“the true art of memory is the art of attention.” - samuel johnson

“The true art of memory is the art of

attention.”

- Samuel Johnson

Can you remember something you probably see

every day?

Describe the Describe the front of a penny…front of a penny…

• Lincoln • facing to the right• “Liberty”• “In God We Trust”• the year it was minted

Memory factoids• The hippocampus (“seahorse”-shaped) brain area is probably

the brain’s “switchboard” – injuries to it cause you to lose your ability to acquire new memories

• Hand gestures can help us retrieve elusive words from their memories

• There is a biological intersection of music and memory in your brain that links music – not other sound – to short and long-term memory

• Humans seem to remember even from in utero – especially their mother’s voice

• Females generally have better memories for all kinds of details

WHY DO WE

FORGET???

People remember:

20% 0f what they hear75% of what they see90% of what they do

“I hear and I forget,I see and I remember,

I do and I understand.”

old Chinese proverb

Memory “fades”:

the DECAY

THEORTY

Use it or lose it

All forest animals, to this very day, remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard Bambi’s mother had

been shot.

“Flashbulb” Memories

• The intensity freezes the memory• They are not always solid – President Bush said he’d seen the

1st plane hit the World Trade Center on 9-11, but actually nobody saw that on live TV; he was speaking from shock

• Personal life experiences that seem to transform our brains into virtual cameras:– Defensive arousal (car crash, armed robbery)– Threat to self-esteem or social position (pants fell down, fired from a

job)– Related to sex and reproduction (your first kiss)

Memory is “lost” or “misplaced”:

the RETRIEVAL THEORY

When you can’t remember where (or if!!) you “filed” the

information

The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

• What do you call trees that shed leaves?• What makes blood red? h--------• What’s the 2nd stomach in a bird? g-------• A stone with crystals inside? g----• Best actor this year? D--------

Memory gets “changed”:

the RECONSTRUCTION

THEORY

Information is made more symmetrical or is coached

• Smythe Smith• Y• Did your Mommy lose you at the

mall?• Eyewitness testimony

Read:

read, pages, letters, school, study, reading, stories, sheets, cover, pen, pencil, magazine,

paper, words

Read this one:

house, pencil, apple, shoe, book, flag, rock, train,

ocean, hill, music, water, glass, school

Which of these words were on the 1st slide?

read, pages, letters, school, study, reading, stories, sheets, cover, pen, pencil, magazine,

paper, words house, pencil, apple, shoe,

book, flag, rock, train, ocean, hill, music, water,

glass, school

Memory is “hidden”:

the PSYCHOLOGICAL

THEORY

Information can be repressed and unavailable

Parapaxis – noun. “beyond” + “act”slip of the tongue

A Freudian slip is like saying one thing,

but meaning your mother (oops)

Memory is shoved out:the

INTERFERENCE THEORY

Old information interferes with getting the new; new interferes with holding onto the old

old facts

NEW facts

Information gets crowded

ou

15 items

KQZ NLR XOJ BTK YSW

Got it?Got it?

KQZ

KQZ

YSW

KQZ NLR XOJ BTK YSW

Try these 15…

BLTCBS SOS FYI NFL

Got it?Got it?

BLTCBS SOS FYI NFL

It’s going to get easier…

WIN SIT LIE

SAW NOT

Were there only 15?!

WIN SIT LIE

SAW NOT

Try these 15…

WAS THE CARRUN OFF

Were there only 15?!

WAS THE CARRUN OFF?

15 letters making one sentence!

Memorize these 15 digits!

In order!!149162536496481

A hint:

149162536496481

Find the pattern & you can add 9 more to make 24 digits:

149162536496481100121144

A big color hint:

149162536496481100121144

1 4 9 16 25 36 49 64

81 100 121 144

A gigantic visual hint:

24 separate digits...

are 1 concept:perfect squares