Cognition7A – Memory

7B – Thinking, Problems Solving, Creativity, and Language

MemoryMemory - the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information.

Examples:Sensory MemoryLong-term memoryShort-termWorking memoryImplicit/Procedural MemoryExplicit memoryEpisodic memorySemantic memoryFlashbulb memoryMood Congruent memoryContext Dependent MemoryProspective Memory

The Memory ProcessBasic three step process….

1.Encoding: The processing of information into the memory system.– Getting the info into the brain– Example: Getting the names of the 7 dwarfs into

your brain

2.Storage: The retention of encoded material over time.– Retaining the info– Example: Rehearsing the names of the dwarfs so

that they are stored in memory

3.Retrieval: The process of getting the information out of memory storage.– Getting the info back out– Example: Recalling or Recognizing the names of

the dwarfs to get them back out of storage

3 Memory Models

1. Atkinson-Shiffrin 3 stage model

2. Modified Atkinson-Shiffrin

3. Connectivism Model

Atkinson and Shiffrin’s 3 Step Model of Memory

1. Sensory memory – brief recording of sensory information • Example: the sea of faces as you walk down the hallway

2. Short-term memory – memory that holds few items briefly before info is forgotten unless consciously activated• Example – a new phone number is remembered only long

enough to dial it3. Long –term memory – relatively permanent and limitless

storage of memory.• Examples: Knowledge, skills, experiences (flashbulb)

Sensory Memory• Sensory Memory - A

split second holding tank for ALL sensory information

• Examples:.– Iconic Memory –

momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli

– Echoic Memory – momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

Short Term Memory• Short –term memory

– consciously activated– limited capacity –

• Holds items for about 30 seconds without rehearsal

• holds a few items briefly (7 digits +/-2) until it is forgotten or stored

– Encoded visually, acoustically or semantically through rehearsal.

Short Term Memory Activity

Long Term Memory• Long-term memory - Unlimited

storehouse of knowledge, skills and experiences.– Unlimited capacity– Relatively permanent– Organized and indexed

• Examples:– Explicit (declarative) memories –

(Facts)– Implicit (non-declarative)

memories (remembering how to do a task)

Modified Atkinson – Shiffrin modified (3 Stage) Model

• 2 New concepts1. Working Memory – active

processing that combines novel (?) or important info along with info retrieved from long term memory– Instead of short-term memory

being just a 20 sec. holding tank, this model includes the ability to briefly process info

• Some info skips the 1st two stages in Atkinson’s/Shiffrins and is processed automatically into long-term memory

• Example – Daydreaming in class

Modified Three-stage Model of Memory

Connectionism Model of Memory

• Connectionism – theory that states that memory is stored throughout the brain in connections between neurons– Many neurons may work together to process a single memory

• memory emerges from particular activation patterns within the network • retrieval of the memory is a reconstruction based on each of the elements of the pattern

On a piece of paper: Name the 3 memory models discussed today. Which do you think is most useful in explaining memory? Why? Did you encode the info? Is it in storage, if not why

not? Are you able to retrieve

it?

1. Pick 3 of the following terms and give an personal example of YOU using them:– Encoding– Storage– Retrieval– Sensory Memory– Short-term Memory– Long-term Memory– Working Memory– Connectionism

2. Name the 3 memory models we discussed yesterday

How We Encode

2 Ways of Encoding1. Automatically Processing

– Automatic– Parallel

2. Effortful processing – Rehearsal

Encoding - Automatic Processing

Automatic Processing - unconscious encoding of incidental information– Examples: Unintentionally encoding…and later remembering– Time – day’s sequence of events, and remembering later you left your AP note cards on the

lunch table

– space – place on a page in your AP textbook where the term automatic processing occurs..

– Frequency – number of times you saw your Mr. Gielink in the hall

– well learned info – understand every word in your AP Textbook

– Unique or engaging info – “pop out” effect; things that stand out

Automatic Processing

• Parallel Processing – processing of many things simultaneously– Allows many sensory experiences to be

encoded all at once, some automatically, some with effort

– Example: process a red car coming straight at you, you know to get out of the way!

Automatic Processing

Spring is thethe most beautifultime of the year

Encoding – Effortful Processing

1. Effortful Processing –encoding that requires conscious effort and attention

– Example: Studying for your unit test on memory

• Rehearsal – conscious repetition of info to encode it for storage– Example: Reviewing your

AP note cards every night

Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve

• Ebbinghaus Curve - The amount remembered depends on the time spent learning– Used nonsense syllabus to study

memory – JIH, BAZ, FUB, YOX SUJ, XIR– The more time you rehearse on

day 1, the less time it takes to relearn the info on day 2

• Overlearning – additional rehearsal after we learn material increases retention

Effortful Processing• Spacing effect – distributed study is better for long-term recall

than massed study (cramming)– DO NOT CRAM!!!!!!!!!!!!– Example: Start studying now for your midterm—1/2 once per week!

• Testing effect – repeated quizzing or testing improves retention– Example: giving comprehensive quizzes every month, or even better,

quizzing yourself repeatedly

Encoding Information• Serial Positioning Effect – we

tend to remember the first and last items on a list – Primacy Effect – remember

items at the beginning of a list • Example: Washington, Adams..

– Recency Effect – remembering items at the end of a list (most recent

• Example: Obama, Bush…

– Rostorff effect – remembering unique items on a list

• Example: Lincoln, Kennedy

What We Encode…1. Visual Encoding: the encoding of

picture/visual images.Example – appearance of letters – are they in ALL CAPS, Bolded, In Red

2. Acoustic Encoding: the encoding of sound, especially the sounds of words.Example: “If the glove doesn’t fit you must acquit”

3. Semantic Encoding: the encoding of meaning.Example: “rambutan” may not mean anything to you – but if you put a meaning to it (a tropical fruit which means “hair” in Malaysian, similar to its physical qualities), you might remember it

Encoding Exercise

Visual Encoding– Imagery – visual images help us remember

concrete words (aided by semantic encoding)Example: Ipod, process, college, claim

– Rosy Retrospection – recalling high points, forgetting the worst• Example: After a trip to Disney World, you

remember meeting Mickey, Space Mountain, the turkey leg you ate, but forget the long lines, and the heat

Encoding Exercise

Mneumonics– Mnemonic Devices – any memory aid that uses

visual images and clever ways of organizing material

• EXAMPLES:

1. Peg word system – memorizing a jingle and using imagery to associate items with the jingle» One is a bun (chicken squashing the bun), two

is a shoe (corn filling up shoe)…

2. Method of Loci – use visual information with familiar objects on a path to recall info on a list» Example: remembering items on a grocery list

by associating them with a place in our house (chicken is pecking at front door, corn is smashed in the foyer etc)

Encoding Exercise

Mneumonics3. Hierarchies – broad

concepts divided and subdivided into narrower concepts and facts

• Example: See picture

4. Chunking - Organizing items into familiar, manageable units (acronyms)

• Example: PORN – Proactive Interference: Old info interferes with New Retroactive Interference: New interferes with Old

Encoding Exercise

Every Good Boy Does Fine1-800-IBM-HELP

Acoustic Encoding

Acoustic Encoding•Example:

The melody of your favorite song has been encoded into long-term memory

Semantic Encoding• Semantic Encoding

• Examples:• Children in Israel, can sing the top rock songs

from the United States but they don’t know what the words mean. This is because they are using an acoustic code to remember a song and sing it, but they do not have a semantic code for the meaning of the words.

• Self Reference Effect – the tendency to remember information that is “relevant to me” compared to less personally relevant information

• Example: I remember the meaning of rambutan because I was in Malaysia and ate them…yum!

Comparing Types of Encoding

• You’re given the word EXTROVERTED, which of the following is an example of Visual, Acoustic, Semantic Encoding? – The word consists of 10 letters

– The word rhymes with perverted

– The word written in capitals

– The word describes you well

• Which would you remember better?

StorageTypes of Memory1.Sensory Memory

– Iconic– Echoic

2.Working Memory/Short-term3.Long-Term Memory

– Implicit Memory/Procedural Memory• Conditioned Memories

– Explicit Memory• Episodic Memory• Semantic Memory• Flashbulb Memories• Prospective memory

Sensory Memory

• Sperling’s memory experiment– Momentary photographic memory

• After flashing an image, participants had a momentary mental image of all 9 letters

• Iconic memory – photographic or picture image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second– A momentary mental image that remains after the

image is gone

– Example: • A momentary mental image that remains after seeing

a phone number flashed on the TV• The afterimage of Twirling a sparkler

Sensory Memory• Echoic memory – auditory memory

lasting no more than a 3-4 seconds (mind’s echo chamber)– A momentary auditory impression that remains

after the sound is gone

– Example: a moment after hearing your teacher say something when you weren’t paying, you are able to answer the question “What did I just say?”

Working/Short-Term Memory• Duration – Brief (30 sec or less) without active

processing– Slightly better for auditory info than visual info– Numbers better than letters

• Capacity - Limited– Magic number Seven

• 5-9 bits of information, ave. = 7

• The list of magic sevens– Seven wonders of world– Seven seas– Seven deadly sins– Seven primary colors– Seven musical scale notes– Seven days of the week

Types of Long Term Memory

• Implicit Memory/Procedural Memory– Conditioned Memories

• Explicit Memory– Episodic Memory– Semantic Memory– Flashbulb Memory– Prospective Memory

Types of Long-Term Memory

Implicit Memories• Implicit/Procedural Memories

– without conscious recall– Processed by cerebellum

and other brain areasstill intact with

anterograde amnesia• Examples:

– Bike Riding, Playing an instrument

– Conditioned Memories – memories from conditioned learning

• Example: Fear

Explicit Memories• Explicit Memories – memories of

facts and experiences, consciously recalled– Processed by the Hippocampus

• Verbal information is stored in the left hippocampus

• visual designs are stored in the right hippocampus.

– Infantile amnesia – can’t remember events before age 3

• Hippocampus is one of the last brain structures to develop

• Example: Remembering the first President of the U.S.

Explicit MemoriesEpisodic Memories -

memories of autobiographical events, situations, and experiencesExample: Remembering you 5th

Birthday Party

Semantic Memories – memory of words, meanings, and understandingsExample: Remembering the

meaning of vocab from AP Psych

Explicit Memories• Flashbulb Memories – clear moment of

a emotionally significant event– Facilitated by stress hormones– Prolonged stress however, can inhibit

memory formation by shrinking the hippocampus

– Amygdala (emotion center of the brain) boosts activity & proteins into memory forming areas of the brain

– Example: 9/11

• Prospective Memory – remembering to perform a planned action– Example: Remembering to meet your study

group for the AP Psych Exam

Review

• Come up with your own example of three of following terms:– Iconic Memory– Echoic Memory– Implicit Memory– Explicit Memory

• Episodic• Semantic• Flashbulb• Prospective

Storing MemoriesMemory trace – memory is distributed

across groups of neurons

Long Term-Potentiation – Increases in synaptic firing potential of a neuron by increasing the number of receptors on the receiving neuron.– physical basis for learning and memory .– Neurons that fire together wire together…creating

a memory.– Example: Rats given drug that enhances LTP

learn a maze with about ½ the normal mistakes

• Memory boosting drugs– CREB – proteins that make a cell more likely to

keep a memory– Glutamate – enhances synaptic communication

(LTP) which strengthens neural connections

Amnesia• Amnesia – loss of memory

– Retrograde Amnesia – inability to remember past events

• Example– Stroke, accident– “The Vow”

– Anterograde Amnesia – inability to create new memories

• Loss of Explicit Memory but not Implicit memories

• Examples:– Clive wearing– HM (Henry Moliason)– 50 1st dates

Think Pair Share

• Explain where explicit and implicit memories are stored in the brain, and the possible implications of these locations for amnesia victims.

Retrieval

• Recall - you must retrieve the information from your memory

• Example: fill-in-the blank or essay tests

• Recognition - you must identify the target from possible targets

• Example: multiple-choice tests

Ways to help you retrieve info

• Relearning – learning material for the second time, saves time.– Example: Taking Psych in college should

save you time for going to football games

• Retrieval Cues – anchor points used to access target info for retrieval later – Example: Mnemonics, words, events

places , emotions, tastes, smells, that trigger memory

– Priming – unconscious activation of associations in memory

– Example: See a rabbit and asked to spell hair, you spell hare

Context Matters• Context-dependent memory -

memory is more easily recalled if you are in the same setting that learning took place– Example: taking your AP exam

in the same room and seat you learned the info

• Déjà vu – eerie sense that you’ve experienced something before– Example: When I saw the play Billy Elliot I

had déjà vu …

The Context Matters!!!

• Mood Congruent Memory – recalling memories consistent with current mood– Example: When you break up with your

girlfriend you think about all the other times you’ve been dumped

• State Dependent Memory – learning that takes place in one physiological "state" is generally better remembered later in a similar physiological state – Example: info learned when person is

drunk is better recalled when person is drunk

Forgetting

• Encoding Failures

• Storage Decay

• Retrieval Failures

• Interference

Forgetting• Schacter’s sevens sins of memory

– Sins of Forgetting• Absent-mindedness – encoding failure (inattention to

detail)• Transience – storage decay• Blocking – inaccessibility to stored info

– Sins of distortion• Misattribution – confusing the source• Suggestibility – linger effects of misiformation• Bias – belief colored recollections

– Sin of intrusion• Persistence – unwanted memories

Encoding Failure

Example – You can’t remember a person’s name that you were just introduced to because you weren’t paying attention

What should you do to prevent an encoding failure?

Storage DecayEbbinghaus Curve

Apply the Ebbinghaus curve to Psych Class

Retrieval Failure

Retrieval Failures• Retroactive Interference: new

information blocks out old information.– Example: Getting a new bus

number and forgetting old bus number.

• Proactive Interference: old information blocks out new information.– Example: Calling your new girlfriend

by old girlfriends name.

• PORN

• Positive Transfer – old info helps you learn new info

– Example: learning Spanish helps you learn French

• Tip of the tongue phenomenon - the feeling that a name, word, or phrase--though momentarily unrecallable--is known and will soon be recalled.

Motivated Forgetting• Motivated Forgetting –

revising past memories– Example: Forgetting how much

money I actually spent on Christmas shopping!

• Repression – (Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory)

• A defense mechanism that banishes painful memories from consciousness to minimize anxiety– Example: Woman with

unexplained fear of running water had repressed a memory of almost drowning

Constructive Memory• Constructed memory (Loftus) - a

created memory, altered when encoded or retrieved.

• 4 causes 1. Misinformation effect2. Imagination effect3. Source amnesia4. Suggestibility

Constructive Memory• Misinformation Effect – incorporating misleading info

into a memoryExample:

• Suggestibility – incorporating leading questions into memory (misrecalling a yield sign as a stop sign); hypnotically refreshed memories,

• Imagination Effect/Inflation – imagining nonexistent actions and events can create false memories

Example: • imagining that Solon beat Mentor, you may create a false

memory (:

• Source Amnesia – retaining the memory of an event, but not the source

Example: Someone told you that Solon beat Mentor, but you think you read it in the newspaper

• Cognitive Interview Technique – witness visualizes scene, then recalls without interruption

Lotus Study• IV?

– The wording of the questions• Op Def?

– ½ participants will receive question stated as “How fast was Car A going when it ran the stop sign”, ½ will receive “how fast was Car A going when it turned right”

• DV?– Answer to question

• Op Def– Record the total number of

responses that said they saw a stop sign”

• Results:– Wording of questions can

alter the way we remember an event

– Memories are not just replaying events, but rather new information (false presumptions) can be unintentionally integrated into a memory

– Repressed memories don’t exist, we tend to remember traumatic memories best

Discerning True and False Memories

• Memory studies – real vs. false– Real memories have more detail– False memories often feel as real– Hypnotically refreshed - misinformation

effect

• Eye witness testimony– Constructed memories

• Misinformation• Source Amnesia• Suggestability

Children’s Eyewitness Recall• Children’s memories of abuse

Suggestibility – susceptibility to suggestion

• Children more susceptible than adults to the misinformation effect

– Children more credible if adults have not discussed the issue with them prior to an interview

• Ask less suggestive and more effective questions to reduce misinformation effect

– Use neutral words

Repressed or Constructed Memories of Abuse?

• Areas of agreement– Sexual abuse happens– Injustice happens– Forgetting happens– Recovered memories are incomplete– Memories before 3 years are unreliable– Hypnotic memories are unreliable– Memories can be emotionally upsetting

Improving Memory Techniques

• Study repeatedly• Make the material meaningful• Activate retrieval cues• Use mnemonic devices• Minimize interference• Sleep more• Test your own knowledge, both to rehearse it

and to help determine what you do not yet know