
Forms of Memory Retrieval
- Recall. Recall refers to the simple process of remembering something without any cues, and in the physical absence of that thing.
- Recognition. Recognition is identifying the information of a previously known thing after seeing the thing or experiencing memory again.
- Recollection. Recollection refers to the rebuilding or piecing together of memory. Our mind reconstructs the memory by utilizing logical structures and clues.
- Relearning. This type of memory retrieval refers to relearning of the information that has already been learned in the past but is not remembered.
What is an example of retrieval in psychology?
Recall: This type of memory retrieval involves being able to access the information without being cued. Answering a question on a fill-in-the-blank test is a good example of recall. Recollection: This type of memory retrieval involves reconstructing memory, often utilizing logical structures, partial memories, narratives or clues.
What are the three types of memory?
According to a theory, memory is stored in three forms: sensory, short-term, and long-term memory. But only information stored in short and long-term memory can be retrieved.
What is the process of memory retrieval?
One can experience the memories by the process of memory retrieval or recall. The speed of memory retrieval and recall depends on the strength of neural pathways formed in the earlier stages of memory processing. Memory recall is divided into three types; Free recall in which memories are recalled in a list order.
What are the two types of involuntary memory retrieval?
Involuntary memory retrieval has been divided into two types: the involuntary autobiographical memory retrieval, and the involuntary semantic memory retrieval. Involuntary autobiographical memory retrieval refers to automatic reactivation of unconscious memories as a result of any sensory or internal cue, like a thought.

What are the different types of retrieval?
Types of Retrieval There are three ways you can retrieve information out of your long-term memory storage system: recall, recognition, and relearning. Recall is what we most often think about when we talk about memory retrieval: it means you can access information without cues.
What are the 3 processes of memory retrieval?
There are three main processes that characterize how memory works. These processes are encoding, storage, and retrieval (or recall).
What is an example of memory retrieval?
Recall: This type of memory retrieval involves being able to access the information without being cued. Answering a question on a fill-in-the-blank test is a good example of recall.
What are the 4 different types of memory?
There is much that researchers do not understand about human memory and how it works. This article explores the types of memory and what a person can do to improve their recall....Most scientists believe there are at least four general types of memory:working memory.sensory memory.short-term memory.long-term memory.
What are the 3 types of memory?
The three major classifications of memory that the scientific community deals with today are as follows: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Information from the world around us begins to be stored by sensory memory, making it possible for this information to be accessible in the future.
What is the process of memory retrieval?
Memory retrieval involves the interaction between external sensory or internally generated cues and stored memory traces (or engrams) in a process termed 'ecphory'. While ecphory has been examined in human cognitive neuroscience research, its neurobiological foundation is less understood.
What's an example of retrieval?
Retrieval is the act of getting something back, or of accessing stored data and files in a computer. An example of retrieval is when you lose your keys down an elevator shaft and you get your maintenance man to help you get them back.
What factors affect memory retrieval?
Here are several common factors that can affect your memory:Lack of sleep. Not getting enough sleep is a major factor of memory loss and forgetfulness. ... Stress and anxiety. Everyone experiences a certain amount of stress and anxiety. ... Depression. ... Thyroid problems. ... Vitamin B12 deficiency. ... Alcohol abuse. ... Medication.
What is retrieval in psychology?
1. the process of recovering or locating information stored in memory. Retrieval is the final stage of memory, after encoding and retention.
What are the 5 types of memory?
Memory TypesLong-Term Memory. Long-term memory is our brain's system for storing, managing, and retrieving information. ... Short-Term Memory. ... Explicit Memory. ... Implicit Memory. ... Autobiographical Memory. ... Memory & Morpheus.
What are the 5 stages of memory?
The 5 stages of rememberingSensing. The very beginning of the memory-making process involves the exposure to surrounding scenes and situations. ... Encoding. With the sensory information passed to the brain, the volume and complexity is too great to process. ... Consolidation. ... Storage. ... Retrieval.
What are different types of memory?
In the broadest sense, there are three types of memory: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
What are the three basic processes of memory quizlet?
as a information processing system consisting of three basic processes: encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.
What are the 3 main means of encoding for sensory memory?
Summary. Memory encoding is a process by which the sensory information is modified and stored in the brain. The three major types of memory encoding include visual encoding, acoustic encoding, and semantic encoding.
What are the three stages of memory quizlet?
The three-stage memory system that involves sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
What is the 3rd phase of memory?
Memory formation plays a huge part in whether or even if we're able to recall information. The three stages of memory are encoding, storage, and retrieval and your brain can fail you during any of those. These are also referred to as the three basic processes of memory.
How can memory retrieval be improved?
The first is through context-dependent memory. The theory is that memory retrieval can be improved by recreating the context in which the memory was formed . You've probably heard of this theory before in terms of test taking. Some people say that if you study in an environment similar to that in which you will take an exam, you are more likely to remember the information. So, if the classroom has poor lighting and a fan constantly running in the background, study somewhere with poor lighting and a fan. If you studied while wearing a ball cap, take the exam in that same ball cap.
How do memories work?
Memories are complex, formed and retrieved in a variety of ways. For the most part, memory retrieval occurs in one of four ways. Recall implies the ability to retrieve a memory without extra clues. Recollection describes the reconstruction of information using clues and partial memories. Recognition retrieves memories through experiencing them again, and relearning requires information to be relearnt to form a stronger memory. Since only recall does not require extra clues to jog the memory, it's important to understand how some of these clues work. Context-dependent memories are more efficiently retrieved when the external context is recreated. State-dependent memories are accessed by recreating the internal state of consciousness. Both of these provide a roadmap for navigating the always most rugged terrain of memory lane.
What is context dependent memory theory?
Context-dependent memory theories try to improve the efficiency of memory retrieval by consciously creating clues that the mind can use to recollect, recognize, or relearn memories.
How do state dependent memories work?
State-dependent memories are accessed by recreating the internal state of consciousness.
What is state dependent memory?
A state-dependent memory is one that is retrieved by recreating a person's state of consciousness.
What is the goal of memory recall?
When studying for a test, the goal is to remember information in a way that can be automatically and easily recalled.
Is memory lane a rough place?
There are multiple exits and entrances, some parts are under construction, some jerk is swerving through traffic, there's an unexpected delay up ahead and by the end of it you just may need paramedics. Memory lane's a rough place. Psychologists are well aware of this, which is why they've spent lots of time studying both the ways that we form and then retrieve memories. There's actually a long road a memory takes from when it is first formed, but understanding memory retrieval can help us bypass the obstacles and get that memory back to where we need it to be.
What is memory retrieval?
Memory retrieval is the recovery of stored information. The simplest and oldest account assumes that memory retrieval depends only on the state of the memory trace. An alternative to this trace-dependent explanation is cue-dependency that claims retrieval depends on the presence of an effective retrieval cue to access the stored memory. Neither of these views can adequately explain the facts of memory retrieval. Rather, successful retrieval is a constructive process based on an interactive relationship between features of the trace and those of the retrieval cue. Such a context-sensitive view provides a better account of common memory phenomena such as retrieval being unsuccessful on one occasion but successful at a later one, and the error-prone nature of retrieved memories.
Which regions of the brain are associated with memory retrieval?
It is logical to suggest that memory is retrieved in the same areas that are responsible for encoding representations of sensory stimuli. Early evidence that sensory regions are associated with memory retrieval was obtained by Wilder Penfield from the Neurological Institute of MacGill University in Montreal in the 1940s and 1950s ( Penfield, 1952 ). Penfield electrically stimulated regions of exposed cortex in awake human patients undergoing surgery for epilepsy and found that stimulation of regions of the occipital and temporal cortex would sometimes elicit memories and that the sensory modality of elicited memories varied depending on the region of cortex stimulated. In these electrical stimulation studies, regions of the superior and middle temporal lobes were associated with auditory memories (I hear singing … Yes, it is White Christmas) whereas regions of more posterior temporal and occipital lobes were associated with visual memories (… I saw someone coming toward me as if he were going to hit me).
What do children know about metamemory?
Empirical research exploring the development of declarative metamemory revealed that children's knowledge of facts about memory increases considerably over the primary-grade years , but is still incomplete by the end of childhood. Recent studies also showed that increases in knowledge about strategies are paralleled by the acquisition of strategies, and that metamemory-memory behavior relationships tend to be moderately strong (Schneider and Pressley 1997 ). Thus, what children know about their memory obviously influences how they try to remember. Nonetheless, although late-grade-school children know much about strategies, there is increasing evidence that many adolescents (including college students) have little or no knowledge of some important and powerful memory strategies.
What is memory reconsolidation?
Memory reconsolidation is the process that serves to restabilize a memory that has been destabilized through memory retrieval. This retrieval-induced plasticity has been extensively studied in the hippocampus, among other neural loci. A focus on hippocampal memory reconsolidation, for contextual fear, pure contextual, and spatial memories, reveals interesting constraints on when a retrieved memory undergoes reconsolidation. Moreover, the emergence of dissociable mechanisms of hippocampal contextual fear memory consolidation and reconsolidation has allowed the demonstration that reconsolidation serves to update both the strength and the content of hippocampal memories. This provides compelling evidence that, at least in the hippocampus, reconsolidation exists in order to modify memories. However, whether or not these hippocampal findings can be generalized to nonhippocampal memories remains to be determined.
Why is elaboration important in memory?
In this perspective, elaboration enhances memory because it creates additional cues for to-be-remembered information. A simple example demonstrates the benefit of additional cues.
Does metabolic activation affect retrieval of memories?
The following PET and fMRI studies confirmed this inference and gave direct evidence that metabolic activations in encoding and retrieving stages of memory task significantly overlap with each other. For example, in a 2000 study by Mark Wheeler and colleagues from Georgia Institute of Technology subjects memorized words paired with either sounds or pictures. At test, subjects were asked to recall whether the words had been previously associated with pictures or sounds, thus encouraging retrieval of vivid, modality-specific memories. Encoding resulted in increased activity in the visual cortex (from the calcarine to the fusiform gyrus) for pictures and in auditory cortex (from Heschl’s gyrus to the middle temporal gyrus) for sounds. Retrieval of pictures from memory was associated with reactivation of the visual cortex near the fusiform gyrus, whereas retrieval of sounds was associated with the bilateral superior temporal gyrus near secondary auditory regions.
Which area of the brain is involved in memory?
Areas of the prefrontoparietal cortices are involved in this active operation. As we know from Chapter 3.2, these prefrontal areas receive highly processed sensory information from posterior cortical areas, store plans of actions and perform executive functions such as working memory, action selection, action initiation, and action suppression.
How many categories of memory are there?
For years, researchers and experts have debated on the classification of memories. What most people can agree on is that humans have at least three broad categories of memory. All other types of memory tend to fall under these three major categories.
What are the three types of sensory memory?
There are three types of sensory memory: iconic, which is obtained through sight; echoic, which is auditory; and haptic, which is through touch. 2
Why Do We Have Different Types of Memory?
Your short-term memory allows you to process and understand the information in an instant. When you read a paragraph in a book and understand it, that’s your short-term memory at work.
How Are Memories Made?
Memories are made in three distinct stages. It starts with encoding. Encoding is the way external stimuli and information make their way into your brain. This could occur through any of your five senses.
What is semantic memory?
Semantic memories are general facts and bits of information you absorbed over the years. For instance, when you recall a random fact while filling in a crossword puzzle, you pull that memory from your semantic memory.
How much memory can we hold?
There is no limit to how much our long-term memory can hold and for how long. We can further split long-term memory into two main categories: explicit and implicit long-term memory.
When does sensory memory stop?
When a sensory experience keeps recurring, and you start to attach other memories to it , the sensory experience stops living in your sensory memory. It might move to your short-term memory or more permanently to your long-term memory.
What is memory retrieval?
Memory retrievalis the process of remembering information stored in long-term memory. There are three main types of memory retrieval: recall, recognition and relearning. Recall occurs when the information must be retrieved from memories.
How does memory retrieval affect memory?
Memory retrieval can occur in several different ways, and many things can affect it, such as how long it has been since the last time you retrieved the memory, what other information you have learned in the meantime and many other variables. For example, the spacing effect allows a person to remember something they have studied many times spaced over a longer period of time rather than all at once. The testing effect shows that practising retrieval of a concept can increase the chance of remembering it.
What is retrieval cue?
Retrieval cues are used to associate memories with an experience or object to help the retrieval of that memory. The general principle that underlies the effectiveness of retrieval cues is the encoding specificity principle when people encode information; they do so in specific ways. In general, the encoding specificity principle states that to the extent a retrieval cue (the song) matches or overlaps the memory trace of an experience (the party, the conversation), it will be effective in evoking the memory.
How does emotion play a role in memory?
Emotion can also play a apart in the retrieval of a memory. When a process or piece of information is learned when a certain emotion is being experienced , this can lead to the emotion eliciting this memory at a later point.
What is flashbulb memory?
Flashbulb memory: a highly detailed, exceptionally vivid ‘snapshot’ of the moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential news was learned.
What are the three types of recall?
Some effects relate specifically to certain types of recall. There are three main types of recall studied in psychology: serial recall, free recall, and cued recall. Serial recall is the recall items or events in the order in which they occurred. By thinking about a string of events or even words, it is possible to use a previous memory to cue ...
Which general principle underlies the effectiveness of retrieval cues?
The general principle that underlies the effectiveness of retrieval cues is the encoding specificity principle when people encode information; they do so in specific ways. In general, the encoding specificity principle states that to the extent a retrieval cue (the song) matches or overlaps the memory trace of an experience (the party, ...
Why is memory retrieval important?
Memory retrieval is important in virtually every aspect of daily life, from remembering where you parked your car to learning new skills.
What is retrieval in exam?
So what exactly is retrieval? Simply put, it is a process of accessing stored memories. When you are taking an exam, you need to be able to retrieve learned information from your memory in order to answer the test questions. There are four basic ways in which information can be pulled from long-term memory.
How can information be pulled from long term memory?
The type of retrieval cues that are available can have an impact on how information is retrieved. A retrieval cu e is a clue or prompt that is used to trigger the retrieval of long-term memory . Recall: This type of memory retrieval involves being able to access ...
What is a good example of recall?
Recall: This type of memory retrieval involves being able to access the information without being cued. Answering a question on a fill-in-the-blank test is a good example of recall.
Does retrieval always work?
Of course, the retrieval process doesn't always work perfectly. Have you ever felt like you knew the answer to a question, but couldn't quite remember the information? This phenomenon is known as a 'tip of the tongue' experience. You might feel certain that this information is stored somewhere in your memory, but you are unable to access and retrieve it.
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Is memory retrieval flawless?
Even though memory retrieval is not flawless, there are things that you can do to improve your ability to remember information .
Why are the four types of memory recall useful to know about?
The four kinds of memory recall are useful to know about because the brain encodes information in very specific ways.
What is memory recall?
Memory recall, sometimes called retrieval, is the experience of remembering information. Here’s the catch: It can only happen after at least these other levels of memory have succeeded first: Noticing and recognizing the importance of information (like someone’s name) Encoding (making an effort to remember) Decoding (making an effort to recall) ...
What Is Recall Memory?
One thing that defines memory above all is that it is always dealing with the past. Think about it:
Why was memory training invented?
But improving memory recall is why memory training was invented by our clever ancestors. When you want to be sure you can recall something , mnemonic devices and mnemonic strategies are a must .
What is the challenge of learning about recall?
The challenge of learning about recall is that it’s not just one thing. Memory retrieval happens in several different ways that are related to other stages of memory, but are ultimately different.
When memory athletes memorize lists of words, they combine elaborated associations so that one mnemonic triggers the?
When memory athletes memorize lists of words, they combine elaborated associations so that one mnemonic triggers the target information in a chain.
Who is the founder of Magnetic Memory?
Anthony Metivier is the founder of the Magnetic Memory Method, a systematic, 21st Century approach to memorizing foreign language vocabulary, names, faces, numbers, poetry and any information in ways that are easy, elegant and fun.
What are the different types of memory?
Most scientists believe there are at least four general types of memory: working memory. sensory memory. short-term memory.
What is sensory memory?
Sensory memory helps a person piece together a sense of the world based on recent sights, sounds, and other sensory experiences. When a specific sensory experience becomes relevant, such as the smell of something in the kitchen, it may move to other types of memory.
How to help people remember things?
Developing strong memory associations to help remember things. Talking about recent memories or journaling can help cultivate these associations.
How long does sensory memory last?
Sensory memory holds sensory information for very brief periods of time, usually 1 second or less. The processing of memories and other information begins in this type of memory. If a person pays attention to sensory input, then the information may move into short-term and then long-term memory.
Why are working, sensory, and short-term memory smaller?
Working, sensory, and short-term memory have smaller capacities. This is because these types of memories only last for a short period. With short-term memory, there is usually a specific limit on how much information a person can retain — usually about. Trusted Source. seven items.
What is the term for a person's memory that they use only for a brief time?
A memory a person uses only for a brief time, such as a word they use at the beginning of a sentence, is a part of working memory and may never move to another part of memory. Some brain scientists divide these types of memory into more specific categories.
How long does it take for memories to disappear?
These memories disappear quickly, after about 30 seconds.
Why is short term memory 7?
He though that short-term memory capacity was 7 (plus or minus 2) items because it only had a certain number of “slots” in which items could be stored. However, Miller didn’t specify the amount of information that can be held in each slot.
Why are some experiments designed to investigate memory criticized?
Many experiments designed to investigate memory have been criticized for having low ecological validity. First, the laboratory is an artificial situation. People are removed from their normal social settings and asked to take part in a psychological experiment.
How long can LTM be stored?
In contrast, the capacity of LTM is thought to be unlimited. Information can only be stored for a brief duration in STM (0-30 seconds), but LTM can last a lifetime. 3. Memory Retrieval.
What is the principle coding system in short-term memory?
Evidence suggests that this is the principle coding system in short-term memory (STM) is acoustic coding . When a person is presented with a list of numbers and letters, they will try to hold them in STM by rehearsing them (verbally).
What is the term given to the structures and processes involved in the storage and subsequent retrieval of information?
Memory is the term given to the structures and processes involved in the storage and subsequent retrieval of information. Memory is essential to all our lives. Without a memory of the past, we cannot operate in the present or think about the future. We would not be able to remember what we did yesterday, what we have done today or ...
Why are memory experiments criticized?
As a result, many memory experiments have been criticized for having low ecological validity.
Can we store more information in short term memory?
However, Miller didn’t specify the amount of information that can be held in each slot. Indeed, if we can “chunk” information together we can store a lot more information in our short-term memory. In contrast, the capacity of LTM is thought to be unlimited.

Forms of Memory Retrieval
Context-Dependent Memory
- While memory recall is a simple ability to remember, the other forms of memory retrieval all require some sort of clues to get your mind on the right track. You need some sort of map or GPS to navigate memory lane. There are actually two ways to do this. The first is through context-dependent memory. The theory is that memory retrieval can be improved by recreating the conte…
State-Dependent Memory
- While context-dependent memories are all about the external, other people think you should focus on the internal. A state-dependent memoryis one that is retrieved by recreating a person's state of consciousness. This theory is most commonly applied to the retrieval of memories created while a person had altered their state of consciousness through ...