Read Chapter 8.
Why is it that psychologists have theories for understanding memory? Why can't they simply describe what memory is and move on? What do theories do for our understanding of memory processes?
What was the most surprising or memorable thing you learned about in this reading?
Provide a list of psychological terms that you used in your comment at the bottom of your post.
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In the book, it was outlined that psychologists and scientists have different theories for how memory is stored. The primary reason for this would be, I think, because the mind is unbelievably complex, as is memory. Therefore, these researchers would need several working theories until they can definitively prove one of the theories, which hasn’t been possible yet. These theories also add a layer to the supposed simplicity of memory. Instead of simply saying people remember things they’ve seen or done or felt, these theories add multiple layers into the theory. Suddenly, instead of just a one step process of remembering stuff, there is a process, which includes encoding, storage and retrieval, as well as different subsections of memory, like working and sensory memory. This complexity is why psychologists can’t simply define memory as one thing. It’s not fully understood, and it’s not simple; a full and extensive explanation is necessary.
The primary theory for memory processing is the Information Processing Model, which is the theory that involves encoding, storage, and retrieval, which are the three theorized stages of memory. Encoding, the first step, involves recording of information received through the senses in a way that the brain can process, which moves it into the second stage, storage. Storage is the most basic part of memory, because it is essentially the retention of information for a later date, when it may be retrieved for use. This is an important function because without storage, humans would essential have no memories, apart from a few that they could hold for a short time. Retrieval is the third step, which happens later, and involves the recovering of information stored from the previous step. This is the step that allows us to recall memories and allows for the actual practicality of memory. Retrieval allows us to utilize our memories, most importantly.
The most memorable thing I read was about amnesia. I’m pretty sure my main fascination with this subsection stems from having seen this phenomenon portrayed on so many television shows throughout my life. Because I knew about it, I kind of expected to know what it was. However, I was proved wrong when I read about it. I knew, of course, that it dealt with not being able to recall certain memories, but I didn’t really know the types or through which mechanisms it occurred. There are essentially two types of amnesia: retrograde amnesia, which deals with the inability to remember certain things that happened before a certain time, and anterograde amnesia, which is the continual inability to create new memories after an amnesia causing episode. Essentially, the two are opposites of each other. I had heard of Anterograde amnesia (due to 50 First Dates. Thanks, Drew Barrymore), but I hadn’t really thought much about retrograde amnesia, although I was aware of its existence. I suppose I just did not think that all of someone’s memories could disappear in one fell swoop. I’m sure that would be an extreme case, but it could happen.
memory
theories
encoding
storage
retrieval
working memory
sensory memory
Information Processing Model
amnesia
retrograde amnesia
anterograde amnesia
The book defines memory as “facility for recalling past events and past learning.” However, it doesn’t just stop here. The book goes into theories for understanding how memories work. The first of these theories is the information-processing model. This theory says that information goes through encoding, storage, and retrieval and these stages determine how the information is remembered. The second theory is the parallel distributed-processing model. This model says that information is put into the brain with connections across all kinds of neurons.
I believe that psychologists have these theories for understanding memory because there is no definitive answer to where memory happens in the brain. Because it takes place all over the brain and because there are many types of memories, psychologists have to come up with ways to understand this complicated process. It is important to understand memory because without it we would not be able to function in our day to day lives. Learning about the process of memory helps psychologists to understand how implement measures that will help people learn better and can also figure out how to help people who have lost the ability to create or remember memories. The more psychologists understand memory, the better they can help to improve our memories through their new discoveries.
To me the most interesting part of this chapter was the various sections on the storage in each type of memory. In the sensory memory, information only lasts for a few seconds or less. Although I thought that this would be pointless at first, I learned that it was important for making the transition into the working memory. The working memory helps us to hold on to information that we need for short periods of time. I thought that this was super interesting because it is this type of memory that allows us to remember the first part of the sentence by the time we get to the end and also what the beginning of the paragraph was about by the time we finish it. Also, the working memory usually holds about seven (give or take two) things at a time. This was also very interesting to me because it explains a lot about why people who are very busy or who have to think about a lot of things in a short amount of time get so forgetful sometimes. Long term memory, on the other hand, is able to hold as many as one quadrillion different pieces of information! (How much even is a quadrillion?) This was so surprising to me because I didn’t think that I would have the capacity or the need to keep that many things inside my head. I really doubt that I use all one quadrillion memories very frequently. Additionally, when committing things to long term memory, the book describes the spacing effect where learning material through rehearsal over a longer period of time is more effective. This is just another great reason not to cram for finals!
Vocabulary: memory, information-processing model, parallel distributed-processing model, encoding, storage, retrieval, sensory memory, working memory, long term memory, rehearsal
Throughout this reading there was a lot of speculation on what actually occurs in the brain that results in memory loss or storage. This is in part why psychologist can’t simply describe what memory is and move on. Even the concept of memory as a vocabulary term is hard to define and describe. The book defines memory as the faculty for recalling past events and past learning. This definition just scratches the surface of what memory truly is. This is why it is hard for psychologists to put a definitive statement to how memory works. The reality is scientists do not know how memory works exactly and through that there is the rise of multiple theories that try to explain the phenomenon that goes on in our brains as we learn something for the first time and try to remember it later. Scientists continue to come up with different theories in order to show that the processes that go into memory are more complex than we take in a stimulus and then we remember it later on. For example, the process of taking a piece of information and storing it into long-term memory involves multiple parts of the brain which include neurons and chemicals this process alone gets very intricate very fast.
Psychologists have theories instead of hard facts due to the idea that memory is extremely complex. The different theories allow psychologists to explore and test different ideas in order to one day be able to have the technology and intellect to really understand how memory works. The theories that we have now in the psychology field regarding memory help us to better understand the basics of what we believe to be true or plausible. This gives the basis in order to test these theories and refine them as time goes on. Without these theories scientists would only be able to state that memory is involved with the brain. With these theories we know that memory processes include neurons, proteins, chemicals, the hippocampus, and the striatum. Scientists also glean information on how the process of taking information to and from long-term memory might work along with many other processes.
Along with this, one of the most interesting parts of this chapter was the section on how our memory develops. I thought it was very interesting that our brain regions develop at different times. I always knew that the brain was not quite done developing until we were in our twenties but I had not put together that some regions of our brain develop faster or slower than others. The book mentioned that the hippocampus is one of the slower developing parts of the brain where the striatum is one of the structures that matures very quickly. This explains why adults have a really hard time remembering any events from before they were about 5 years old but why babies can recognize their mother and father’s faces from a very early age. All in all, this chapter was extremely informative and it was exciting to see that although we know somethings regarding memory, there is a lot to still be discovered about this topic.
Vocabulary: memory loss, memory storage, memory, long-term memory, theories, neurons, chemicals, proteins, hippocampus, striatum
Psychologists have theories for understanding memory because we do not fully understand memory. Yes, we know what memory is, but not how it works. The two main memory theories attempt to explain how it works. Memory is more complex than what we assume it is; we first must encode the information for storage, eventually to be retrieved when needed. We must know how and where memories are processed and stored to fully understand memory. The theories for memory try to explain the process of memory and where the information can be found within the brain. The information-processing model states that memory goes through 3 stages (Sensory, Working, and Long-term memory) to encode store and retrieve memory. Sensory memory is the first stage with the shortest duration and holds information gathered through the senses for further use in the working memory. Working memory analyzes the information from sensory memory and long term memory. Long-term memory is primarily a storage space for important memories. The Information-processing theory attempts to explain how, but not the where. The where is somewhat explained in the connectionist model: that memory information is a pattern of activation across the entire neural network. This network can create broad memories and tie multiple aspects together to give more information about an object.
The most memorable (HA!) thing from the reading for me were the sections on distorted and manufactured memories and motivated forgetting. I thought it was very interesting how the lack of rehearsal of a bad memory will eventually disregard the memory entirely. I was also interested in the idea of repression. I have heard repression used a lot on T.V. and in the movies, and I was surprised to hear that it has little relevance in modern psychology. I have also had plenty of experience with misremembering something because of exposure to misinformation. In my Taiko and WADE percussion ensembles, there is no written music and must be remembered and retained from week to week and it is not uncommon to hear similar rhythms in my everyday life and warp the original memory into something new and unfortunately wrong.
Memory
Encode
Storage
Retrieval
Sensory Memory
Working Memory
Long-term Memory
Information-processing Model
Connectionist Model
Repression
Psychologists have many different theories about memory, what it is, and how it works. They have so many different theories because the concept of memory is complex. Memory happens in more than one brain region and does not look the same in everyone. This chapter describes memory as, "the faculty for recalling past events and past learning". Seems simple enough, right? Wrong. Because of memory we can have favorites like a favorite color, person, or song. Without it, we wouldn't be able to remember that we liked these things. Not only can we have favorites, but we can also use memory in order to retain information that we need to use later on. This process has many steps and is important in the understanding of memory.
While there are those differing theories that psychologists have about memory, they can all agree that it generally involves three basic activities: encoding, storage, and retrieval. Encoding is the process of getting information into memory in the first place. Encoding requires attention, therefore you must notice the information to remember it. Storage is the act of retaining memories for future use such as information from this textbook. Lastly, retrieval is recapturing memories when we need them. For example, when we take an exam we must retrieve the information we have stored in order to know which answer is the correct one.
One important theory of memory is known as the information-processing model. In this theory, information must pass through three stages of mental functioning in order to become a firmly implanted memory. The first stage is sensory memory which involves stimuli that we come across in the environment. Its purpose is to hold sensory information and it only lasts for up to four seconds. The sensory memory has a quite large capacity. Think about it, we are constantly taking in information about our surroundings every single second. Information that is not transferred to the next stage, working memory, is then lost. Working memory holds information only temporarily for analysis. This stage can last up to thirty seconds without rehearsal, but has a limited capacity of five to nine items at a time. Again, information that is not transferred to the next stage is lost. The final stage, long-term memory, is used for relatively permanent storage and therefore is long lasting. The capacity of long-term memory is relatively unlimited. All of these stages together are the encompassing aspects of the information-processing model of memory which is just one theory.
One interesting topic related to the above theory is rehearsal. Rehearsal, as defined by the textbook, is "consciously repeating the information" desired to be stored into memory. Rehearsal can be used in the spacing effect. The spacing effect is the idea of spacing out rehearsing to retain long-term information. The idea is that distributed practice is much more beneficial and effective than massed practice. This goes right along with the previous chapter about learning. We discussed that if you study many different times over a longer period, you will learn and retain the information more easily than if you were to cram it all in at once. This shows that psychology is interconnected in many ways throughout our life and it continues to play an important role.
Vocabulary Terms: memory, theory, information-processing model, encoding, storage, retrieval, stimuli, sensory memory, working memory, long-term memory, rehearsal, spacing effect
Psychologists have many different theories for how our memory works, and they have a hard time agreeing on just one. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that scientists don’t completely understand memory and how it works, as the book admits on page 284. Memory is much more complicated than just recalling things you have learned or done in the past, which is why scientists and researchers don’t fully understand it and aren’t able to agree on one theory that explains on how it works.
Scientists do agree that memory involves three basic parts. Encoding involves changing environmental stimuli into memories that will be stored in the brain. Storage is the second part, and it is the actual retaining of the recently encoded memories in your brain. The third part is retrieval, when you remember the stored memories when needed. Each of these three parts has many theories attached to it regarding how it works. This serves to reiterate the point that memory is very, very complicated.
Scientists’ theories about memory help us to understand memory a little bit more. We will never fully understand how our brain works, since it is the most complicated thing in the universe, but scientists can compare it to familiar items so we can attempt to understand. For example, scientists use a theory called the information-processing model. It compares memory to a computer, which makes it a little bit easier to grasp.
The section on retrieval was the most surprising to me. I didn’t realize how similar our memories were to a library. When we want to remember something, we are prompted with retrieval cues. Our brain then proceeds to search for the memory like one searches for a book among library shelves. When something is on the tip of your tongue, it means that we have committed some sort of retrieval failure. This means we either stored the memory in the wrong place or we are looking in the wrong place, much like when a book is accidentally put back into the wrong place.
Terms: memories, encoding, storage, retrieval, information-processing model, retrieval cues
There are theories for understanding memory because there is not one clear, defined way that memory works in humans. There are several possible theories, including the information processing model and the parallel distributed processing model, for how memory functions. Because it is so complex, however, psychologists aren’t sure which, if either, model is more correct. These theories help us put a picture to the concept of memory and help psychologists try to figure out ways to test them and come up with other possible models and theories.
Last chapter, we were told to discuss whether we thought our school experience was more learning or memory. After reading this chapter, I guarantee that my college experience is more based on memory. Not necessarily for classes (although memorization is necessary in a lot of core or LAC courses), but just for college lifestyle in general. When I walk to or from class, work, or the dining center, I’m on autopilot; sometimes I don’t even take my eyes off my phone until I get where I’m going. My routines and routes are so ingrained in my memory through automatic processing that I don’t even have to think about where my feet are taking me. However, every time I study or am taking notes in class, I am participating in effortful processing, which, as noted in the text, is much more difficult to do with constant distractions (and I find myself with a lot of those sometimes).
I (and many of my friends, and occasionally my parents) consider myself to have a terrible memory most of the time. I forget assignments, birthdays, and things I had learned in class less than a week ago. For the most part, though, it’s just the details I draw a blank on. And yet somehow, I can still recite my 8th grade boyfriend’s cell phone number by heart. This is why I was fascinated with the section on semantic coding. I am much more likely to remember the meaning of an event than the details that transpired. For example, my favorite band is a funk band called Here Come the Mummies. They’re almost always on tour, and they come to the Midwest rather often. I have been to 7 concerts of theirs so far, with 4 of those being within the last year and a half. Because I’ve been to so many, and the band always does meet and greet after the show, I’ve actually become friends with a couple of the band members. Often it can get confusing when trying to remember what event happened at which show, but it helps when I can track the progression of my friendships with the band members and how they progressed at each show. Even though I may not remember all the exact details of the performance, I can easily recall each show’s personal significance.
Terms: memory, information processing model, PDP model, automatic processing, semantic coding.
The textbook defines memory as a “facility for recalling past events and past learning.” Psychologists have multiple different theories about memories, about what it is and how it works to get a better understanding of it. The concept of memory is a complex thing and happens in more than one region of the brain, encoding information for storage, eventually to be retrieved when needed. Because of memory we develop habits and favorites about colors, people, and songs. Scientists come up with different theories in order to show the processes that go into the memory are more complex than we take in a stimulus and remember it later on.
Because of the complexity of memory, Psychologists have theories instead of hard facts. These different theories allow psychologists to explore and experiment their different ideas in order to have the technology and intellect to understand how memory works at some point in time. These theories try to explain the process of memory and where the information is found within the brain. An important theory of memory is known as the information-processing model. This theory has information pass through three stages of mental functioning in order to become firmly implanted in the memory. The first stage is sensory memory, which purpose is to hold sensory information and it only lasts for up to four seconds. Working memory is next and analyzes the information from sensory memory and long term memory. Long-term memory is the primary storage space for important memories. The information-processing theory attempts to explain how, but not where. The where is explained in another theory, the connectionist model. This model is a pattern of activation across the entire neural network which creates broad memories and ties multiple aspects together to give more information about an object.
The most memorable thing from the reading was amnesia. I have seen amnesia portrayed on television but never before had I heard the process of what all is involved in the brain for amnesia to occur. To find out the two types of amnesia and what is involved with retrograde amnesia, which deals with the inability to remember certain things that happened before a certain time, and anterograde amnesia, which is a continual inability to create new memories after an amnesia causing episode. Basically these two amnesias are opposite of each other. When thinking of these two amnesias I would thing for someone’s memories to disappear all at once must be very hard to come back from and a struggle for not just themselves but everyone around them.
Vocabulary: memory, information-processing model, stimulus, sensory information, sensory memory, long-term memory, working memory, connectionist model, retrograde amnesia, anterograde amnesia.
Psychologists have many theories for understanding memory, as opposed to one solid idea, because memory is so complex, and so much is yet to be understood. Memory involves so many different aspects of the brain, some that aren’t even quite fully understood, that developing one “definition” for memory is a very difficult task. Instead, several theories help explain different aspects of memory and together they help give us a bigger idea of what memory is. One big aspect that is holding psychologists back from developing a definitive explanation of memory is that so much that goes into the process of “memory” is not yet entirely discovered. Memory heavily involves the brain, and there is so much of the brain that has yet to be learned, tested, and supported with research, that we can’t quite be absolutely sure on certain parts of memory and how it relates to the brain and its structure. For instance, psychologists don’t yet know quite where memories are stored or how they are organized within the brain, and which areas are related to long-term vs. short-term memory. Much more research is needed to be done until psychologists can give a definitive answer on what memory is. Until then, there are several theories that gives us a good understanding of memory and how it works. The first is the Information-Processing Model. This theory states that information passes through three memory stages during encoding, storage, and retrieval. Essentially, when we first come across a stimulus, our brain creates a sensory image, or sensory memory, that allows us to retain that information for only a few seconds after being exposed to the stimulus. If we pay further attention to the stimulus then it can be passed into our working memory, where we can use this information for longer than in our sensory memory. Finally, if enough attention and rehearsal is spent on the stimulus, it can reach our long term memory where it will be permanently stored and available for later retrieval. Another theory of memory is the Parallel Distributed-Processing, or Connectionist, Model. This states that information is represented in the brain as a pattern of activation across entire neural networks. So new information is connected back to already learned information to grow our information networks. Instead of a stimulus being processed separately as suggested in the information-processing model, in the PDP model, a new stimulus is being processed simultaneously with already known, similar stimuli stored within the brain. Both of these theories, though they are different, gives us a greater insight into memory and how it works within the brain, so we at least have some understanding of it.
The most memorable thing I learned in this chapter was how our memories differ between young and old. I’ve always found it interesting that we are incapable of remembering many things from when we were very young, but just took this as a fact of life and never really knew why. So it was intriguing to read about why this actually happens. Because semantic and episodic memories are stored in different places in the brain, striatum and hippocampus respectively, and these develop at much different speeds in infants, it makes sense that we are able to retain our procedural or semantic memories from a young age, but have trouble retaining episodic memories. It was also interesting to read how memory is affected as we grow old too. It is essentially common knowledge that older people tend to have less effective memories and become very forgetful, but the explanation of why is very interesting. It was also shocking to read that this decline in memory actually starts in our twenties with the shrinking of the hippocampus.
Terms: Memory, information-processing model, parallel distributed-processing (or connectionist) model, sensory memory, working memory, rehearsal, long-term memory, semantic memory, episodic memory, striatum, hippocampus
The definition of memory as described in the book is “the faculty for recalling past events and past learning”. Memory itself is easy to define but explaining how memory works is complex. Psychologist have developed various theories and models in attempt to explain what exactly memory is and how it functions. Since memory is such a complicated topic and is quite ambiguous, there is yet to be a definite understanding supported by all psychologists. As the book mentions psychologists have agreed that memory requires three basic activities: encoding, storage, and retrieval. The book mentions two different models that explain how memory is processed. The information-processing model of memory states that information must move through stages before it becomes a well-grounded memory. These three stages are sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory. Each of these stages has a certain purpose, capacity, and duration in which the memory will last. Whereas this model suggests that memory is processed piece by piece through a series of stages, parallel distributed-processing presents the theory that new information is automatically connected with other formerly introduced information which then creates networks or information. This network continues to grow with every new piece of information. These two models were created to explain how memory is processed. Encoding information is a process on its own that travels through the stages of sensory, working, and long-term memory. Transferring between stages, for example working memory to long-term memory, can be enhanced by rehearsal, organization, and adding meaning to the information.
I really enjoyed reading the section that talked about memory and the exposure to misinformation. I find it very fascinating that people can be affected by misinformation that they are exposed to. In the study explained in the section the changing of one word in a question can cause various answers even though the witnesses saw the same thing. This example reminded me of a similar example used in a TV show where witnesses were asked several questions individually about a robbery that happened at a park. When they joined together these same questions were asked but others noticed that their answers were all different. Soon after people began to question their initial answers because of what others were saying. Turns out that there two people who were feeding false information to other witnesses so that they would believe what was being said. What I was most surprised is that the book mentions “confident eyewitnesses are just as likely to be wrong as less-confident eyewitnesses”. It is definitely scary to think about confident eyewitnesses testifying when their memory can prove them wrong.
Vocabulary: Encoding, Storage, Retrieval, Information-processing model, Parallel distribute-processing, Rehearsal, and Memory
As shown in the book, memory, like the brain, is a vast and complex array of ideas that one person cannot describe fully with just a singular definition. It is such a vast concept that there are still physical and theoretical aspects of it that we can hardly understand or are still a complete mystery to us. We could be general and say well memory is the information of your experiences stored in your brain for further use, but it's far more complex than that. It stores so much more than just events and experience, but motor skills as well as learned skills, facts, preferences, needs, and so much more. These can be placed into categorizes such as explicit and implicit memory. Explicit memory is any memory that can be brought consciously back to mind and even this group can be split into semantic and episodic memory. Semantic memory involves facts and general knowledge, whereas episodic memory includes events and experiences within a person's life. These theories compiled all together account for our further understanding of what memory is and what the different parts of our memory are. Implicit memories involve memory that doesn’t have to be recalled consciously such as motor skills (procedural memory) or priming and classical conditioning.
Theories about the memory are put into place to give us a better grasp on understand memory which is something that we can’t see or readily experience as an exact event within our body. These models help describe to us the physical and theoretical processes going on within the brain linked to memory. The information-processing model tells us that memory works by information being passed through three different stages of the model which are encoding, storage, and retrieval. The information is encoded by the brain as we experience it into different types of code such as phonological (sound) and visual codes. These codes are then stored in different parts of the brain for long-term storage and they can be retrieved at any time we may need them again. The other theory that ties more clearly into how we experience our own memory at work is the parallel-distributing model. This suggests that info shows in the brain as a pattern of activation across a network of neurons. This explains in a better way how when we look back at memories, usually we usually dig up other memories that we can associate with this particular memory.
I was surprised at how both learning and memory don’t have exact areas of the brain where they are activated, but considering that these two processes work together and add to multiple different part of our knowledge and how we think and process information, I could see this connection. I think this also fits well with the parallel-distribution model of how the brain works well. I was also surprised at how emotionally charged memories are usually more solidly kept within the memory even at a young age, and they don’t seem to waver very much from infantile amnesia.
Terms: infantile amnesia, parallel-distribution model, information-processing model, memory, neurons, phonological code, visual code, long-term memory, encoding, storage, retrieval, motor skills, procedural memory, implicit memory, explicit memory, semantic memory, episodic memory, classical conditioning
Memory is an extremely complex concept. Essentially, information gets encoded into your brain for short term memory and then based on its importance or reoccurrence, it gets either transferred to long term memory where it can be recalled or it gets thrown out. At least we think that’s how it works. There is no definitive way to know how information is stored in the brain so psychologists have to call everything we know “theories.” Still though, these theories give us a better idea of how people are able to store information in their brains. We know how easy it is to forget the name of someone you just met and we know that if you say the person’s name over and over and over again, it becomes easier to recall. These theories of memory give us a way to process what is happening in our brains with information that we receive.
The fact that your brain can alter memories and make you believe things that aren’t true or that never happened was extreme surprising to me! How many of my memories aren’t real? How many things am I remembering incorrectly without even knowing it? I feel like this intro to psych class has just been one big identity crisis for me as I discover all the things that my brain does. Very enlightening to understand yourself as a subject of what you are learning.
Memory, encoded, short term memory, long term memory, recalled, theories, recall,