Download UNIT 7A: Cognition - Memory I. The Phenomenon of Memory

UNIT 7A: Cognition - Memory
I.
II.
III.
The Phenomenon of Memory
Learning that has persisted over time, information that has been stored and can be retrieved
Information Processing - Description of Human Memory System
A.
Process
1.
Get information into our brain (encoding)
2.
Retain the information (storage)
3.
Get it back out (retrieval)
B.
Form Memories in Stages by Atkinson and Shiffrin
1.
Record to-be-remembered information as a fleeting sensory memory
2.
Process information into a short-term memory “bin,” encoded through rehearsal
3.
Information moves into long-term memory for later retrieval
4.
This model by Atkinson and Shiffrin is limited and fallible
C.
Modified Version of the Three-Stage Processing Model
1.
Some information skips the first 2 stages of the Atkinson and Shiffrin model and is processed
directly and automatically into long-term memory, without conscious awareness
2.
Newer understanding of Atkinson and Shiffrin’s second stage – working memory associates
new and old information and solves problems
Encoding: Getting Information In
A.
Automatic Processing
1.
Serial processing (step-by-step, computers) v. parallel processing (multi-tasking, brain)
2.
Automatic processing about
a.
Space – visualizing location about information in a text
b.
Time – note the sequence of the day’s events
c.
Frequency – keep track of how many times things happen (this is the 3rd time this
happens)
d.
Well-learned information – register meaning of words or symbols
3.
Initially requires effort but then becomes much more automatic
B.
Effortful Processing
1.
Often produces durable and accessible memories
2.
Boost memory through rehearsal (conscious repetition)
a.
Amount remembered depends on time spent learning
b.
Even after learning, additional rehearsal (overlearning) increases retention
c.
Learning quickly (massed practice, cramming) also means forgetting quickly
d.
Remember better when learning is distributed over time (spacing effect)
i.
A day later if you need to remember something in 10 days
ii.
A month later if you need to remember something in 6 months
e.
Testing also helps in retention
3.
Serial position effect - Ebbinghaus
a.
Last items are easily recalled because they are in working memory
b.
First items are easily recalled because the other items don’t interfere with the
learning of the first (primacy effect)
C.
What We Encode
1.
Levels of Processing
a.
Encode its meaning
i.
Associating with what we already know or imagine
ii.
We remember what we encode (class notes) rather than what happened
(lecture)
b.
Encoding types
i.
Visual – images
ii.
Acoustic – sounds - rhyming
iii.
Semantics – meanings
IV.
c.
Information that is relevant to the person is better remembered (self-reference effect)
2.
Visual Encoding
a.
Imagery – we make mental pictures and remember that way
b.
Mnemonic – Greek for memory – devices used to better remember things
c.
Memory wizzes are actually just really good with mnemonic devices
3.
Organizing Information for Encoding
a.
Chunking
i.
Organize information into personally meaningful arrangements
ii.
These can be acronym (creating a word using the first letters of the other
words that need to be remembered)
b.
Hierarchies
i.
Putting information not only in sections but in outline format
ii.
Relationships help us to better remember
Storage: Retaining Information
A.
Sensory Memory
1.
Iconic memory – fleeting photographic memory
2.
Echoic memory – memory for auditory stimuli
B.
Working/Short-Term Memory
1.
Time
a.
After 3 seconds, information is partially lost
b.
After 12 seconds, information is usually all lost
2.
In terms of capacity, up to about 7 (think phone numbers)
a.
Better with numbers than letters
b.
Better for hearing than seeing
3.
We can only consciously process a very limited amount of information at any given moment
C.
Long-Term Memory – practically limitless
D.
Storing Memories in the Brain – all over, not just in one specific area
1.
Synaptic Changes
a.
Given increased activity in a particular pathway, neural interconnections form or
strengthen
b.
Slug experiment
i.
When learning occurs, the slug releases more of the neurotransmitter
serotonin at certain synapses
ii.
Increased synaptic efficiency makes for more efficient neural circuits
iii.
Less prompting is required for these synapses to fire (they have memory)
iv.
Long-term potentiation (LTP)
c.
Rat experiment with LTP
i.
Drugs that block LTP interfere with learning
ii.
Mice that lack an enzyme needed for LTP can’t learn their way out of a
maze
iii.
Drugs that enhances LTP allow rats to learn a maze in half the usual
number of mistakes
iv.
Injecting rats with a chemical that blocks the preservation of LTP erases
recent learning
d.
Drugs
i.
CREB – protein that can switch genes off or on (can help LTP production)
ii.
Glutamate – neurotransmitter that enhances synaptic communication (LTP)
e.
Loss of short-term memory
i.
Can occur with damage to the head (knock-out)
ii.
Can also occur with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
2.
Stress Hormones and Memory
a.
When we are excited or stressed, emotion-triggered stress hormones make more
glucose energy available to fuel brain activity --- we need to remember this!
b.
E.
F.
G.
V.
The amygdala, two emotion-processing clusters in the limbic system, boosts activity
and available proteins in the brain’s memory-forming areas
c.
These memories are referred to as flashbulb memories and are preserved
d.
However, long-term stress (like abuse) corrodes the neural connections and shrink
the brain area (hippocampus) that is vital for laying down memories
3.
Storing Implicit and Explicit Memories
a.
Implicit – nondeclarative memory – how to do something
b.
Explicit – declarative memory – say they know something
Types of Long-Term Memories
1.
Explicit (declarative) – with conscious recall
a.
Processed in hippocampus
b.
What is processed? Facts and personally experienced events
2.
Implicit (nondeclarative/procedural) – without conscious recall
a.
Processed by other brain areas, including cerebellum
b.
What is processed? Skills – motor and cognitive, classical conditioning
Hippocampus
1.
Temporal lobe neural center that also forms part of the brain’s limbic system
2.
Lateralized
a.
Just above the each ear and about an inch and a half straight in
b.
Damage to the left – people have trouble remembering verbal information
c.
Damage to the right – people have trouble recalling visual designs and locations
3.
Active during slow-wave sleep, as memories are processed and filed for later retrieval
4.
Acts as loading dock for long-term memory
Cerebellum
1.
Brain region extending out from the rear of the brainstem
2.
Plays key role in forming and storing the implicit memories created by classical conditioning
3.
Implicit memory formation needs the cerebellum
Retrieval
A.
Getting Information Out
1.
Recall – ability to retrieve information not in conscious awareness
2.
Remember
a.
Recognizing
b.
More quickly relearning
B.
Retrieval Cues
1.
Anchor points you can use to access the target information when you want to retrieve it later
2.
The more retrieval cues (anchor points), the better the chances at retrieving the memory
3.
Types
a.
Mnemonic devices
b.
Sensory associations
c.
Priming – awakening of associations – memoryless memory – predisposes
interpretation
i.
Example of missing child poster  ambiguous adult-child interaction as
possible kidnapping
ii.
Spell SHOP  What do you do at a green light?  STOP
C.
Context Effects
1.
Experiment with same v. different context and memory
a.
Same context – easier retrieval
b.
Different context – more difficult retrieval
2.
Déjà vu (French for “already seen”)
a.
Similar context creates illusion of memory
b.
Neural misfiring – creating experience of “re-experience”
D.
Moods and Memories
1.
Good mood recalls good times; bad mood recalls bad times
2.
VI.
State-dependent memory
a.
Good mood lets us see things in a good way and creates a positive cycle
b.
Bad mood lets us see things in a bad way and creates a negative cycle
c.
One type of mood recalls the same type of mood events and also helps us to
perceive everything and everyone around us in the same type of “mood”
Forgetting
A.
Can Be a Blessing
1.
We do not want to remember negatives or trivialities
2.
A.J., recent case, she can talk to someone and “sees” split-screen – what is going on and
what that person is making her recall – in prefect detail
B.
Seven Ways Our Memories Fail Us
1.
Forgetting
a.
Absent –mindedness – inattention to details leads to encoding failure (our mind is
elsewhere as we lay down the car keys)
b.
Transience – storage decay over time (after we part ways with former classmates,
unused information fades)
c.
Blocking – inaccessibility of stored information (seeing an actor in an old movie, we
feel the name on the tip of our tongue but experience retrieval failure – we cannot
get it out)
2.
Distortion
a.
Misattribution – confusing the source of information (putting words in someone else’s
mouth or remembering a dream as an actual happening)
b.
Suggestibility – the lingering effects of misinformation (a leading question – “Did Mr.
Jones touch your private parts?” – later becomes a young child’s false memory)
c.
Bias – belief-colored recollections (current feelings toward a friend may color our
recalled initial feelings)
3.
Intrusion
a.
Persistence – unwanted memories (being haunted by images of an assault)
C.
Encoding Failure
1.
Much of what we sense we never notice; what we fail to encode, we will never remember
2.
Age can affect encoding efficiency
3.
We disregard useless information, and therefore, it is never encoded
D.
Storage Decay
1.
Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve
a.
States that people initially forget something quickly and then levels off
b.
Example – nonsense list
i.
Learns lists of nonsense syllables
ii.
How much is retained up to 30 days later – not much – then levels off
c.
Example – Spanish learned in school
i.
After 3 years of finishing the course, not much is remembered
ii.
Not much more is forgotten after the 3 years, however
E.
Retrieval Failure
1.
Interference
a.
Proactive (forward-acting)
i.
When something learned earlier disrupts recall of something experienced
later
ii.
Buy new combination lock; old combination interferes with learning of new
one
b.
Retroactive (backward-acting)
i.
New information makes it harder to recall something learned earlier
ii.
List of numbers, last one learned, first one easier to retrieve
iii.
Information presented in the hour before sleep is protected from retroactive
interference because the opportunity for interfering events is minimized
2.
3.
4.
VII.
VIII.
Non-interference (positive transfer) – having learned Latin may help in learning French
Competing information is what results as interference
Motivated Forgetting
a.
Repress painful memories to protect our self-concept and to minimize anxiety
b.
Repression rarely occurs
c.
Reconstruct memory to suit themselves
Memory Construction – we weave the memory so that it makes sense; hence, info that is not 100% is worked in
if it makes sense
A.
Misinformation and Imagination Effects
1.
Misinformation effect
a.
After exposure to subtle misinformation, many people misremember
b.
Example – cars smash into each other  high speeds, broken glass
c.
Example – photoshop of individual in hot air balloon  after weeks of exposure to
the photo, individual believes he went on the hot air balloon ride ( as a child)!
2.
Imagination inflation
a.
Repeatedly imagining nonexistent actins and events can create false memories
b.
Occurs because visualizing something and actually perceiving it activate similar
brain areas
c.
People with strong imaginations tend to believe farfetched things (alien abduction)
B.
Source Amnesia
1.
Also referred to as source misattribution
2.
Hardest thing to remember is the source – Did we dream it or did we experience it? Were we
told about it or did we experience it?
C.
Discerning True and False Memories
1.
Because memory is reconstruction as well as reproduction, we can’t be sure whether a
memory is real by how real it feels
2.
Memories derived from reality have more detail; imagined memories are more about the gist
3.
Memory construction is in part to blame for wrong convictions
D.
Children’s Eyewitness Recalls – often mislead by suggestive questioning
E.
Repressed or Constructed Memories of Abuse?
1.
Sexual abuse happens
2.
No characteristic “survivor syndrome”
3.
Injustice happens
a.
Some innocent people have been falsely convicted
b.
Some guilty people have evaded responsibility by casting doubt on their accusers
4.
Forgetting happens
a.
Victims are usually too young
b.
Victims may not have understood the meaning of their experience, and therefore,
without context, forget
5.
“Recovered” memories are commonplace – however, are they true?
6.
Memories of three years old or earlier are unreliable
7.
Memories “recovered” under hypnosis or drugs are especially unreliable
8.
Recovered memories, whether real or false, are emotionally upsetting
Improving Memory
A.
Study repeatedly
B.
Make the material meaningful to you
C.
Activate retrieval cues
D.
Use mnemonic devices
E.
Minimize interference – study before sleeping, do not schedule back-to-back topics that will interfere
with each other (Spanish and French)
F.
Sleep more
G.
Test knowledge (to rehearse and to ascertain what is unknown)