Introduction to Memory
What is Memory?
• Memory is the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information.
• “Flashbulb Memories” is a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.
• The information processing model of memory includes three stages:• Encoding-getting information in
• Storage-retaining information
• Retrieval- getting the information back out
Atkinson-Shiffrin’s Three-Stage
Processing Model of Memory
Automatic versus Effortful
Processing
• Automatic processing
• unconscious coding of incidental information and of well
learned information
• Implicit memory (Bernstein)
• Effortful Processing
• Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort
• Explicit memory (Bernstein)
• Rehearsal
• The conscious repetition of information
EncodingGetting Information In
Ebbinghaus’ Studies
Practice Makes Perfect
• The amount remembered depends on the time spent learning.
• Overlearning increases retention.
• Next-in line effect
• “sleep learning” does not occur, however, sleep does improve learning.
• Spacing effect (distributed repetition vs. mass practice
• Serial position effect• Primacy and recency effect
Activity 1
• FOR EACH OF THE WORDS THAT I AM GOING TO READ, MENTALLY RATE THE USEFULNESS OF THE ITEM, ON A 1-5 SCALE, IF YOU WERE STRANDED ON A DESERT ISLAND.
ACTIVITY 2
• FOR EACH OF THE WORDS THAT I AM GOING TO READ. MENTALLY ESTIMATE THE NUMBER OF VOWELS IN THE WORD.
Types of Encoding
• Semantic encoding
• The encoding of meaning
• Acoustic encoding
• The encoding of sound, particularly the sound of words.
• Visual encoding
• The encoding of visual (picture) images.
• Earliest memories include visual images
• Rosy retrospection- the tendency to remember events
more favorably than when they first occurred
Types of Encoding (Craik &Tulvig, 1975)
Organizing Info for Encoding
• Mnemonics-memory aids• Mental imagery
• Method of loci
• Invented stories
• Peg-words
• Acronyms
• “Chunking”
• Organizing information into familiar,
manageable units; often occurs automatically
• Hierarchies
Chunking in Chinese
Organization Benefits Memory:
An Example of Hierarchies
StorageRetaining Information
Three-stage processing model
of memory
Long Term Memory
• Theoretically unlimited
• Three types of memory storage
• Semantic
• Meaning
• Episodic
• Memory of an event at which you were present
• Procedural
• Memory of “how to do” something- skill memory
Storing Memories in the Brain
• At the level of neurons• LTP-long term potenitation
• An increase in a synapse’s firing potential after,brief rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.
• Studies of California Sea Snails (APLAYSIA)
• Alzheimer’s- disruption of neurotransmitter systems using Acetylcholine
• Drugs that block neurotransmitters can disrupt memory storage
• Ie. Seratonin in binge drinking- “black-outs”- no memory of the night before
Memory continued
• Stress Hormones and Memory
• Strong emotional response enhances memory.
• Limits- Prolonged stress can corrode memory.
• Storing Implicit and Explicit Memories
• Studies of patients with brain injuries
• Amnesia- loss of memory
• Memory subsystems
Memory Subsystems
The Hippocampus and
Cerebellum• Hippocampus
• A neural center located in the limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage
• Lateralization of the hippocampus
• Damage to the left hippocampus- will have trouble remembering verbal information
• Damage to the right hippocampus- will have trouble recalling visual designs and locations
• Cerebellum • Structure in the hindbrain that appears to be critical to
implicit memories- memories for skills and conditioned associations
RetrievalGetting Information Out
Retrieval• Recall
• A measure of memory in which a person must retrieve information learned earlier (fill in the blank)
• List the names of the seven dwarfs from Snow White
• Recognition• A measure of memory in which the person must only
identify information previously learned (multiple choice)
• Relearning• A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time
saved when learning material a second time (method of savings)
• Priming• The activation, often unconsciously, of particular
associations in memory
Priming: Awakening
Associations
Other Memory Effects
• Context Effects
• Scuba diver studies
• Déjà vu-
• French for already seen
• The sense of having been in a situation before
• Mood Congruent Memory
• The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent
with one’s current good or bad mood.
• Mood can serve as a retrieval cue.
Forgetting and Memory
Construction
Seven Sins of Memory
• Three sins of forgetting
• Absent-mindedness (encoding failure)
• Transience-unused information fades (Decay)
• Ebbinghaus studies-1885
• Spanish studies (Bahrick, 1984)
• Blocking-inaccessibility of stored information
• “Tip of the tongue” syndrome
• Retrieval failure
• Proactive and retroactive interference
• Repression
Forgetting as encoding failure
Bahrick, 1984
Forgetting as Retrieval Failure
Retroactive interference: sleep
study (Dallenbach, 1924)
Three Sins of Distortion and
One Sin of Intrusion• Sins of Distortion
• Misattribution- confusing the source of information (source amnesia)
• Suggestibility-lingering effects of misinformation (misinformation effect)
• Bias-belief colored recollections
• Motivated forgetting
• True and false memories
• Eyewitness recall
• Memories of abuse
• Sin of Intrusion• Persistence
When do we forget?
Misinformation Effect
(Loftus & Palmer, 1974)
• Actual accident
Memory Construction After
Leading Question
• “How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?”