Memory - History, Theories Of Basic Memory Processes, Models Of Memory Operation, Three Information Processing Systems - Divisions of long-yerm memory
procedural past memories experiences
Memory refers to the mental systems and processes involved in storing and recalling information about stimuli that are no longer present, as well as to all of the information that is stored. Memory is essential to healthy human functioning, and it can be said that every mental process involves some aspect of memory. Indeed, the ancient Greek philosopher Cicero once described memory as "the treasury and guardian of all things." The human brain has evolved an enormous capacity for remembering, and in the course of life, people gather and store vast amounts of information. Memories of past experiences are necessary to understand new experiences, and to decide how to behave in unfamiliar situations. Without memory every person or situation we encountered would be strange and unfamiliar, and we could never learn from past experience. In fact, we would not be able to learn anything at all, since all learning requires remembering the material learned. Memory is also essential to a sense of self or identity, as memories of our past experiences, thoughts, and feelings inform us as to what we have done, who we have been, and who we are now. Memory can hold information ranging from how to put pants on, to the composition of the stars.
Procedural memory
Procedural memory is, as its name implies, knowledge of the steps necessary to perform certain procedures or activities. It is the knowledge of how to ride a bike or swim, how to cook spaghetti and meatballs, and even how to walk and run. Procedural learning is the acquisition of skills, such as learning how to operate a computer. How well something is learned is reflected in improved performance of the skill. It seems well-learned knowledge stored in the procedural memory system can be used without conscious awareness of the steps being performed. For instance, once a behavior is mastered—such as walking or driving a car—one rarely has to stop and think about what step comes next, and attention can be paid to other activities.
Often the information stored in procedural memory is difficult for the individual to articulate even though it is obvious from their smooth performance of the activity that they know it well. Procedural memories seem to last for a very long time, if not for a lifetime, and they are often very hard to change. Thus if one learns how to do something in a certain way, such as swim or play tennis, it can be very hard to change one's technique later.
Additional Topics
People have sought to understand the nature of memory since at least the time of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, who is usually credited with the earliest serious discussion of it. He believed memory was like a blank slate on which accurate impressions of the world were made and preserved indefinitely. Plato distinguished two aspects of memory—the power to retain or keep information, a…
It is important to note that Ebbinghaus was working within the philosophical/psychological framework of associationism. With roots stretching back to Aristotle, associationism asserts that higher order mental processes, such as creativity or language, are produced by the combination of simpler mental processes, such as the mental association of objects, ideas, or experiences due to their similarit…
Since memory and memory formation cannot be observed directly, various models have been put forth by memory researchers in an effort to clearly and simply describe how memory operates. In the early 1900s, psychologists proposed that memory was like a filing cabinet in that everything was categorized neatly and logically. In order to retrieve information, one simply and logically located the correc…
Most researchers divide memory's information processing operations into the stages of acquisition, consolidation, storage, and retrieval. Acquisition refers to the process the brain and the sensory organs use to bring information into the memory system. Consolidation is the process of organizing information to facilitate its storage in long-term memory. Storage describes the forming of a po…
Short-term memory is thought to process information by actively repeating, grouping, and summarizing it to aid its storage in long-term memory. Information is thought to last within short-term memory for only a short period of time before it is either passed into long-term memory or discarded. For information to be transferred into long-term memory, it must be rehearsed or repeated. Generally, sho…
Long-term memory has been the focus of most research and theory on the memory system. It holds all the information that has managed to pass through the sensory and short-term memory systems. In contrast to both of those systems, long-term memory is thought to be able to hold potentially unlimited amounts of information for an indefinite period of time, possibly for a lifetime. It is thought to hol…
Semantic memory is all the easily articulated stored knowledge you have of the world in general that does not refer to specific events in your life. Examples of semantic memory involve factual knowledge such as knowing a car has four wheels, that a United States senator is elected to a term of four years, that Earth revolves around the Sun, or that giving a smile increases the odds of receiving a …
Two specific types of mental representations hypothesized to be used by the semantic memory system to organize information are schemas and categories. Schemas are ordered frameworks or outlines of world knowledge that help us organize and interpret new information. They are like maps or blueprints into which new related information will be fitted. Knowledge of your home town or city, with its stre…
Most research on long-term memory is highly specialized, focusing on particular types of information storage and the various retrieval processes associated with them. In the research laboratory memory is most often assessed by recognition, recall, or relearning tasks. In recognition tasks, research subjects are commonly shown lists of words or groups of visual stimuli, such as pictures of faces. A…
Reminding is an aspect of memory that indicates ideas are organized in long-term memory by similarity, whereby when people think of something, they are often reminded of a similar thing. Remindings are usually of information that is similar in content, or of earlier experiences that are similar to the current situation. The most widely accepted explanation of the reminding process is spreading act…
As in many other fields of psychology, research into underlying biological (physiological, genetic, hormonal) factors in mental phenomena is thriving. Studies concluded in the early and mid-1990s clearly show learning/memory mechanisms occur at synaptic connections—the site of information transfer between neurons. Dozens of different mutant learning/memory genes have already been identified…
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