MEMORY

Memory refers to the psychological processes of acquiring, storing, retaining, and later retrieving information. Memory involves three major processes: encoding, storage, and retrieval. Human memory involves the ability to both preserve and recover information.

1. MEMORY DR HARI RAM SEDAI 1 ST YEAR RESIDENT PSYCHIATRY/NMCTH

2. Content

3. Introduction Memory refers to encoding, storage, and retrieval of information Ryburn 1956 “The power that we have to store our experiences, and to bring them back into the filed of consciousness some time after the experience have occurred ”

4. Theories of Memory

5. Theory of General M emory Functions

6. Encoding: Process of receiving sensory input & transformation into a form or code which can be stored Storage: Process of actually putting coded information into memory Retrieval: Process of gaining access to stored, coded information when needed

7. Information Processing T heory Atkinson- shiffrin theory (1968)

8. Sensory Register Storage function of sensory channels Step that information passes through before reaching STM Information can be held for a very brief time Most of the information lost If we pay attention to and recognize some of information, it is passed to STM

9. Short-Term Memory (STM) Hold information for up to 30 seconds Storage capacity about 7 items , plus or minus 2 (Miller ) Increased by process called chunking Combining several items into chunk can retain several of these chunks of information in STM

10. Much information stored in STM is lost as it is displaced by incoming items of information Some of information is neither lost nor retrieved but passed into LTM through rehearsal

11. Rehearsal Keeping of information in centre of attention by repeating them silently or aloud Amount of rehearsal given to items is important in the transfer of information from STM to LTM (Rundus,1971) More the item is rehearsed more likely it is to become a part of long term memory

12. Maintenance rehearsal: Just going over and over what is to be remembered Elaborative rehearsal: Giving the material organization & meaning as it is being rehearsed

13. Long-Term Memory May last for days, months, years or lifetime No known limit for storage capacity Contains words, sentences, ideas, concepts and life experiences Some theorists believe, there is no true forgetting from LTM

14. Types : Semantic: Contains meaning of words, concepts and rules for using them in language. Episodic: Memories of specific things happened to a person

15. Sensory Register Short Term Memory Long Term Memory Approximate Duration Vision- 1 sec Hearing- 5 sec Up to 30 sec Days, Months, Years or lifetime Capacity Large(16 items) Small (7 items) Large( no limit) Transfer Processes Attention & recognition Rehearsal Type of information stored Copy of input Sounds, visual images, words and sentences Primary meaningful sentences, life events, concepts a & concepts Major reason information is lost Decay of trace Displacement of old information by incoming information Faulty organization or inappropriate retrieval, interference

16. Neuroanatomy Short term memory : Hippocampus Long term memory: Neo-cortex Inter-cortical transfer of memory: through corpus-callosum Explicit memory: Frontal lobes, medial temporal lobes and Hippocampus Implicit memory: Limbic system, amygdala, Cerebellum and basal ganglia

17. Levels of Processing Theories Incoming information can be worked on at different levels of analysis Deeper the analysis, better the memory 3 L evels : Level 1: Perception Level 2: Structural Level 3: Meaning or semantic

18. Analysis to deep level of meaning gives best memory Many of happenings in our daily routines are not processed deeply Simply repeating information (maintenance rehearsal) not enough for good memory For deeper levels, rehearsal must be at meaning level (elaborative )

19. LONG TERM MEMORY Organization : Tip of the tongue (TOT) Phenomenon: Described by Brown and McNeil (1966) Phenomenon of failing to retrieve a word from memory combined with partial recall

20. Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) is a retrieval failure phenomenon Given a cue (e.g. What makes blood cells red?) the subject says the word begins with an H ( hemoglobin ) Sounded like target word Started as same word as target word Contain same number of syllables as target word Had meaning similar to as target word

21. Types of Long Term Memory

22. Semantic Memory Consists of knowledge about word’s meaning, their relation to one another and rules for using them in communication and thinking Makes our use of language possible Stable, little forgetting of words of our language and rules for using them

23. Some experiments (Collins and Quillian ) indicated that information is stored in logical hierarchies, from general to specific ones Makes it possible to make logical inferences from information stored in semantic memory

24. Fig: In semantic memory, information may be organized in logical hierarchies

25. Episodic Memory Consists of long-term memories of specific things that happened to us at particular times and places Organized according to dates of significant occurrences in our life Less organized, more susceptible to be forgotten than semantic memory

26. Encoding and Storing Long-Term Memories Requires special attention or strategies Role of organization Organising input in some logical manner or in a way that makes sense Promotes good long term memory Subjective organization: Doing own organizational encoding of incoming information

27. Role of imagery Form in which information is encoded Visual images most studied Measure of image arousing capabilities of words, asked to rate on a scale from “very easy” to “very difficult” ( Paivio ) Concrete: Words for which visual images easily formed Abstract: Words for which little visual images formed

28. Paired-associate technique Lists made up of pairs of words, words and numbers and nonsense syllables First element: Stimulus Second element: Response Given the stimulus, we learn to make response that was paired with

29. Role of constructive processes During encoding, the ‘to be remembered’ information is modified, so that what is encoded and stored is only the gist or meaning of complex information Inferences are used Example : “ The driver of the car was seen drinking before he was involved in an accident”

30. Retrieval from long-term memory Information coded and stored in LTM, must be retrieved, if it has to be used Retrieval cues and reconstructive processes Retrieval cues : is a stimulus, internal or external, that activates information stored in LTM

31. State dependent memory Importance of having retrieval cues encoded with to-be- remembered information If people encode and store information in particular emotional or drugged state, they may not be able to retrieve information when in another emotional state or no longer under influence of drug But when put back into original emotional or drugged state, memory can be retrieved ( Ho el al )

32. Reconstructive processes Modification of already stored input Sometime called confabulation in case of people with memory disorders who stored very little and try to fill in memory gaps during retrieval

33. Forgetting Apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in LTM Does not qualify as “forgotten” as it was never encoded and stored Information may not have reached STM due to inattention or to LTM due to inadequate rehearsal

34. Causes

35. Interference Proactive interference: Old memories interfere with new learning Retroactive interference: New memories interfere with retrieval of old material

36. Retrieval Problems/Cue Dependent F orgetting Without appropriate retrieval cues, search for items stored in LTM may not be found and people tend to forget We may give up remembering it but may recall it later while we are doing something else New activity, new situations may give set of appropriate reminders or retrieval cues Emotional factors can play role in retrieval failure

37. Motivated Forgetting Difficulties in retrieval of unpleasant, anxiety-provoking information stored in LTM Sigmund Freud stated “The forgetting in all cases is proved to be founded as a motive of displeasure” in his book ”Psychopathology of Everyday Life ” Hinted concept of repression Repression : Tendency of people to have difficulty retrieving anxiety-provoking or threatening information

38. Improving Memory Planning a study schedule to stick to. Rehearsal –elaborative rehearsal. Subjective organization: Making material personally meaningful; retrieval cues Feedback-test Reviewing before exam

39. Mnemonics Numbers and letter peg systems Remembering names and faces Chunking

40. Studying to Remember

41. References Introduction to psychology C.T Morgan 7th edition General psychology 21st edition , S.K Mangal Kaplan & Sadock's comprehensive text book of psychiatry 11th edition