Memory

What is memory?
memory isn’t a ‘primary’ way of knowing. Instead, we use the other ways of knowing to provide us with our intial knowledge, and only afterwards employ memory to modify and enhance that knowledge. Second, memory is notoriously unreliable: how one person remembers something will be radically different to how another person recalls it, meaning that it must be treated with care if one is to build up objective knowledge about a thing.

“Memory is the processing, storage and retrieval of information.”

Christopher Hitchens said that a function of memory

Through our memories, we carry with us the knowledge we are gaining. Our skills our past experiences, and the shared knowledge we have developed informally and formally throught our lives. Through our memories, we grow our personal sense of identity and our sense of our place within the shared knowledge and shared life of our communities

The three categories:
 * Attention: the filtering system. It is the ability to decide which information is important and how it will be dealt with.


 * Retention: storage system. Things are code and then put aside for later use.
 * Recall: retrieval system. It is the ability to withdraw information. Items have to be recalled so we can ‘remember’ them and use the information.

Memory and recall
How does memory influence knowledge?
 * Most of the knowledge that individuals have is in the of memory. So, the way they retain and recall information is an important aspect of how knowledge is formed.


 * Perception: deals with information after it has been passed through the attention filter.

 Memory and experience'''
 * Imagination: deals with information that has not really happened, but has been constructed.

Memory should be distinguished from experience. Experience is the interpretation of an event as it opens (unfolds). And memory is the edited version.

Example: when we see a movie, we are living the moment, we have continuous experience. But when we remember it, we do not remember the entire film. Our memory of the film is not the 2 hours long. We highlight the most important parts of the film.

Passive and Dynamic

The process of a memory can be seen as a passive process or a dynamic process.
 * Passive: assumes memory is not itself a source of knowledge.


 * Dynamic: assumes memory actually helps construct knowledge.

Tok takes dynamic approach to memory

'''Memory and models '''There are two main models for memory: And the examples that the book gave about it were

Example 1: The multi-store model by Atkinson and Shiffrin

Exemple 2: The levels of processing approach (LOP) by Craik and Lockhart

Memory and emotions

How do emotions shape memories?
 * Emotions influence a lot in the process of the memory.


 * If an event is emotional, it will be processed more deeply and the individual be more likely to remember it.


 * Brown and Kulik said that the relation between emotions and memory can be illustrated as a flashbulb. Emotional events are more likely to be remembered.

Flashbulb memories have six characteristic features:
 * Place (where the event happened)


 * Ongoing activity (what i was doing)


 * Informant (who broke the news)


 * Own emotion


 * other emotion


 * Aftermath

Memory and Language

How does language shape memory?
 * Language carries meaning. When we process language through memory, we are also processing meaning. So you are learning.