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examBoard: AQA
examType: GCSE
lessonTitle: How Memories are Encoded and Stored
Memory encoding is the first step in creating a memory. It's like translating the information you receive from the world into a form your brain can use and store. Think of it as converting a foreign language into one you understand!
Key Definitions:
This involves converting information into visual images. For example, when you remember what your friend was wearing yesterday, you're using visual encoding. Research shows that we're particularly good at remembering pictures and visual details.
Example: When studying for a test, creating mind maps or diagrams can help you remember information better through visual encoding.
This involves encoding information based on how it sounds. When you repeat a phone number to yourself to remember it, you're using acoustic encoding.
Example: Remembering song lyrics is often easier than remembering a paragraph of text because of acoustic encoding.
This involves encoding information based on its meaning. It's the deepest form of encoding and leads to better long-term memory. When you understand a concept rather than just memorising it, you're using semantic encoding.
Example: Instead of memorising "H₂O is water," understanding why water is made of hydrogen and oxygen creates stronger memory.
Craik and Lockhart (1972) proposed that the deeper we process information, the better we remember it. Shallow processing (focusing on appearance or sound) leads to weaker memories than deep processing (focusing on meaning).
Research finding: People remember words better when they think about their meaning rather than just how they look or sound.
Once information is encoded, it needs to be stored. Psychologists believe we have different memory systems for storing information for different lengths of time.
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) proposed that memory consists of three separate stores: sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. Information flows through these stores in a linear way.
Duration: Less than 1 second (visual); 2-4 seconds (auditory)
Capacity: Very large
Holds sensory information very briefly. Most information is lost, but what we pay attention to moves to short-term memory.
Duration: 15-30 seconds without rehearsal
Capacity: 7±2 items (Miller, 1956)
Holds information we're currently thinking about. Information can be maintained through rehearsal or transferred to long-term memory through elaboration.
Duration: Potentially lifetime
Capacity: Unlimited
Stores information for long periods. Information is mainly stored semantically (by meaning) but can also be stored visually or acoustically.
This classic study demonstrated the limited duration of short-term memory when rehearsal is prevented.
Method: Participants were shown a three-letter sequence (like "GLK") and then had to count backwards in threes from a given number until told to recall the letters.
Results: After just 18 seconds of counting backwards (which prevented rehearsal), participants could only recall about 10% of the letter sequences.
Conclusion: Without rehearsal, information in short-term memory fades quickly, supporting the multi-store model's distinction between short-term and long-term memory.
Long-term memory isn't just one system but can be divided into different types:
Memories you can consciously recall and explain.
Memories that influence behaviour without conscious awareness.
One theory suggests that information in long-term memory is organised in networks of related concepts. Each concept is like a node in a web, connected to related concepts.
Example: The concept "dog" might be connected to "animal," "pet," "bark," and "fur." When one concept is activated, related concepts become easier to access – explaining why thinking about dogs might make you think about cats too!
H.M. was a patient who had parts of his brain (including the hippocampus) removed to treat severe epilepsy in 1953. After the surgery:
This case provided crucial evidence that different types of memory are stored in different brain regions and that the hippocampus is essential for forming new explicit memories but not for procedural memory.
Maintenance rehearsal: Simply repeating information (helps short-term memory)
Elaborative rehearsal: Connecting information to existing knowledge (helps long-term memory)
Example: Repeating a phone number vs. thinking about how the number relates to dates or other numbers you know.
Organising information makes it easier to encode and store. Methods include:
Understanding how memory works can help you improve your study techniques:
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