Definitions Of Memory

Memory is the process of maintaining information over time. (Matlin, 2005)

Memory is the means by which we draw on our past experiences in order to use this information in the present (Sternberg,
1999).

Long-term memory
Long-term memory is, obviously enough, intended for storage of information over a long period of time. Despite our everyday
impressions of forgetting, it seems likely that long-term memory actually decays very little over time, and can store a seemingly
unlimited amount of information almost indefinitely. Indeed, there is some debate as to whether we actually ever forget
anything at all, or whether it just becomes increasingly difficult to access or retrieve certain items from memory.

Types of long term memory

There are two types of long term memory: Explicit (declarative) Memory and Implicit (non-declarative) Memory.
First we will explore explicit memory and the breakdown of it. Explicit memory consists of Episodic (biographical events) and
semantic (which includes words, ideas, and concepts.)
Episodic- memories that you experience at a specific time and place

Implicit (non declarative) memory is expressed by means other than words. This is broken down into four categories which
include procedural (skills), emotional conditioning, priming effect and conditioned reflex.
Procedural memory- enables people to acquire motor skills and gradually improve them
Emotional conditioning- related to our emotions
Priming effect- we do this on a regular basis in which we relate things to something we already know from a previous
experience

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Semantic- the system in which you use to store your knowledge of the world

 Conditioned reflex- a classic example of this is the study conducted by Pavlov when he showed a dog a piece of meat and the
dog started to salivate, the next time when he showed the dog meat he included the sound of an alarm in which it caused the
dog to salivate so then when the dog heard the alarm he began to salivate because he thought there would be meat.
Declarative memory (knowing what) is memory of facts and events, and refers to those memories that can be consciously
recalled (or "declared"). It is sometimes called explicit memory, since it consists of information that is explicitly stored and
retrieved, although it is more properly a subset of explicit memory. Declarative memory can be further sub-divided into
episodic memory and semantic memory.
Procedural memory (knowing how) is the unconscious memory of skills and how to do things, particularly the use of objects
or movements of the body, such as tying a shoelace, playing a guitar or riding a bike. These memories are typically acquired
through repetition and practice, and are composed of automatic sensorimotor behaviours that are so deeply embedded that
we are no longer aware of them. Once learned, these "body memories" allow us to carry out ordinary motor actions more or
less automatically. Procedural memory is sometimes referred to as implicit memory, because previous experiences aid in the
performance of a task without explicit and conscious awareness of these previous experiences, although it is more properly a
subset of implicit memory.
Declarative memory can be further sub-divided into episodic memory and semantic memory.
Episodic memory represents our memory of experiences and specific events in time in a serial form, from which we can
reconstruct the actual events that took place at any given point in our lives. It is the memory of autobiographical events (times,
places, associated emotions and other contextual knowledge) that can be explicitly stated. Individuals tend to see themselves
as actors in these events, and the emotional charge and the entire context surrounding an event is usually part of the memory,
not just the bare facts of the event itself.
Semantic memory, on the other hand, is a more structured record of facts, meanings, concepts and knowledge about the
external world that we have acquired. It refers to general factual knowledge, shared with others and independent of personal
experience and of the spatial/temporal context in which it was acquired. Semantic memories may once have had a personal
context, but now stand alone as simple knowledge. It therefore includes such things as types of food, capital cities, social
customs, functions of objects, vocabulary, understanding of mathematics, etc. Much of semantic memory is abstract and
relational and is associated with the meaning of verbal symbols.

1. Memory Encoding
When information comes into our memory system (from sensory input), it needs to be changed into a form that the system can
cope with, so that it can be stored. Think of this as similar to changing your money into a different currency when you travel
from one country to another. For example, a word which is seen (in a book) may be stored if it is changed (encoded) into a
sound or a meaning (i.e. semantic processing).

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Stages/Process Of Memory:

There are three main ways in which information can be encoded:

1. Visual (picture)
2. Acoustic (sound)
3. Semantic (meaning)
For example, how do you remember a telephone number you have looked up in the phone book? If you can see it then you are
using visual coding, but if you are repeating it to yourself you are using acoustic coding (by sound).
Evidence suggests that this is the principle coding system in short term memory (STM) is acoustic coding. When a person is
presented with a list of numbers and letters, they will try to hold them in STM by rehearsing them (verbally). Rehearsal is a
verbal process regardless of whether the list of items is presented acoustically (someone reads them out), or visually (on a
sheet of paper).
The principle encoding system in long term memory (LTM) appears to be semantic coding (by meaning). However, information
in LTM can also be coded both visually and acoustically.
2. Memory Storage
This concerns the nature of memory stores, i.e. where the information is stored, how long the memory lasts for (duration), how
much can be stored at any time (capacity) and what kind of information is held. The way we store information affects the way
we retrieve it. There has been a significant amount of research regarding the differences between Short Term Memory (STM )
and Long Term Memory (LTM).
Most adults can store between 5 and 9 items in their short-term memory. Miller (1956) put this idea forward and he called it
the magic number 7. He though that short-term memory capacity was 7 (plus or minus 2) items because it only had a certain
number of slots in which items could be stored. However, Miller didnt specify the amount of information that can be held in
each slot. Indeed, if we can chunk information together we can store a lot more information in our short-term memory. In
contrast the capacity of LTM is thought to be unlimited.
Information can only be stored for a brief duration in STM (0-30 seconds), but LTM can last a lifetime.
3. Memory Retrieval
This refers to getting information out storage. If we cant remember something, it may be because we are unable to retrieve it.
When we are asked to retrieve something from memory, the differences between STM and LTM become very clear.

LTM is stored and retrieved by association. This is why you can remember what you went upstairs for if you go back to the
room where you first thought about it.
Organizing information can help aid retrieval. You can organize information in sequences (such as alphabetically, by size or by
time). Imagine a patient being discharged from hospital whose treatment involved taking various pills at various times,
changing their dressing and doing exercises. If the doctor gives these instructions in the order which they must be carried out
throughout the day (i.e. in sequence of time), this will help the patient remember them.

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STM is stored and retrieved sequentially. For example, if a group of participants are given a list of words to remember, and
then asked to recall the fourth word on the list, participants go through the list in the order they heard it in order to retrieve
the information.

Measurements Of Memory:
The amount of information retained in memory can be inferred from observable performance on various tasks. There are both
direct and indirect methods of measuring memory.
The direct methods of assessing memory are: (i) recall, (ii) recognition, (iii) relearning, and (iv) reconstruction. The indirect
method focuses on the amount of transfer of previous learning to a subsequent learning situation.
Recall
The most widely used method of testing memory or measuring retention is the method of recall. It is a passive, but direct
method of measuring retention. Reproduction of learnt materials after a time span is recall. It is actually repetition of learned
material, i.e., verbatim (word for word) recitation. For example, one may recall a poem by reciting it even if he does not
remember the circumstances under which he had learned.
Recall involves verbal reproduction or repetition of previously learnt material. Recall becomes easier when materials are
meaningful, interesting, short, and over learned. Recall is often categorized into: (i) Free Recall and ii) Serial Recall.
I. Free Recall:
Free recall allows us to summon up pieces of information out of order. For example, we may listen to a lecture and afterwards
remember a few important quotes without recalling the order in which they were presented. Thus, in free recall, pieces of
learnt materials may be recalled freely without following any specific order.
II. Serial Recall:
In serial recall the material is recalled in a very specific order i.e., in which it has been learned. For example, there are people
(who) when asked the question- what is twelve multiplied by seven- may start from the beginning of multiplication chart
twelve, and only then can recall the correct answer.
Recognition
Recognition is considered as a sensitive method of measuring retention It is an active process where identification of elements
takes place. Recognition is a common experience which refers to the fact that once the remembered event or word is in front
of us, we know that we have stored it away before is familiar to us. Guilford (1917) viewed that recognition means knowing
again Further, the essential difference between recall and recognition is that in first case, the stimulus is not there for one's
identification, whereas it is there in the second case.
Recognition is easier than recall, because in recognition, the object present in a mixed form with certain new elements. The
sensitiveness is greater in case of recognition, which is sometimes influenced by the subject's attitude, prejudice, values, and
other inner motives. Seeleman (1940) conducted an experiment on the role of motivation in recognition and observed that
pleasant experiences are better remembered than unpleasant experiences.

The method of relearning is the most sensitive among all measures of retention. This method is otherwise known as the
method of 'saving', which was introduced by Ebbinghaus (1885) for measuring the quantitative aspect of memory. In this
method, a list of materials is presented to the subject up to perfect learning, and after a time gap, she/he is presented with the
same list to relearn. The experimenter records the number of trials and time taken by the subject in relearning condition. The
percentage of saving is found by the formula-OLT-RLT / OCT X 10
Where OLT = Original learning trials RLT = Relearning trials For example, if a child takes 8 trials to learn the original task and 6
trials to relearn it, then the percentage of saving is = (8-6 / 8) X 100 = 25%

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Relearning

Reconstruction
Reconstruction involves the reproduction of the learned materials. Reconstruction technically means rearranging the parts of
an original task, presented randomly. In this method, the stimuli are first presented in a certain arrangement, then this
arrangement is broken up and the stimuli are handed over to the subject with instruction to reconstruct the original order.
Suppose the parts of a plastic doll are joined to get a full figure of a doll, then the experimenter breaks it into pieces and asks
the subject to rearrange the items to form a doll. If the subject can rearrange, then she/he gets the full credit for the test.
Similarly while writing an essay on Second World War, we recall that the United States entered the war in 1941 after the attack
on Pear Harbour, and an atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Hence, we are able to reconstruct the events that
took place between these two times.

Mnemonics:
Mnemonic' is another word for memory tool. Mnemonics are techniques for remembering information that is otherwise quite
difficult to recall: A very simple example is the '30 days hath September' rhyme for remembering the number of days in each
calendar month.
The idea behind using mnemonics is to encode difficult-to-remember information in a way that is much easier to remember.
Our brains evolved to code and interpret complex stimuli such as images, colors, structures, sounds, smells, tastes, touch,
positions, emotions and language. We use these to make sophisticated models of the world we live in. Our memories store all
of these very effectively.
Unfortunately, a lot of the information we have to remember in modern life is presented differently as words printed on a
page. While writing is a rich and sophisticated medium for conveying complex arguments, our brains do not easily encode
written information, making it difficult to remember.
This section of Mind Tools shows you how to use all the memory resources available to you to remember information in a
highly efficient way.

Information Processing Model:

The memory model which dominated the 1970s and 80s is the three component information processing system of Atkinson
and Shiffrin (1968, 1971) insprired by a typicial computer hardware architecture:

Sensory Memory (STSS): Analogous to input devices such as a keyboard or more sophisticated devices like a voice
recognition system

Short Term Memory (STM) or working memory: Analogous to the CPU and it's random-access memory (RAM)

Long Term Memory (LTM) : Analogous to a storage device like a hard disk

An important question raised by many research concerns the power of working memory. It is generally believed that human
working memory is very limited, we can only keep in mind a few things at a time. Miller's (1956) famous "The magical number
seven plus or minus two" paper layed the groundwork.

Forgetting:
Forgetting (retention loss) refers to apparent loss or modification of information already encoded and stored in an individual's
long term memory. It is a spontaneous or gradual process in which old memories are unable to be recalled from memory
storage.

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Today exist various variants of the Atkinson-Schiffrin model, e.g. Mayer's model of multimedia learning which presented below.

Measurements of forgetting
The four ways forgetting can be measured is as follows:
Free Recall
Free recall refers to the opportunity given to an individual to perform a previously learned behavior. Basically, the individual is
required to learn a task and after time has past is asked to repeat that task. If the task takes longer to occur, then forgetting has
happened.[10]
Prompted (cued) recall
Prompted recall is a slight variation of free recall that consists of presenting hints or prompts to increase the likelihood that the
behavior will be produced. Usually these prompts are stimuli that were not there during the training period. Thus in order to
measure the degree of forgetting, you can see how many prompts they miss or the number of prompts required to produce the
behavior [10]
Relearning method
This method measures forgetting by the amount of training required to reach the previous level of performance. A famous
German psychologist, Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885) used this method on himself. He memorized lists on nonsensical syllables
until he could repeat the list two times without error. After a certain interval, he relearned the list and saw how long it would
take him to do this task. If it took fewer times, then there has been less forgetting. His experiment was one of the first to study
forgetting.[10]
Recognition
For this type of measurement, a participant has to identify material that was previously learned. The participant is asked to
remember a list of material. Later on they are shown the same list of material with additional information and they are asked to
identify the material that was on the original list. The more they recognize, the less amount of information is forgotten.[10]
Seven types of forgetting
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Unbalanced scales
Repressive erasure
Prescriptive forgetting
Structural amnesia
Forgetting as annulment
Forgetting as planned obsolescence
Forgetting as humiliated silence

Theories of forgetting

Cue-dependent forgetting
Cue-dependent forgetting (also, context-dependent forgetting) or retrieval failure, is the failure to recall a memory due to
missing stimuli or cues that were present at the time the memory was encoded. Encoding is the first step in creating and
remembering a memory. How well something has been encoded in the memory can be measured by completing specific tests
of retrieval. Examples of these tests would be explicit ones like cued recall or implicit tests like word fragment completion.[12]
Cue-dependent forgetting is one of five cognitive psychology theories of forgetting. This theory states that a memory is
sometimes temporarily forgotten purely because it cannot be retrieved, but the proper cue can bring it to mind. A good
metaphor for this is searching for a book in a library without the reference number, title, author or even subject. The

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The four main theories of forgetting apparent in the study of psychology are as follows:

information still exists, but without these cues retrieval is unlikely. Furthermore, a good retrieval cue must be consistent with
the original encoding of the information. If the sound of the word is emphasized during the encoding process, the cue that
should be used should also put emphasis on the phonetic quality of the word. Information is available however, just not readily
available without these cues. Depending on the age of a person, retrieval cues and skills may not work as well. This is usually
common in older adults but that is not always the case. When information is encoded into the memory and retrieved with a
technique called spaced retrieval, this helps older adults retrieve the events stored in the memory better.[2] There is also
evidence from different studies that show age related changes in memory.[12] These specific studies have shown that episodic
memory performance does in fact decline with age and have made known that older adults produce vivid rates of forgetting
when two items are combined and not encoded.[2]
Trace decay
Trace decay theory explains memories that are stored in both short term and long term memory system, and assumes that the
memories leave a trace in the brain.[13] According to this theory, short term memory (STM) can only retain information for a
limited amount of time, around 15 to 30 seconds unless it is rehearsed. If it is not rehearsed, the information will start to
gradually fade away and decay. Donald Hebb proposed that incoming information causes a series of neurons to create a
neurological memory trace in the brain which would result in change in the morphological and/or chemical changes in the brain
and would fade with time. Repeated firing causes a structural change in the synapses. Rehearsal of repeated firing maintains
the memory in STM until a structural change is made. Therefore, forgetting happens as a result of automatic decay of the
memory trace in brain. This theory states that the events between learning and recall have no effects on recall; the important
factor that affects is the duration that the information has been retained. Hence, as longer time passes more of traces are
subject to decay and as a result the information is forgotten. One major problem about this theory is that in real-life situation,
the time between encoding a piece of information and recalling it, is going to be filled with all different kinds of events that
might happen to the individual. Therefore, it is difficult to conclude that forgetting is a result of only the time duration. It is also
important to consider the effectiveness of this theory. Although it seems very plausible, it is about impossible to test. It is
difficult to create a situation where there is a blank period of time between presenting the material and recalling it later.[13]
Organic causes
Forgetting that occurs through physiological damage or dilapidation to the brain are referred to as organic causes of forgetting.
These theories encompass the loss of information already retained in long term memory or the inability to encode new
information again. Examples include Alzheimer's, Amnesia, Dementia, consolidation theory and the gradual slowing down of
the central nervous system due to aging.
Interference theories

Decay theory
Decay theory states that when something new is learned, a neurochemical, physical "memory trace" is formed in the brain and
over time this trace tends to disintegrate, unless it is occasionally used. Decay theory states the reason we eventually forget
something or an event is because the memory of it fades with time. If we do not attempt to look back at an event, the greater
the interval time between the time when the event from happening and the time when we try to remember, the memory will
start to fade. Time is the greatest impact in remembering an event.[16]

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Interference theory refers to the idea that when the learning of something new causes forgetting of older material on the basis
of competition between the two. This essentially states that information memory may become confused or combined with
other information during encoding, resulting in the distortion or disruption of memories.[13] In nature, the interfering items are
said to originate from an overstimulating environment.

Reasoning:
The psychology of reasoning is the study of how people reason, often broadly defined as the process of drawing conclusions to
inform how people solve problems and make decisions.[1] It is at the intersection of psychology, philosophy, linguistics,
cognitive science, artificial intelligence, logic, and probability theory.
Everyday Reasoning
How do people reason about sentences in natural language? Most experimentation on deduction has been carried out on
hypothetical thought, in particular, examining how people reason about conditionals, e.g., If A then B.[2] Participants in
experiments make the modus ponens inference, given the indicative conditional If A then B, and given the premise A, they
conclude B. However, given the indicative conditional and the minor premise for the modus tollens inference, not-B, about half
of the participants in experiments conclude not-A and the remainder concludes that nothing follows.[3]
Theories of Reasoning
There are several alternative theories of the cognitive processes that human reasoning is based on.[10] One view is that people
rely on a mental logic consisting of formal (abstract or syntactic) inference rules similar to those developed by logicians in the
propositional calculus.[11] Another view is that people rely on domain-specific or content-sensitive rules of inference.[12] A
third view is that people rely on mental models, that is, mental representations that correspond to imagined possibilities.[13]
The mental model theory is the subject of the mental models website A fourth view is that people compute probabilities.[14]
Development of Reasoning
How does reasoning develop? Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development[22] describes a sequence of stages in the
development of reasoning from infancy to adulthood. According to the neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development,
changes in reasoning with development come from increasing working memory capacity, increasing speed of processing, and
enhanced executive functions and control. Increasing self-awareness is also an important factor.[23]

References:
http://www.human-memory.net/types_long.html
http://memory-psy333.wikispaces.com/
http://www.simplypsychology.org/memory.html
http://www.simplypsychology.org/memory.html
http://www.unexplainedstuff.com/Mysteries-of-the-Mind/The-Mechanics-of-Memory.html
http://www.preservearticles.com/201104165500/methods-used-for-the-measurement-of-human-memory.html

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Human_information_processing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_of_reasoning

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http://www.mindtools.com/memory.html