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Memory

Chapter 8

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MemoryStudying Memory: Definition

Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Information Processing Model (components).

Sensory Memory Working/Short-Term Memory Long-Term Memory Storing Memories in the Brain (Long term

Potentiation).

Encoding: Getting Information In How We Encode (Iconic and Echoic

Memory) What We Encode

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Memory

Flashbulb memories

Implicit and Explicit Memories

Retrieval: Getting Information Out (retrieval cues and mood congruency)

Forgetting (Schacter’s 7 ways of forgetting)

Encoding Failure, Storage Decay, Retrieval Failure (Interferences)

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Memory Construction Misinformation and Imagination Effects Source Amnesia Discerning True and False Memories Children’s Eyewitness Recall Repressed or Constructed Memories of

Abuse?

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Memory

Memory is the basis for knowing your friends, your neighbors, the English language, the national anthem, and

yourself.

If memory was nonexistent, everyone would be a stranger to you; every language foreign; every task new.

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The Phenomenon of Memory

Memory is clearly very important but what is it.

How do we define it?

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Studying Memory: Information Processing

Models

Keyboard(Encoding)

Disk(Storage)

Monitor(Retrieval)

Sequential Process

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Information ProcessingThe Atkinson-Schiffrin (1968) three-stage

model of memory includes a) sensory memory, b) short-term memory, and c)

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Modifications to the Three-Stage Model

1. Some information skips the first two stages and enters long-term memory automatically.

2. Since we cannot focus on all the sensory information received, we select information that is important to us and actively process it into our working memory.

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Encoding: Getting Information In

How We Encode

1. Some information (route to your school) is automatically processed.

2. However, new or unusual information (friend’s new cell-phone number) requires attention and effort.

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Automatic Processing

1. Space: While reading a textbook, you automatically encode the place of a picture on a page.

2. Time: We unintentionally note the events that take place in a day.

3. Frequency: You effortlessly keep track of things that happen to you.

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Effortful Processing

Committing novel information to

memory requires effort just like

learning a concept from a textbook. Such processing

leads to durable and accessible memories.

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Effortful Processing and Rehearsal

Effortful learning usually requires rehearsal or conscious repetition.

Ebbinghaus studied rehearsal by using nonsense syllables: TUV YOF GEK XOZ

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Memory Effects

1. Spacing Effect: We retain information better when we rehearse over time.

2. Serial Position Effect: When your recall is better for first and last items on a list, but poor for middle items.• Recency and Primacy effects -