Memory

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• Chapter 9
• Memory

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Memory

• Memory
• persistence of learning over time via the storage
  and retrieval of information
• Flashbulb Memory
• a clear memory of an emotionally significant
  moment or event

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Information Processing

• Memory as Information Processing
• similar to a computer
• write to file
• save to disk
• read from disk

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Memory

• Encoding
• Getting information into our brain
• Storage
• Retaining information over time
• Retrieval
• Getting information out of memory

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Atkinson/Shiffrins3-Stage Processing Model

• Sensory Memory
• the immediate, initial recording of sensory
  information in the memory system
• Short-Term Memory/Working Memory
• activated memory that holds a few items briefly
• focuses more on the processing of briefly stored
  information
• Long-Term Memory
• the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse
  of the memory system

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Encoding

• Automatic Processing
• unconscious encoding of incidental information
• space
• time
• frequency
• well-learned information
• word meanings
• we can learn automatic processing
• reading backwards

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Encoding

• Effortful Processing
• requires attention and conscious effort
• Can help memory through Rehearsal
• Rehearsal
• conscious repetition of information
• to maintain it in consciousness
• to encode it for storage

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Encoding

• Spacing Effect
• distributed practice yields better long- term
  retention than massed practice
• Serial Position Effect
• Tendency to remember first last better than
  middle
• Self in Reference Effect
• Good recall for those things that we can relate
  to ourselves

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What Do We Encode?

• Visual Encoding
• encoding of picture images
• Acoustic Encoding
• encoding of sound
• especially sound of words
• Semantic Encoding
• encoding of meaning
• including meaning of words

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Encoding - Imagery

• Imagery
• mental pictures
• a powerful aid to effortful processing,
  especially when combined with semantic encoding
• Mnemonics
• memory aids
• especially those techniques that use vivid
  imagery and organizational devices

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Encoding - Chunking

• Definition organizing items into familiar,
  meaningful units
• Phone s
• Often occurs automatically
• Use of acronyms
• HOMES--Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior
• Ex
• Bun Light/Shadow
• Shoe Size Distance
• Tree Interposition
• Door Shape Constancy

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Encoding - Hierarchies

• Broad concepts subdivided into categories and
  subcategories
• More information remembered if grouped than if
  presented randomly
• Ex
• Organize Chapter
• Take chapter notes in outline form

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StorageRetaining Information

• Iconic Memory
• Short memory for what you see
• a photographic or picture image memory lasting no
  more that a few tenths of a second
• Echoic Memory
• Short memory for what you hear

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StorageShort-Term Memory

• Short-Term Memory
• limited in duration and capacity
• magical number 7/-2

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StorageLong-Term Memory

• How does storage work?
• Karl Lashley (1950)
• rats learn maze
• lesioned cortex
• Conclusion memory not stored in 1 specific spot
• Synaptic changes
• Experience modifies brains neural networks
• Increased activity in pathway connections are
  formed/strengthened
• Long-term Potentiation
• increase in synapses firing potential after
  brief, rapid stimulation
• Drugs that block LTP in mice interfere with
  learning

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StorageLong-Term Memory

• Strong emotions make for stronger memories
• some stress hormones boost learning and retention
• When excited or stressed, release hormones that
  boost memory

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StorageLong-Term Memory

• Explicit Memory
• memory of facts and experiences that one can
  consciously know and declare
• also called declarative memory
• hippocampus--neural center in limbic system that
  helps process explicit memories for storage
• Example of birds
• Implicit Memory
• retention independent of conscious recollection
• also called procedural memory
• Cerebellum patient conditioned with tack

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Retrieval Getting Information Out

• Recall
• retrieve information learned earlier
• fill-in-the blank test
• Recognition
• identify items previously learned
• multiple-choice test

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Retrieval

• Priming
• activation, often unconsciously, of particular
  associations in memory
• Ex
• Hear/see word rabbit
• Picture in mind
• Spell word _________

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Retrieval Cues Context

• Deja Vu (French)--already seen
• cues from the current situation may
  subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier
  similar experience
• Mood-congruent Memory
• tendency to recall experiences that are
  consistent with ones current mood
• memory, emotions, or moods serve as retrieval
  cues
• State-dependent Memory
• what is learned in one state can more easily be
  remembered when in same state

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Forgetting

• Forgetting as encoding failure
• Information never enters the long-term memory

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Retrieval

• Forgetting can result from failure to retrieve
  information from long-term memory

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Forgetting as Interference

• Learning some items may disrupt retrieval of
  other information
• Proactive (forward acting) Interference
• disruptive effect of prior learning on recall of
  new information
• Retroactive (backwards acting) Interference
• disruptive effect of new learning on recall of
  old information

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Forgetting- Interference

• Motivated Forgetting
• people unknowingly revise memories
• Repression
• defense mechanism that banishes from
  consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts,
  feelings, and memories

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Memory Construction

• We filter information and fill in missing pieces
• Misinformation Effect
• incorporating misleading information into one's
  memory of an event
• Source Amnesia
• attributing to the wrong source an event that we
  experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined
  (misattribution)

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Memory Construction

• Memories of Abuse
• Repressed or Constructed?
• Child sexual abuse does occur
• Some adults do actually forget such episodes
• False Memory Syndrome
• condition in which a persons identity and
  relationships center around a false but strongly
  believed memory of traumatic experience
• sometimes induced by well-meaning therapists

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Memory Construction

• Most people can agree on the following
• Injustice happens
• Incest happens
• Forgetting happens
• Recovered memories are commonplace
• Memories recovered under hypnosis or drugs are
  especially unreliable
• Memories of things happening before age 3 are
  unreliable
• Memories, whether false or real, are upsetting

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Improve Your Memory

• Study repeatedly to boost recall
• Spend more time rehearsing or actively thinking
  about the material
• Make material personally meaningful
• Use mnemonic devices
• associate with peg words--something already
  stored
• make up story
• chunk--acronyms

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Improve Your Memory

• Activate retrieval cues--mentally recreate
  situation and mood
• Recall events while they are fresh-- before you
  encounter misinformation
• Minimize interference
• Test your own knowledge
• rehearse
• determine what you do not yet know