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?”