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in our mind when asked questions. Schemas are preexisting mental frameworks that start as basic operations, then get more and more complex as we gain additional information. These frameworks enable us to organize and interpret new information, and can be easily expanded. These large knowledge structures influence the way we encode, make inferences about, and recall information. A script is a schema for an event. For example, because we have a script for elementary school, even if we’ve never been to a particular elementary school, we expect it to have teachers, young students, a principal, classrooms with desks and chairs, etc. Connectionism theory states that memory is stored throughout the brain in connections between neurons, many of which work together to process a single memory. Changes in the strength of synaptic connections are the basis of memory. Cognitive psychologists and computer scientists interested in artificial intelligence (AI) have designed the neural network or parallel processing model that emphasizes the simultaneous processing of information, which occurs automatically and without our awareness. Neural network computer models are based on neuron-like systems, which are biological rather than artificially contrived computer codes; they can learn, adapt to new situations, and deal with imprecise and incomplete information.

Biology of Long-Term Memory

According to neuroscientists, learning involves strengthening of neural connections at the synapses, called long-term potentiation (or LTP). LTP involves an increase in the efficiency with which signals are sent across the synapses within neural networks of long-term memories. This requires fewer neurotransmitter molecules to make neurons fire and an increase in receptor sites. Where were you when you heard about the 9/11 disaster? Like a camera with a flashbulb that captures a picture of an event, you may have captured that event in your memory. A flashbulb memory, a vivid memory of an emotionally arousing event, is associated with an increase of adrenal hormones triggering release of energy for neural processes and activation of the amygdala and hippocampus involved in emotional memories. Although memory is distributed throughout the brain, specific regions are more actively involved in both short-term and long-term memories. The role of the thalamus in memory seems to involve the encoding of sensory memory into short-term memory. STM seems to be located primarily in the prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes. The hippocampus, frontal and temporal lobes of the cerebral cortex, and other regions of the limbic system are involved in explicit long-term memory. Destruction of the hippocampus results in anterograde amnesia, the inability to put new information into explicit memory; no new semantic memories are formed. Another type of amnesia, retrograde amnesia, involves memory loss for a segment of the past, usually around the time of an accident, such as a blow to the head. This may result from disruption of the process of long-term potentiation. Studies using fMRI indicate that the hippocampus and left frontal lobe are especially active in encoding new information into memory, and the right frontal lobe is more active when we retrieve information. A person with damage to the hippocampus can develop skills and learn new procedures. The cerebellum is involved in implicit memory of skills.

Retrieving Memories

Retrieval is the process of getting information out of memory storage. Whenever we take tests, we retrieve information from memory in answering multiple-choice, fill-in, and essay questions. Multiple-choice questions require recognition, identification of learned items when they are presented. Fill-in and essay questions require recall, retrieval of previously learned information. Often the information we try to remember has missing pieces, which results in reconstruction, retrieval of memories that can be distorted by adding, dropping, or changing details to fit a schema.

Hermann Ebbinghaus experimentally investigated the properties of human memory