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After reading this article you will learn about Memory:- 1. Subject-Matter of Memory 2. Factors in Memory 3. Conditions 4. Marks of Good Memory 5. Abnormalities.
Contents:
- Subject-Matter of Memory
- Factors in Memory
- Conditions of Memory
- Marks of Good Memory
- Abnormalities of Memory
1. Subject-Matter of Memory:
Perception is the knowledge of objects, events or persons in the environment. It is a preventative process. But memory is the process of remembering objects of past experience. It is a representative process. Perception is produced by external objects. A person reads a poem a number of times. This process of learning is perception.
But when he remembers it later he has memory. The word ‘memory’ is taken sometimes in the sense of retention, and sometimes in the sense of recall or reproduction. It should be taken in the sense of recall. And recall presupposes retention, which depends on learning. It is better to confine the term ‘memory’ to recall or ideal revival of past experiences without transformation of the revived images.
2. Factors in Memory:
Memory consists of recalling a past experience which has been retained in the mind. It involves retention and recall. It is exact reproduction of our past experiences in the same form and order. Remembering is motivated by a purpose.
Memory consists of learning, retention, recall and recognition. Learning is the formation of associations; retention is the persistence of those associations; recall is the reinstatement of past experiences; and recognition is their temporal localization in the past.
Thus remembering involves the following factors:
(i) Learning:
We learn a lesson a number of times, repeat it for a few days, understand its meaning, relate it to other lessons, and impress it deeply on the mind. Learning is a process of forming associations among ideas in the mind. We learn facts in their proper context more easily then isolated and unconnected facts.
Learning consists in perceiving facts and repeating perceptions of them and forming associations in the mind. Learning, physiologically, consists in forming connections between neurons.
(ii) Retention:
When we learn a lesson repeatedly with attention, it, leaves a subconscious trace in the mind in the form of a mental disposition, and it also leaves a mark on the plastic brain in the form of a structural modification called physiological disposition. Thus past experiences are retained in the subconscious level of the mind as mental dispositions. Corresponding to them, there are structural modifications of the brain also.
But the brain cannot be said to be the repository of past experiences. The fact of retention can be proved by recall. We can recall those things which we learn and have retained in the mind. Recall presupposes retention: and retention depends upon previous learning.
Learning leads to retention. But retention is not-a continued repetition of the learned performance. It does not consist in performing the learned acts, e.g., reciting a poem, unconsciously to retain them. Experiences are retained in the form of mental dispositions or subconscious traces. They are called psychical dispositions. They constitute the mental structure.
They are not mental functions or processes. They are permanent tendencies of the mind. But some psychologists hold that past experiences are retained in the brain in the form of physiological dispositions or structural modifications of the brain. There are no subconscious traces or mental dispositions.
There is only unconscious cerebration, but no subconscious mental modification. Retention is neural habit. Habit formation and memory are due to persistence of changes wrought in the nervous system.
But this view does not seem to be adequate. Past experiences are retained in the mind in the form mental dispositions. Corresponding to them there are physiological dispositions in the brain. But physiological dispositions cannot take the place of mental dispositions.
Past experiences exist below the level of consciousness. Mellone rightly says, “They- exist in the form of psychological (mental) dispositions, and they exist in the form of physiological (cerebral) dispositions.” Stout also holds the same view.
He maintains that past experiences are retained in the form of mental dispositions which constitute mental structure. It is determined by mental processes, and determines and modifies subsequent mental processes.
Psychical dispositions are not identical with physiological disposition. Physiological dispositions are physical existences. They are modifications of the structure of the brain, which contribute to determine the nature and occurrence of subsequent brain processes.
They result from material processes and determine further material processes in the brain. The brain is not the mind; so physiological dispositions are not psychical dispositions.
Psychical dispositions are of the nature of mental structure. They are not mental functions. They may be compared to potential energy. Just as potential energy is not an actual mode of motion, so psychical dispositions is not an actual experience.
We cannot exactly define the nature of mental dispositions. They are determined by mental processes, and determine mental processes. They are inferred from their conditions and effects.
Many modern psychologists deny the existence of mental dispositions. They identify them with physiological dispositions. They deny subconscious mental processes, and believe in unconscious cerebration alone. To them ‘mind’ is equivalent to consciousness.
But this positions is untenable. There are three degrees of consciousness—the focus of consciousness, the margin of consciousness, and subconscious or the unconscious.
There are physiological disposition in the context corresponding to mental disposition of past experience. But to say that psychical dispositions are identical with physiological dispositions is wrong because it involves materialism. The brain is a material structure; it is a complex of cells and ganglia in action. Neural acts of the brain cannot account for the emergence of past experience into conscious.
The disappearance of past experiences in the brain and their reappearance in consciousness out of the brain would seem to be miracles. It is hard to believe how the mental can become cerebral and how the cerebral can become mental.
So it is safe to assume that past experiences are conserved in the mental system in the form of subconscious mental dispositions which are accompanied by physiological dispositions in the brain.
Retention is also called conservation. According to Drever, one of the fundamental characteristics of the psychical is conservation. Every psychic at process conscious as well as endopsychic “leaves behind it a permanent product in shape of a modification of structure in the (psycho-physical) organism itself”.
Every psychic process leaves some engram-complexes which are conserved in the mental structure of the individual, and brings about a change in it.
The conserved elements do not form “a mere mass or aggregate, but an organized whole; here and there, it may be, very highly organized”. The subconscious dispositions are not conserved as isolated as isolated items but as systematic groups on account of cohesion. The phenomenon of cohesion is generally called association.
The association of ideas is a law which one idea tends to be connected with another owing to certain specific relationship. The ideas thus connected with one another tend to reproduce one another owing to association. Drever calls this phenomenon cohesion.
It systematizes the conserved elements in the mental structure. They are not conserved as unrelated and isolated elements in the mental structure. This is a very important truth about conservation.
Every is a passing event. It is a mental function. When it occurs, it brings about a modification in the mental structure. When mental events pass away, they leave behind some engram-complexes which are conserved. They leave behind dispositions in the mental structure.
When later they are stirred into activity, the past experiences are recalled. Spearman’s law of retention is that “the cognitive events by occurring establish dispositions which facilitate their recurrence”. Cognitive events establish dispositions, which are conserved and their recall.
Past experiences are not conserved as such in the mental structure. Retention is facilitated by rest and sleep after learning. It is retarded by wakeful activity.
The facts of recall and recognition prove the fact of retention. These are the indirect evidence of it. Retention can be measured by the relearning method. You memorized certain stanzas before. You cannot now recall any of the lines. You cannot even recognize the stanzas you once learned. But you find that we take much less time in relearning what you learned before.
(a) How to Measure Retention:
Memory traces are imperceptible. So retention can indirectly be measured in the following ways:
I. A person is requited to recall the contents of the learned material as in an examination when and essay type answer is required. The greater or less accuracy of recall will measure the degree of retention.
II. A person is required to recognise the parts contained in the material learned, and distinguish them from the parts not contained in it. The degree of accuracy of recognition will measure the degree of retention.
III. A person’s power of retention is measured by the relearning method. The less the time he requires to relearn a material learned by him some-time ago, the greater is his power of retention. The more time he requires to re-learn it, the less is his power of retention. The interval of time between learning and recall is important. The greater is the time gap, the less is the power of retention.
The less is the time gap, the greater is the power of retention. The filling of the interval with activities also is important. The more numerous are the intervening activities, the less is the power of retention. The less are the number of activities filling the interval, the greater is the power of retention. Retention is facilitated by rest and sleep after learning. It is retarded by wakeful activity.
IV. Retention is measured by the method of reconstruction. Then a person has learned a material in serial order, he is required to recall the relationship of the items of the material mixed up, but not the items related. In fact, a person who reconstructs the series can very often recall the items. This method is used when the items of a material cannot be recalled, like odours.
(b) Retention and Types of Material:
The different types of material affect the power of retention:
I. Meaningful materials are better retained than meaningless ones as already shown. Poems are better retained than nonsense syllables. Stories are better retained than figures in statistics.
II. The more extensively learned material is better retained because it is learned with a greater effort. The longer list: are learned extensively with a greater effort and so better retained. The shorter lists learned with a less effort are worse retained.
III. The materials which evoke pleasant emotions ate better retained than those which evoke painful emotions. Our pleasant experiences are better retained than painful experiences.
(iii) Recall:
Recall is reproduction. It consists in the revival of past experiences. It is reinstatement of past experiences in the same order. It consists in bringing to the level of consciousness the subconscious traces of past experiences.
A student learnt a lesson in the past; it has been retained in his mind; now he calls it back to the level of consciousness. This process of ideal revival is called recall or reproduction. Retention and recall are the two important factors in memory.
Recall is the ideal revival of a past experience which has been conserved in the mental structure in the form of a psychical disposition. It is reproduction of the original experience. It is said to be reinstatement of the previous experience.
But we must bear in mind that perception is one mental event, and that recall is another mental event. In memory the same identical previous perception does not recur; recall is quite a different mental event similar to the previous perception. Drever says, “A percept is an event; the memory of it is a new event”. Recall is the mental apprehension of an object or event perceived on a previous occasion.
But it is most a mere repetition of the previous perception. A mental event once gone is conserved only as a disposition. It is not retained as a mental function. Nor does it ever reappear in the form of a mental event. As a conscious process it passes away forever. So the current misconception that recall is the exact reproduction of a previous perception should be avoided.
Recall depends upon retention. But even good retention does not guarantee recall. A student thoroughly prepared for an examination, sometimes cannot recall the right answer in the examination hall. Some sort of inhibition of interference blocks recall in such cases.
(a) Reproductive Inhibition:
There is inhibition of recall by some emotion. This is called reproductive inhibition. Fear may block recall. Stage fright may interfere with the recall of a well-prepared speech. Anxiety or nervousness may block recall of right answers at the time of an examination.
Emotions are accompanied by organic excitement which may inhibit recall. Sometimes the desire to forget may block recall. A student may forget the name of the Head Master of his school, who flogged him for a serious offence before all students. Here forgetfulness is due to repression.
Sometimes two acts are both aroused at the same time and block each other so that neither of them can be recalled. Sometimes a speaker hesitates and falters while speaking, because two ways of expressing his thought occur to him at the same moment.
One recall blocks the other. Sometimes you cannot recall the name of a familiar person. Two or three names simultaneously occur to you; the recall of one name blocks the other. Or, a wrong name is more readily, recalled, which puts you off the right track. Drop the matter and a little later the right name is recalled, because the inhibition is removed in the mean-time.
(b) Partial Recall:
Sometimes the recall is not complete. There is partial or imperfect recall. It is hampered recall. For example, we recall ‘Macdonald’ as ‘McDougall’, Donnell’ as ‘Mac- donel’ ‘Paresh’ as ‘Ramesh’, ‘Kusum’ as ‘Sushma’, ‘Padmadatt’ as ‘Dharmodatt’, etc. Such imperfect recall is not merely fragmentary, but false recall.
The erroneous name recalled commonly preserves the general character of the right name, the language, nationality, the number of syllables, the initial sound, and the form of the name. In hampered recall we are oriented towards the goal, but we stray into a blind alley.
We cannot exactly recall many events perceived in the past. We can remember only the impressive facts, but forget the unnecessary details. We fill in gaps of memory by imagination. When there is any emotional bias, it distorts the recalled events to suit the emotions.
(iv) Recognition:
A person sees his old class-fellow after a long time. He recognizes him to be his class fellow who read with him in a High School. This mental process is recognition. Recognition is the feeling of familiarity which accompanies the revival of past experiences.
Definite memory must involve definite recognition. And definite recognition involves temporal localization in previous experience. It consists in remembering the time and place of the original past experience.
Sometimes memory involves indefinite recognition. It is the sense of familiarity not accompanied by the revival of the time and place of the origin of the memory image. A person sees a man; his face appears familiar to him; but he cannot remember where and when he saw him.
In indefinite recognition the past associations tremble on the verge of consciousness, but they cannot be recalled to the level of consciousness. Recognition distinguishes memory from imagination. It depends upon association and the sense of familiarity. Recognition gives us a feeling of relief which is pleasant.
Remembering involves conation. We remember effectively if we have a strong motive for doing so. The stronger is the motive, the more efficient is the recall. McDougall lays stress on this aspect of remembering.
Complete memory involves retention and recognition. The object or event recalled is assigned a date in previous experience.
This process is called recognition. It refers the experience to the time and the place of its original appearance. Recognition accepts or rejects the material recalled in memory. Without recognition memory is not complete.
When memory is most imperfect, we cannot recall any image of an experience; but we recognize it as familiar. Recognition is fusion of a percept with an image; it develops into memory when the image is separately called up.
We frequently have the feeling of familiarity in meeting a person for the second time, but we cannot remember his name, or the place where we met him, or anything definite about the first meeting. Here we have recognition, but no memory.
The sense of familiarity appears when we feel that the present perception has associations in our mind, which were made on a previous occasion, and that these are trembling on the verge of consciousness. Recognition without recall is accompanied by a feeling of incompleteness. But this feeling, in itself, cannot account for the feeling of familiarity.
The feeling of familiarity implies that the person, who has the experience now, has had a similar experience before. You see a person who looks familiar, and feel that you must have seen him before. You also, feel that you must have seen him recently. But you cannot remember anything else. This is indefinite recognition. Here there is the feeling of familiarity without definite recognition. This is also partial recognition.
Recognition may refer a present experience to the time and the place of its first appearance. Recognition may be definite; the revival of the organic reactions, or the reinstatement of a group of associated ideas, or both of these together, may refer the present experience to a definite time in the past.
This is definite recognition. In it the perception of an object revives a group of associated ideas tinged with the feeling of familiarity.
In recognition the individual is aided by the perception or a familiar object, while in the recall of it, he has no perception. We forget the name of a certain book, and are unable to recollect it. But if the names of a number of books are read out to us, and the name of the particular book happens to be there, then aided by the perception of it, we have a feeling of familiarity and recognize it.
3. Conditions of Memory:
Memory involves two main factors:
I. Conditions of Retention:
(a) Physiological Conditions:
The plasticity of the brain is a condition of retention. William James holds that the brain is the receptacle of past experiences. He does not believe in subconscious ideation. We do not deny that corresponding to subconscious ideas there are structural modifications of the brain. Individuals differ congenially in respect of the plasticity of the brain.
A fresh, healthy and vigorous condition of the body and the brain at the time of learning is favourable to retention. Mountain climbers have to take notes during their ascents, as they can remember nothing after their task is over owing to fatigue. Fatigue is un-favourable to retention and recall.
All pieces committed to memory in good health can be reproduced easily; the pieces learnt in a state of fatigue cannot be recalled easily.
(b) Physical Conditions:
I. Intensity of the stimulus is a condition. An audible sound, a bright light, etc., produce deep impressions on the mind, and these can be retained for a long time. Impressions of inaudible sounds and faint lights cannot be retained long.
II. Clearness and distinctness of the stimulus also are conditions of retention. A confused mass of colours cannot produce a distinct impression; so it cannot be retained in the mind. But clear and distinct pictures produce distinct impressions which can be retained easily.
III. Duration of the stimulus also is a condition of retention. A musical sound which lingers for a few seconds cannot produce a deep impression on the mind and so cannot be retained. But a song which continues for some time produces a deep impression and can be retained.
IV. Frequency of the stimulus also is a condition of retention if a song is repeated many times, it can be retained. We learn a poem a number of times and retain it. The teacher repeats a lesson many times and the students retain it easily.
But repetition without attention—without a definite set of the mind towards remembering—is not very effective. Repetition is merely a device of increasing the duration is consciousness of the impressions in question, and so deepening their subconscious traces or mental dispositions.
Repeated experiences take some time to settle in the mind. When they settle in the mind, they can be easily recalled. Some persons can recall the learned matter better after an interval than they can immediately recall after learning.
V. Recency of the stimulus also is a condition of retention. The impression of a recent experience, e.g. a lecture, can be retained. The impression of an experience in the distant past may fade and be wiped off.
(c) Mental Conditions:
I. Attention is a mental condition of retention. The greater attention is paid to the original experience, the greater is the power of retention. If you closely attend to your lessons, you can retain them easily. The physical conditions of retention are the conditions of attention as well.
II. Interest is a condition of attention. So it is in condition of retention also. If you have deep interest in psychology, you can retain the lessons easily. If you do not find any interest in it, you cannot retain your impressions for a long time.
III. Intention to remember also is a condition of retention. When we learn a lesson with the intention to remember it, we can retain it. Many details of our past experiences cannot be remembered because we did not intend to remember them.
IV. Apperception is a condition of retention. It is logical understanding of a subject. If you thoroughly understand a subject and the logical connection among its different parts, you can retain it easily. But a subject which is not understood thoroughly cannot be retained for a long time. Therefore cramming is not very useful. Cramming does not require intelligent understanding and apprehension.
V. Massive experience is a condition of retention. The more an experience affects our personality deeply, the more likely is it to be retained. Everybody remembers his experience which affects his whole personality. For example, nobody can forget the experience of his marriage completely. A person can never forget his interview with a great person, e.g., M. K. Gandhi.
Freshness of the brain, amount of attention bestowed on the experience, massiveness of the experience, and number of times the experience is repeated, or its duration in consciousness are conditions of retention.
II. Conditions of Reproduction:
Recall depends upon retention. So conditions of retention are also conditions of reproduction.
(a) Freshness of the Brain:
Recall depends upon a favourable psycho-physical condition. A healthy, fresh and vigorous condition of the body and mind is favourable to recall of past experience. The body should be healthy both at the time of learning and at the time of recall. Fatigue is un-favourable to retention as well as reproduction. Lessons learnt in a state of fatigue cannot be easily recalled.
(b) Bonds of Association:
Recall depends upon cue and bonds of association. Impressions have been associated in the past experiences. Bonds of association have been established among the subconscious traces of past experiences.
Hence the recall of past experiences depends upon an appropriate percept or idea or cue with which they were associated in the original experience. The sight of the school in which a person read will bring back many delightful reminiscences of his past experiences to the mind.
(c) The Context:
Recall depends upon the influences of the context. An associated idea belongs to more or less related trains of ideas. The entire context determines which of several possible ideas will be revived at a particular time. If the idea 7 times 9 bobs into my consciousness, it is promptly followed by the idea 63.
If, however, 4 times 9 come’s to my mind, it is followed by the idea 36. Thus recall of a particular idea is determined by the context.
(d) The Dominant Interest:
Recall depends upon the dominant interest at the time of revival. The sight of a photo may remind you of the person whom it represents, or the photographer, or the person who presented it to you according to the dominant interest at your mind at the moment. The sight of table may remind a person of its price, or the shop from which it was bought, or a dinner according to the dominant interest of the moment.
4. Marks of Good Memory:
The marks of good memory, according to Stout, are ease and rapidity of learning or memorizing, permanence of retention, rapidity of actual revival, accuracy of the actual recall, or and serviceableness of the revival or its relevance to purpose.
Quickness of learning, permanence of retention, promptness and accuracy of recall, and its serviceableness or relevance to purpose are the marks of good memory. A person possessing good memory should be able to learn a thing quickly, conserve it in mind for a long some, recall it promptly and accurately at the time when he is required to do so.
Some persons can learn quickly, but forget soon; others take a long time to learn, but can retain for a long time what they have learned. The power of retaining for a long time is a more important mark of memory than the power of learning quickly and easily.
Promptness and accuracy of recall is another essential mark of good memory. If the matter acquired cannot be recalled quickly and accurately, it is useless. Serviceableness is an important mark of good memory. We should possess the power of recalling the appropriate material at the time when it is required.
The recall of irrelevant material is of no use. The minds of some persons are packed with all sorts of information, but they cannot recall any of them at the proper time when it is urgently needed. They the miscellaneous material at the time when it is not needed.
Such power is worse than useless. Only essential and relevant things should be retained and recalled on proper occasions. Inessential and irrelevant details should be left out; otherwise useless and unnecessary details will crowd useful and essential things out of mind. Memory should be serviceable. The appropriate material should be recalled, which is relevant to the prevailing interest of the moment.
Rapidity of acquirement depends, to a great extent on the keenness of the interest attaching to the original experience. What attracts attention for a moment cannot be fixed in mind and remembered at all. What is interesting in itself and the connected circumstances which may have little interest in themselves are apt to be retained and remembered. Rapidity of learning is due to congenital interest.
The length of time during which the learned material is retained also depends largely on interest. An examinee retains the learned details till the examination is over. A barrister learns the facts bearing on a particular case, but rapidly forgets them, when the case is over.
The facts have a transient interest. So he can retain them only for a short time. The legal aspects of the case have a permanent interest for him. So he can retain them for a long time.
The period of retention depends on the frequency of repetition also. A boy learning a passage by heart will read it again and again till he has thoroughly stamped it in. The duration of retention which cannot be traced to interest or to frequent repetition must depend on congenital constitution.
But probably congenital constitution determines retention through innate interest. Promptness and accuracy of recall depends on strong suggestive forces and well-formed associations.
The serviceableness of memory depends on organized knowledge. A person with systematized knowledge can readily recall what he needs at the time when he needs it. But a person with dis-organized knowledge cannot recall the right thing at the right moment. The serviceableness of memory depends on forming the right kind of associations.
5. Abnormalities of Memory:
Amnesia:
There are certain abnormalities of memory, viz., amnesia, aphasia, hypermnesia, and paramnesia. Amnesia is sudden loss of memory. It is an abnormal form of forgetfulness. Ribot divides amnesias into general amnesia and partial amnesia.
General amnesia may be temporary, periodical, progressive or congenital. Temporal amnesia is often caused by an accident or over-strain; there is a loss of memory of the knowledge of events immediately preceding the accident.
This is called retroactive amnesia. A person was thrown off a carriage which collided with a military truck, and lost his consciousness for fifteen minutes. He was sent to a hospital and given medical treatment. He could not remember what happened immediately before the accident. Periodic amnesia is found in double personality.
In it two sets of organized memories become independent of each other. A man meets an accident, suddenly forgets his home and his relations and all his antecedents, goes to another place, sets up a shop there, and behaves like an entirely different man. Then after two years, he gets up in the morning and suddenly recalls his whole past life.
This is a periodic amnesia. Progressive amnesia is found in old age. Old persons first forget their recent experiences. They may not forget their earlier experiences for a long time. They forget proper names first, then concrete common nouns, then adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions.
Those words which are very often used in various contexts are lost last of all, and those which are least frequently used are first lost.
It is sometimes found that old persons forget the names of their children, and even their own names. Congenital amnesia is found in idiots and imbeciles. Their forgetfulness is due to the congenital defects of their brains.
But sometimes they may have excessive development of memory in one particular direction. An imbecile could remember the day when every person has been buried in the parish for thirty-five years and could accurately repeat the name and age of the deceased and the mourners at the funeral. Partial amnesia is loss of memory for particular things.
One may lose visual memory, auditory memory, or the like, if visual area or an auditory area is injured. A patient lost his memory for all events for a period of seven years. Temporary failures of memory of a minor kind are common to normal persons. Examinees forget the lessons crammed by them as soon as the examination is over. Lawyers forget the facts of a suit as soon as it is over.
I. Aphasia covers many kinds of irregularities of speech. Sometimes a person understands what he reads, but not what he hears. Sometimes a person understands what he hears”, or reads, but cannot express his ideas in words. Sometimes a person cannot read but can write words. These are the different kinds of aphasia. It is due to lesion in the speech centres of the motor area of the brain.
II. Hypermnesia is a sudden abnormal increase of memory. Sometimes it is found that long-forgotten experiences suddenly flash into the mind in dreams, delirium, mania, etc. A person suddenly remembered the language inadvertently learnt during infancy. Some rare individuals have prodigious memory.
Hypermnesia is probably due to increased activation of neurograms or subconscious traces. They can, for example, remember pages of a book after reading them only once. Some persons can remember many digits after hearing them once and can multiply them mentally.
III. Paramnesia is false recognition. Sometimes we feel that we have previously been in the place where we are at the moment, though we are quite sure that we could not possibly have been in the place before. Sometimes we feel that we have previously said the words we are now saying, though we are sure that we could not have spoken the words.
This is called paramnesia. It is due to the perception of some familiar elements in a novel situation, the revival of similar experiences, and transference of the feeling of familiarity to the total situation.