Memory

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Memory

• Short-Term Memory
• activated memory that holds a few items briefly
• look up a phone number, then quickly dial before
  the information is forgotten
• Long-Term Memory
• the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse
  of the memory system
• Memory Championships, pi, test your memory

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Memory

• Sensory Memory
• the immediate, initial recording of sensory
  information in the memory system
• Working Memory
• focuses more on the processing of briefly stored
  information

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A Simplified Memory Model
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Encoding

• Ebbinghaus used nonsense syllables
• TUV ZOF GEK WAV
• the more times practiced on Day 1, the fewer
  repetitions to relearn on Day 2
• Spacing Effect
• distributed practice yields better long- term
  retention than massed practice

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Encoding
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Encoding Serial Position Effect
Serial Position Effect--tendency to recall best
the last items in a list
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What Do We Encode?

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

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Encoding
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Encoding

• Hierarchies
• complex information broken down into broad
  concepts and further subdivided into categories
  and subcategories

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Chunking
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StorageSensory Memory

• Iconic Memory
• a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli
• a photographic or picture image memory lasting no
  more that a few tenths of a second
• Tests of George Sperling
• Echoic Memory
• momentary (3-4 sec) sensory memory of auditory
  stimuli

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StorageShort-Term Memory

• Short-Term Memory
• limited in duration and capacity
• magical number 7/-2
• (Miller, 1956)

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StorageLong-Term Memory

• How does storage work?
• Karl Lashley (1950) Searching for engrams
• rats learn maze
• lesion cortex
• test memory
• Synaptic changes The Brain Clip
• Long-term Potentiation (LTP)
• increase in synapses firing potential after
  brief, rapid stimulation
• Strong emotions make for stronger memories

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Stress Hormones and Memory

• Stress hormones aide memory
• Hormone surge alert brain that something
  important has happened.
• Physical or psychological pain, trauma create
  surge
• Rat study shot of hormones with a leg shock
• Creates a very strong memory
• Biological evidence for why emotional memories
  are stronger.

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Stress Hormones and Memory

• Stress hormones block and destroy memory
• Prolonged stress corrodes neural connections
• Memories can be blocked by stress hormones
• Rats trying to find a hidden target
• Public speaking

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StorageLong-Term Memory

• Amnesia--the loss of memory
• Retrograde Amnesia mass forgetting of old
  information
• Antrograde Amnesia inability to form new
  memories
• Oliver Sacks Jimmie (earth from the moon
  example), H.M., Clive Wearing
• Childhood Amnesia Why? (3 min)
• Amnesiacs demonstrate 2 forms of memory

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StorageLong-Term Memory

• Amnesiacs
• Deny having seen an article and then read it
  faster
• Deny abilities to solve puzzle then complete it
  easily
• Childhood Amnesia must have implicit memory in
  tact
• Explicit Memory (Declarative Memory)
• memory of facts and experiences that one can
  consciously know and declare
• Episodic Memory personally experienced events
• Semantic Memory facts, general knowledge
• Implicit Memory (Non-declarative Memory)
• retention independent of conscious recollection
• Skills (procedural memory), classical-conditioned
  responses

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Storage Long-Term Memory Subsystems
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StorageLong-Term Memory

• hippocampus--neural center in limbic system that
  helps process explicit memories for storage
• Processes explicit memories then sent to
  multiple different regions.

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StorageLong-Term Memory

• Cerebellum
• Process implicit
• memories
• Ex classical-
• conditioned eye-
• blink disappears
• when you remove
• cerebellum