Psychology what is memory

As you can see in Figure 9. Episodic memory refers to the firsthand experiences that we have had e. Semantic memory refers to our knowledge of facts and concepts about the world e. Explicit memory is assessed using measures in which the individual being tested must consciously attempt to remember the information.

A recall memory test is a measure of explicit memory that involves bringing from memory information that has previously been remembered. We rely on our recall memory when we take an essay test, because the test requires us to generate previously remembered information. A multiple-choice test is an example of a recognition memory test , a measure of explicit memory that involves determining whether information has been seen or learned before. Your own experiences taking tests will probably lead you to agree with the scientific research finding that recall is more difficult than recognition.

Recall, such as required on essay tests, involves two steps: first generating an answer and then determining whether it seems to be the correct one. Although they involve different processes, recall and recognition memory measures tend to be correlated. A third way of measuring memory is known as relearning Nelson, Measures of relearning or savings assess how much more quickly information is processed or learned when it is studied again after it has already been learned but then forgotten.

If you have taken some French courses in the past, for instance, you might have forgotten most of the vocabulary you learned. Relearning also allows us to measure memory for procedures like driving a car or playing a piano piece, as well as memory for facts and figures. While explicit memory consists of the things that we can consciously report that we know, implicit memory refers to knowledge that we cannot consciously access.

However, implicit memory is nevertheless exceedingly important to us because it has a direct effect on our behaviour. Implicit memory refers to the influence of experience on behaviour, even if the individual is not aware of those influences.

Procedural memory refers to our often unexplainable knowledge of how to do things. When we walk from one place to another, speak to another person in English, dial a cell phone, or play a video game, we are using procedural memory. Procedural memory allows us to perform complex tasks, even though we may not be able to explain to others how we do them.

There is no way to tell someone how to ride a bicycle; a person has to learn by doing it. The idea of implicit memory helps explain how infants are able to learn.

The ability to crawl, walk, and talk are procedures, and these skills are easily and efficiently developed while we are children despite the fact that as adults we have no conscious memory of having learned them. A second type of implicit memory is classical conditioning effects , in which we learn, often without effort or awareness, to associate neutral stimuli such as a sound or a light with another stimulus such as food , which creates a naturally occurring response, such as enjoyment or salivation.

The memory for the association is demonstrated when the conditioned stimulus the sound begins to create the same response as the unconditioned stimulus the food did before the learning. The final type of implicit memory is known as priming , or changes in behaviour as a result of experiences that have happened frequently or recently. Priming refers both to the activation of knowledge e. One measure of the influence of priming on implicit memory is the word fragment test , in which a person is asked to fill in missing letters to make words.

You can try this yourself: First, try to complete the following word fragments, but work on each one for only three or four seconds. Do any words pop into mind quickly? Once a concept is primed it influences our behaviours, for instance, on word fragment tests. Our everyday behaviours are influenced by priming in a wide variety of situations. Seeing an advertisement for cigarettes may make us start smoking, seeing the flag of our home country may arouse our patriotism, and seeing a student from a rival school may arouse our competitive spirit.

And these influences on our behaviours may occur without our being aware of them. One of the most important characteristics of implicit memories is that they are frequently formed and used automatically , without much effort or awareness on our part. Furthermore, for half of the research participants, the words were related to stereotypes of the elderly. These participants saw words such as the following:.

The other half of the research participants also made sentences, but from words that had nothing to do with elderly stereotypes. The purpose of this task was to prime stereotypes of elderly people in memory for some of the participants but not for others. When the research participant had gathered all of his or her belongings, thinking that the experiment was over, the experimenter thanked him or her for participating and gave directions to the closest elevator.

Then, without the participants knowing it, the experimenters recorded the amount of time that the participant spent walking from the doorway of the experimental room toward the elevator. To determine if these priming effects occurred out of the awareness of the participants, Bargh and his colleagues asked still another group of students to complete the priming task and then to indicate whether they thought the words they had used to make the sentences had any relationship to each other, or could possibly have influenced their behaviour in any way.

These students had no awareness of the possibility that the words might have been related to the elderly or could have influenced their behaviour. Another way of understanding memory is to think about it in terms of stages that describe the length of time that information remains available to us. According to this approach see Figure 9. But not all information makes it through all three stages; most of it is forgotten. Whether the information moves from shorter-duration memory into longer-duration memory or whether it is lost from memory entirely depends on how the information is attended to and processed.

Sensory memory refers to the brief storage of sensory information. Sensory memory is a memory buffer that lasts only very briefly and then, unless it is attended to and passed on for more processing, is forgotten. The purpose of sensory memory is to give the brain some time to process the incoming sensations, and to allow us to see the world as an unbroken stream of events rather than as individual pieces.

Visual sensory memory is known as iconic memory. Iconic memory was first studied by the psychologist George Sperling In his research, Sperling showed participants a display of letters in rows, similar to that shown in Figure 9.

Then, Sperling gave his participants a recall test in which they were asked to name all the letters that they could remember. On average, the participants could remember only about one-quarter of the letters that they had seen. 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.

A large part of the research on memory is based on experiments conducted in laboratories. Those who take part in the experiments - the participants - are asked to perform tasks such as recalling lists of words and numbers. Both the setting - the laboratory - and the tasks are a long way from everyday life. In many cases, the setting is artificial and the tasks fairly meaningless.

Does this matter? Psychologists use the term ecological validity to refer to the extent to which the findings of research studies can be generalized to other settings. An experiment has high ecological validity if its findings can be generalized, that is applied or extended, to settings outside the laboratory.

It is often assumed that if an experiment is realistic or true-to-life, then there is a greater likelihood that its findings can be generalized. If it is not realistic if the laboratory setting and the tasks are artificial then there is less likelihood that the findings can be generalized. In this case, the experiment will have low ecological validity. Many experiments designed to investigate memory have been criticized for having low ecological validity. First, the laboratory is an artificial situation.

People are removed from their normal social settings and asked to take part in a psychological experiment. They are directed by an 'experimenter' and may be placed in the company of complete strangers.

For many people, this is a brand new experience, far removed from their everyday lives. Will this setting affect their actions, will they behave normally? He was especially interested in the characteristics of people whom he considered to have achieved their potential as individuals.

Often, the tasks participants are asked to perform can appear artificial and meaningless. Few, if any, people would attempt to memorize and recall a list of unconnected words in their daily lives. When we accumulate knowledge, information, and techniques, then the accumulation of those separate processes constitute experience.

This experience involves retrieval of information, conversely, being experienced is the process of retrieving memory. Under this definition, even immunological and allergy processes may be considered memory. This can be considered the storage and retrieval of information, and thus a form of memory. This does not contradict the accepted definition of memory within psychology, as it is still seen as the ability to encode, store, and recall information.

Rather, it extends it to processes not just bound by the brain. Is the extended definition of memory, as is being proposed by neurobiologists and cognitive theorists, a slippery slope? As we suggested above, however, memory still involves a process of incorporation, that is, requiring a corpus. While memory may be stored on the cloud, it requires a system of incorporation with the body and therefore the mind.

Memory, it seems, is not just mechanistic, but a dynamic process. A broadened definition must account for this dynamic relationship between organisms and their environment. How can we understand this process of incorporation?

It appears that symbiotic incorporation of biological processes is quite common in nature. Recent studies offer more evidence that early cells acquired mitochondria by, at some point, incorporating external organisms into their own cell structure Thrash et al.

Mitochondria have their own genome, which is similar to that of bacteria. What was once a competitor and possibly a parasite became absorbed into the organism — and yet, the mitochondrion was not fully incorporated and retains many of its own processes of self-organization and memory storage, separate from the cell it resides in.

This evolutionary process highlights the way by which external properties may become incorporated into the internal, changing both.

This extended definition of memory may seem ludicrous and hard to accept. You may be tempted to throw up your hands and go back to the old, restricted, definition of memory — one that requires the transmission of subjective memories.

We beg you not to. There are several benefits of this approach to memory. By expanding the concept of memory, the study of memory within molecular neurobiology becomes more relevant and important.

Doing so changes the frame of observation from one which understands memory as a narrow, particular process, to one which understands it as a dynamic, fluid, and interactive phenomenon, neither just chemical or digital but integrated into our experience through multiple media.

Second, it helps to conceptualize the relationship between biology, psychology, cognitive science, and computer science — as all three involve studying the transfer of information. Third, it opens up an interesting way to imagine our own future. Rather, like early cells acquiring mitochondria, it incorporates information from its surroundings, which in turn changes it. Many have already noted the extent to which we are cyborgs Harraway, ; Clark, , ; this neat line between human and technology may become more and more blurred as we develop specialized tools to store all kinds of information in our built environment.

In what ways will the mind-brain function differently as it becomes increasingly more incorporated in its milieu, relying on it for information storage and processing? His inability to forget his memories may seem familiar to some, a metaphor for our current condition. Even without the arrival of the Information Age, we carry with us through life a heavy load of disappointments, broken dreams, little tragedies and many memories. We know that forgetting is a must and a challenge.

Yet, we are learning rapidly how to incorporate and use the massive amounts of data now available to us. The main challenge for each of us is to harness and control the unleashed powers given to us by technology. The future is uncertain, but some things remain the same. As Kandel , p. GZ and AV drafted and edited the manuscript. Both authors contributed to manuscript revision, read, and approved the submitted version.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

The authors wish to thank Michael Lifshitz, Ph. The authors also wish to thank Steven J. Lynn, Alan M. Rapoport, and Morgan Craig for the feedback and encouragement.

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