Memory Processes and Models

Memory: A system that senses, organizes, stores, and retrieves information.
Challenges: Sometimes individuals have difficulty retrieving information from memory.

Encoding: The process of converting environmental and mental stimuli into memorable brain codes.
Storage: The act of holding onto the encoded information.
Retrieval: The process of pulling information from storage.

Information-Processing Model:
- Assumes the processing of information for memory storage is similar to how a computer processes memory in a series of three stages.
Parallel Distributed Processing Model:
- Proposes that memory processes take place simultaneously over a large network of neural connections.
Levels-of-Processing Model:
  - Assumes that information that is processed more deeply (according to its meaning) will be remembered more efficiently and for longer periods of time.
  - Processing Levels:
    - Shallow Processing: Focus on the visual or auditory characteristics (e.g., "What does it look like?" and "What does it sound like?").
    - Deep Processing: Focus on the meaning of the information (e.g., "What does it mean?").

Sensory Memory:
  - The first stage of memory; where information enters the nervous system through sensory systems.
  - Main Process: Pattern Recognition.
  - Types of Sensory Memory:
    - Icons: Visual sensory memory.
    - Echoes: Auditory sensory memory.
  - Capacity: Large but not unlimited; includes everything perceivable at any moment.
  - Duration of Sensory Codes: Very brief.
    - Iconic Memory: Visual representation of input.
    - Echoic Memory: Memory of sounds, like internal dialogue during reading.
  - Masking: The phenomenon where competing information makes it harder to interpret sensory information.
  - Difference Between Iconic and Echoic Memory:
    - Iconic memory deals with visual input, while echoic memory pertains to auditory input.

Characteristics:
- Memory system for information held for brief periods while actively processed.
- Working Memory: An active system that processes short-term memory.
Encoding: Primarily conducted in auditory form.
Limited Capacity: About 3 to 5 items can be retained at once.
- Chunking: A technique where bits of information are combined into meaningful units to enhance storage capacity.
Duration: Remains for 12 to 30 seconds without rehearsal.
Maintenance Rehearsal: The technique of repetitively verbalizing information to keep it in short-term memory.

Definition: The system where all information is retained for more or less permanent periods.
Capacity: Seemingly unlimited.
Duration: Considered relatively permanent.
Elaborative Rehearsal: A method for transferring information from short-term to long-term memory by making it meaningful.

Procedural Memory:
- Involves motor skills and habits (e.g., driving, tying shoes).
Declarative Memory:
   - Things that we know (facts, general knowledge).
   - Semantic Memory:
     - Involves facts and general knowledge accessible by anyone.
   - Episodic Memory:
     - Personal events experienced by an individual; not accessible by others unless shared.

Understanding the difference between procedural and declarative memory.
Retrieval Cue: A stimulus that aids recovery of a previously encoded memory; can enhance long-term memory based on context.
Encoding Specificity: The tendency for memory retrieval to be enhanced when the related information present during encoding is also available during retrieval.
Recall vs. Recognition:
- Recall: Retrieving information without cues.
- Recognition: Identifying previously learned information when presented with cues.
Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon: A feeling of knowing information but unable to retrieve it at that moment.
Serial Position Effect:
- Primacy Effect: The tendency to better recall the first items in a list.
- Recency Effect: The tendency to better recall the last items in a list.
False Positive: An error where individuals believe they recognize an item not actually present in memory.

Flashbulb Memories: Highly detailed and vivid memories of often emotional events, as if taking a snapshot.
Constructive Processing: The process of retrieving memories which may be altered or influenced by newer information.
Misinformation Effect: The phenomenon where memory is distorted by misleading information.

Forgetting: The inability to properly store information for future use.
Ebbinghaus’ Curve of Forgetting: Describes how information is rapidly lost shortly after learning unless it is consciously reviewed.
Reasons for Forgetting: Proposed reasons include decay, interference, and retrieval failure.

The case of patient H.M. highlights the role of brain structures (such as the hippocampus) in memory formation and retrieval processes.

Retrograde Amnesia: Loss of memories from the point of injury or trauma backward, affecting the past.
Anterograde Amnesia: Inability to form new memories after the trauma, while old memories may still be retrievable.

Proactive Interference: Where old information inhibits the ability to learn new information.
Retroactive Interference: Where new information interferes with the recall of old information.

Role: The hippocampus is crucial in forming new declarative memories, linking them with context and emotions.