Memory involves three main processes (encoding, storage and retrieval) and three components (sesnory memory, working/short-term memory and long-term memory)

Sensory-memory breifly holds incoming sensory information. Some information reaches working memory and long-term-memory, where it is mentgally represented by visual, phonological, semantic or motor codes

Working memory actively processes a limited amount o finformation and supports other cognitive functions. It has phonological, visuospatial, episodic and executive (co-ordinating) components

Long-term memory stores large amount of information for up to a lifetime. Research on amnesia and on the serial position effect supports the distinction between working and long-term memory

Associative network models view long-term as a network of associated nodes, with each node representing a concept or unit of information

Neural network models propose that each piece of information in memory is represented not by a single nod but by multiple nodes distributed throughout the brain. Each memory is represented by a unique pattern of simultaneoulsy activated nodes

Declarative long-term memories involve factual knowledge and include episodic memories (knowledge concerning personal experiendes) and semantic memories (facts about the world and language). In contrast, procedural memory is reflected in skills and actions

Explicit memory involves conscius or intentional memory retrieval, whereas implicit memory influences our behaviour without conscious awareness

Explnations for normal memory loss emphasize difficulties in encoding, storage and retreival

Many memory failures result not froom forgetting information that we once knew, but from failing to encode the information in the first place

According to interference theory, we forget information because items in long-term memory impair our abiity to retreive it. Proactive interferende ocdurs when material learned in the past interferes with recall of newer material. Retroactive interference occurs when newly acquired information interferes with the ability to recall informatin learned at an earlier time

The concept or repression is controversial. Soem evidence supports it, and other evidence does not. People certainly do forget unpleasent events - even traumatic ones - yet they also forget very pleasent events. If a pewrson cannot remember a negative experience, is this due to repression or to normal information-processing failures?

Prospective memory concerns remembering to perform an activity in the future. Sucessful prospective memoery drawas on cognitive abiites such as planning and allocating attention while performing other tasks. During adulthood, do we become increasingly absentminded about rembering to do things, as a common sterotype suggests? Numerous laboratory experiements suppot this view. However, when tested outside th elaboratory healthy adults in thier sicxites to eighties often perform as well as or bewttter than adults in their twenties. Perhaps older adults are more motivated to remember in such situations, or they rely more on habit and setting up a standard routine.

Infantile amnesia is a type that amost all of us encounter. Our memories of childhood typically do not include events that occured before the age of 3 or 4, although some adults can partially recall major events that happened before the age of 2. One hypothesis is that brain regions that encode long-term episodic memories are still immature in the first years of life. Another is what we do not encode our earliest experiences deeply, and fail to form rich retrieval cues for them. Additionally, because infants lack a clear self.concept, they do not have a personal fram of referendes around which to organize rich memories.

Our schemas may cause us to misremember events in ways that fit with our pre-existing concepts about the world, they also may lead us to recall eventes that newer occured

Misinformation effect occur when our memory is distorted by misleading post-event information, and often occur because of source confusion - our tendency to recall something or recognize it as familiar but to forget where we encountered it

Like adults, children experiece misinformation effects. Vulnerability is greatest among younger children when suggestive quesitons are asked repeatedly. Experts cannot reliably tell when children are reporting acurate memories versus sincerely believed false memories

Psychologists debate whether recovered memories of chld abuse are accurate and whether they ar forgotten repression or other psychological processes. Concern about the possibility of false memory has led many experts to urge caution in unconditionally accepting the validity of recovered memories