Encyclopaedia Britannica Online
Memory
psychology
Table of Contents
Introduction
Time-dependent aspects of memory
Retrieval
Forgetting
Memory, the encoding, storage, and retrieval in the human mind of past experiences.
The fact that experiences influence subsequent behaviour is evidence of an obvious but nevertheless remarkable activity called remembering. Memory is both a result of and an influence on perception, attention, and learning. The basic pattern of remembering consists of attention to an event followed by the representation of that event in the brain. Repeated attention, or practice, results in a cumulative effect on memory and enables activities such as a skillful performance on a musical instrument, the recitation of a poem, and reading and understanding words on a page. Learning could not occur without the function of memory. So-called intelligent behaviour demands memory, remembering being prerequisite to reasoning. The ability to solve any problem or even to recognize that a problem exists depends on memory. Routine action, such as the decision to cross a street, is based on remembering numerous earlier experiences. The act of remembering an experience and bringing it to consciousness at a later time requires an association, which is formed from the experience, and a “retrieval cue,” which elicits the memory of the experience.
Practice (or review) tends to build and maintain memory for a task or for any learned material. During a period without practice, what has been learned tends to be forgotten. Although the adaptive value of forgetting may not be obvious, dramatic instances of sudden forgetting (as in amnesia) can be seen to be adaptive. In this sense, the ability to forget can be interpreted as having been naturally selected in animals. Indeed, when one’s memory of an emotionally painful experience leads to severe anxiety, forgetting may produce relief. Nevertheless, an evolutionary interpretation might make it difficult to understand how the commonly gradual process of forgetting was selected for.
In speculating about the evolution of memory, it is helpful to consider what would happen if memories failed to fade. Forgetting clearly aids orientation in time; since old memories weaken and new ones tend to be vivid, clues are provided for inferring duration. Without forgetting, adaptive ability would suffer; for example, learned behaviour that might have been correct a decade ago may no longer be appropriate or safe. Indeed, cases are recorded of people who (by ordinary standards) forget so little that their everyday activities are full of confusion. Thus, forgetting seems to serve the survival not only of the individual but of the entire human species.
Additional speculation posits a memory-storage system of limited capacity that provides adaptive flexibility specifically through forgetting. According to this view, continual adjustments are made between learning or memory storage (input) and forgetting (output). There is evidence in fact that the rate at which individuals forget is directly related to how much they have learned. Such data offer gross support for models of memory that assume an input-output balance.
Whatever its origins, forgetting has attracted considerable investigative attention. Much of this research has been aimed at discovering those factors that change the rate of forgetting. Efforts are made to study how information may be stored, or encoded in the human brain. Remembered experiences may be said to consist of encoded collections of interacting information, and interaction seems to be a prime factor in forgetting.
Memory researchers have generally supposed that anything that influences the behaviour of an organism endowed with a central nervous system leaves—somewhere in that system—a “trace” or group of traces. So long as these traces endure, they can, in theory, be restimulated, causing the event or experience that established them to be remembered.
Time-dependent aspects of memory
Research by the American psychologist and philosopher William James (1842–1910) led him to distinguish two types of memory: primary, for handling immediate concerns, and secondary, for managing a storehouse of information accumulated over time. Memory researchers have since used the term short-term memory to refer to the primary or short-lived memory functions identified by James. Long-term memory refers to the relatively permanent information that is stored in and retrieved from the brain. Working memory
Some aspects of memory can be likened to a system for storing and efficiently retrieving information. One system in particular—identified as “working memory” by the British psychologist Alan Baddeley—is essential for problem solving or the execution of complex cognitive tasks. It is characterized by two components: short-term memory and “executive attention.” Short-term memory comprises the extremely limited number of items that humans are capable of keeping in mind at one time, whereas executive attention is a function that regulates the quantity and type of information that is either accepted into or blocked from short-term memory. Baddeley likened working memory to a scratch pad in which essential pieces of information are inscribed and later discarded (or, as is more likely the case, replaced by more pertinent information). Executive attention
In its role of managing information in short-term memory, executive attention is highly effective in blocking potentially distracting information from the focus of attention. This is one way in which the brain is able to keep information active and in focus. Yet there are limits to the amount of information (“capacity”) that executive attention is capable of handling at any given time, and this capacity will differ from person to person. As a result, all people differ in their ability to bring attention to bear on the control of thought. Known as “working memory capacity,” this ability is measured most often through a test that requires people to commit a short list of items to memory while performing some other task. Thus, one form of the test might involve reading a series of sentences and then attempting to recall the letters at the end of each sentence. The capacity of working memory is measured by the number of items that a person recalls, so that if a person recalls five letters, the working memory capacity in this case is five. In most cases number of letters recalled will depend on each person’s ability to avoid the distraction of reading the sentences. Such tests of working-memory capacity can be used to predict an individual’s ability to perform tasks involved in reasoning. In fact, working memory capacity is strongly related to general intelligence.
In terms of brain activity, executive attention seems to involve the frontal lobes. Thus, damage to the frontal lobes, which is associated with a condition called dysexecutive syndrome, can affect the role of executive attention in the control of thought, behaviour, and emotion. Evidenced by a notable reduction in the patient’s abilities to set goals, make plans, and initiate actions, dysexecutive syndrome is often accompanied by diminished social inhibitions and thereby leads to behaviour that is considered rude or inappropriate. Excessive use of alcohol and other drugs can lead to similar behavioral problems. (See also human nervous system: Executive functions of the frontal lobes.) Patterns of acquisition in working memory
In the course of a typical day, humans receive a continuous stream of information from the world around them as well as from their own thought processes and physical experiences. They manage this constant stimulation through a combination of conscious and unconscious effort. The majority of the information is processed (or ignored) unconsciously, because the brain is incapable of consciously attending to and filtering every bit of stimulation it receives. Other forms of information that are processed through unconscious effort, such as a loud sound or a sudden bright light, tend to capture attention in various ways. While events that elicit such attention are more likely to be remembered, especially if they need to be retrieved for possible use in the future, the more significant processes of conscious attention are volitional, occurring in everyday actions such as driving, reading a book, playing chess, watching a basketball game, and following a recipe in a cookbook. The level of attention given to an experience, and the way a person thinks about it, will influence how well the memory for the event is acquired and how well it will be recalled. Researchers also have determined that the techniques employed by the brain in acquiring information differ depending on whether the information is intended for short-term or long-term use.