Memory Summary
Lewana Jackson
Essentials of Psychology/Psy-211
October 27, 2014
Mark Ammer

Memory Summary
Three Stages of Memory The first stage of memory is encoding. What is encoding? According to Miller (1956),
Encoding is “When information comes into our memory system it needs to be changed into a
Form that the system can cope with and understand so it can be stored.” Miller uses the example
Of changing money in a foreign country to explain encoding. According to Miller, there are three ways information can be encoded: 1. Visual (picture) meaning if one sees something they are more apt to remember the item or

Subject. An example is when children are taught how to count money. When they use play

Money and actually use the items they see and feel what coins and the dollar bill sizes mean.

2. Acoustic (sound) meaning if I only had hearing as that of a blind person, I would be able to

Recognize someone that I knew based on the sound of his or her voice including the pitch. I would be

Able to determine if they are happy or sad based on the sound of their voice.

3. Semantic (meaning) as in certain cultures and professions people have different meanings and

Nicknames for item and people. A prime example would be in the African American culture a

Light-skinned person is referred to as “Red Bone”.

Memory Storage

Memory is stored two ways according to Miller (1956):

1. Short Term Memory (STM). This is memory that is stored for a brief duration which

Could consist of 0-30 seconds.

2. Long Term Memory (LTM). This is memory that can last a lifetime and is thought to

Be unlimited. An example would be remembering something that happen at two years of

Age and through adulthood. Memory Retrieval

Memory retrieval refers to getting information out of storage. I would