Essentials of Psychology,
by Saul Kassin
CHAPTER 6:
Memory
©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Memory
An Information-Processing Model
The Sensory Register
Short-Term Memory
Long-Term Memory
Autobiographical Memory
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Information-Processing Model
of Memory
– A model of memory in which information must
pass through discrete stages via the processes of
attention, encoding, storage, and retrieval.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Memory
Types of Memory
• Sensory Memory
– Records information from the senses for up to three
seconds
– Examples are Iconic (Visual) Memory and Echoic
(Auditory) Memory
• Short-Term Memory
– Holds about seven items for up to twenty seconds
before the material is forgotten or transferred to
long-term memory
• Long-Term Memory
– Relatively permanent, can hold vast amounts of
information
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
The Sensory Register
Testing for Iconic Memory
• Invented by George
Sperling
• A letter array is shown
briefly
• After array is gone, tone
signals which row to
report
• Subjects recalled more
letters when signaled to
recall only one row
compared to trying to
recall all the letters
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
The Sensory Register
Duration of Iconic Memory
• Sperling (1960) found
that an iconic image
began to fade after
one-third of a second
and completely
disappeared after one
full second.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Short-Term Memory
Capacity
Memory-Span Test
• Read the top row of digits, then look away and repeat them
back in order. Continue until a mistake is made. The
average capacity is seven items of information.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Short-Term Memory
Capacity
Increased Memory Span
• Two students practiced
memory span tasks for
an hour 3-4
days/week.
• After six months, digit
span had increased
from 7 to 80 items.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Short-Term Memory
Capacity
Chunking
– Process of grouping distinct bits of
information into larger wholes to increase
short-term memory capacity.
• Take 5 seconds to memorize as much as possible
on the next slide.
• Then, try to reproduce the arrangement of pieces.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Short-Term Memory
Capacity
The Value of Chunking
• Was the number
correct around seven
pieces? Or, was the
information chunked?
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Short-Term Memory
Duration of Short-Term Memory
• Subjects memorized
nonsense syllables, (e.g.,
MJK, ZRW).
• To prevent rehearsal, they
were given a distractor task
during the waiting period.
• When a cue was given,
subjects tried to recall the
letters.
• Short-term memories vanish
within twenty seconds.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Short-Term Memory
Functions of Short-Term Memory
– Term used to describe shortterm memory as an active
workspace where
information is accessible for
current use.
• Baddeley’s model of working
memory contains three elements:
Working Memory
– A “central executive”
– Auditory working memory
– Visuo-spatial working memory
• Material can enter conscious
workspace from senses or from
long-term memory.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Short-Term Memory
Functions of Short-Term Memory
• Serial-Position Curve
The Serial-Position Effect
– Indicates the tendency to
recall more items from the
beginning and end of a list
than from the middle.
• Both groups of subjects
showed primacy effects, good
recall of first items on list.
• Only the no-delay group
showed recency effects, good
recall for last items.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Long-Term Memory
Encoding
• Subjects were shown lists of
words and asked to use one of
three strategies:
Elaborative Rehearsal
– Visual: Is the word printed in
capital letters?
– Acoustic: Does the word rhyme
with _____?
– Semantic: Does the word fit the
sentence _________?
• The more thought involved
(elaborative rehearsal), the
better was their memory.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Long-Term Memory
Storage
• Procedural Memory
– Stored long-term knowledge of learned
habits and skills.
– Examples are how to drive, ride a bike, tie
one’s shoes, etc.
• Declarative Memory
– Stored long-term knowledge of facts about
ourselves and the world.
– Includes both semantic (nonpersonal) and
episodic (personal) memories
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Long-Term Memory
Storage
 Semantic Network
 A complex web of
Semantic Networks
semantic associations
that link items in
memory such that
retrieving one item
triggers the retrieval
of others as well
 Supported by
research using the
lexical decision
making task
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Long-Term Memory
Storage
• Hippocampus: Part of the
The Hippocampal Region
limbic system that plays a key
role in encoding and
transferring new information
into long-term memory.
• Anterograde amnesia
– Inability to store new
information
• Retrograde amnesia
– Inability to retrieve
memories from the past
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Long-Term Memory
Retrieval
• Explicit Memory
– The types of memory elicited through the conscious
retrieval of recollections in response to direct
questions.
– Conscious retention, direct tests, disrupted by amnesia,
encoded in the hippocampus
• Implicit Memory
– A nonconscious recollection of a prior experience that
is revealed indirectly, by its effects on performance.
– Nonconscious retention, indirect tests, intact with
amnesia, encoded elsewhere
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Long-Term Memory
Retrieval
Context-Dependent Memory
• Russian-English bilinguals were prompted in
English and in Russian to recall stories.
• They recalled more Russian-experienced
events when interviewed in Russian and more
English-experienced events when interviewed
in English.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Long-Term Memory
Retrieval
Retention Without Awareness
• Amnesic patients and
normal controls were
tested for memory of
words learned previously.
• Amnesics performed
poorly on explicit memory
tasks.
• However, performance on
implicit memory tasks was
similar to control subjects.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Long-Term Memory
Retrieval
Implicit Memory in Everyday Life
• Déjà vu
– A sense of familiarity but no real memory
• Eyewitness transference
– Face is familiar, but situation in which they
remembering seeing face is incorrect
• Unintentional plagiarism
– Take credit for someone else’s ideas without awareness
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Long-Term Memory
Forgetting
The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Long-Term Memory
Forgetting
Long-Term Forgetting Curve
• How much Spanish
vocabulary is
remembered over
time?
• Most forgetting occurs
within the first three
years.
• After that, memory
remains stable.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Long-Term Memory
Forgetting
Can You Recognize a Penny?
 One reason
people forget is
due to lack of
encoding.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Long-Term Memory
Forgetting
• Proactive Interference
– The tendency for previously learned
material to disrupt the recall of new
information
• Retroactive Interference
– The tendency for new information to disrupt
the memory of previously learned material
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Long-Term Memory
Forgetting
Interference and Forgetting
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Long-Term Memory
Reconstruction
“Office” Schema
• Study this picture for
30 seconds.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
List as many objects as you can
recall from the photograph you just
saw.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
How to Improve Memory
• Mnemonics
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•
•
•
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– Memory aids designed to facilitate the recall of new
information.
Increase Practice Time
Increase the Depth of Processing
Hierarchical Organization
Verbal Mnemonics
Method of Loci
Peg-Word Method
Minimize Interference
Utilize Context Effects
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Autobiographical Memory
• Autobiographical Memory
– The recollections people
have of their own
personal experiences and
observations.
• People’s memories are most
vivid for times of transition.
• In college, these are memories
from the beginning of the first
year and end of the last year.
Memorable Transitions
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Autobiographical Memory
• Flashbulb Memories
– Highly vivid and enduring memories,
typically for events that are dramatic and
emotional
• Childhood Amnesia
– The inability of most people to recall events
from before the age of three or four
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing