Memory: Permanence, Organization, Atkinson Shiffrin Model YouTube Lecture Handouts for NET, IAS, State-SET (KSET, WBSET, MPSET, etc.), GATE, CUET, Olympiads etc.
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What is Memory?
Memory: Dusty storehouse of facts
Active system that receives, stores, organizes, alters, and recovers information
Acts as computer β encode, storage & retrieval
Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of Memory - Stages of Information
Sensory Information: Exact copy encodes for second or two β iconic memory (visual) and echoic memory (auditory)
STM: Small amount of information for dozens of seconds β memory encoded as images & phonetically (by sound) when it comes to letters and words β If not rehearsed, it is lost
Working Memory: For thinking and problem solving
Chunking: recode and regroup information, eg, NY (New York)
LTM: Lasting storehouse of knowledge, can store limitless information and it becomes easier to add new information β encoding based on meaning
Forming and using long-term memories is active, creative, highly personal process.
Memories are colored by emotions, judgments, and quirks of personality β varies for each person & even twins
Rehearsing Information
Maintenance rehearsal: Silently repeating memory β hear it many times and not once
Rote rehearsal or rote learning β learning by simple repetition
Elaborative processing β makes information more meaningful (why, how etc.)
Permanence
Wilder Penfield - brain records past like βstrip of movie film, complete with sound trackβ
But brain stimulation produces memory like experience in 3% cases
False Memory
- Loftus & palmer experiment: Car accident β terms used as smashed, bumped, contacted, hit β people with false memory gave false testimony
- Memory gap is filled by logic, guess or new information
- Source Confusion: Occurs when origin of memory are misremembered
Organizing Memory
- Memory structure: Pattern of associations among items of information
- Cognitive interview: Use of cues and strategies to improve memory of eyewitnesses
- Network Memory: Model of memory that views it as organized system of linked information
Types of Memory
Memories for skills are distinct from memories for facts
Procedural Memory: Person with amnesia has procedural memory. It is based on skill and task and is implicit.
Declarative Memory: Stores factual information like names, faces and is explicit. Person with amnesia lacks this memory. It is of two types
Semantic Memory: Mental dictionary or encyclopedia of knowledge β basic things which one can never forget like oneΥs name, it records impersonal knowledge
Episodic Memory: Autobiographical record of personal experiences β it is about βwhat,β βwhere,β and βwhenβ of our lives & allows re-experiencing events
(INTERESTING: Forgetting of episodic information results in the formation of semantic memories. At first, you remembered when and where you were when you learned the names of the seasons. But later you forgot the episodic details but will remember names of seasons for the rest of your life.)
Measurement of Memory
- Tip of Tongue: Feeling that memory is available but not retrievable
- Recall: To supply or reproduce memorized information with a minimum of external cues.
- Recognition: An ability to correctly identify previously learned information
- Relearning: Learning again something that was previously learned. Used to measure memory of prior learning β measured by saving score (amount of time saved in relearning)
- Priming: Facilitating the retrieval of an implicit memory by using cues to activate hidden memories.
- Consolidation: Process by which relatively permanent memories are formed in brain
- Hippocampus acts as switching station b/w STM & LTM β if damaged develops anterograde amnesia (inability to consolidate new memories)
How to Memorize?
- Learn by Chunks
- Mnemonics
- Whole vs Part Learning
- Cues
- Spaced Practice
- Use mental pictures
- Form mental associations
- Form a story or chain
β Manishika