Ch 7
Memory
 Process by which we recollect prior experiences and
information/skills learned in the past
3 Kinds of Memory
 Ways to classify memory
 Episodic Memory: memory of a specific event
 Flashbulb memory: EXTEMELY detailed memory

Reasons for flashbulb memories
 Semantic Memory: general knowledge people
remember
 Don’t usually remember when acquired info
 Implicit Memory: skills
3 Processes of Memory
 Encoding: translation of info into form that can be
stored
 First stage of processing info
 Storage: maintenance of encoded information over a
period of time
 Second stage of processing info
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
Maintenance rehearsal: repeating over and over
Elaborative rehearsal: relating to info you already know well
 Organizational system

Not without errors
 Retrieval: locating stored information and returning it
to conscious thought
 Context-dependent memory: easier to remember
something when back in the same context as when
memory was originally created
 State-dependent memory: retrieve memories when they
are in the same emotional state they were in when first
made memory

Also better when in same state of consciousness
 On-the-tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: come close to
retrieving info but can’t seem to verbalize

“feeling of knowing”
3 Stages of Memory
 Sensory Memory: immediate, initial recording of
information that enters through our senses
 Memory trace of a visual stimulus held in our sensory
memory decays within a second
 If want to remember, must do something with it
 Sensory registers: all our senses have these

Eidetic Imagery (photographic memory)
 Short-Term Memory (AKA: Working Memory)
 If pay attention to iconic and echoic memories you can
transfer them into short-term memory
 Whenever you’re thinking of something, it’s in your shortterm memory
 Info fades rapidly after several seconds
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
To remember it longer, need to keep rehearsing or take steps to
prevent it from fading
Usually better to encode info as sounds
 Primacy/Recency Effects

Remember things at the start/end of a list better than the middle
 Chunking: organize info into familiar/manageable units
 Interference: new info appears it takes the place of what’s
already there
 Bridge between sensory memory and long-term memory
 Long-Term Memory
 Final stage of memory
 Have to take steps to store into long-term memory
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
Mechanical Repetition: maintenance rehearsal
Elaborative rehearsal: relate to prior knowledge
 We don’t know the capacity of memory
Memory is Reconstructive
 Reconstruct our memories and tend to shape them
according to the personal and individual ways we view
the world
 Tend to remember things in accordance with our
beliefs and needs
 Put our own personal stamp on our memories
 Schemas: mental representations of the world
 Organized bits of information and knowledge shaped by
our outlook on the world
Forgetting and Memory
Improvement
 Forgetting: can occur at any of the 3 stages
 Basic Memory Tasks:
 Recognition: identifying objects/events that have been
encountered before


Easiest memory task
Multiple choice questions on test
 Recall: bringing back to the working memory

Reconstruct it in your mind
 Relearning: sometimes we don’t remember things we
once knew but it’s much easier to learn again
Different Kinds of Forgetting
 Decay: fading away of memory
 Repression: forget on purpose without knowing we are
doing it to protect ourselves from disturbing memories
 Amnesia: severe memory loss
 Infantile amnesia: forgetting early events in life
 Anterograde amnesia: memory loss from trauma that
prevents a person from forming new memories
 Retrograde amnesia: people forget period leading up to
traumatic event
Improving Memory
 Drill and Practice: going over info again and again
 Relate to Things You Already Know: prior knowledge
must be well known to remember new info better
 Form Unusual Associations: even humorous so that
info stands out from ordinary things and can be
recalled easier
 Construct Links: another form of elaborative rehearsal
 Use Mnemonic Devices: systems for remembering info
 Ex: HOMES