Memory
Encoding, Storage, & Retrieval
October 5th
Human Memory
 3 processes involved:
 Encoding:
 Storage:
 Computer analogy
 Retrieval:
Encoding:
Getting Information Into Memory
 Attention:
 Focusing awareness
 Selective attention =
 Filtering: evidence for both early and late
filters
 Divided attn: memory will not be as strong
Models of selective attention
Levels of Processing:
Craik and Lockhart (1972)
 AKA: Depth of Processing
 Incoming info processed at different levels
 3 levels: shallow, intermediate, deep
 Deeper processing =
 Encoding levels for verbal info (Craik & Tulving, 1975):
 Structural =
 Phonemic =
 Semantic =
Levels-of-processing theory
Retention at three levels of encoding
Storage:
Maintaining Information in Memory
 Analogy: information storage in computers ~
information storage in human memory
 Information processing theories like the
Atkinson-Shiffrin Model
 3 Parts to Memory:
 Sensory Memory:
 Short-term Memory:
 Long-term Memory:
The Atkinson and Shiffrin model of memory storage
Sensory Memory
 Brief preservation of information in
original sensory form
 Auditory/Visual –
 Sparklers
Short Term Memory (STM)
 Limited capacity:
 Chunking – grouping familiar stimuli for
storage as a single unit (so 7 ± 2 still applies)
 Limited duration –
 Rehearsal –
Baddeley’s Working Memory Model
 Working Memory:
 4-part system:
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Central Executive:
Phonological Loop:
Visuo-spatial sketch-pad:
Episodic buffer:
Long-Term Memory:
Unlimited Capacity?
 Permanent storage?
 Flashbulb memories
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 Recall through hypnosis
 “repressed memories”
Loftus & Palmer (1974)
 How fast were the cars going when they
_______ each other?

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
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Contacted
Hit
Bumped
Collided into
Smashed into
Retrieval:
Getting Information Out of Memory
 Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon – failure in
retrieval
 Retrieval cues… the first letter of the word…
 Recalling an event
 Context cues… remember elementary school?
 Reconstructing memories

Forgetting: When Memory Lapses
 Retention –
 Recall:
 Recognition:
 Relearning:
 Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
 Important Dead dude, studied his own
memory for nonsense syllables
 Plotted the now famous forgetting curve
Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve for nonsense syllables