Unit 7A, Memory Notes
I. The phenomenon of memory
Memory: the persistence of learning over time
II. Encoding: getting information in
How do psychologists describe the human memory system?
Encoding, storage and retrieval
Atkinson-Shiffrin processing model
Three stage process
Sensory memory information registers with your senses
Short term memory pay attention to certain stimuli in order to process it for long term storage; working memory
Long term memory permanent; unlimited
Working memory: focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory; varies from person to person
What we encode.
What information do we encode automatically? What information do we encode effortfully, and how does the distribution of practice influence retention?
Parallel processing: many aspects are processed simultaneously; in contrast, computers do things one at a time; space, time, frequency and well learned info are automatically processed by your brain
Visual encoding picture and images
Acoustic encoding sounds of words
Semantic encoding encoding the meaning of words
Craik and Tulvig’s research showed that encoding the meaning of words was best
Self reference effect better recall if something can be related to ourselves
Effortful processing produces durable memories
Spacing effect distribute your study time to ensure long term memory of info
Automatic processing unconscious encoding of incidental information
Effortful processing requires attention and conscious effort
Rehearsal conscious petition of information
Herman Ebbinghaus found that the amount remembered depends on the time spent learning.
Henry L. Roediger (2006) identified the testing effect: you improve recall by studying information and then quizzing yourself about the material.
Serial position effect recalling the first and last items in a list
Primacy effect: remembering the first several items in a list
Recency effect: last items in a list are more easily recalled due to working memory
What we encode,
What effortful processing methods aid in forming memories?
Levels of processing
Visual encoding: picture images
Acoustic encoding: encoding the sounds of words
Semantic encoding: encoding the meaning of words
Craig and Tulvig (1975) found that deeper, semantic processing yielded much better memory
To remember something well you have to spend time with it and you must make it meaningful to you.
Self –reference effect: if we can relate something to ourselves it has more meaning.
Visual encoding,
Imagery mental pictures
Mnemonic memory aid using mental picture or organizational device
Rosy introspection: negative emotions from bad events fade more quickly than happy ones.
Organizing information for encoding,
Chunking putting items into manageable bits (ex: ROY G. BIV, HOMES)
Hierarchies subdividing concepts and facts by putting them into categories
Gordon Bower (1969) showed that when information was grouped into categories it was much more likely to be remembered than just memorized at random.
III. Storage: Retaining information
Sensory memory
What is sensory memory?
Iconic Sperling’s experiment showed that we have a fleeting photographic memory <1 sec.
Echoic fleeting memory for auditory stimuli <3-4 sec.
Working/Short-Term Memory,
What are the duration and capacity of short-term and of long-term memory?
Short term memory
George Miller (1956): 5-9 items in storage
Long term memory Unlimited capacity
Rajan Mahadevan: can pull any group of 10 digits from a string of thousands of numbers in pi
Storing Memories in the Brain,
How does the brain store our memories?
Karl Lashley (1950) memories do not reside in specific spots
Loftus: memories are not stored in complete detail
Synaptic changes
Gary Lynch: Long term potentiation increase in a synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; the neural basis for learning and memory at the synaptic level
Memory trace: synaptic meeting places where neurons communicate via neurotransmitter messengers.
Kandel and Schwartz observed that serotonin is released at certain synapses in the brain when a memory is formed
Long term potentiation: the strengthening of potential neural firing.
The neurotransmitter, glutamate enhances this potential.
Hormones boost learning and retention
Emotions can strengthen memories
Prospective memory: remember to type of events are easier to remember when triggered by some activity; but habitual tasks are easily forgotten (see page 463 discussion about aging)
Not in book: Retrospective memory refers to remembering information from the past. It is the complement to prospective memory (which refers to remembering to do something in the future). All types of memory other than prospective memory may be deemed to be "retrospective" memory.
Stress hormones and memory,
Due to glucose and amygdala activity stress can sear a memory into our brain
Flashbulb memory memory of an exceptionally vivid event
Storing explicit and implicit memories,
Amnesia loss of memory
Retrograde amnesia loss of memory for events that occurred, or information that was learned, before an injury or the onset of a disease.
Anterograde amnesia loss of ability to create new memories after an event
Famous patient H.M. could not form memories
Implicit memory (procedural)
Explicit memory (declarative) memory of facts you know and can declare
Hippocampus explicit memories for facts and episodes are processed here, in the center of the brain, and then sent elsewhere
Hippocampus activity during sleep improves memory
Cerebellum forms and stores implicit memories created by classical conditioning; Thompson showed its importance in experiments
Infantile amnesia: we have no memories of skills we performed at an early age; the cerebellum is more advanced allowing us to do the skill, but our hippocampus, where we retain words that would explain and name the skill is not yet advanced enough to commit what we did to memory
IV. Retrieval: Getting information out
How do we get information out of memory?
Recall retrieving information learned earlier
Recognize identifying items previously learned
Relearning measures the amount of time saved when learning something a second time
Retrieval cues,
Mnemonic devices provide cues
Priming activating strands that leads to a web of associations; effortless memory; invisible without explicit remembering
Context effects,
How do external contexts and internal emotions influence memory retrieval?
Godden and Baddeley (1975) scuba diver experiment; they remembered more words when retested in the same place
Déjà vu the sense of having experienced something before
Moods and Memories,
Gordon Bower: emotions help us remember
State dependent memory: return to the state you were in to help you remember
Mood congruent if you are happy you recall the world in a joyous way; thus, recall is consistent with one’s current mood
V. Forgetting:
Why do we forget?
Jill Price is a supermemorist: she remembers everything she does.
Sins of forgetting
a. Absent mindedness inattention to details
b. Transience storage decay over time
c. Blocking tip of the tongue phenomenon; unable to access stored information
Sins of distortion
a. Misattribution confusing the source
b. Suggestibility leading questions lead to misinformation
c. Bias your beliefs alter your memory
One sin of intrusion
Persistence an unwanted memory sustains
Encoding failure,
Much of what we sense we never notice: change blindness, page 239
Forgetting is encoding failure
Example: which is the real penny?
Storage decay,
Ebbinghaus and the forgetting curve,
The course of forgetting is initially rapid, then tapers off
Much of what we learn we forget since it has no meaning to us
Retrieval failure,
Sometimes stored information cannot be retrieved
Interference,
Proactive: forward acting: something you learned earlier interferes with recall of something that happens later
Retroactive
Back ward acting: new information makes it harder to recall something you learned earlier
Jenkins and Dallenbach: sleep or go for a walk after you learn something; otherwise intereference of other things you learn affects recall\
Positive transfer: when old information leads to easier recall of new; ex: knowing Latin helps you learn French
Motivated forgetting,
Due to the various stages of processing (sensory, working, long term, retrieval) forgetting does occur
Repression, said Freud, leads us to self-censor painful information; most researchers disagree
VI. Memory Construction
How do misinformation, imagination, and source amnesia influence our memory construction? How real-seeming are false memories?
Memory is the result of cognitive, biological and social-cultural phenomenon
Leveling (the shortening of a story), sharpening (highlighting or over emphasizing), and assimilation (fitting material into your background) all play a role in Bartlett’s constructive memory process.
Misinformation and imagination effects,
Palmer and Loftus showed with the traffic accident experiment that people gave higher estimates of speed depending on how the questions are asked. Memory is reconstructed and is influenced by various factors.
Misinformation effect: after exposure to subtle misinformation, people misremember.
Imagination inflation: repeatedly imagining nonexistent actions can lead to false memories.
Source amnesia,
Source misattribution: attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined.
Poole and Lindsay showed this among preschoolers.
Discerning true and false memories,
The most confident witnesses are often not the most accurate
Hypnotically recovered memories have errors to suggestions from the hypnotist
Lovers overestimate their first impressions; those who broke up underestimate their first meeting
Brainerd and Reyna: memories we derive from experiences have more detail than memories we derive from imagination.
Imagined memories contain more gist or feeling but less actual detail
Imagined memories can be more durable than real memories
False and true memories can appear to be just as convincing; confident witnesses are necessarily more accurate.
Police are being trained to ask less suggestive questions using a cognitive interview technique.
Children’s eyewitness recall,
Stephen Ceci and Maggie Bruck: preschoolers often produce false stories (1994)
Preschoolers appear to be more suggestible; susceptible to the misinformation effect
Children can accurately recall what happened if questioned neutrally
With young children, even psychologists who interview them cannot separate real from imagined events
Repressed or constructed memories of abuse?
What is the controversy related to claims of repressed and recovered memories?
False memory syndrome: credible authority, suggestion and imagination are involved
Roseanne Barr claimed to have recovered memories of sexual abuse
Professional groups agree:
a. Injustice happens
b. d. Recovered memories are common place
e. Memories recovered under hypnosis or drugs are unreliable
f. Memories of things before age 3 are unreliable due to infantile amnesia
g. Memories can be emotionally unsettling even if unreal
False memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus
Most traumatic experiences are remembered; unlikely to be repressed and then retrieved through therapy
VII. Improving Memory 293
How can understanding of memory contribute to more effective study techniques?
a. Use overlearning
b. Use rehearsal
c. Make the material personally meaningful
d. Use mnemonic devices for the unfamiliar: associate them with peg words (words you already know)
e. Recall events when they are fresh
f. Minimize interference
g. Test your own knowledge, to determine what you don’t know
h. sleep more
Terms to remember: page 296 (see study guide)
AP Practice Test Questions: pages 296-297