MEMORY

Memory:
Memory is an English word taken from a latten word memorua
which means capability to remember.According to Feldman memory is
to record, remember and reuse the data when it is needed. In
psychology memory is an organisms ability to store, retain, and recall
information and experiences. Memory has to play the most important
role in the human behavior. Whole of learning, perception,
intelligence, personality and number of behavioral aspects depends
upon memory. We have to go through four steps in remembering:
First we perceive things by seeing, hearing, or become aware
through any sense.
Second we take it to our memory.
Third we leave it , put it away and are busy in life.
Finally as the fourth step when we need the information we have
to be able to find it and take it out.Now we study all the four
stapes in detail:

Perceiving:
This first step in the memory process is involuntary.
What we have see or touch has made an impression on us.

Encoding or Registration:
Encoding is the process of classifying the
information. We require getting information ready for storage by
organizing it in a meaningful manner. Receiving, processing, and
combining of received information is called encoding. E.g. coding
alphabets into words, words into sentences and sentences into ideas
is one way.
Storage: Storage is the creation of the permanent record of the
encoded information. It stores all the data which is encoded
permanently.
Retrieval: The fourth and final step in this sequence is retrieval, it is
also called recall or recollection. Calling the remembered
information out of the storage, when it is needed, there are three
types of memories
1. Sensory Memory
2. Short Term Memory (S.T.M)
3. Long Term Memory (L.T.M)

Sensory memory:
Sensory memory Is the most shortest
memory of all it involves senses, the data which was taken by
watching and by listening is called sensory, its duration is about 200
to 500 mille seconds. Actually it is an affect which are sensory
organs received from stimuli, the ability to look at an item and
remember what it look like with just a second of observation or
memorization is an example of sensory memory, sensory memory
can store information for only a very short time, if information does

not pass to (S.T.M) it is lost forever. For e.g. we enter a room and in a
friction of second our brain absorbs the overall appearance of the
whole room with all details of sound and fragrance around. All this
raw data of information we can either save into our memory or
forget it by ignoring it instantly.Jeorge Spelling in 1960 use the
parallel report program he briefly exposed people to a series of 12
letters arranged in the following pattern
F

T Y J

D N L

WR M

When exposed to the pattern of letters for just 1/20th of a second

most people recall only 4 or 5 of the letters accurately although they
know that they had seen more .the memory of these letters had
faded by the time they reported the first few letters. It was possible
than that the information had stored in sensory memory but during
the time it took to verbalize the first 4 or 5 letters the memory of the
other letter faded.

The types of sensory memory

The types of memory which come through our vision is known as
iconic memory And the memory comes through ears is echoic
memory
SHORT TERM MEMORY:
Because information that is stored briefly in sensory memory
consist of representation of raw sensory stimuli it is must be
transfer meaningfully to us. If we are to make sense of it and

possibly retain the information must be transferred to the next stage

of memory short term memory (STM).STM is the memory store in
which information first has meaning although the maximum length
of retention there is relatively short.STM allows recall for a period of
several seconds to a minute without rehearsal-. Its capacity is also
very important. The STM fades rapidly if u had not repeated the
information to yourself you will have forget it within 15 to 18
seconds. The process by which sensory memory are transferred into
STM is not clear, some theorists suggest that the information is first
transferred into graphically representation or images and some say
that the transfer occur when the sensory stimuli are changed to
words what is clear however is that, unlike sensory memory which
hold a relatively full and detailed (if short lived) information STM
had incomplete representational capapibilities.However memory
capacity can be increased through a process called chunking : for
e.g. in recording a 10 digit telephone no a person could chunk the no
into 3 groups, first the area code (215) the # digit chunk (123) and
lastly a 4 digit chunk (4567). This method of remembering
telephone number is far more effective than attempting a string of
ten digits. (151234567)
Rehearsal:
The transfer of material from short to long term memory
process largely on the basis of rehearsal, the repetition of
information that has entered STM rehearsal accomplishes two
things first: as long as the information is repeated it is mentioned in
STM, more important rehearsal allows us to transfer information to
the loving term memory.
Long Term Memory (LTM)

The storage in sensory memory an STM generally have a strictly

limited capacity and duration which means that information is
available only for a certain period of time but is not retained in
definitely. By contrast LTM can store much longer quantity of
information for unlimited duration (Some times a whole life) its
capacity is large.For example given a seven digit number we may
remember it for only few seconds before forgetting because it was
stored in our STM. On the other hand we can remember telephone
number for many years through repetition this information is said
to be stored in LTM. Evidence of the existence of LTM comes from a
number of sources, for example people with certain kind of brain
damage have no long term recall of new information received after
the damage occur. Although people and events stored in memory
before the injury remain intact. Because information that was stored
before the injury can be recalled and because STM after the injury
appears to be operational, new material can be recalled for a very
brief period. By this we can understand that there are two different
types of memory one for short term and one for long term.We still
not however store every single detail of an experience.
(a)
(b) Encoding by association:
When we associate data with other things for example to
remember some ones name we associate it with some of our
relatives name it become easier to remember.
(c) Encoding by organization:
The material presented in an organized form is easier to
remember for example: 123 instead of 682.

Retrieval
(d) A retrieval cue is a stimulus that allows us to recall
more easily information that is in LTM. It may be a
word, an emotion, or a sound ; whatever the specific cue
a memory will suddenly come to mind when the
retrieval cue is permanent. For example the smell of
rose may evoke memory of any marriage or good time.
Retrieval cues guide people through the information stored in LTM
in much the same way that the search engine Google guides people
through the World Wide Web (WWW).
Tip of the tongue phenomenon:
Have u ever tried to remember some ones name
convinced that u know it but unable to recall it no matter how hard
you tried? This common occurrence known as the tip of the tongue
phenomenon exemplifies how difficult it can be to retrieve
information stored in LTM.

(E) Flashbulb Memories:

Our ability to remember details about any accidental
event illustrates a phenomenon known as flashbulb memory.
Several types of flashbulb memories are common in college
students. For example, involvement in a car accident, meeting ones
roommate for the first time, and the night of high school graduation
are all typical flashbulb memory.

Types of Long-Term Memory

Long-term memory is usually divided into two types - declarative
(explicit) memory and procedural (implicit) memory.
Declarative includes all of the memories that are available in
consciousness. Declarative memory can be further divided
into (specific events) and semantic memory (knowledge about the
world).
Procedural memory involves memories of body movement and
how to use objects in the environment. How to drive a car or use a
computer are examples of procedural memories.

REFERENCE

WWW.Refrence.com
WWW.About.com
WWW.Sparknots.com
WWW.Wikipidia.com

A Text Book Of Psychology By Mrs. Sheher Bano

Understanding Psychology By Feldman
The Foundation Of Psychology By Prof. Faqih-ud-Din Haidr.

The Contents
1. Memory
2. Perceiving
3. Encoding or Registration
4. Storage
5. Retrieval
6. Sensory Memory
7. Types of sensory memory
8. Short term memory
9. Rehearsal
10.
Long term memory
11.
Encoding by association
12.
Encoding by organization
13.
Retrieval
14.
Tip of the tongue phenomena
15.
Flashbulb memory
16.
Types of long term memory
17.
Declarative
18.
Procedural

Summary
Steps in remembering are the Perceiving, Encoding and
Retrieval. According to storage And Transfer Model of
explanation, the kinds if memory are : the sensory memory
Consisting of iconic and echoic memory, the short term
memory and long term memory. As explained by the levels
of processing model how the memory works, there are
three basic methods for testing memory (i) Recognition (ii)
Recall and (iii) Relearning. Answer of what we remember is
that we remember is meaningfully , organized,
(a) We best memories what we learn first in last.
(b) We remember best the unusual.
(c) We remember best what we learn in similar moods.
(d) We remember best the emotionally significant events.