According to the psychological point of view, memory is the process in which the human mind encodes, stores, and retrieves information from the outside. The message is encoded as chemical or physical stimuli. In the first stage, the message must be changed in order to put it in encoding mode. The second stage in the memory process is storage. Information gathered is stored for a period of time before forgetting. The final stage is retrieval. It entitles the retrieval of the stored message or the ability of an individual to remember the things which he/she received early and stored. There is a difference in memory performance between different people. For example, some students get the test and others fail some tests hence they were told in the same class. Those individuals have problems in the final stage of the memory process “retrieval”.
Analysis
The human memory model has three processes in which the information encoded is stored for a long period or short period. The information is channeled through sensory memory then to short-term memory and finally to long-term memory. In sensory memory, an individual is able to correspond within 200-500 seconds after seeing an object. For example, the ability to see an object like a car and remember that is a car for only a second. There are many types of sensory memory like Iconic memory involved in the storage of images and Echoic memory involved in sound storage for a short duration. Short-term memory is the memory that stores things for about a minute or more after receiving. The memory can be improved by a process called chunking. For example, in storing a nine-digit phone number an individual needs to divide the number into three. If the number is 123456789 individual needs to divide like this 123- 456- 789. Long-term memory is capable of storing information for over 20 years or the whole life span. It has a large capacity and things need to be exercised in order to get into the long-term memory (Kurt, 2008).
According to the multi-store model or Atkinson-Shiffrin model information is taken to sensory memory and after attending it is transferred to short term memory. Things need attention in order to be retrieved to short-term memory. For example, after seeing a car one needs to be attentive and keen in order to transfer the information to short-term memory. After the information is stored in short-term memory rehearsal is expected to take the information to long-term memory. For example, students in school need to read the notes from the teacher repeatedly in order to remember in the final exam. Information stored in long-term memory is retrieved back to the short term after some time. For example, when students leave school after completing the final exam they forget most of the things and when given the exam they passed they can not pass it again (Kurt, 2008).
People should be keen and practice things taught. Students should practice what they have been taught by their teachers and the new concepts learned in order to retrieve the information from short-term to long-term. When students are taught in class they get the information to sensory memory but upon discussing with their friends the information is taken to short-term memory then after revision the information is taken to long-term. Information can be retrieved from long-term to short-term memory and students need to maintain by revising and group discussion. Those who forget class teachings take the information to long-term memory but the information is retrieved back to the short-term if they do not revise (Isaac, 1979).
Conclusion
Those studying should concentrate on their studies because when they mix the information gathered from the teacher with other things, the information is lost before getting into short-term and long-term memory.