Welcome to lesson six of the Introduction to Psychology online course! Over the course of the last five lessons, you have learned about the basics of psychology including research methods, the brain and behavior and states of consciousness. In this lesson, you will learn more about memory and forgetting.
Human memory involves the ability to both preserve and recover information we have learned or experienced. As we all know, however, this is definitely not a flawless process. This lesson focuses on how memories are created, stored and retrieved. We'll also look at some of the most common reasons why memory sometimes fails.
Syllabus for this week:
What is memory?
Memory retrieval
Forgetting
Why we forget?
Tips for improving memory
Click the links below to read the articles and resources related to each topic in this lesson. Remember, there's no homework. Each of the lessons in this series are 100 percent self-directed, which means that it is up to you to read the article below and learn the information. Good luck with today's lesson!
Memory Basics
Memory is a complex process that involves acquiring, storing and recalling information. Learn more about what memory is, how it works and how it is organized in this basic overview of memory.
What is Memory?
Memory refers to the processes that are used to acquire, store, retain and later retrieve information. There are three major processes involved in memory: encoding, storage and retrieval.
In order to form new memories, information must be changed into a usable form, which occurs through the process known as encoding. Once information has been successfully encoded, it must be stored in memory for later use. Much of this stored memory lies outside of our awareness most of the time, except when we actually need to use it. The retrieval process allows us to bring stored memories into conscious awareness.
The Stage Model of Memory
While several different models of memory have been proposed, the stage model of memory is often used to explain the basic structure and function of memory. Initially proposed in 1968 by Atkinson and Shiffrin, this theory outlines three separate stages of memory: sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory.
Sensory Memory
Sensory memory is the earliest stage of memory. During this stage, sensory information from the environment is stored for a very brief period of time, generally for no longer than a half-second for visual information and 3 or 4 seconds for auditory information. We attend to only certain aspects of this sensory memory, allowing some of this information to pass into the next stage - short-term memory.
Short-Term Memory
Short-term memory, also known as active memory, is the information we are currently aware of or thinking about. In Freudian psychology, this memory would be referred to as the conscious mind. Paying attention to sensory memories generates the information in short-term memory. Most of the information stored in active memory will be kept for approximately 20 to 30 seconds. While many of our short-term memories are quickly forgotten, attending to this information allows it to continue on the next stage - long-term memory.
