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CHAPTER 7

SURVEY THE CHAPTER

Studying Memory
AN INFORMATION- PROCESSING MODEL
Building Memories: Encoding

GalacticDreamer/Shutterstock OUR TWO- TRACK MEMORY SYSTEM
AUTOMATIC PROCESSING AND IMPLICIT MEMORIES
Memory EFFORTFUL PROCESSING AND EXPLICIT MEMORIES
Memory Storage
RETAINING INFORMATION IN THE BRAIN
SYNAPTIC CHANGES
magine being unable to form new conscious memories. This was life for Henry Molaison (or Retrieval: Getting Information Out
H. M., as psychologists knew him until his 2008 death). In 1953, surgeons removed much of MEASURING RETENTION
H. M.’s hippocampus to stop severe seizures. He remained intelligent and did daily crossword RETRIEVAL CUES
Ipuzzles. Yet for his remaining 55 years he lived an unusual inner life. “I’ve known H. M. since Forgetting
1962,” reported one neuroscientist, “and he still doesn’t know who I am” ( Corkin, 2005 , 2013 ). For
about a half a minute, he could keep something in mind — enough to carry on a conversation. FORGETTING AND THE TWO- TRACK MIND
ENCODING FAILURE
When distracted, he would lose what was just said or what had just occurred. Thus, he never STORAGE DECAY
could name the current U.S. president ( Ogden, 2012 ). RETRIEVAL FAILURE
My [DM’s] father suffered a similar problem after a small stroke- ike event at age 92. His Memory Construction Errors
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upbeat personality was unchanged. He enjoyed poring over family photo albums and telling
stories about his pre- stroke life. But he could not tell me what day of the week it was, or what MISINFORMATION AND IMAGINATION EFFECTS
SOURCE AMNESIA
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he’d had for dinner. Told repeatedly of his brother- n- aw’s recent death, he was surprised and RECOGNIZING FALSE MEMORIES
saddened each time he heard the news. THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT:
Some disorders slowly strip away memory. Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of people, CAN MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE
BE REPRESSED AND THEN RECOVERED?

usually later in life ( FIGURE 7.1 ). What begins as difficulty remembering new information CHILDREN’S EYEWITNESS RECALL

progresses into an inability to do everyday tasks. Complex speech becomes simple sentences.
Family members and close friends become strangers. The brain’s memory centers, once strong, Improving Memory
weaken and wither away ( Rathore et al., 2017 ). Over several years, people become unknowing and
unknowable. Their sense of self fades, leaving them wondering, “Who am I?” ( Ben Malek et al.,
2019 ). Lost memory strikes at the core of their humanity, robbing them of their joy, meaning, and
companionship.
For a 4-minute overview, see the Video: Alzheimer’s and the Brain.

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