A. PSYCHOLOGY: MEANING AND SCOPE
Psychology is the science of human and animal
behaviour; it includes the application of this science to human problems. The
term ‘psychology’ is a combination of two Greek words, namely psyche and
logos. The former refers to the ‘soul’
and the latter means ‘study of or science of.’ Therefore psychology literally
means study of soul or science of soul. This definition has been given up long
ago because the term soul was misleading due to its religious and metaphysical
significance. Hence it was redefined as study of the mind. This definition was also not acceptable for
long time due to the abstract nature of the term mind. Now the modern definition
for psychology is study of behaviour of human and animal. It is also said to be
science of behaviour and cognitive processes. In other words, psychology
studies everything that a person and other living organism do, think and feel.
It studies observable behaviour, cognitive process, psychological events,
social and cultural influences, largely unconscious processes and the complex
interaction between all these different factors in order to describe behaviour.
The goals of psychology are description, explanation, prediction and control of
behaviour including subjective experiences.
AIMS OF PSYCHOLOGY
The
prime aim of psychology is to understand, predict and control behaviour. It
aims at reducing the intensity of real life problems. It also aims at solving
social problems. On the whole, psychology helps individuals to understand the
behaviour of others and oneself and provide insights into their attitudes and
reactions. Here understand
means in knowing how and why such behaviour is revealed and exploring various
causes for particular behaviour. For instance why a student is not successful
in passing the examinations could be understood by exploring the various causes
like poor study habits, lack of concentration, poor memory, disinterest in the
subject, lack of motivation, or due to personal, or other family problems are
explored and explained. To predict means to foretell at least to some extent
the occurrence of such behaviours. The poor study habit may lead to the failure
in examination. To control refers to minimise or stop the occurrence of
particular behaviour through various psychological techniques or treatments.
Poor study habit may be controlled through effective study skill programme.
Psychology
further aims at solving the real life problems, such as what can be done to
eliminate race prejudice, how family and society contribute to social problems
and how to control crime, and social evils, etc. it also affects our life
through its influence on laws and public policies. Like laws of capital
punishments, so psychological condition under which a person may be considered
legally responsible for his action are based on the psychological theories of
human nature. Psychology examines the nature of research and formulation of
hypothesis to prove or disprove. In general psychology helps us to understand
the behaviour of individuals and provides insights into their attitudes and
reactions.
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY
The following broad branches of psychology will
elucidate the overall nature and scope of psychology:
1.
Physiological Psychology: In the most
fundamental sense, human beings are biological organisms. Physiological
functions and the structure of our body are working together to influence our
behaviour. Biopsychology is the branch that specializes in the area.
Bio-psychologists may examine the ways in which specific sites in the brain
which are related to disorders such as Parkinson’s disease or they may try to
determine how our sensations are related to our behaviour.
2.
Developmental Psychology: Here the studies are with respect to how
people grow and change throughout their life from prenatal stages, through
childhood, adulthood and old age. Developmental psychologists work in a variety
of settings like colleges, schools, healthcare centres, business centres,
government and non-profit organizations, etc. They are also very much involved
in studies of the disturbed children and advising parents about helping such
children.
3. Personality Psychology: This branch helps to explain both consistency and change in a person’s
behaviour over time, from birth till the end of life through the influence of
parents, siblings, playmates, school, society and culture. It also studies the
individual traits that differentiate the behaviour of one person from that of
another person.
4. Health Psychology: This explores the relations between the psychological factors and
physical ailments and disease. Health psychologists focus on health maintenance
and promotion of behaviour related to good health such as exercise, health
habits and discouraging unhealthy behaviours like smoking, drug abuse and
alcoholism.
Health
psychologists work in healthcare setting and also in colleges and universities
where they conduct research. They analyse and attempt to improve the healthcare
system and formulate health policies.
5. Clinical
Psychology: It deals with the assessment and
intervention of abnormal behaviour. As some observe and believe that
psychological disorders arise from a person’s unresolved conflicts and
unconscious motives, others maintain that some of these patterns are merely
learned responses, which can be unlearned with training, still others are
contend with the knowledge of thinking that there are biological basis to
certain psychological disorders, especially the more serious ones. Clinical
psychologists are employed in hospitals, clinics and private practice. They
often work closely with other specialists in the field of mental health.
6. Counselling
Psychology: This focuses
primarily on educational, social and career adjustment problems. Counselling
psychologists advise students on effective study habits and the kinds of job
they might be best suited for, and provide help concerned with mild problems of
social nature and strengthen healthy lifestyle, economical and emotional
adjustments.
They make use of
tests to measure aptitudes, interests and personality characteristics. They
also do marriage and family counselling, provide strategies to improve family
relations.
7. Educational Psychology: Educational psychologists are concerned with all the concepts of education.
This includes the study of motivation, intelligence, personality, use of
rewards and punishments, size of the class, expectations, the personality
traits and the effectiveness of the teacher, the student-teacher relationship,
the attitudes, etc. It is also concerned with designing tests to evaluate
student performance. They also help in designing the curriculum to make
learning more interesting and enjoyable to children.
Educational
psychology is used in elementary and secondary schools, planning and supervising
special education, training teachers, counselling students having problems,
assessing students with learning difficulties such as poor writing and reading
skills and lack of concentration.
8. Social Psychology: This studies the effect of society on the thoughts, feelings and actions
of people. Our behaviour is not only the result of just our personality and
predisposition. Social and environmental factors affect the way we think, say
and do. Social psychologists conduct experiments to determine the effects of
various groups, group pressures and influence on behaviour.
They investigate
on the effects of propaganda, persuation, conformity, conflict, integration,
race, prejudice and aggression. These investigations explain many incidents
that would otherwise be difficult to understand. Social psychologists work
largely in colleges and universities and also other organizations.
9. Industrial and Organizational
Psychology: The private and public
organizations apply psychology to management and employee training, supervision
of personnel, improve communication within the organization, counselling
employees and reduce industrial disputes.
Thus we can say
that in organizational and industrial sectors not only the psychological
effects of working attitude of the employees are considered but also the
physical aspects are given importance to make workers feel healthy.
10.
Experimental Psychology: It is the branch
that studies the processes of sensing, perceiving, learning, thinking, etc. by
using scientific methods. The outcome of the experimental psychology is
cognitive psychology which focuses on studying higher mental processes
including thinking, knowing, reasoning, judging and decision-making.
Experimental psychologists often do research in lab by frequently using animals
as their experimental subjects.
11.
Environmental Psychology: It focuses on the
relationships between people and their physical and social surroundings. For
example, the density of population and its relationship with crime, the noise
pollution and its harmful effects and the influence of overcrowding upon
lifestyle, etc.
12.
Psychology of Women: This concentrates
on psychological factors of women’s behaviour and development. It focuses on a
broad range of issues such as discrimination against women, the possibility of
structural differences in the brain of men and women, the effect of hormones on
behaviour, and the cause of violence against women, fear of success,
outsmarting nature of women with respect to men in various accomplishments.
13.
Sports and Exercise Psychology: It studies the role of motivation in sport, social aspects of sport and
physiological issues like importance of training on muscle development, the
coordination between eye and hand, the muscular coordination in track and
field, swimming and gymnastics.
14. Cognitive Psychology: It has its roots in the cognitive outlook of the Gestalt principles. It
studies thinking, memory, language, development, perception, imagery and other
mental processes in order to peep into the higher human mental functions like
insight, creativity and problem-solving. The names of psychologists like Edward
Tolman and Jean Piaget are associated with the propagation of the ideas of this
school of thought.
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Psychologists
use many scientific methods for research purposes to understand various
psychological issues more scientifically. These scientific methods reduce bias
and errors in understanding various behavioural aspects.
The
relevance of these scientific methods extends beyond testing and evaluating
theories and hypotheses in psychology. Though there are many such methods used
by psychologists, each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
1. Introspection Method: In introspection,
the individual peeps into his own mental state and observes his own mental
processes Introspection method is
the oldest method It
is the process of self-examination where one perceives, analyses and reports
one's own feelings to collect data about the conscious experiences of the
subject. Introspection or self-observation may
be considered as a old method but it is something we are doing almost
constantly in our everyday life. Introspection is a method of studying the
consciousness in which the subjects report on their subjective experiences. It
is a method that requires long and difficult training. It gives in-depth
information about the individual.
In introspection, the
subject is taught to achieve a state of “focused attention” in which he can
closely observe his own conscious experiences. He will be able to report the
smallest possible elements of awareness. Thus the goal of introspection is to
learn about the basic building blocks of experience and the principles by which
they combine to give us our everyday consciousness.
Limitations
a. It is not possible
to observe one’s own behaviour and at the same time experience it. If such an
attempt is made, the experience disappears. Thus the subject has to depend upon
memory which itself may be subject to distortions, omissions and commissions.
b. The results obtained
from introspection are subjective and so lack scientific validity. They cannot
be verified and have to be accepted at face value
c.
The method cannot be used to study children, animals, insane people, feebleminded
and those who are not good at verbal expression.
d.
Because experiences are unique, they cannot be repeated and so introspection
cannot be repeated.
e.
Many experiences are either partly or wholly unconscious and cannot be observed
consciously and analyzed.
f.
All experiences cannot be verbalized
2. Observation: It studies people’s reactions to
naturally occurring events in natural settings. Observation can be direct
observation such as laboratory observation, naturalistic observation and
participant observation. Psychologists, who choose to observe or measure a
phenomenon directly, often face a conflict.
They want to make precise, objective observation and also to view
realistic behaviour. It is hard to do both simultaneously. Precision and objectivity
are more easily achieved in authentic settings like laboratories, whereas
authentic responses are more apt to be seen in natural situations. In the end,
some compromise to be reached. To conduct laboratory observations, behavioural
scientists create a standard setting which stimulates the behaviour of interest
and allow exact unbiased measurements to be made. Because subjects
(individuals) are all exposed to the same situation, it is relatively easy to
compare their responses. But participants may not know why they are studied. In
a naturalistic observation, psychologists are primarily interested in viewing
behaviour in a natural setting and in disturbing it as little as possible.
Through considerations of precision and objectivity may be important, they are
secondary. The collection of naturalistic observations poses a difficult
problem at the outset. Participant observation has one important advantage.
Close contact with the subjects. In this the observer becomes the part of the
group which he wants to observe. He establishes perfect rapport with the group
of children or adolescents so that they may not become conscious of his
presence and may not hide their actual behaviour.
Merits of participant observational method
a. The finding are more
reliable, valid and extremely searching.
b. It discloses the
minute, delicate and hidden facts usually at lesser expense.
c. The observer
understands the frame of reference of the group which is observed.
Limitations of observational method
a. Establishing the
validity of observation is always difficult. Many of the items of observation
cannot be defined with sufficient precision.
The problem of
subjectivity is also involved. A person tends to see what he knows.
b. Anecdotes may take
the place of observation.
c. There is a
possibility of subjective interpretation.
d. The data obtained are
relatively informal, subjective, biased or prejudiced and thus can reduce their
scientific value. Hence one may look for a better scientific method.
Difference between Observational and Experimental
method:
If observation is finding a fact then experiment is making a fact. In
observation, the phenomenon under investigation is out of control of the
observer. But in experiment, it is under the control of the experimenter.
Therefore the experimenter can repeat his experiment whenever he wants. But
this is not possible in the case of observation. As and when it occurs, he has
to observe them. Astronomy is an observational science. Suppose a comet appears
in the sky, this phenomenon may be there only for e few days. Then it may take
another seven years for the comet to appear. Therefore experimental method has
more advantages than observation. Experimentation as a method is more exact,
precise and accurate than observation.
3. Clinical Method: The clinical method is the means by
which physicians discover facts about the sick or well patient and enter them
into the diagnostic and therapeutic process in equal partnership with
information about disease, pathophysiology, and technology. The concept of a
clinical method is well contained in the definition of clinical psychology,
which is the art and technology of dealing with the adjustment problems of the
individual. The basic elements in this method of psychological investigation
are the diagnosis and treatment of the problem or mental illness of an
individual. Diagnosis may be carried out through an adequate physical check-up,
building up a comprehensive life history, arranging clinical interview, using
relevant tests and measuring devices and observing the client’s behaviour in
natural surroundings.
The treatment is usually of two
kinds; modifying the environmental forces and modifying the client’s attitude
to help him or her to adjust to his or her environment.
4. Psychophysical Method: Psychophysical methods are the tools for measuring perception
and performance. These tools are used to reveal basic perceptual processes, to
assess observer performance, and to specify the required characteristics of a
display. The
field of psychophysics is concerned with how the physical properties of stimuli
(light, sound, weight…) are related to our psychological experience of them.
Drawing on principles from both physics and psychology, psychophysicists have
studied how the strength or intensity of a stimulus affects the strength of
sensation in an observer.
Many of the classical techniques and theory of psychophysics were
formulated in 1860 when Gustav Theodor Fechner published Elemente der Psychophysik. He coined
the term "psychophysics. Fechner wanted to develop a theory that could
relate matter to the mind, by describing the relationship between the world and
the way it is perceived.
Psychophysical experiments have traditionally used three methods
for testing subjects' perception in stimulus detection and difference detection
experiments: the method of limits, the method of constant stimuli, and the
method of adjustment.
5. Survey method: Some problems that are difficult to
study by method of observation may be studied through the use of questionnaire
and interviews. In this method the large
number of people answers the questions regarding behaviour attitudes. It is
used to obtain information on political opinion, consumer preferences, health
care needs, economic reforms, voting preference
Merits of Experimental method
a. The large amount of
information is collected.
b. It can provide highly
accurate information if conducted properly.
Limitations of Experimental method
c. There is a possibility
of people not answering truly and accurately.
d. The results of survey
are useful only if persons questioned are truly representative of large groups
to whom the findings are to be generalized. Unless the people respond to a
survey are similar to a large group to whom we wish to expand the results, such
generalization are on very shaky grounds.
6. Case Study method: A scientific biography is called
as case history. it is known as case history of individual because it is the
analysis of the most important aspect of the individual. The analysis in the
form of past record, present position and future possibilities. It is important
sources of data for psychological study of an individual. Initially case study
was limited to problems of maladjustment such as truancy, failure in schools,
or absenteeism, etc. however, recently this approach has been extended to the
investigation of normal or bright children and successful institutions. The
finding of such cases forms the basis for guidance in preventing cases of
maladjustments. So case study is a form of qualitative analysis involving
careful and complete observation of a person or intuition.
Limitations of Case Study method
The information provided
by the individual is highly subjective and cannot be fully verified.
While study the
individual the complex behaviour is studied but there is a chance of striking
features being omitted.
Since there is time
lapse between observation and interpretation there is a possibility of
misinterpretation.
Due to lack of
experience and failure to observe significant things, the validity of case
study will be affected.
B. EMOTION: DEFINITION AND CHARACTERISTICS
An emotion, as it is commonly
known, is a distinct feeling or quality of consciousness, such as joy or
sadness that reflects the personal significance of an emotion-arousing event.
In modern times the subject of emotion has become part of the subject matter of
several scientific disciplines biology, psychology, psychiatry, anthropology
and sociology. Emotions are central to the issues of human survival and
adaptation. They motivate the development of moral behaviour, which lies at the
very root of civilization. Emotions influence empathic and altruistic behaviour
and they play a role in the creative processes of the mind. They affect the
basic processes of perception and influence the way humans conceive and
interpret the world around them. Evidence suggests that emotions shape many
other aspects of human life and human affairs. Clinical psychologists and
psychiatrists often describe problems of adjustment and types of
psychopathology as ‘emotional problems,’ mental conditions.
The subject of emotion is studied from a wide range of
views. Behaviourally oriented neuroscientists study the neurophysiology and
neuroanatomy of emotions and the relations between neural processes and the
expression and experience of emotion. Social psychologists and cultural anthropologists
study similarities and differences among cultures by the way emotions are
expressed and conceptualized. Novelists, playwrights, and poets are interested
in emotions as the motivations and defining features of fictional characters
and as vehicles for communicating the meaning and significance of events.
Philosophers are interested in the role of emotions in rationality, thought,
character development, and values.
Definition
Psychologists have found a comprehensive definition of
emotion; their general agreement is that the emotions are entailed to varying
in degrees due to awareness of one's environment or situation, bodily
reactions, and approach or withdrawal behaviour.
Emotion is a state of
arousal involving facial and bodily
changes, brain activation, cognitive appraisals, subjective feelings, and
tendencies toward action, all shaped by cultural rules. Emotions include fear,
anger, sadness, joy, surprise, disgust and contempt.
Emotional maturity is defined as how well you are able to
respond to situations, control your emotions and behave in an adult manner when
dealing with others
CHARACTERISTICS OF EMOTION
1.
Emotions are universal
– prevalent in every living organism at all stages of development from infancy
to old age.
2.
Emotions are personal
and thus differ from individual to individual.
3.
Same emotions can be
aroused by a number of different stimuli – objects and situations.
4.
Emotions rise abruptly
but subside slowly. An emotion, once aroused, tends to persist and leave behind
emotional hangover.
5.
Emotions have the
quality of displacement. For example, an angry reaction caused by a rebuke by
the boss can find expression in the beating of the children at home.
6.
An emotion can give
birth to a number of other similar emotions.
7.
There is a negative
correlation between the upsurge of emotions and intelligence. Reasoning and
sharp intellect restrain the sudden upsurge of emotions. On the other hand,
emotional upsurge adversely affects the process of reasoning and thinking
process.
8.
The emotional
experiences are associated with one or the other instincts or biological
drives.
9.
Every emotional
experience involves many physical and physiological changes in the organism.
e.g. the flush of the face, the bulging of the eyes, the flow of tears, the pulse rate, the choke in the
voice, changes in the respiratory and digestive systems etc.
Kinds of Emotion
Emotions are divided into positive
emotions (pleasant emotion) and negative emotions (unpleasant emotion).
Positive emotions are constructive emotions helpful and essential for the
normal development such as love (fondness and infatuation) and joy (bliss,
contentment and pride) and negative emotions are destructive emotions harmful to the well-being and development of
an individual such as anger (annoyance, hostility, contempt and jealousy),
sadness (agony, grief, guilt and loneliness) and fear (horror and worry).
Emotion
has been understood differently. The following are the most significant
theories of emotion.
James-Lange Theory: First of all the James-Lange theory
of emotion, William James a psychologist and Carl Georg Lange physician both
formulated the theories independently. This theory firmly links mental states
to physiological processes. It holds that an emotion is a perception of
phenomena within the body. When a person sees a frightening sight, for example,
the body immediately responds in certain ways (e.g., the heart rate increases).
According to the theory, the perception of bodily response to the original
stimulus constitutes the emotion of fear. Thus people are happy because they
smile, sad because they cry, and afraid because they flee. The theory proposes
the following sequence of events in the emotional state. They are as shown
below in the diagram, we perceive the situation that will produce emotion, then
we react to the situation and finally we experience the reaction.
In short, this theory proposes that we experience
emotions as a result of physiological changes that produce specific sensations.
In turn these sensations are interpreted by the brain as particular kinds of
emotional experiences. But according to
the James-Lange view, these physiological changes would themselves be
stimulated by a perception. It is argued that, by the time a signal from the
senses reaches the appropriate centre in the brain, physiological changes have
already taken place to cause the signal which then produces the feeling of the
emotion. This element of the James-Lange view raised some serious objections.
Cannon-Bard Theory: An American
physiologist, Walter B. Cannon, proposed a theory based on the research done by
Philip Bard that became one of the chief arguments against the James-Lange
view. Cannon shows that subjects reacted emotionally even when nerves
connecting the central nervous system to various organs were severed,
suggesting that physiological changes were not necessarily the primary cause of
emotion. Instead he proposed that both physiological arousal and the emotional
experience are produced simultaneously by the same nerve impulse, which he
believed that signals from the senses may be received by the thalamus, which
performs the dual function of providing the emotional content to the
appropriate perceptual centre and transmitting the stimulus to other parts of
the body.
According to the theory, after an emotion inducing
stimulus is perceived, the thalamus is the initial state of the emotional
response. In turn as shown in the diagram above, the thalamus sends a signal to
the autonomic nervous system thereby producing a visceral response. The
thalamus at the same time communicates a message to the cerebal cortex for
different emotions to have unique physiological patterns associated with them
as long as the message sent to the cerebal cortex differs in accordance to the
specific emotion.
Schachter-Singer Theory:
The
theory maintains that the emotion we feel is due to our interpretation of an
arousal or stirred up bodily state. According to them, we identify the emotion
we are experiencing by observing our environment and comparing ourselves with
others. This two factor theory proposes that emotions have two ingredients,
physical arousal and cognitive arousal as shown in below. Schechter presumes
like James and Lange that our experience of emotion grows from our awareness of
our body’s arousal. But he believes, like Cannon and Bard that emotions are
physiologically similar. Thus he argues, an emotional experience requires a
conscious interpretation of the arousal.
In short, Schachter and Singer’s theory of emotions is
important because of its suggestion that at least under some circumstances
emotional experiences are a joint function of the source of physiological
arousal and labelling of that arousal. When physiological arousal is unclear we
may look to our surroundings to determine just what it is we are experiencing.
There are other theories like Richard-Lazarus cognitive appraisal theory of emotion. It holds
that felt emotion results from appraisal or evaluation of information about the
environmental and the state of the body.
Robert Plutchik has proposed a descriptive theory of emotion that is
concerned with the primary or basic emotions and the ways they can be mixed
together. In order to show the relationship among emotion, he differentiated in
three ways, intensity, similarity to one another and polarity or oppositeness.
He maintained that these primary emotions are derived from evolutionary process
and therefore have adaptive value. They can be arranged in orderly way to bring
out relationships, similarities and differences among them.
C. MEMORY AND FORGETTING
Memory: Memory
is an organism's ability to store, retain, and subsequently retrieve
information. In other words, memory is a process by which encoding, storing and
retrival takes place. Memory has two
aspects, the positive is called retention or remembering and the negative
aspect is called forgetting.
Traditional studies of memory began in the realms of philosophy with the
techniques of artificially enhancing the memory. The late nineteenth and early
twentieth century put memory within the paradigms of cognitive psychology. In
recent decades, it has become one of the principal pillars of a branch of
science called cognitive neuroscience, an interdisciplinary link between
cognitive psychology and neuroscience.
Nature of Memory: There are several ways to classify memories, based on duration, nature
and retrieval of information. From the information processing perspective there
are three main stages in the formation and retrieval of memory. They are:
· Encoding or Acquisition is a process of receiving sensory
input and transferring it into a form, or code which can be stored.
· Storage is a process of
retaining information in an encoded form into memory.
· Retrieval or recall
is a
process of getting access to the stored information and bring it back to actual
use.
According to information processing theories there
are three types of memory, they are sensory memory, short term memory and long
term memory.
The
different theories or models of memory provide abstract representations of how
memory is believed to work. Below are several models proposed over the years by
various psychologists.
Multi-store / Atkinson-Shiffrin memory
model)
The multi-store model (also known as Atkinson-Shiffrin memory model) was
first recognised in 1968 by Atkinson and Shiffrin.
The multi-store model has been criticized for being too simplistic. For
instance, long-term memory is believed to be actually made up of multiple
subcomponents, such as episodic and procedural memory. It also proposes that
rehearsal is the only mechanism by which information eventually reaches
long-term storage, but evidence shows us capable of remembering things without
rehearsal.
A basic and generally accepted classification of memory is based on the
duration of memory retention, and identifies three distinct types of memory:
sensory memory, short term memory and long term memory.
·
Sensory
Register
Sensory memory corresponds approximately to the initial 200 - 500
milliseconds after an item is perceived. The ability to look at an item, and
remember what it looked like with just a second of observation, or memorization,
is an example of sensory memory. With very short presentations, participants
often report that they seem to "see" more than they can actually
report. The first experiments exploring this form of sensory memory were
conducted by George Sperling using the "partial report paradigm."
Subjects were presented with a grid of 12 letters, arranged into three rows of
4. After a brief presentation, subjects were then played either a high, medium
or low tone, cuing them which of the rows to report. Based on these partial
report experiments, Sperling was able to show that the capacity of sensory
memory was approximately 12 items, but that it degraded very quickly (within a
few hundred milliseconds). Because this form of memory degrades so quickly,
participants would see the display, but be unable to report all of the items
(12 in the "whole report" procedure) before they decayed. This type
of memory cannot be prolonged via rehearsal.
·
Short-Term
Memory (STM)
Some of the information in sensory memory is then transferred to
short-term memory. Short-term memory allows one to recall something from
several seconds to as long as a minute without rehearsal. Its capacity is also
very limited: George A. Miller, when working at Bell Laboratories, conducted
experiments showing that the store of short term memory was 7±2 items (the
title of his famous paper, "The magical number 7±2"). Modern
estimates of the capacity of short-term memory are lower, typically on the
order of 4-5 items, and we know that memory capacity can be increased through a
process called chunking. For example, if presented with the string:
FBIPHDTWAIBM
people are able to remember only a few items. However, if the same
information is presented in the following way:
FBI PHD TWA
IBM
people can remember a great deal more letters. This is because they are
able to chunk the information into meaningful groups of letters. Beyond finding
meaning in the acronyms above, Herbert Simon showed that the ideal size for
chunking letters and numbers, meaningful or not, was three. This may be
reflected in some countries in the tendency to remember phone numbers as
several chunks of three numbers with the final four-number groups generally
broken down into two groups of two.
Short-term memory is believed to rely mostly on an acoustic code for
storing information, and to a lesser extent a visual code. Conrad (1964) found
that test subjects had more difficulty recalling collections of words that were
acoustically similar (e.g. dog, hog, fog, bog, log).
·
Long-Term
Memory (LTM)
The storage in sensory memory and short-term memory generally have a
strictly limited capacity and duration, which means that information is
available for a certain period of time, but is not retained indefinitely. By
contrast, long-term memory can store much larger quantities of information for
potentially unlimited duration (sometimes a whole life span). For example,
given a random seven-digit number, we may remember it for only a few seconds
before forgetting, suggesting it was stored in our short-term memory. On the
other hand, we can remember telephone numbers for many years through
repetition; this information is said to be stored in long-term memory. While
short-term memory encodes information acoustically, long-term memory encodes it
semantically: Baddeley (1966)[2] discovered that after 20 minutes, test
subjects had the greatest difficulty recalling a collection of words that had
similar meanings (e.g. big, large, great, huge).
Short-term memory is supported by transient patterns of neuronal
communication, dependent on regions of the frontal lobe (especially
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and the parietal lobe. Long-term memories, on
the other hand, are maintained by more stable and permanent changes in neural
connections widely spread throughout the brain. The hippocampus is essential to
the consolidation of information from short-term to long-term memory, although
it does not seem to store information itself. Rather, it may be involved in
changing neural connections for a period of three months or more after the
initial learning. One of the primary functions of sleep is improving
consolidation of information, as it can be shown that memory depends on getting
sufficient sleep between training and test, and that the hippocampus replays
activity from the current day while sleeping.
Working Memory Model
In 1974 Baddeley and Hitch proposed a working memory model which replaced the concept of general short
term memory with specific, active components. In this model, working memory
consists of three basic stores: the central executive, the phonological loop
and the visuo-spatial sketchpad. In 2000 this model was expanded with the
multimodal episodic buffer.
The central executive essentially acts as attention. It channels
information to the three component processes: the phonological loop, the
visuo-spatial sketchpad, and the episodic buffer.
The phonological loop stores auditory information by silently rehearsing
sounds or words in a continuous loop; the articulatory process (the "inner
voice") continuously "speaks" the words to the phonological
store (the "inner ear"). The phonological loop has a very limited
capacity, which is demonstrated by the fact that it is easier to remember a
list of short words (e.g. dog, wish, love) than a list of long words (e.g.
association, systematic, confabulate) because short words fit better in the
loop. However, if the test subject is given a task that ties up the
articulatory process (saying "the, the, the" over and over again),
then a list of short words is no easier to remember.
The visuo-spatial sketchpad stores visual and spatial information. It is
engaged when performing spatial tasks (such as judging distances) or visual
ones (such as counting the windows on a house or imagining images).
The episodic buffer is dedicated to linking information across domains
to form integrated units of visual, spatial, and verbal information and
chronological ordering (e.g., the memory of a story or a movie scene). The episodic
buffer is also assumed to have links to long-term memory and semantical
meaning.
The working memory model explains many practical observations, such as
why it is easier to do two different tasks (one verbal and one visual) than two
similar tasks (e.g., two visual), and the aforementioned word-length effect.
However, the concept of a central executive as noted here has been criticized
as inadequate and vague.
Organisation and Process of Long Term
Memory
When we think about memory, it is usually long-term memory that we have
in mind. Our reminisciences of past events in our lives are drawn from long
term memory. Our sense of self and continuity as an individual could hardly
exist without long term memory of what happened to us yesterday, the day before,
and so on back to our earlier years.
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The Organisation of Long Term Memory
LTM of Human is not an untidy jumble of unrelated information. We keep
our memory store in order. We organise, categorize and classify information in
a number of ways. Long term memory is bit like a library with a good
cross-indexing system.
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon (TOT)
One way to study the organisation of information in long term memory is
to see what happens when we search through our library of experince to retrieve
a memory. Suppose you are trying to retrive a person’s name but you cannot
quite remember it; the name is on the tip of your tongue, but you just cannot
recall it. If we look at this tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is in greater
detail, we find evidence for the organisation of long term memory. In TOT
retrival is not a random process, because if we try to get the name ‘Smitha’
but it seems to be at the tip of the togue but not quite able to get then we
just try to recall all the names which are similar to it like – sumathi,
sunitha, susmitha, swetha, etc. so it is clear that memory is organised.
The TOT phenomenon indicates that information is organised in long term
memory. This introduces us with the distinction between two kinds of long term
organisation semantic memory and episodic memory.
Forgetting: The first attempts to study were made by
German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus about hundred years ago. Forgetting is
apparent loss of information. It is the failure to recall what has been stored
in our memory systems. According to Frued, forgetting is motivated
forgetting.
Decay through disuse: one of the oldest explanation for forgetting is that it takes palce
simply because of the mere passage of time. This explanation is based on an
assumption that learning leaves a trace in the brain, the memory trace involves
some sort of physical change that was not present prior to learning. With the
passage of time the normal metabolic processes of the brain cause a fading or
decay of the memory. Therefore, trace of meaterial one gradually disintergrate
and eventually disappear altogether.
Interference effects: It is not necessary that the passage of time alone that determines the
course of forgetting but it may depend more upon what we do in the interval
between learning and recall. New learning may interfere with material
periviously learned.
Motivated forgetting: The pervious explanations of forgetting emphasize that it is either
because physiological processes affecting the memory trace or of interference
between enew and old material. Both the theories donot give attention to an
individaul’s motivation in remeberacnce and forgetting. One aspect of
motivatied forgetting is the principle of repression in which some memories
became in accessible to recall because of the way in which they relate to oru
personal problems. The inaccessibility is neither due to faded traces nr due to
didtruptive learining; because the memories ate still there and can be revealed
under appropratie conditions. The theory of repression states that the memories
are not recalled because they would in some way be unacceptable to a person. It
can be possible because of the anxiety they would produce or the guilt they
might activate.
Amnesia: Amnesia
means the loss of memory. It is a knid of forgetting and some forms of memory
disorder due to loss of information which has been stored. Hence amnesia is a
profound memory deficit which fails in its ability to retrive stored
information and also to form new information. It is due to failure in encoding
and storage. There are two kinds of amnesia, biological and psychological.
Biological is due to brain distrubance in some way. Psychological is due to
major distrubance in the processs of information of encoding, storage and
retrival.
Improving Memories
Mnemonics:
It is a Greek. It is a technique rely on thinking association of to be
remembered material. It is a systematic and organized set of images or words
that are ahead firmly established in a long term memory and can therefore serve
as remider cues. It can be a word / sentence / poem or anthing that helps in
remembering something. The example is VIBGYOR as a word to remember the colours
where each alphabet means name of a
colour. Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red.
The meothod of loci: The word means places, the memory trace in this system are part of your
image of a scene. Anything that can be visualised clearly and contains a number
of discrete items. These are called memory pegs.
Name and Face: When a person introduces himself,
hears the name carefully and acknowledges the name by repeating it. If the name
seems to be peculiar then ask the person to spell the name.
Chunking: It is trying to beak something into parts and
remember them. When we want to remember the phone number, divide them into two
or three parts and remember.
Organisation: It is the person who organise the
things which is memorizes. It differs person to person. Each person follows his
own pattern of organisation.
Self Reciting: It is the method through which we
can remember things through self reciting through practice.
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