Chapter 7 Memory

Memory is the process by which we recollect prior experience and information and skills learned in a lifetime. There are many kind of memories. Memory is classified according to the different kinds of information it contains; such as event, knowledge, and skills. The three kind of memory are episodic memory, sematic memory, and implicit memory.

Episodic memory is a memory of a specific event. If this event took place in the persons presence or if the person had an event. Some events are so important that it seems as if a flashbulb goes off and on, this is called a flashbulb memory. Sematic memory is general knowledge that people remember. This is an example of explicit memory. Things that are explicit are clearly stated or explained. Implicit memory is the opposite of explicit. Implicit memory are implied, or not clearly stated. It consist of the skills or procedures you learned.

Then you have the three process of memory. The first process of memory is encoding. Encoding is the translation of information into a form in which it can be stored. The second stage is storage. Storage is the maintenance of encoded information over a period of time. Within storage you find the maintenance rehearsal, which is the repetition of information over and over again to keep from forgetting. You will also find elaborative rehearsal which is highly use in education method. The third stage is retrieval memory, which consist of locating stored information and returning it to conscious thought. In the retrieval process you will find the Context-dependent memories, which are the memories that came back to you in that place. Then, there is the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. It is also sometimes referred to as the feeling “Feeling-of-knowing-experience.” Tip of the tongue is when you know something but it is impossible for someone to remember it.

The first stage of memory is the sensory memory. It consist of the immediate, initial recording of information that enters through our senses. Iconic memory is where the visual stimuli, icons, are held. Eidetic memory is when you have photographic memory. To end with the first stage of memory, there is the echoic memory that are mental traces of sound. The second stage is the short-term memory. Short term memory is where the information will remain there after the sensory memory trace has faded away. There is the primary effect and the recency effect. Chunking is when the brain try to keep something in the short-term memory by rehearsing it. Then there is interference, and it occurs when new information appears in short-term memory and takes the place of what is already there. The third and last stage of memory is long-term memory. The mental representation that we form of the world by organizing bit of information into knowledge are called schemas.

All the stages of memory, are important. They all have an efficient work to help us understand how memories themselves work and how we keep out memories intact. Memory is what we have collected over the years with experience and skills we have perfected with practice. The stages of memory all have a process in which every single memory that is created, follows a strict regime so all information is put in place and it has the order that it happened.