Lecture 19

Memory 1

  1. Memory
    1. Stores
    2. Transfer Processes
    3. Component Processes
  2. Memory Stores
    1. Sensory Memory
    2. Working Memory
    3. Long-Term Memory
      1. Explicit Memory
      2. Implicit Memory
  3. Biology of Memory
    1. How are memories formed and retrieved?
    2. Where are memories stored?

Overview

Memory is a complex psychological phenomenon. First, it is related to motivation, emotion, and learning. In order to approach stimuli that have previously brought pleasure and avoid stimuli that have previously brought pain, we must remember the association between stimuli and the emotions they created. This type of memory is relatively primitive and does not involve much of the cortex.

Memory is also a higher-order, intellectual process. We remember experiences, images, and information, and combine these memories in creative ways. This sort of memory underlies intelligence and captures what you are trying to do at this moment (remember this information by first comprehending it and then retaining it). The frontal cortex is heavily involved in this aspect of memory.

Memory also has objective and subjective components. Memories reside in connections between neurons, making memory a physiological phenomenon. But memory is also a subjective phenomenon, as people consciously remember some things but not others. Alzheimer's disease and other inflictions are accompanied by severe deteriorations in memory functioning.

Nobody knows for sure how memory operates, but psychologists have created a model that organizes what we know about memory functioning. Like all such models, this model is a device that helps us understand the facts we observe. The model consists of two components: Memory structures (or stores), and the processes that govern the handling of information within each store and the transfer of information between stores.


Specifics



Memory Stores

FeatureFunctionCapacityDuration

Sensory Memory

   

Working Memory

   

Long-Term Memory