Memory - Freudian psychology

What is memory?

Learning occupies a very important place in one’s life. It is the basis of our survival as well as the development and progress of society. However, our best efforts in learning may turn into a futile exercise if the products of learning are not utilized by us soon after or at a later stage. To make use of material learned it must remain in our mind, stored up somehow, to be used when the need arises. In the world of psychology, this ability or power of our mind to store the past experiences of learning and utilizing them (by reproducing) at a later stage is known as “memory”.

Ryburn agrees to the above meaning of the term memory when he says:

“The power that we have to “store” our experiences and to bring them into the field of consciousness sometime after the experiences have occurred, is termed, memory (1956, p.220)."

  In this way, memory is regarded as a special ability of our mind to conserve or store what has been previously experienced or acquired through learning and then, at some later stage to enable us to make use of its reproduction retrieval or revival. The judgment about the strength of this power or quality of this ability can be made through performance in terms of the quality of the revival or reproduction of what has been learned and stored up. In this sense, a good memory must reflect “an ideal revival” as stout puts it, “so far as ideal revival is merely reproductive – this productive aspect of ideal requires the object of past experiences to be reinstated as far as possible in the order and manner of their original occurrence”.

However, the term memory of the process of memorization cannot be termed in so simple a manner as to be viewed merely in terms of reproduction or revival of past experiences or learning. It is quite a complex process which involves factors like learning, retention, recall, and recognition as explained below in the mechanism of the process of memorization.

Basic Processes of Memorization. 

Our mind possesses a special ability by virtue of which every experience or learning leaf behind memory images or traces that are conserved in the form of “engrams”. Thus what is learned leaves its after-effect which is conserved in the form of engrams composed of memory traces. This preservation of the memory traces by our central nervous system or brain is known as retaining of the learned or experienced act. How long we can retain depends upon the strength and quality of the memory traces. When we try to recollect or repeat our past experiences or learning, we make use of the memory traces. If we are successful in the revival of our memory traces, our memory is said to be good. But if, somehow or the other, the memory traces have died out, we will not be able to reproduce or make use of our past experiences or learning. In this case, it is said that we are not able to retain what has been learned, or in other words, we have forgotten.

In this way, memorization, learning, or acquisition is the primary condition. If there is no learning there will be no remembering. In the second stage, we should see that these learning experiences are retained or stored properly in the form of mental impressions or images so that they can be revived or retrieved when the need arises. The third and the fourth stage covered retrieval in the process of memorization can be called recognition and recall. Recognition is a much easier and simpler psychological process than recall. The difference between these two terms can be explained by the following example.

Suppose, Mr. Simon has been your classmate. You have spent happy times with him. The old experiences have been retained or stored in the form of memory traces. Now if you are told only the name of the gentleman and you can recollect all that you have experienced in his company and can describe his personality, it is said that you have been able to recall your past experience. In this case, memory traces are said to be retained or stored in proper form. But if the memory traces are very weak and therefore, retained (storage) is poor, then recall (perfect revival or retrieval of past experiences) may not be possible. 

In such cases ‘recognition’ is possible. Recognition is nothing but the awareness of an object or situation as having been known to the person. Here the presence of the already experienced object or thing makes the task of recollection easy. In the above example, the photographs or the actual presence of Mr. Simon may facilitate the task of recollecting past experiences. From the above discussion, it can be easily concluded that the process of memorization begins with learning acquisition or experiencing something and ends with its revival and reproduction. Therefore, memory is said to involve four stages i.e. learning or experiencing, retention or storage, and finally retrieval in the shape of recognition and recall.

What are the types of memory?

Psychologists have tried to classify memory into certain types according to their nature and purpose served. The broad classification consists of immediate memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Let us see what we mean by these types.

Immediate Memory.

Immediate memory or sensory memory is that memory that helps an individual to recall something a split second after having perceived it. In such type of memory retentive time is extremely brief/generally from a fraction of a second to several seconds. Old sensory impressions disappear as they are “erased” by new information.

Immediate memory is needed when we want to remember a thing for a short time and then forget it. We enter the cinema hall, and see the seat number given on our ticket. After occupying the seat, we forget the seat number. We look up a telephone number from the directory and remember it. But after making the call, we usually forget it. In all cases of similar nature immediately with speed and accuracy, remembering it for a short time and forgetting rapidly after use.

Short-term Memory.

This type of memory is also temporary, though not nearly as short-lived as the immediate memory. To further distinguish it from short-term memory the things given below should also be taken into account.

Where the retention time is less than one second in immediate memory, the information temporarily stored in short-term memory may endure as long as thirty seconds or so, even if the material is not being rehearsed.

Whereas the sensory image in immediate memory decays regardless of the learner’s action, rehearsal by the learner can keep material in short-term memory indefinitely.

The span of immediate memory exceeds the short-term memory span. Whereas five to nine items (“the magical number, seven plus or minus two”) can be held in short-term memory at any one time, about eleven to thirteen items are available for recall in immediate memory for at least a half-second. However, some people are able to retain much more information in their short-term memories by a process called chunking, which groups information by coding it, e.g. the number 143254376 can be remembered by listing under three heads: 143, 254, 376.

Long-term Memory

Unlike short-term memory, long-term memory has a seemingly limitless capacity to short information, undergoes little or no decay, and requires little, if any, rehearsal,. In addition to these characteristics, long-term memory codes information according to meaning, pattern, and other characteristics. It is this memory that helps us to remember a number of things on a relatively permanent basis. Remembering our identifying data like our name, father’s name, date of birth, date of marriage, etc., is the simplest example of our long-term memory. With the help of our long-term memory, we can store, retain and remember at our ease at record notice most of the things in our life and can thus make things in our life quite easy.