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Memory
• Memory: the storage, retention and
recall of events, information and
procedures.
• The quality of a memory may vary
– Interesting
– Significant
Ebbinghaus and Memory
• Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve
Ebbinghaus and Memory
• What you recall depends on how you are
tested
– Recall: simple for the tester but difficult
for the person being tested. (Essay Exams)
– Cued recall: gives significant hints about
the correct answer. (Fill-in-the-blank)
– Recognition: Identify the correct item
from a list. (Multiple-choice)
The Information-Processing “Computer”
• Sensory Memory
• Short-Term Memory
• Long-Term Memory
The Information-Processing
View of Memory
• Capacities of Short and Long-Term
Memory
– This “magic range” of 7 +/- 2 bits is a wellreplicated finding regarding the capacity of
short-term memory.
– It can be expanded through techniques such
as chunking, into larger, meaningful units.
• Area code-Exchange-Number
Information-Processing View
• Working Memory
– Working memory is a revised concept of
short-term memory
– Working memory is a system for processing
or working with current information.
• Working memory is conceptualized as having
three major components.
Three Components of W.M.
• A phonological loop that stores and
rehearses information
• A visuospatial sketchpad: stores and
manipulates visual and spatial
information.
• A central executive that governs shifts of
attention. Good working memory is able
to handle shifts between two or more tasks
Information-Processing View
• Other Memory Distinctions
– Declarative: the ability to state a fact.
– Procedural: is the memory of how to do
something.
– Long-term declarative memory is classified as
either semantic (dealing with principles of
knowledge) or episodic (containing events and
details of life history.)
Memory Improvement
• To improve memory, one must improve
the strategies used to originally store the
material.
The Influence of Emotional Arousal
• It is well understood that the greater
the emotional arousal associated with
an event, the greater the likelihood that
the event will be remembered.
• This does not mean that all
components of the memory will be
accurate!
Emotional Arousal
• During stressful or emotional events, the
sympathetic nervous system works to boost
production of the hormones cortisol and
adrenaline.
• This is usually accompanied by increase
stimulation of the amygdala.
• You are more likely to remember joyous or
traumatic events than any other type of event.
Meaningful Storage and
Levels of Processing
• The levels-of-processing principle
– The levels-of-processing principle states that
the ease with which we can retrieve a
memory depends on the number and types of
associations that we form with that memory
Levels of Processing
• Superficial processing – simply repeating
the material that you are trying to
memorize.
• Deeper processing – think about each item
or parts of the material individually.
• Still deeper processing – note the
associations between the items or parts of
the material.
Timing of Study Sessions
• The Serial-Order Effect
– The serial-order effect states that we tend to
remember the beginning and end of a list
better than the middle.
• The primacy effect is the tendency to remember
the beginning. Low proactive interference.
• The recency effect is the tendency to remember
the end. Low retroactive interference.
Special Coding Strategies
• Retrieval Cues
– The encoding specificity principle states that
the associations formed at the time of learning
are typically the most effective retrieval cues.
– State-dependent memory is our tendency to
remember something better if your physical
condition is the same at the time of recall as it
was at the time of learning.
Special Coding Strategies
• Mnemonic Devices
– The method of loci involves memorizing
a series of places. Using a vivid image,
you associate each of these locations with
something you want to remember.
– The peg method involves memorizing a
list of objects (“pegs”) and forming
mental images to link the information that
you wish to memorize using these pegs.
Improving Our Memory
• We refer to our memories as “stored”
and “retrieved” as if they were items
on a shelf in a warehouse. But this
analogy is only partially useful.
• The more you know about a topic, the
more interested you are in it, the easier
it is to establish and retain new
information related to the topic.
Emotion
• Emotion
– Though emotions comprise a crucial part
of our individual and social experiences,
they are elusive concepts. How can we
difficult to define and measure them?
Emotions & Decision-Making
• It makes intuitive sense that good
decision-making would require some
great degree of emotional control
• This in fact is not entirely true. Only
extreme emotions interfere with decisionmaking.
• Some degree of emotionality appears to
be necessary for good decision-making.
Emotions & Decision-Making
• A fear of fire would make you flee a burning
building.
• The same fear keeps a fire fighter alert and
vigilant while entering a burning building
• Is the emotion (fear) a good thing in these
two situations?
• Would you want to work with a “fearless”
firefighter?
Emotions and Decision-Making
• Case Studies:
– Phineas Gage
– Antonio Damasio’s “Elliot”
– V.S. Ramachandrin and Capgras’delusion
Emotions and Decision-Making
• The ability to imagine the feeling that
we would have pursuing each option
presented to us is a big part of good
decision-making capability.
“Emotions are inseparable from the idea of
good and evil.”
-- Antonio Damasio
Emotional Intelligence
• Emotional intelligence is defined as the
ability to perceive, imagine and
understand emotions and to use that
information in decision-making.
Excitement and Physiological Arousal
• The Autonomic Nervous System
– The autonomic nervous system is the
division that controls the functioning of
the internal organs.
– The ANS has two subdivisions, the
sympathetic and parasympathetic
nervous systems.
The Autonomic Nervous System
• The Two Divisions of the ANS
– Both systems are active, and the shifting
between the two systems helps to keep
the body in homeostasis.
– Emergencies activate the sympathetic
nervous system and energy is used
– The parasympathetic nervous system
takes over in peaceful situations and
energy is conserved
The Autonomic Nervous System
• We generally cannot directly
control autonomic responses,
but we can influence them
– Parasympathetic
• Breathing exercises
• Relaxation
– Sympathetic
• Running, shouting
Autonomic Nervous System
• The Opponent Process Principle
– The experience of any emotion can be
thought of as a “pull” away from a
emotionless center
– Intense emotions will be followed by a
“rebound.”
• Terror followed by immense relief and joy
– Clinical implications: Bipolar Disorders
Autonomic Nervous System
• The Sympathetic Nervous System and
Lie Detection
– Throughout history, humans have been
determined to find a reliable test to
determine whether a person is telling the
truth or is lying.
– One of the most frequently used methods
involves the use of a polygraph or “lie
detector.”
Autonomic Nervous System
Lie Detection
• Polygraph test procedure does identify
a large number of guilty people, it also
misses many and falsely identifies
some innocent people as guilty.
– The guilty-knowledge test is a variant of
the standard test that produces more
accurate results.
Emotion and Perceived Arousal
• Which comes first, the psychological
experience of emotion or the
physiological arousal?
• Common sense dictates:
– You feels sad and then you cry
– You feel happy and then you laugh
Emotion and Perceived Arousal
•
•
Two nineteenth century psychologists
proposed different theories of emotion
and physiology
James-Lange theory
1. You process the available information
2. Your body responds
3. Your emotions are determined by your
body’s response
Emotion and Perceived Arousal
• Schachter and Singer’s Theory
– The physiological state is not the same
thing is the emotion.
– The physiological responses does not
determine the emotion, but will determine
its intensity
The Range of Emotions
• Understanding Facial Expressions
– Researchers have found a large amount of
evidence that there is indeed a set of basic
emotions.
– Many facial expressions including smiling,
frowning, laughing, and crying occur
throughout the world and are even found in
children who were born deaf and blind.
The Range of Emotions
• Understanding Facial Expressions
– Some of our facial expressions develop in the
absence of opportunities to observe and imitate
others (blind individuals).
– Evidence of basic emotions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Happiness
Sadness
Fear
Disgust
Anger
Surprise.
Biological Basis of Emotions
• There is evidence linking the emotions
of fear or anxiety to the amygdala.
– When the amygdala is damaged, a
person’s ability to experience these
feelings may be impaired.
Biological Basis of Emotions
• Damage to the amygdala also
diminishes the ability to recognize the
signs of these feelings in other people.
• Also impairment in the ability to
recognize anger, disgust and surprise
The amygdala may be specialized to
process information relative to several
kinds of emotions
Disconnecting Perception and Emotion
• Prosopagnosia
Feeling
Fact
– Factual information is
not available, but the
emotional information is
– “I can’t recognize that
woman, but I feel good
when I see her”
Disconnecting Perception and Emotion
• Capgras Delusion
Feeling
Fact
– Factual information is
available, but there is no
emotional content
– “That woman looks like
my mother, but is really
an imposter”
Emotions
• The debates described in this module
may not strike you as terribly
important, but they are part of larger
issue of great importance to the science
of psychology.
• Human behavior seems to be in large
part influenced by emotions.