Class 11 Psychology Notes Chapter 7 (Human Memory) – Introduction to Pshycology Book
Alright class, let's delve into Chapter 7: Human Memory from your NCERT Class 11 Psychology textbook. This is a crucial chapter, not just for understanding human behaviour but also frequently tested in various government examinations. Pay close attention as we break down the concepts.
Chapter 7: Human Memory - Detailed Notes for Exam Preparation
1. Introduction & Nature of Memory
- Definition: Memory is the cognitive process involving the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information. It allows us to retain experiences and knowledge, shaping our present behaviour and future plans.
- Memory is not a single entity but a complex system involving multiple processes and structures.
- It's a constructive process: We actively organise and shape information as it's encoded and retrieved, meaning memories can be modified or even distorted.
2. The Information Processing Model (Stage Model - Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968)
This model proposes that memory involves three distinct stages or stores through which information must pass to be remembered long-term.
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(a) Sensory Memory (or Sensory Registers):
- Function: Receives information from the senses. It holds an exact replica of the sensory stimulus for a very brief duration.
- Capacity: Very large (can hold almost all sensory input).
- Duration: Extremely short (less than a second for visual/iconic memory; 2-4 seconds for auditory/echoic memory).
- Attention: Information attended to is transferred to the next stage (STM). Unattended information decays rapidly.
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(b) Short-Term Memory (STM):
- Function: Holds information currently in awareness and being actively worked upon. Often referred to as 'Working Memory' (though Baddeley & Hitch's model is more nuanced, STM is the simpler concept here).
- Capacity: Limited. George Miller (1956) proposed the "magic number" 7 ± 2 chunks of information. A 'chunk' is a meaningful unit (e.g., a word, a date, an acronym).
- Duration: Brief, typically less than 30 seconds unless rehearsed.
- Encoding: Primarily acoustic (sound-based), though visual and semantic encoding can also occur.
- Maintenance Rehearsal: Repeating information mentally to hold it in STM for longer.
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(c) Long-Term Memory (LTM):
- Function: The permanent storehouse for information.
- Capacity: Vast, potentially unlimited.
- Duration: Potentially lifelong. Information can remain for days, weeks, years, or a lifetime.
- Encoding: Primarily semantic (based on meaning). Information is organised based on its meaning and connections to existing knowledge.
- Elaborative Rehearsal: Connecting new information to existing knowledge in LTM, focusing on meaning. This is more effective than maintenance rehearsal for transferring information to LTM.
- Retrieval: Bringing stored information from LTM back into conscious awareness (STM/Working Memory).
3. Levels of Processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972)
- This view challenges the stage model, suggesting memory durability depends on the depth at which information is processed, not distinct stores.
- Processing Levels:
- Structural/Physical: Shallowest level; encoding based on physical features (e.g., shape of letters). Leads to poor recall.
- Phonetic/Acoustic: Intermediate level; encoding based on sound (e.g., does the word rhyme with another?). Leads to moderate recall.
- Semantic: Deepest level; encoding based on meaning and relating it to existing knowledge. Leads to the best recall.
- Key Idea: Deeper, more meaningful processing leads to stronger, more durable memory traces.
4. Types of Long-Term Memory
LTM is broadly classified into:
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(a) Declarative Memory (Explicit Memory):
- Concerns factual information, names, dates, events. It's memory that can be consciously recalled and verbally declared ('knowing that').
- Episodic Memory: Stores personally experienced events tied to specific times and places (e.g., your last birthday party, your first day at school). Autobiographical.
- Semantic Memory: Stores general knowledge, concepts, facts, and meanings about the world (e.g., capital of France, meaning of 'psychology', 2+2=4). Not tied to personal experience context.
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(b) Procedural Memory (Implicit Memory):
- Concerns skills, habits, and conditioned responses ('knowing how'). It's memory expressed through performance rather than conscious recall.
- Examples: Riding a bicycle, typing, playing a musical instrument, classical conditioning effects.
- Often acquired gradually through practice and difficult to verbalize.
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(Other Implicit Forms): The textbook also implicitly covers aspects like priming (exposure to a stimulus influences response to a later stimulus) and conditioning, which fall under the broader umbrella of implicit memory.
5. Measuring Memory
Psychologists use various methods to assess memory:
- Recall: Retrieving information without explicit cues.
- Free Recall: Remembering items in any order (e.g., list all the states you can).
- Serial Recall: Remembering items in the specific order they were presented (e.g., phone number).
- Recognition: Identifying previously learned information from a set of options (e.g., multiple-choice questions, identifying a face in a lineup). Generally easier than recall.
- Relearning (Savings Method): Measures how much faster material is learned the second time compared to the first. The difference ('savings') indicates memory persistence.
- Implicit Memory Tasks: Assess memory indirectly through performance changes (e.g., word completion tasks, priming effects).
6. Forgetting
- Definition: The inability to retrieve information that was previously stored in memory.
- Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve: Demonstrated that forgetting is initially rapid but then levels off over time. Most forgetting occurs soon after learning.
- Causes of Forgetting:
- Trace Decay: Memory traces fade over time due to disuse (primarily explains forgetting in sensory and STM, less applicable to LTM).
- Interference: Other information hinders the retrieval of the target information.
- Proactive Interference (PI): Old information interferes with learning/recalling new information (e.g., difficulty remembering your new phone number because the old one keeps popping up).
- Retroactive Interference (RI): New information interferes with recalling old information (e.g., learning Spanish makes it harder to recall the French you learned earlier).
- Retrieval Failure (Cue-Dependent Forgetting): Information is stored in LTM but cannot be accessed because appropriate retrieval cues are missing.
- Encoding Specificity Principle (Tulving): Retrieval is better when cues present during encoding are also present during retrieval.
- Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT) Phenomenon: Feeling that you know something but cannot quite retrieve it.
7. Enhancing Memory (Mnemonics)
- Definition: Strategies and techniques used to improve memory encoding and retrieval.
- Mnemonics using Images:
- Keyword Method: Associating a concrete image with an abstract word (useful for foreign language vocabulary). E.g., linking the Spanish word 'pato' (duck) with an image of a pot with a duck in it.
- Method of Loci: Associating items to be remembered with a familiar sequence of locations (e.g., rooms in your house). Mentally 'walk' through the locations to retrieve items.
- Mnemonics using Organisation:
- Chunking: Grouping small bits of information into larger, meaningful units.
- First Letter Technique: Using the first letters of items to form an acronym (e.g., VIBGYOR for rainbow colours) or an acrostic sentence (e.g., 'My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Neptune' for planets).
- Other Effective Strategies:
- Deep Processing: Focus on the meaning of the material, relate it to existing knowledge (Elaborative Rehearsal).
- Minimise Interference: Study different subjects spaced apart; avoid learning very similar material back-to-back.
- Sufficient Practice & Review: Overlearning and spaced repetition help consolidate memories.
- PQRST Method: A systematic study technique: Preview, Question, Read, Self-recitation, Test.
- Use Retrieval Cues: Actively generate cues that will help you remember later.
Key Takeaway for Exams: Understand the definitions, distinctions between memory types (Sensory, STM, LTM; Declarative vs. Procedural; Episodic vs. Semantic), models (Stage Model, Levels of Processing), reasons for forgetting (Decay, Interference, Retrieval Failure), and memory enhancement techniques (Mnemonics).
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
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According to the Stage Model of memory, information moves from sensory memory to short-term memory based on:
a) Elaborative rehearsal
b) Attention
c) Semantic encoding
d) Retrieval cues -
The 'magic number' 7 ± 2 refers to the capacity of which memory store?
a) Sensory Memory
b) Short-Term Memory
c) Episodic Memory
d) Long-Term Memory -
Remembering the definition of 'psychology' relies primarily on which type of long-term memory?
a) Episodic Memory
b) Procedural Memory
c) Semantic Memory
d) Iconic Memory -
The Levels of Processing view suggests that memory retention is best when information is processed at the ________ level.
a) Structural
b) Phonetic
c) Acoustic
d) Semantic -
Forgetting due to the fading of memory traces over time is known as:
a) Proactive Interference
b) Retroactive Interference
c) Trace Decay
d) Retrieval Failure -
Difficulty remembering your old address after moving to a new one is an example of:
a) Proactive Interference
b) Retroactive Interference
c) Cue-dependent forgetting
d) Trace Decay -
Which mnemonic technique involves associating items to be remembered with a sequence of familiar physical locations?
a) Keyword Method
b) Method of Loci
c) Chunking
d) First Letter Technique -
Remembering how to ride a bicycle, even if you haven't done it in years, is an example of:
a) Semantic Memory
b) Episodic Memory
c) Declarative Memory
d) Procedural Memory -
The brief persistence of a visual image after the stimulus has been removed is characteristic of:
a) Echoic Memory
b) Iconic Memory
c) Short-Term Memory
d) Semantic Memory -
The PQRST method is primarily designed to enhance:
a) Sensory memory capacity
b) Retrieval speed from LTM
c) Memory through effective study techniques
d) Procedural memory skills
Answer Key:
- b) Attention
- b) Short-Term Memory
- c) Semantic Memory
- d) Semantic
- c) Trace Decay
- b) Retroactive Interference
- b) Method of Loci
- d) Procedural Memory
- b) Iconic Memory
- c) Memory through effective study techniques
Study these notes thoroughly. Understanding the concepts, their definitions, and examples is key to performing well on questions related to human memory in your exams. Good luck!