Notes

Memory is the process of storing and retrieving information. You use memory to carry out and plan everyday life. You also use memory to retain what you have learned. Without the ability to remember skills, information, and experience, you would be unable to function. For example, you wouldn’t remember that a stove is hot and keep yourself out of danger without memory.

Memory involves processing information from your five senses as well as meaning.

There are six types of memory, divided into two categories. These categories are declarative (or explicit) memory and non-declarative (or implicit) memory. Let’s take a look at the types of memory.
Declarative or explicit memory is a system that takes effort. You use explicit memory to remember vocabulary words you want to say. Explicit memory includes working memory, episodic memory, and semantic memory.

Working memory stores and immediately processes limited amounts of information. Psychologists Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch developed this concept in 1974 as a contrast to static short-term memory. They proposed three interacting parts:

The central executive controls the system.
The visuospatial sketchpad processes visual or spatial information.
The phonological loop processes spoken and written material.
An example of working memory is calculating a tip for a waiter.

Episodic memory is a long-term system used to store events from life. An example of episodic memory is recalling your middle school graduation.
Semantic memory is also a long-term system, but it stores general knowledge like math facts or dates in history.

Non-declarative or implicit memory is a system that influences your perceptions or behavior without your awareness or effort. It consists of priming, conditioning, and procedural memory:

Priming enhances the speed and accuracy of retrieving memory from past experience, such as naming an object faster if you recently used it.
Conditioning involves an association between two stimuli. An example of conditioning is a coffee lover salivating at the sound of coffee percolating.
Procedural memory is the memory of completing a task where the activity becomes automatic, such as driving a stick-shift car.
The classic theory of memory in psychology is the Multi Store Model of Memory by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin, published in 1968. This theory proposes three types of memory: sensory, short term, and long term.

Sensory memory is the information you get from your senses, such as images from your eyes (iconic memory), noises and language from your ears (echoic memory), and tactile stimuli from your skin (haptic memory). The sensory memory capacity is large and involves everything in your immediate surroundings, but duration is very short—only a second or two.

When you pay attention to sensory input (a picture, sound, or meaning), it goes into your short-term memory. short-term memory lasts only about 2-18 seconds. According to cognitive psychologist George A. Miller, this form of memory has a limited capacity of about seven items, plus or minus two items. Information in short-term memory is usually encoded acoustically, meaning by sound. For example, to briefly remember a phone number, you might repeat it out loud.
here are three stages to memory in the Multi Store Model: encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Encoding is how information is changed into a form that can be stored. There are three forms information can take: visual (image), acoustic (sound), or semantic (word or meaning). The encoding of information influences memory retrieval. Factors involved in encoding include the level of processing, timing of practice, organization of information, personal connection, distinctiveness, and testing.

Storage involves the duration and capacity of memories held over time. With repetition, memories can be held in Long-term memory. Long-term memory is thought to be unlimited. Most information is forgotten early, but memories that last for at least three years are likely to last a lifetime.

Retrieval is the process of recalling information from memory storage. It works differently in Long-term and Short-term memories. Short-term memories are retrieved sequentially. For example, if asked for a specific number in a sequence, you might repeat the entire sequence to retrieve it. Long-term memories are retrieved by association. For example, if you smell pine trees on a walk to work, you might remember walking through a Christmas tree farm during childhood.
Memory is not entirely reliable. What people remember depends on their emotions, priorities, experiences, expectations, and current demands. For example, victims of a crime with a weapon often remember the weapon in detail, but recall little about the perpetrator.

False memories are memories that can form, but which never actually occurred. This occurs due to repeatedly and deeply imagining events, often with cues or prompts. Memories may be forgotten over time or improperly encoded due to a lack of attention or absent-mindedness. They may also incur distortions like incorporation of misinformation, such as from leading questions or deception of others.

Memories can also suffer biases based on your current knowledge, beliefs, or feelings. This results from misattributions due to reports from others or false memories of events that never really happened. A common example of a false memory is remembering, believing, and accusing a parent of child abuse that never happened years later, often during therapy.
Encoding and memory construction affect the ability to form memories. However, you can improve your memory using effective psychological techniques. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Mnemonics like acronyms, acrostics, narrative methods, and rhymes help create a cue to improve memory. Acronyms are words made out of the first letters of several words, such as PEMDAS (parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction) for remembering the mathematical order of operations. Acrostics are phrases in which each word begins with the first letter of another word. An example is “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles” for remembering the order of the planets. Narrative methods use information in a list to make up a story, while rhyming connects the information to a rhyming word.

Short-term memory can be extended by rehearsal, or by repeating the information. Chunking is used to expand the capacity of Short-term memory. It allows memorization of more information by organizing and grouping it into manageable chunks. For example, a phone number is easier to remember in the form 123-456-7890 than in the form 1234567890.
Efficient encoding of information helps you retrieve it later on.

Shallow processing involves only the physical features of an item, not the meaning, and it involves repetition. For example, you may repeat a date for a history exam over and over. Simply repeating an item is not effective for encoding a long-term memory. Deep processing improves encoding by focusing on the meaning of an item and forming associations to connect new information to existing knowledge. For example, to learn a new vocabulary word, you should associate it with an idea, word, or experience.

Massed practice is when you attempt to learn information all at one time. This process is not as effective as spaced practice. Spaced practice is when you learn information over many spaced-out sessions.

How information is organized facilitates memory. For example, if you have a list of groceries to remember, grouping the items in alphabetical order or by market section will improve recall.

Finding a personal connection to the information you are trying to remember is called self-referent encoding. For example, if you are trying to remember who the players in the Cold War were, you could associate it with a ski trip (cold) you took where you met a Russian skier who was particularly competitive.

Items that are distinct from others are easier to remember. For example, a topic explored in depth is easier to remember than one briefly cited in a textbook. In addition, testing can enhance retention. When studying, you should quiz yourself to assess what you know, which will help you to better retain the information.
You can also increase memory by improving retrieval.
For example, people remember information better when tested in the same setting in which they learned the information. To take advantage of context, you can use a cue (such as a photo) or return to the scene where the memory was formed to help trigger recall. You can also study information or a task in the same context in which it will be tested, or try to imagine that environment.

People also remember information more efficiently in the state they were in when they processed the event. For example, if you are sad, you may recall your current sadness as well as memories of other sad times.

Interference is the term for when new or old information blocks recall. For example, you type in your old password and are unable to remember the new one. To avoid interference, try associating fewer items to any one cue.

Retrieval-induced forgetting occurs when the information is in long-term memory, but can’t be retrieved. This is that tip-of-the-tongue feeling when you know you have the information, but cannot express it. This often occurs because the retrieval cues are not present. Retrieval cues may include external stimuli, such as the environment, or internal cues, such as your physical or emotional state
Lisa has experienced a false memory because the event she describes never actually happened. Adam’s situation does not involve a false memory, because he simply does not remember his sister’s birthday. Matt does not experience a false memory, because he intentionally deceived his employer. Nihat’s memory is simply negative for him and not false.