Memory

-ability to encode, store, retain and subsequently recall information and past
experiences in the human brain.
- in general terms, the use of past experience to affect or influence current behavior.
- it is the sum total of what we remember, and gives us the capability to learn and
adapt from previous experiences as well as to build relationships.
- Latin memoria and memor, meaning "mindful" or "remembering"

Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin in 1968 first described their modal, or multi-
store, model of memory - consisting of a sensory memory, a short-term memory
and a long-term memory.

Memory functions through three steps:

1. Acquisition
2. Consolidation
3. Retrieval

TYPES OF MEMORY
1. Sensory memory
- Shortest-term element of memory. It is the ability to retain impressions of sensory
information after the original stimuli have ended
- decays or degrades very quickly, typically in the region of 200 - 500 milliseconds
(1/5 - 1/2 second)
- sensory memory for visual stimuli is sometimes known as the iconic memory, the
memory for aural stimuli is known as the echoic memory, and that for touch as
the haptic memory.

2. Short-term (working) memory
- the ability to remember and process information at the same time
- holds a small amount of information (typically around 7 items or even less) in mind
in an active, readily-available state for a short period of time (typically from 10 to
15 seconds, or sometimes up to a minute)
- not complete concepts, but rather links or pointers

3. Long-term memory
- encodes information for storage semantically
- maintained by more stable and permanent changes in neural connections widely
spread throughout the brain


a. Declarative (explicit) memory
- knowing what memory
- memory of facts and events, and refers to those memories that can be consciously
recalled (declared)

Episodic memory - represents our memory of experiences and specific events in
time in a serial form

Semantic memory - refers to general factual knowledge, shared with others and
independent of personal experience and of the spatial/temporal context in which it
was acquired.

b. Procedural (implicit) memory
- knowing how memory
- the unconscious memory of skills and how to do things, particularly the use of
objects or movements of the body
- acquired through repetition and practice, and are composed of automatic
sensorimotor behaviors

MEMORY ENHANCEMENT TECHNIQUES

1. Associations
2. Chunking information - the organization of material into shorter
meaningful groups to make them more manageable, and this can lead to an
increase in the short-term memory capacity
3. The Method of Loci - to link the main points of the material to specific
locations so that thinking of those locations triggers the recall.
4. The SQ3R Method (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review)







Prepared by: Jericho S. Javier, R.N.