1.What is memory?

Memory is a complex mental process in which an individual retains or stores information and concepts in an organized manner in the brain.

2.Explain Sensory Memory/sensory register.

Sensory memory is the initial stage of memory where information received through the five senses is retained. It acts like a buffer where received stimulus stays accurately for a very brief duration after which it is forgotten. It is an automatic process considered to be out of conscious control. The information represented in this type of memory is the raw data which provides a snapshot of a person overall sensory experience. The brain only processes the relevant information from the remaining irrelevant information.

There are three types of sensory memory:

• Iconic memory is the sensory memory for visual items. It is so called as mental representation of visual stimuli are referred as icons. Visual info is retained for about one fourth of a second and maximum twelve items at a given moment of time.
• Echoic Memory is the sensory memory for auditory stimuli. It is capable of holding a large amount of auditory information, but only for 3-4 seconds.
• Haptic memory is the sensory memory of tactual sensation like pressure, itching and pain. The memory decays after about two seconds.

3.Explain short term memory.

Short term memory is the place where small amounts of information can be temporarily kept for more than a few seconds but usually for less than a minute. It is a store house of the learned materials for a short period of time. If the materials are not rehearsed then they will fade away. Individuals tend to store materials acoustically as acoustical codes can easily be rehearsed mentally. It was advocated that an individual can hold five to nine items in short term memory regardless of its nature. It is represented by 7+- 2.

Its features of short-term memory:

• Short term memory receives information from sensory memory.
• It has limited duration between 30-50 seconds.
• Rehearsal or practice enhances the retention ability of short-term memory.
• Recollection of info from short term memory is much easier.
• The information stored in short term memory is mostly acoustic.
• It has limited storage capacity, mainly 7+-2.

4.Explain long term memory.

Long term memory is the store house where memories are retained for the longest period of time including the entire life time. Its capacity is unlimited. Its capacity has no distinguished boundary in terms of visual boundary. It stores info through semantic coding, i.e. in terms of meaning. Cue is used to recollect diverse information as info is not as easily accessible as short-term memory store house. Forgetting does occur for different reasons although it is rare. It happens not because of memories decay but because an individual cannot recall it properly due to lack of cues and improper recognition.

Its features are the following.

• It semantically encodes info
• It appears to be permanent
• Rehearsal or practice enhances retention ability of it
• Recollection of memory from it is a complex process.
• Forgetting is very rare for long term memories
• Cues are used as the index of a large amount of information for retrieval from it.
• Info is stored in a very organized and logical manner by maintaining rules of indexing.

5.Explain the different types of long-term memory.

Long-term memory can be classified into two categories: implicit or procedural memory and explicit or declarative memory.

Procedural Memory: This is the memory that stores information about how to perform certain procedures, such as talking, driving or other activities using motor skills. It helps us to perform the same motor activity after a period of learning. Procedural memory is also called implicit memory as information is stored and reproduced spontaneously and are retrieved without any conscious effort. Procedural memories are built when connections are made between synapses. The more an individual performs a task, the more signals are sent and over time these actions themselves become unconscious and automatic. For example, writing with a pen over time becomes a procedural memory and that helps us to perform the activity.

Declarative memory is also called explicit memory as information is consciously stored and retrieved. It consists of facts and events. It is of two types- episodic memory and semantic memory.

Episodic memory is the memory that includes all autobiographical events, i.e. life episodes or past personal experiences that happened during our lifetime, and memories of times, places, attached emotions and other various connections relating to a particular episode of life. For example, the first day of college.

Semantic memory stores information in terms of meaning (semantics). It comprises of facts, concepts, meanings and ideas that we acquire. Based on meaning, different information is interdependent and is used in thinking and communication. For example, the concept of television is stored in our semantic memory and hence, we are never confused while changing the TV. It is independent of personal experiences and of temporal context in which it was acquired. The basis of Semantic memory is formed by episodic memory as we learn new facts or concepts from our personal interactions or experiences. Gradual transformation of information from episodic to semantic memory is possible when episodic memory reduces its emotional attachment to a particular event.

6.Table for capacity, duration, coding.

	Sensory register	Short term	Long term
Capacity	Ver large	Limited – 7+- 2 chunks	Unlimited
Duration	Limited- millisecond	Limited (18 secs)	Years/lifetime
coding	Sense specific- echoic, iconic	Acoustic	Semantic

7.Explain the stages of memory. 

The process of memorization is an intricate phenomenon that involves certain discrete steps.

encoding —>

storage —>

retrieval

Encoding refers to the initial process of collecting information through perceiving and learning. The perceived information is converted into codes that can be stored within the brain through the process of encoding. We encode info by using its meaning and by its novelty. There are three ways in which it can be stored. Semantic (meaning), acoustic (sound) and visual (image). Encoding is essential, without it the info cannot be stored and recalled later.  Recoding is a subprocess under encoding. It means the conversion process through which we transform an experienced info into some proper meaning so that we can make sense of it. It occurs when the original format of stored knowledge in our memory is changed.  For example, chunking (mnemonic technique).

Storage refers to the retention of the information over time that bridges between experiencing the info and retrieval of them.

Retrieval refers to the process of reproducing the retained info.

8.What is working memory?

Working memory is defined as the cognitive organization with a limited capacity that temporarily hold information available for processing. It is responsible for management or handling of stored information whereas short term memory which it is used synonymously with, only refers to the short-term storage of information. Atkinson and Shiffrin used it to describe their short-term store. It like a mental note that keeps track of short-term information and it’s functioning.

9.What is free recall?

Free recall is another kind of memory task. In this, one tries to recall the previously learnt info in any random order.

10.Explain serial position effects, recency effects, primary effects.

Serial position effect is the tendency of an individual to recall items at the beginning and at the end of the list better than those in the middle of the list.

Primary effect is the tendency to remember the information at the beginning of the list.

Recency effect is the tendency to remember the information at the end of the list.

11.What is remembering?

The process of storing the learned items and recalling them in proper sequence according to the necessity, is known as remembering.

12.Explain the Atkinson and Shiffrin’s model.

Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin proposed the model of human memory popularly known as Atkinson- Shiffrin model. It is also called the modal model as well as multi-store model. it suggested that memory comprises of three separate stores – sensory register or sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory.

sensory register is the initial store of memory that receives sensory information through five senses. it is the storage system where the sensory stimuli is registered primarily and stay for a brief period of time about 1-4 seconds. it has a vast amount of storage capacity because several types of information through five senses are brought to the sensory register.

short-term memory receives the information that is passed on by the sensory register. this Store has a limited capacity of holding 5-9 items for about 18 to 20 seconds. the process of rehearsing the items through repetition helps to hold the information a little longer and is termed as maintenance rehearsal.

long-term memory is the final store which has a limited capacity and duration to hold information. information is rehearsed in terms of the meaning or semantics of the information. this type of rehearsal is called elaborative rehearsal. it works by relating new concepts to old concepts that are already stored in the long-term memory. it has also been said that the memories are never forgotten from this store. however, failure to retrieve information from this store mainly occurs due to lack of retrieval cues, failure in connection and association of cues and failure of reconstruction.

strength of information processing model – this model is well connected with modern cognitive psychology. the model is influential as it has generated a lot of further researchers in the areas of memory.

weakness of information processing model – this model is criticized for its oversimplification of the functions of short term and long-term memory. it only states about a single compartment of long-term memory. it does not explain how and why we can recall information that are not rehearsed (example cycling) and unable to recall information which are rehearsed (example mathematical calculations)

13.Explain the PDP model.

James McClelland founded parallel distributed processing model. The parallel distributed processing model of memory is based on the idea that the brain does not function serially rather performs a range of activities at the same time, parallel to each other. the processing occurs in a number of different locations of the brain (distributed processing). according to this model a quick action during any cognitive task is possible through the parallel functioning of the interconnected neural units which are called nodes or modules. it also suggests that more rich or strong interconnections between the nodes result in quick and successful memorization and is therefore also called connectionist model as memory is stored in connections among the nodes. memory is created by modifying the strength of the connections between the neural units. an example of PDP is when we see a vehicle our brain instantly processes the various information through different neural nodes such as it can move around, it needs fuel, etc. which get connected to other nodes of the brain which also process some other information such as it has wheels, windows, etc. this processing of information occur parallelly and we can recognise the vehicle.

some features of PDP model are – memorization process initiates due to activation of neural networks. the representation of information is across the different parts of the brain. memory is compilation of network of units or interconnected neural nodes.

strength of PDP is – it expresses the functions of memory reasonably well even if a neural unit is damaged or an imperfect information is given to it. it explains why human memory works fast and how the brain can process large amounts of information in a short period of time.

its weakness is – it cannot account for serial processing of memory

14.What is forgetting?

forgetting is simply failure to recall the past experiences at the proper time that have been already stored in the memory.

15.What is Trace decay?

the trace decay theory suggests that the memories that are not rehearsed fade away gradually with time. It is also known as theory of this disuse. it explains that memories leave a trace in our brain. A trace is some form of physical and/or chemical change in the nervous system that occurs during the memorization process. this theory states that forgetting occurs as a result of the automatic decay of the memory traces due to metabolic functioning of the neural system over a period of time. this theory helps to explains why most of our childhood experiences are forgotten. however, letters, numbers etc. are not forgotten because of their constant practice.

A few criticisms of this theory are – it has been proved that forgetting is a much more complex process than mere fading of memory traces. it also cannot explain why some memories (Motor skills) are not forgotten despite not being rehearsed

16.What is retroactive and proactive interference?

interference theory suggest that human memory suffers from partial or complete forgetting due to the interference from other memories. it occurs partially when other memories are similar to the memory which is being tried to be remembered. for example, the inability to recall a particular phone number due to its similarity with other numbers.

there are two types of interference – proactive interference and retroactive interference.

• Proactive interference occurs when earlier memory interferes with the recollection of newly learned materials. for example, when a student attends two classes consecutively. That student would face a difficulty is recalling the second-class materials as the first class learned material memory would interfere with it.
• Retroactive interference occurs when memory of any new learning interferes with the reproduction of the previously learned materials. For example, the same student might find it difficult to recall the learnt materials of the first class as the learnt materials of the second class interfere with it.

17.What is retrieval failure?

retrieval failure occurs when the information already exists in long-term memory but cannot be accessed. Since we use cues while storing information. During retrieval, we try to match the correct cues that were used for the storage of the corresponding information. however, sometimes we miss the cues and eventually retrieval failure takes place.

18.What is Amnesia?

The term ‘amnesia’ generally refers to the loss of memory. This can happen if the memory store is bad or one fails to retrieve the information from the memory. Amnesia can be the result of brain injury, brain lesions, surgery to parts of the brain, and the effects of certain medications. 

19.Explain the causes of amnesia.

• Dementia: Dementia is one of the major causes of amnesia.  Dementia refers to a wide range of symptoms associated with a decline in memory or other thinking skills.
• Anoxia: Decreased oxygen supply that affects the entire brain and can cause memory loss.  This condition is called anoxia
• Damage to the Hippocampus: The hippocampus is a part of the brain which is responsible for controlling memory functions. Damage or injury to this part of the brain can lead to amnesia.
• Alcohol consumption: Consumption of alcohol can adversely affect one’s encoding, storage and retrieval process thereby leading to amnesia.

20.Explain the different types of amnesia.

Anterograde amnesia: It is a memory disorder characterized by a loss of ability to make new memories after an incident, like disease or accident. However, memories prior to the incident remain intact. It involves the loss of the ability to create new memories thereby leading to a partial or complete inability to recall the recent past.

Retrograde amnesia affects memories that were formed before the onset of amnesia. Someone who develops retrograde amnesia after a traumatic brain injury may be unable to remember what happened in the years, or even decades, prior to that injury.

21.What is dementia?

Dementia a general term used to refer a decline in mental ability that may interfere with daily activities. It is not a specific disease. It is actually a group of symptoms that indicates the ability to perform cognitive tasks and disrupted social skills

22.What are the symptoms of dementia?

A gradual decline in memory. Disruption in communication due to blockage in expression. Disturbance in executive functioning, such as planning, organizing and sequencing. Loss of ability to focus on a particular idea, thought or task. Behavioral anomalies such as inability, impatience or rudeness.

23.What are the causes of dementia?

Head injury sometimes may damage certain brain cells or neural units. These damages do not allow the cells to communicate or remain linked with each other. Lack of oxygen and nutritional deficiency in brain may also lead to dementia. Dementia may be caused by degeneration in the cerebral cortex. This part of the brain is responsible for thought, memory, action and personality. Therefore, this atrophy may lead to the symptoms of dementia

24.What are the treatments of dementia?

treatment of dementia includes sufficient supportive care as it has no particular treatment and therapy. It is always recommended to take preventive measures at early stages that may decelerate the onset and/or progress of the disease

25.What is Alzheimer’s disease?

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. It is also known as progressive degenerative disease. It slowly destroys memories and other important cognitive functioning thereby rendering the person unable to carry out daily activities.

26.Explain the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

Symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are as follows- One of the early signs of Alzheimer’s disease is memory loss, especially forgetting recently learned information. Others include forgetting important dates, events and keep on asking for the same information.

Aggression, agitation, difficulty in self-care, irritability, meaningless repetition of words, restlessness, lack of restraint or wandering and getting lost are some of the common behavioral anomalies found in this disease

People may have difficulty in concentrating thinking and understanding, doing simple calculation and difficulty in recognizing common things.

Anger, apathy, general discontent, loneliness or mood swings are common in this disease.

27.Explain the causes of Alzheimer’s disease.

• Age-related degeneration and dysfunction of brain cells is a major cause of Alzheimer’s disease. That is why, it is most common among the old people
• About 70% of risk involves genetic factor or hereditary factor. Occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease in family, either on parental or maternal side predisposes a person to develop
• Risk factors include I) history of head injury II) history of hypertension iii) prolonged depression

28.Explain the treatments of Alzheimer’s disease.

Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease present, there is no precise medical treatment for the overall cure of Alzheimer’s disease. But there are various treatments available which generally address and helps in the rectification of symptoms. Various clinical researches are still in progress for the determination of accurate and specific clinical interventions and management. Current treatments and clinical supports are not being able to cure Alzheimer’s completely. However, they can help in slowing down or partially inhibiting the process of the progressive worsening of the disease and its symptoms and target towards improving quality of life.

29.Explain techniques of memory.

memory can be improved by the following techniques that help us to improve the encoding, expand the capacity of storage as well as developed cues for association for significant improvement of retrieval of stored information.

mnemonic devices are techniques that a person uses for improving his or her ability to help remember something easily. the following are a few examples – name mnemonic or initial letter mnemonic (acronym). it is a mnemonic device that helps us remember information by memorizing the initials of every word in a sequential manner, example VIBGYOR. word mnemonic is a technique in which different words are used to remember some other words, for example hi hello little beggar boy. Model mnemonic is a technique that includes some type of representation to enable recalling of information, for example Maslow’s hierarchy pyramid of needs.

imagery refers to nonverbal or pictorial representation of objects, ideas, persons to help remember information. the strength of it is determined by the strength of appeal to the major senses. it is easier to remember concrete objects than an abstract one. for example, imagery of a table is easier to remember than imagery of honesty. however, in case of abstract we use paired associated technique. for example, when thinking of Subhash Chandra Bose who was a great patriot we think of the concept of Patriotism with concrete evidence is like his contribution to Indian freedom struggle.

attention to any information helps in improving memory for the same. the factors that determine our attention also determine the extent to which we can easily recall certain information. for example, the size, shape, intensity, color, etc.

learning is a starting point of any memorization process it plays an important role for the strength of memory. if learning is hampered the process of memorization is also hampered. various factors favor learning such as – interest the attention of the learner towards the learning material, frequent practice and rehearsal of the information, meaningful organization of the subject matter, the sq4r technique, etc.

the sq4r technique was developed by Thomas and Robinson which stands for survey, question, read, reflect recite and review.