Memory

Psychologists consider memory to be a different process from learning, although the two are closely related. Whereas learning refers to the acquisition of new behaviours, memory refers to the process of saving or storing information so that it might be available when needed.

In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and subsequently recall information. Although traditional studies of memory began in the realms of philosophy, the late nineteenth and early twentieth century put memory within the paradigms of cognitive psychology. In the recent decades, it has become one of the principal pillars of a new branch of science called cognitive neuroscience, a marriage between cognitive psychology and neuroscience.

Retention Of Memory
While memory refers to the set of processes involved in storing information, the specific process or state of storage is termed retention.

The three basic ways to measure retention are recall, recognition and relearning.

1. Recall
Recall refers simply to remembering or producing spontaneously the informatin requested, as must be done for an essay test. In responding to an essay item, one must search one's available recollections for the necessary information. Likewise, when encountering a new acquaintance, one must search one's past associations with the person to produce his or her name.

2. Recognition
Recognition is the ability to recognize the correct information, as on a multiple-choice test. In choosing the correct answer on a multiple-choice test, one must scan the choices and identify the one that matches one's past information about this item. Thus, in recognition, two processes are undertaken and compared: a review of what is being perceived, and a review of what is remembered. When a match is found, we say recognition has occurred.

Recognition is also necessary in such mundane tasks as retrieving the correct coat or umbrella from a closet -- finding one's own instead of taking someone else's -- and such unusual tasks as eyewitness identification of crime suspects in a book of mugshots or a police lineup.

3. Relearning
Relearning requires that the material actually be relearned, for example, learning again a list of forgotten names. When the method of relearning is used, psychologists look for a savings score, measuring the extent to which the material is relearned more quickly than it had been originally learned. For example, the less time one needs to relearn a list of names, the more of the list one must have remembered from the first lesson. The time saved represents one form of savings evident in relearning.

The sensitivity of a retention measure is its tendency to detect memory effects under various conditions. Of these three measures of retention, recall is the least sensitive, that is, it requires the best retention. Relearning, on the other hand, is most sensitive, often showing savings even if none of the original material can actually be recalled. Recognition is less sensitive than relearning, but more sensitive than recall.



The Dark Candle
A man had a little daughter, an only and much-beloved child. He lived for her -- she was his life. So when she became ill and her illness resisted the efforts of the best obtainable physicians, he became like a man possessed, moving heaven and earth to bring about her restoration to health.

His best efforts proved unavailing and the child died. The father was totally irreconcilable. He became a bitter recluse, shutting himself away from his many friends and refusing every activity that might restore his poise and bring him back to his normal self. But one night he had a dream. He was in Heaven, and was witnessing a grand pageant of all the little child angels. They were marching in an apparently endless line past the Great White Throne. Every white-robed angelic tot carried a candle. He noticed that one child's candle was not lighted. Then he saw that the child with the dark candle was his own little girl. Rushing to her, while the pageant faltered, he seized her in his arms, caressed her tenderly, and then asked, "How is it, darling that your candle alone is unlighted?"

"Father, they often relight it, but your tears always put it out."

Just then he awoke from his dream. The lesson was crystal clear, and its effects were immediate. From that hour on he was not a recluse, but mingled freely and cheerfully with his former friends and associates. No longer would his little darling's candle be extinguished by his useless tears.