MEMORY AND FORGETTING
Memory – the ability to store information on our mind so that it can be used at a later time. Also, it refers to the way facts are impressed in our mind, retained and later recalled. And defined also as the process by which information is encoded, stored and retrieved.
Process of Memory
- Encoding refers to how you transform a physical, sensory input into a kind of representation that can be placed into memory.
- Storage refers to how you retain encoded information in memory.
- Retrieval refers to how you gain access to information stored in memory.

Encoding, storage, and retrieval often are viewed as sequential stages. You first take in information. Then you hold it for a while. Later you pull it out.

Before information can be stored in memory, it first needs to be encoded for storage. Even if the information is held in our short-term memory, it is not always transferred to our long-term memory. So in order to remember events and facts over a long period of time, we need to encode and subsequently transfer them from short-term to long-term storage.

It was Herman Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist who pioneered the studies involving memory. He found out that materials and situations can easily be learned and remembered longer if they are meaningful and relevant.

CONTENTS OF MEMORY Memories exist in the brain tissue. According to Karl Spencer Lashley, a neurophysiologist, he found out that the brain consist of an engram which contains memory trace – a biochemical structure which was evenly distributed throughout the brain. Any psychologist are still debating on this information.
In 1980, some psychologist believed that memories are held in certain location in the brain by specific chemicals called synapse. Synapse increases in the brain when it is stimulated. Experts also believed that there are billions of neurons that send signals to other neurons. These neurons can form a new synapse. They divide, others shrink and ide. When a person reaches the age of 65 – 70, some of the neurons may be dead and therefore cannot transmit electrical charges completely. This is one reason of the cause of amnesia and worst, Alzheimer’s disease in some elderly. Also, it is believed that new information is absorbed and then processed into memory in the hippocampus, a sea-horse shaped organ in the brain center. The names of natural things (plants and animals) are stored in one part of the brain, while man-made materials ( chairs, Tables, Pencils, etc..) are in another location.

TYPES OF MEMORY
The ff. are the basic types of memory: semantic, remote, working, episodic, procedural and implicit memory.
1. Semantic memory contains generalized knowledge of the environment that does not involved memory of specific situations. It is what words and symbols mean. (e.g. a cat is distinguished from a dog )
2. Remote memory is a kind of memory in which data and information have been collected and accumulated over the years. This memory declines with age.
3. Working memory is a memory that takes on tasks or activities that requires fast action and reaction because it lasts only for a few seconds, it declines in most people between the age range of 40 – 50 ( Arenas, 2004 )
4. Episodic memory is a memory of specific event or recent experience. ( e.g. you can still remember that you have recited in Anatomy yesterday but could not remember very well what was your detailed answer to the questions asked by the teacher. ), this memory declines after the age of 30.
5. Procedural memory involves skills in doing things especially those that involve complicated sequence of movements which you could not hardly described verbally. (e.g. a student may be very good in computer operations but could not adequately explain how she is operating it.
6. Implicit memory is a memory that depends on the automatic recall of a series of motions. You may know how to play basketball, swim or use your phone as you start doing it, but the time you stop doing it, you tend to forget unless you start doing it again. People who will lose this kind of memory may have a sign of serious mental deterioration.
LEVELS OF MEMORY
 Sensory memory (sensory information memory). It is the level in the memory where data and information registered through the senses (seeing, hearning, smelling ,etc) are extremely of short duration of time, from an instant to a few seconds.
Examples – when your teacher presents to you 10 pictures in a fraction of a second, can you remember all of them? Perhaps, only a few can be remembered.
 2 categories of sensory memory: iconic and echoic
Iconic memory is sometimes referred to as “photographic memory”. Icons are mental representations of visual stimuli in a fleeting moment. Iconic memory are accurate mental representations but they are very brief in our memory. Eidetic imagery ( not memory) is the ability of an individual to retain exact mental representations of visual stimuli over long periods of time – even if the stimuli was shown briefly. Only few people possess eidetic imagery.
Echoic memory is a form of sensory memory in which there is mental representations of auditory stimuli which can last for several seconds. Echoes are mental representations of visual stimuli. Example, while you are reading your book in psychology, your teacher is saying something. Then your teacher calls your attention and tells you to recite the exact words he stated and you can recall back those words of the teacher.
 Short term memory. If the data or information in sensory memory is perceived, it enters the STM. Short-term memory refers to a process that can hold a limited capacity of information ( about 7 items or bits from several items) for a short period of time (about 2-30 seconds). Unless it is rehearsed or mentally repeated, it is quickly forgotten. (e.g. the list if items listed in your notebook will disappear in your memory for a brief time unless rehearsed or mentally repeated.)
 Long term memory. To store information and experience for days, weeks and years or for a lifetime, to be able to be retrieved when they are needed, they must be stored in the long term memory. LTM is therefore the storage of accumulated information and experiences so that it can be used for the present. To be able to utilize stored information in the LTM, they must be transferred to the STM so that these information can be recalled and utilized. The deeper the level of processing which takes place in the previous encounter of the stimuli the more likely it will enter the STM and more likely to be recalled. Attention to stimuli, rehearsal, intelligence and persistence to remember them can facilitate the storage of information or data in the LTM up to about 100 trillion bits of information. A college student can recall a poem, song, historical event learned during the primary grades even though he has not recited it for a long time.

IMPROVING MEMORY
 Feedback – knowledge of the results of an activity performed will give you the opportunity to check if you are learning or if there is a need to further improvement to your work.
 Recitation – recite what you learn to your self.
 Overlearning – it does not mean going beyond what has already been learned; because what has already been learned is already “ learned”. It simply means that if you wish not to forget what you have already learned =, continue reviewing it every now and then.
 Selection – you can do this by marking only the essential words or group of words using a marking oen by putting underline, dash or using color pen.
 Spaced practice – a strategy of studying in which a relaxation or rest period ( about 15 – 30 minutes) is allotted in between a schedule of studying.
 Organization
 Learning by whole vs. learning by part.
 Serial position
 Sleep
 Review
 Cues
 PQRST method
 Use of foods, medicines and vitamins
 Mnemonic method