Memory

The standard model of memory is predicated on the metaphor of the mind as a computer; it distinguishes three memory stores: sensory memory, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM)


Working memory


Working memory refers to the temporary storage and processing of information that can be used to solve problems, respond to environmental demands or achieve goals

Long-term memory


Declarative memory refers to the memory for facts and events; it can be semantic (general knowledge) or episodic (specific events). Procedural memory refers to 'how to' knowledge of procedures of skills and include habits.

Explicit memory refers to conscious recollection and recall
Implicit memory refers to memory that is expressed in behaviour

Everyday memory refers to memory as it occurs in daily life

Remembering, misremembering and forgetting

• Psychologists often distinguish between the availability of information in memory and its accessibility
• People make memory errors for a variety of reasons
• Psychologists have proposed several explanations for why people forget, including decay, interference and motivated forgetting
• Memories recovered in therapy cannot be assumed to be accurate, but they also cannot be routinely dismissed as false
• Specific kinds of distortion can also occur within the memories of people whose brains have been affected by illness or injury. Anterograde amnesia involves the inability to retain new memories. By contrast, retrograde amnesia involves losing memories from a period before the time that a person's brain was damaged.