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Memory Processes
Memory is essentially the capacity for storing and retrieving information.
Three processes are involved in memory: encoding, storage, and retrieval. All three of these
processes determine whether something is remembered or forgotten.
Encoding
Processing information into memory is called encoding. People
automatically encode some types of information without being aware of it. For example, most
people probably can recall where they ate lunch yesterday, even though they didn’t try to
remember this information. However, other types of information become encoded only if people
pay attention to it. College students will probably not remember all the material in their
textbooks unless they pay close attention while they’re reading.
There are several different ways of encoding verbal information:
- Structural encoding focuses on what words look like. For instance, one might note whether words are long or short, in uppercase or lowercase, or handwritten or typed.
- Phonemic encoding focuses on how words sound.
- Semantic encoding focuses on the meaning of words. Semantic encoding requires a deeper level of processing than structural or phonemic encoding and usually results in better memory.
Storage
After information enters the brain, it has to be stored or maintained. To describe the
process of storage, many psychologists use the three-stage model proposed by Richard
Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin. According to this model, information is
stored sequentially in three memory systems: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term
memory.
Sensory Memory
Sensory memory stores incoming sensory information in detail
but only for an instant. The capacity of sensory memory is very large, but the information in
it is unprocessed. If a flashlight moves quickly in a circle inside a dark room, people will
see a circle of light rather than the individual points through which the flashlight moved.
This happens because sensory memory holds the successive images of the moving flashlight long
enough for the brain to see a circle. Visual sensory memory is called iconic
memory; auditory sensory memory is called echoic memory.
Short-Term Memory
Some of the information in sensory memory transfers to short-term
memory, which can hold information for approximately twenty seconds. Rehearsing can
help keep information in short-term memory longer. When people repeat a new phone number over
and over to themselves, they are rehearsing it and keeping it in short-term memory.
Short-term memory has a limited capacity: it can store about seven pieces of
information, plus or minus two pieces. These pieces of information can be small, such as
individual numbers or letters, or larger, such as familiar strings of numbers, words, or
sentences. A method called chunking can help to increase the capacity of short-term memory. Chunking combines small bits of information into bigger, familiar pieces.
Working Memory
Psychologists today consider short-term memory to be a working
memory. Rather than being just a temporary information storage system, working memory
is an active system. Information can be kept in working memory while people process or
examine it. Working memory allows people to temporarily store and manipulate visual images,
store information while trying to make decisions, and remember a phone number long enough to
write it down.
Long-Term Memory
Information can be transferred from short-term memory to long-term memory
and from long-term memory back to short-term memory. Long-term memory has an
almost infinite capacity, and information in long-term memory usually stays there for the
duration of a person’s life. However, this doesn’t mean that people will always be able to
remember what’s in their long-term memory—they may not be able to retrieve information that’s there.
Organization of Memories
Imagine what would happen if a psychology textbook weren’t organized by section, by
chapter, or in any other way. Imagine if the textbook didn’t have a table of contents or an
index. If the textbook just contained lots of information in a random order, students would
have difficulty finding a particular concept, such as “encoding of memory.” They’d know the
information was in there somewhere, but they’d have trouble retrieving it.
Long-term memory stores much more information than a textbook, and people would never
be able to retrieve the information from it if it weren’t organized in some way.
Psychologists believe one way the brain organizes information in long-term memory is
by category. For example, papaya may be organized within the semantic
category fruit. Categories can also be based on how words sound or look. If
someone is struggling to remember the word papaya, she may remember first
that it’s a three-syllable word, that it begins with the letter p, or that it
ends with the letter a.
Long-term memory organizes information not only by categories but also by the
information’s familiarity, relevance, or connection to other information.
Retrieval
Retrieval is the process of getting information out of memory. Retrieval cues are stimuli that help the process of retrieval. Retrieval cues include associations, context, and mood.
Associations
Because the brain stores information as networks of associated concepts, recalling a
particular word becomes easier if another, related word is recalled first. This process is
called priming.
Context
People can often remember an event by placing themselves in the same context they
were in when the event happened.
Mood
If people are in the same mood they were in during an event, they may have an easier
time recalling the event.
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