What is memory? Chapter 1

What is memory? Three definitions (Spear & Riccio, 1994) –location where information is kept e.g., a storehouse, or memory store –thing that holds the contents of experience e.g., a memory trace or engram –mental process used to acquire (learn), store, or retrieve (remember) information

Early Memory Research in Psychology and Neuroscience Ebbinghaus (late 1800s) –nonsense syllables –basic memory phenomena learning curve –massed vs. spaced/distributed practice forgetting curve overlearning savings

Early Memory Research in Psychology and Neuroscience Lashley (1950) –engram: neural representation of memory –quantity, not location –memory distributed all over cortex

Early Memory Research in Psychology and Neuroscience Hebb (1949) –two stage process neural excitation would reverberate around connections of neurons some of these connections would physically change and become stronger –long-term potentiation

Modal Model of Memory

Multiple Memory Systems

Structure of the Neuron

Neural Communication: Electrical Process

Neural Communication: Chemical Process