MEMORY
Memory refers to retaining and recalling over a period of time, depending upon the nature of cognitive tasks you are required to perform. It might be necessary to hold information for a few seconds.
Memory is conceptualised as a process consisting of three independent,though interrelated stages. These are encoding, storage,and retrieval. Any Information received by us necessarily goes through these stages.
Encoding is the first stage which refers to a process by which information is recorded and registered for the first time so that it becomes usable by our memory system.Whenever an external stimulus impinges Our sensory organs, it generates neural impulses. These are received in different areas of our brain for further processing. Inencoding, incoming information is received and some meaning is derived. It is then represented in a way so that it can be processed further.
Storage is the second stage of memory. Information which was encoded must also be stored so that it can be put to use later.Storage, therefore, refers to the process through which information is retained and held over a period of time.
Retrieval is the third stage of memory.Information can be used only when one is able to recover it from her/his memory. Retrieval Refers to bringing the stored information toher/his awareness so that it can be used for performing various cognitive tasks such as problem solving or decision-making. It may be interesting to note that memory failure can occur at any of these stages. You may fail to recall information because you did not encode it properly, or the storage was weak so you could not access or retrieve it when required.
INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH :THE STAGE MODEL
Initially, it was thought that memory is the capacity to store all information that we acquire through learning and experience. It Was seen as a vast storehouse where all information that we knew was kept so that we could retrieve and use it as and when needed. But with the advent of the computer,human memory came to be seen as a system that processes information in the same way as a computer does. Both register, store, and manipulate large amounts of information and act on the basis of the outcome of such manipulations. If you have worked on a computer then you would know that it has a temporary memory (random access memory or RAM) and a permanent memory (e.g., a harddisk). Based on the programme commands,the computer manipulates the contents of its memories and displays the output on the screen. In the same way, human beings can register information, store and manipulate the stored information depending on the task that they need to perform. For example, when you are required to solve a mathematical problem,the memory relating to mathematical operations, such as division or subtraction are carried out, activated and put to use, and receive the output (the problem solution). Thisanalogy led to the development of the first model of memory, which was proposed byAtkinson and Shiffrin in 1968. It is known as Stage Model.
MEMORY SYSTEMS :-
SENSORY,
SHORT-TERM
LONG-TERM MEMORIES
According to the Stage Model, there are three memory systems : the Sensory Memory, theShort-term Memory and the Long-termMemory. Each of these systems have different features and perform different functions with respect to the sensory inputs.
Let us examine what these system are :-
SENSORY MEMORY
The incoming information first enters the sensory memory. Sensory memory has a large capacity. However, it is of very short duration,i.e. less than a second. It is a memory system that registers information from each of the senses with reasonable accuracy. Often this system is referred to as sensory memories or sensory registers because information from all the senses are registered here as exact replicas of the stimulus. If you have experienced visual after-images (the trail of light that stays after the bulb is switched off) or when you hear reverberations of a sound when the sound has ceased, then you are familiar with iconic(visual) or echoic (auditory) sensory registers.
Short-term Memory
You will perhaps agree that we do not attend to all the information that impinge on our senses. Information that is attended to enter the second memory store called the short-term memory (abbreviated as STM), which holds small amount of information for a brief period of time (usually for 30 seconds or less).Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed that information in STM is primarily encoded acoustically, i.e. in terms of sound and unless rehearsed continuously, it may get lost from the STM in less than 30 seconds. Note that the STM is fragile but not as fragile as sensory registers where the information decays automatically in less than a second.
LONG TERM MEMORY
Long-term Memory Materials that survive the capacity and duration limitations of the STM finally enter the long-term memory (abbreviated as LTM)which has a vast capacity. It is a permanent storehouse of all information that may be as recent as what you ate for breakfast yesterday to as distant as how you celebrate your sixth birthday. It has been shown that once any information enters the long-term memory store it is never forgotten because it gets encoded semantically, i.e. in terms of the meaning that any information carries. What You experience as forgetting is in fact retrieval failure; for various reasons you cannot retrieve the stored information.
How does the information travel from one store to another?
As an answer to this question, Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed the notion of control processes which function to monitor the flow of information through various memory stores. As suggested earlier, all information which our senses receive are not registered; if that be the case, imagine the kind of pressure that our memory system will have to cope with. Only that information which is attended to enters the STM from sensory registers and in that sense, selective attention,is the first control process that decides what will travel from sensory registers to STM. Sense Impressions, which do not receive attention,fade away quickly. The STM then sets into motion another control process of maintenance rehearsal to retain the information for as much time as required. As The name suggests, these kinds of rehearsals simply maintain information through repetition and when such repetitions discontinue the information is lost.countries. From the STM, information enters the long-term memory through elaborative rehearsals. As against maintenance rehearsals, which are carried through silent or vocal repetition, this rehearsal attempts to connect the ‘to be retained information’ to the already existing information in long-term memory.
The long-term memory too is not unitary because it contains a wide variety of information.
In view of this,contemporary formulations envisage long-term memory as consisting of various types. For instance, one major classification within the LTM is that of Declarative and Procedural(sometimes called nondeclarative) memories.All information pertaining to facts, names,dates, such as a rickshaw has three wheels orthat India became independent on August 15 1947 or frog is an amphibian or you and your friend share the same name, are part of declarative memory.
Tulving has proposed yet another classification and has suggested that the
another classification and has suggested that the declarative memory can either be Episodic or semantic.
Episodic memory contains biographical details of our lives. Memories relating to our personal life experiences constitute the episodic memory and it is for this reason that its contents are generally emotional in nature.
Semantic memory, on the other hand, is the memory of general awareness and knowledge. All concepts, ideas and rules of logic are stored in semantic memory.
ENHANCING MEMORY
All of us desire to possess an excellent memory system that is robust and dependable. Who,after all, likes to face situations of memory failures that lead to so much anxiety and embarrassment? After learning about various memory
related processes, you certainly would like to know how your memory can be improved.
There are a number of strategies for improving memory called mnemonics(pronounced ni-mo-nicks) to help you improve your memory. Some of these mnemonics involve use of images whereas others emphasise self-induced organisation of learned information. You will now read about mnemonics and some suggestions given for memory improvement. Mnemonics using Images Mnemonics using images require that you create vivid and interacting images of and around the material you wish to remember. The two prominent mnemonic devices, whichmake interesting use of images, are the keyword method and the method of loci.
The Keyword Method : Suppose you want to learn words of any foreign language. In the Keyword method, an English word (the assumption here is that you know English Language) that sounds similar to the word of a foreign language is identified. This english word full function as the keyboard for example if you want to remember the Spanish word for duck which is ‘Pato’, you may choose ‘pot’ as the keyword and then evoke images of keyword and the target word (the Spanish word you want to remember) and imagine them as interacting.You might, in this case, imagine a duck in a pot full of water. This method of learning words of a foreign language is much superior compared to any kind of rote memorisation.
The Method of Loci : In order to use the method of loci, items you want to remember are placed as objects arranged in a physical space in the form of visual images. This Method is particularly helpful in remembering items in a serial order. It requires that you first visualise objects/places that you know well in a specific sequence, imagine the objects you want to remember and associate them one by one to the physical locations. For example,suppose you want to remember bread, eggs,tomatoes, and soap on your way to the market,you may visualise a loaf of bread and eggs placed in your kitchen, tomatoes kept on a table and soap in the bathroom. When you enter the market all you need to do is to take a mental walk along the route from our kitchen to the bathroom recalling all the items of your shopping list in a sequence.
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