Memory: The Process Of Memory

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Memory is a very important aspect in every individual’s life; it is a process in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. Without past memory individuals will not be able to operate in present or think about the future. According to Sternberg (1999) the means by which an individual recollects its past experience so that he/she can use the information in the present is called memory. Learning or understanding would have become impossible without memory. “Memory is the process of maintaining information over time.” (Matlin, 2005) There are many researches done by psychologist on memory in order to understand the whole process clearly and properly, but most of these experiments are carried out in a laboratory that is why most of the…show more content…
For individuals to remember and process information at the same time short-term memory is required. for example, for understanding this sentence, the beginning of this sentence has to be held in mind while the whole sentence is read; this is the process which is carried out by the short-term memory. the information that the short-term memory holds is usually 7 items or less. the theory of magic number 7 which was proposed by Miller (1956) provides example of how much information the short-term memory can store. he proposed that only 7 (plus or minus 2 items) can be held by short-term memory. On the other hand working memory as a term is generally used as a synonyms for short-term memory as they are not completely different but working memory still has some important functions different from short-term memory. Baddeley (1992) defined working memory as a system in the brain that is required for storage and understanding of information which is needed for certain complex cognitive tasks such as learning and reasoning. For example, when an individual is baking a cake, the working memory is in process for not making a mistake for adding the same ingredient twice. Working memory is very important as it acts as a mediator for our conscious interactions that we have with the world and it is important for most of our cognitive functions as well (Ricker,…show more content…
Information in the long-term memory is held for a very long period of time. Despite the process of forgetting, long-term memory generally decays very little over time, and it has the capacity of storing unlimited information ("Memory Types | Sensory, Short Term & Long Term Memory", 2011). Even though memories can decay and fade over time, long-term memory is considered as the storehouse for information, as the information in the long-term memory can last for few days or for many years. Sometimes, even if the information is learned just few seconds back, long-term memory can remember and store it (Brady, Konkle, & Alvatez, 2011). All the memories that are stored in long-term memory are not of equal strength. Memories that are stronger are able to remember an event, procedure, or fact on demand for example, that sun is the biggest star. Memories that are not strong can be recalled through prompting or reminding. Long-term memory is not static. An individual never takes in a memory and leaves it untouched. Rather memories are most often revised over time either by merging it with an already existing memory or incorporating it with other memory. Therefore memories are not strictly constant and cannot be considered reliable all the time. Long-term memory has two types which are explicit and implicit memory.

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