Question

13. Briefly describe the three-stage model of memory, and explain how the memory stages interact. Also, explain how flashbulb memories demonstrate that emotions and memories are interrelated. In your opinion, how does this overlap between emotions and memories contribute to the accuracy of one’s memories?

Answer 1

Memory is a general term that refers to the capacity of collecting different past experiences by our mind. Psychologists have described the three stages model of memory that has three main components of it. This three stages model can be explained as follows-

• 1- Encoding- The first stage of memory is known as encoding.It is a process in which informations can be changed in such a manner that they can take place into our memory. The encoding stage of memory is quite flexible. Generally we recieve an information and process it into visual, acoustic and semantic form. When a person intentionally register some information in his memory, it is known as explicit encoding and when he does it unknowingly, it is called automatic encoding.
• 2- Storage- This is the second stage of memory. In this type of memory, a person can retain informations and facts for a certain time period. This stage is also known as retention. It keeps the records of information that was encoded. According to psychologists, we can store informations in three different forms-

1. Sensory memory- Sensory memory stores the information for a very short period of time, just for a second. It has a large capacity to keep informations but they remain unprocessed.
2. Short term memory- It can hold informations for atleast 40 seconds. Sensory memory sends information to short term memory. The capacity of this memory is also limited.
3. Long term memory- Long term memory can store a huge amount of information or data. Informations stored in the long term memory remained for the whole life.

• Retrieval- This is the third and last stage of memory stages model. This stage is used to recall the stored informations present in the memory. Aperson recalls different informations according to his needs.

By understanding this three stages model, we can say that human memory is quite similar to computer memory. It works in different stages as the computer works.

Flash bulb memory- The concept of flash bulb memory was given in 1977 by Brown and Kulik. Flashbulb memory is that in which a person learns something very shocking and surprising about an event and keeps the memories stored rather than recalling that event. People generally remember the memories but they forget the details related to those memories. Flashbulb memory has great emotional impact on someone's personality. Flashbulb memory demonstrates that person's emotions and memories are interelated. The shocking and surprising news, a person receives in his memory, has a negative emotional impact on the personality. These memories do not change with the time and whenever these are remembered, a person feel stress and anxiety. So we can say that memories and emotions are related to each other because whenever we remember somthing, that happened with us, like the death of our loved one, some natural calamity we faced than we feel emotional changes with those memories while remembring.

This overlap between emotions and memories greatly affect the accuracy of one's memory. We generally remember positive things rather than unpleasant emotions. But in case of depression and anxiety due to some unwanted situations, we feel an unpleasant impact of emotions on our memory. These memories could be related with everyday life where we find similar emotional event as the past one. So on the basis of the discussion we can say that a person can remember things more accurately if they refer to positive emotions rether than negative emotions.