning new motor skills. An example of

implicit learning is learning to ride a bike: you do not need to consciously remember how to ride
a bike, you simply do. This is because of implicit memory.
Types of Memory
Sensory Memory
Sensory memory allows an individual to remember an input in great detail but for only a few
milliseconds.
Key Points
Sensory memory allows individuals to recall great detail about a complex stimulus immediately
following its presentation.
There are different types of sensory memory, including iconic memory, echoic memory, and
haptic memory.
In sensory memory, no manipulation of the incoming information occurs, and the input is
quickly transferred to the working memory.
Key Terms
Sensory memory: The brief storage (in memory) of information experienced by the senses;
typically only lasts up to a few seconds.
Iconic: Visually representative.
Echoic: Imitative of a sound; onomatopoeic.
Sensory memory allows individuals to retain impressions of sensory information for a brief time
after the original stimulus has ceased. It allows individuals to remember great sensory detail
about a complex stimulus immediately following its presentation. Sensory memory is an
automatic response considered to be outside of cognitive control. The information represented in
this type of memory is the “raw data” which provides a snapshot of a person’s overall sensory
experience. Information from sensory memory has the shortest retention time, ranging from mere
milliseconds to five seconds. It is retained just long enough for it to be transferred to short-term
(working) memory.
In sensory memory, no manipulation of the incoming information occurs as it is transferred
quickly to working memory. The amount of information is greatly reduced during this transfer
because the capacity of working memory is not large enough to cope with all the input coming
from our sense organs.
Types of Sensory Memory

It is assumed that there is a subtype of sensory memory for each of the five major senses (touch,
taste, sight, hearing, and smell); however, only three of these types have been extensively
studied: echoic memory, iconic memory, and haptic memory.
Iconic Memory
Sensory input to the visual system goes into iconic memory, so named because the mental
representations of visual stimuli are referred to as icons. Iconic memory has a duration of about
100 ms. One of the times that iconic memory is noticeable is when we see “light trails.” This is
the phenomenon when bright lights move rapidly at night and you perceive them as forming a
trail; this is the image that is represented in iconic memory.
Image
Light trails: In iconic memory, you perceive a moving bright light as forming a continuous line
because of the images retained in sensory memory for milliseconds.
Echoic Memory
Echoic memory is the branch of sensory memory used by the auditory system. Echoic memory is
capable of holding a large amount of auditory information, but only for 3–4 seconds. This echoic
sound is replayed in the mind for this brief amount of time immediately after the presentation of
the auditory stimulus.
Haptic Memory
Haptic memory is the branch of sensory memory used by the sense of touch. Sensory receptors
all over the body detect sensations like pressure, itching, and pain, which are briefly held in
haptic memory before vanishing or being transported to short-term memory. This type of
memory seems to be used when assessing the necessary forces for gripping and interacting with
familiar objects. Haptic memory seems to decay after about two seconds. Evidence of haptic
memory has only recently been identified and not as much is known about its characteristics
compared to iconic memory.
Short-Term and Working Memory
Short-term memory, which includes working memory, stores information for a brief period of
recall for things that happened recently.
Key Points
Short-term memory acts as a scratchpad for temporary recall of information being processed. It
decays rapidly and has a limited capacity.
Rehearsal and chunking are two ways to make information more likely to be held in short-term
memory.

Working memory is related to short-term memory. It contains a phonological loop that preserves
verbal and auditory data, a visuospatial scratchpad that preserves visual data, and a central
manager that controls attention to the data.
Key Terms
Chunking: The splitting of information into smaller pieces to make reading and understanding
faster and easier.
Encoding: The process of converting information into a construct that can be stored within the
brain.
Consolidation: A process that stabilizes a memory trace after its initial acquisition.
Short-term memory is the capacity for holding a small amount of information in an active,
readily available state for a brief period of time. It is separate from our long-term memory, where
lots of information is stored for us to recall at a later time. Unlike sensory memory, it is capable
of temporary storage. How long this storage lasts depends on conscious effort from the
individual; without rehearsal or active maintenance, the duration of short-term memory is
believed to be on the order of seconds.
Capacity of Short-Term Memory
Short-term memory acts as a scratchpad for temporary recall of information. For instance, in
order to understand this sentence you need to hold in your mind the beginning of the sentence as
you read the rest. Short-term memory decays rapidly and has a limited capacity.
The psychologist George Miller suggested that human short-term memory has a forward memory
span of approximately seven items plus or minus two. More recent research has shown that this
number is roughly accurate for college students recalling lists of digits, but memory span varies
widely with populations tested and with material used.
For example, the ability to recall words in order depends on a number of characteristics of these
words: fewer words can be recalled when the words have longer spoken duration (this is known
as the word-length effect) or when their speech sounds are similar to each other (this is called the
phonological similarity effect). More words can be recalled when the words are highly familiar
or occur frequently in the language. Chunking of information can also lead to an increase in
short-term memory capacity. For example, it is easier to remember a hyphenated phone number
than a single long number because it is broken into three chunks instead of existing as ten digits.
Rehearsal is the process in which information is kept in short-term memory by mentally
repeating it. When the information is repeated each time, that information is re-entered into the
short-term memory, thus keeping that information for another 10 to 20 seconds, the average
storage time for short-term memory. Distractions from rehearsal often cause disturbances in
short-term memory retention. This accounts for the desire to complete a task held in short-term
memory as soon as possible.

Working Memory
Though the term “working memory” is often used synonymously with “short-term memory,”
working memory is related to but actually distinct from short-term memory. It holds temporary
data in the mind where it can be manipulated. Baddeley and Hitch’s 1974 model of working
memory is the most commonly accepted theory of working memory today. According to
Baddeley, working memory has a phonological loop to preserve verbal data, a visuospatial
scratchpad to control visual data, and a central executive to disperse attention between them.
Phonological Loop
The phonological loop is responsible for dealing with auditory and verbal information, such as
phone numbers, people’s names, or general understanding of what other people are talking about.
We could roughly say that it is a system specialized for language. It consists of two parts: a
short-term phonological store with auditory memory traces that are subject to rapid decay, and an
articulatory loop that can revive these memory traces. The phonological store can only store
sounds for about two seconds without rehearsal, but the auditory loop can “replay them”
internally to keep them in working memory. The repetition of information deepens the memory.
Visuospatial Sketchpad
Visual and spatial information is handled in the visuospatial sketchpad. This means that
information about the position and properties of objects can be stored. The phonological loop
and visuospatial sketchpad are semi-independent systems; because of this, you can increase the
amount you can remember by engaging both systems at once. For instance, you might be better
able to remember an entire phone number if you visualize part of it (using the visuospatial
sketchpad) and then say the rest of it out loud (using the phonological loop).
Central Executive
The central executive connects the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad and
coordinates their activities. It also links the working memory to the long-term memory, controls
the storage of long-term memory, and manages memory retrieval from storage. The process of
storage is influenced by the duration in which information is held in working memory and the
amount that the information is manipulated. Information is stored for a longer time if it is
semantically interpreted and viewed with relation to other information already stored in long-
term memory.
Transport to Long-Term Memory
The process of transferring information from short-term to long-term memory involves encoding
and consolidation of information. This is a function of time; that is, the longer the memory stays
in the short-term memory the more likely it is to be placed in the long-term memory. In this
process, the meaningfulness or emotional content of an item may play a greater role in its
retention in the long-term memory.

This greater retention is owed to an enhanced synaptic response within the hippocampus, which
is essential for memory storage. The limbic system of the brain (including the hippocampus and
amygdala) is not necessarily directly involved in long-term memory, but it selects particular
information from short-term memory and consolidates these memories by playing them like a
continuous tape.
Long-Term Memory
Long-term memory is used for the storage of information over long periods of time, ranging
from a few hours to a lifetime.
Key Points
Long-term memory is the final, semi-permanent stage of memory; it has a theoretically infinite
capacity, and information can remain there indefinitely.
Long-term memories can be categorized as either explicit or implicit memories.
Explicit memories involve facts, concepts, and events, and must be recalled consciously.
Explicit memories can be either semantic (abstract, fact-based) or episodic (based on a specific
event).
Implicit memories are procedures for completing motor actions.
Key Terms
Long-term memory: Memory in which associations among items are stored indefinitely; part of
the theory of a dual-store memory model.
Script: A “blueprint” or routine for dealing with a specific situation.
If we want to remember something tomorrow, we have to consolidate it into long-term memory
today. Long-term memory is the final, semi-permanent stage of memory. Unlike sensory and
short-term memory, long-term memory has a theoretically infinite capacity, and information can
remain there indefinitely. Long-term memory has also been called reference memory, because an
individual must refer to the information in long-term memory when performing almost any task.
Long-term memory can be broken down into two categories: explicit and implicit memory.
Explicit Memory

Explicit memory, also known as conscious or declarative memory, involves memory of facts,
concepts, and events that require conscious recall of the information. In other words, the
individual must actively think about retrieving the information from memory. This type of
information is explicitly stored and retrieved—hence its name. Explicit memory can be further
subdivided into semantic memory, which concerns facts, and episodic memory, which concerns
primarily personal or autobiographical information.
Semantic Memory
Semantic memory involves abstract factual knowledge, such as “Albany is the capital of New
York.” It is for the type of information that we learn from books and school: faces, places, facts,
and concepts. You use semantic memory when you take a test. Another type of semantic
memory is called a script. Scripts are like blueprints of what tends to happen in certain situations.
For example, what usually happens if you visit a restaurant? You get the menu, you order your
meal, you eat it, and then you pay the bill. Through practice, you learn these scripts and encode
them into semantic memory.
Episodic Memory
Episodic memory is used for more contextualized memories. They are generally memories of
specific moments, or episodes, in one’s life. As such, they include sensations and emotions
associated with the event, in addition to the who, what, where, and when of what happened. An
example of an episodic memory would be recalling your family’s trip to the beach.
Autobiographical memory (memory for particular events in one’s own life) is generally viewed
as either equivalent to, or a subset of, episodic memory. One specific type of autobiographical
memory is a flashbulb memory, which is a highly detailed, exceptionally vivid “snapshot” of the
moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential (or emotionally
arousing) news was heard. For example, many people remember exactly where they were and
what they were doing when they heard of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. This is
because it is a flashbulb memory.
Semantic and episodic memory are closely related; memory for facts can be enhanced with
episodic memories associated with the fact, and vice versa. For example, the answer to the
factual question “Are all apples red?” might be recalled by remembering the time you saw
someone eating a green apple. Likewise, semantic memories about certain topics, such as
football, can contribute to more detailed episodic memories of a particular personal event, like
watching a football game. A person that barely knows the rules of football will remember the
various plays and outcomes of the game in much less detail than a football expert.
Implicit Memory

In contrast to explicit (conscious) memory, implicit (also called “unconscious” or “procedural”)
memory involves procedures for completing actions. These actions develop with practice over
time. Athletic skills are one example of implicit memory. You learn the fundamentals of a sport,
practice them over and over, and then they flow naturally during a game. Rehearsing for a dance
or musical performance is another example of implicit memory. Everyday examples include
remembering how to tie your shoes, drive a car, or ride a bicycle. These memories are accessed
without conscious awareness—they are automatically translated into actions without us even
realizing it. As such, they can often be difficult to teach or explain to other people. Implicit
memories differ from the semantic scripts described above in that they are usually actions that
involve movement and motor coordination, whereas scripts tend to emphasize social norms or
behaviors.

References:
sensory memory. Provided by: Wiktionary. Located
at: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sensory_memory.
Human Physiology/The Nervous System. Provided by: Wikibooks. Located
at:http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Human_Physiology/The_Nervous_System.
Michael Orey, Information Processing: Short-Term Memory. October 27, 2013. Provided by:
OpenStax CNX. Located at:http://cnx.org/content/m41316/latest/.
Michael Orey, Information Processing: Long-Term Memory. October 27, 2013. Provided by:
OpenStax CNX. Located at:http://cnx.org/content/m41319/latest/.

Introduction to the process and types of memory

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Introduction to the process and types of memory