memorytheory

Memory theory refers to the theoretical frameworks that seek to explain how humans encode, store, retrieve, and modify information over time. It encompasses cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy and covers both conscious memories such as events and facts, and nonconscious memory like skills and conditioned responses. Across disciplines, memory theory addresses what constitutes a memory, how memories are formed, and why they change.

In cognitive psychology, classic models include the Atkinson–Shiffrin multi-store framework, which posits separate sensory, short-term (working), and long-term memory stores connected by encoding and rehearsal processes. The working memory model of Baddeley and Hitch adds components such as a central executive, phonological loop, and visuospatial sketchpad. Other theories emphasize levels of processing, encoding specificity, and the role of deep, meaning-based encoding.

Neuroscientific theories focus on the brain mechanisms of memory, including hippocampal-dependent consolidation of episodic and spatial memories and the distributed cortical storage of semantic memories. Sleep is considered important for consolidation, while synaptic plasticity and long-term potentiation provide a cellular basis. Reconsolidation describes how retrieved memories can become labile again and be updated.

Memory theory also addresses errors and limits of memory, such as forgetting, interference, and false memories, as well as changes with aging and in disorders like amnesia or Alzheimer's disease. Applications include education, eyewitness testimony, and therapeutic approaches that seek to influence memory processes.