WHAT IS MEMORY?
1. INTRODUCTION . HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF MEMORY. !
1950: psychological theories should look as theories from physics.!
-Hull: study of learning behavior of white rats to construct a theory of learning in which learning
behavior was predicted using postulates and equations. !
-Tolman: cognitive maps, internal mental representations of the environment that were acquired
as a result of active exploration. !
1960: big change. Study of learning and memory moved from the analysis in animals to the
analysis of memory in humans. !
Ebbinghaus (1930s - 1960s)
-Was the first who studies experimentally the human memory.!
-Interaction between the already known and the new learning !
-Verbal learning approach: learning a list of words or syllables. It is assumed that associations
are formed between stimuli and responses. !
Gestalt psychology (1930s)
-Application of perception ideas in the understanding of human memory!
-Active role of the learner in organizing material !
-Importance of internal representations rather than observable stimuli and responses!
Barlett
-Use of complex material to study memory !
-Importance of the rememberer!
-He explained memory in term of errors of the participant’s cultural assumptions about the
worlds, which depended on the internal representations called schemas. !
-Schemas are internal representations proposed to explain how our knowledge of the world is
structured and influences the way in which information is stores and recalled. !
Craik
-Models: methods of expressing a theory more precisely, allowing predictions to be made and
tested. !
"* A theory is a summary of our knowledge in a simple and structured way that help us to "
"understand what we know. Every psychological theory operates at a different level of " "
"explanation and focus on different issues. (Reductionism). !
-The metaphor of the human being as a computer - cognitive psychology or information-
processing approach. !
Any memory system requires three things: !
-The capacity to encode or enter information into the system !
-The capacity to store it !
-The capacity to find and retrieve it. !
These stages interacts the method of encoding material determine how information is store and
how it is retrieved. The influence of the cognitive approach made possible the consideration of
memory as a joint of several systems together, not just one. !
Atkinson and Shiffrin
Modal model: environment —> sensory memory —> short-term memory —> long-term memory!
Memory store vs. memory process: we need to think in terms of both structure and processes.
There are distinctions between types of memories to organize and structure our knowledge of
memory. !
