Download Memory: get sensory data, translate/organize it into meaningful form

Memory: get sensory data, translate/organize it
into meaningful form, store it, and retrieve it.
• Encoding: step 1… mental operation on data
so brain can use or store it
• Storage: holding on to data for a specified
period of time (20 seconds to ‘from now on’)
•Retrieval: getting information out of storage.
Models of Memory Systems
• Information Processing: 3 stages and data
must past through them in the correct order
•Parallel Distributed Processing: simultaneous
multilevel processing of many aspects of data
Levels of Processing Model: some data processed
at a deeper level than others (meaning)
Let’s go with Info Processing for now.
1. Sensory Memory: iconic and echoic data
stored VERY briefly. Capacity varies.
2. Short Term Memory: If sensory memories
hit consciousness, bingo.
Triesman says filtering can lead to selective
attention, and we can screen for relevance
STM appear to be stored as sounds rather
than images. Errors reflect this.
3 Components: a visual (sketch pad), auditory
(recorder), and a central exec coordinator
How much can STM hold, and how long
will it hold up?
• Miller’s research with digits produces the
magic number 7 (+ or – 2).
• Complex data will drop limits to around 4
• We can expand this by ‘chunking’; organize
our data into combinations of groups
• Stuff will stay in STM anywhere from 12 to
30 seconds (depending on conditions)
• We can extend the storage time using
maintenance rehearsal (keep on repeating)
• We can lose stuff easily to interference
How about Long Term Memory?
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Practically unlimited storage capacity
Relatively permanent storage duration
Transfer from STM to LTM works best if
we use Elaborative Rehearsal
Types of LTM?
1. Procedural Memory: skills, habits or
processes I know how to do. Ride a bike
2. And 2 types of Declarative Memory:
Semantic memories – stuff I know
Episodic memories – info about me/my life
How does LTM storage work?
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Semantic Network Model: related concepts
are stored near each other; helps us
access many different concepts
simultaneously
Retrieval: encoding specificity may help
Recognition is easiest
Recall is tougher
Tip of the tongue phenomenon
Serial Position effect allows me to
remember 1st few items (primacy) and last
few items (recency) and forget the middle
Anything else I should know?
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Automatic encoding allows for storage
without any effort or rehearsal
Flashbulb memories: often a strong
emotional component
Memory retrieval (Loftus) is a constructive
process (we are retelling/creating a story)
Hindsight bias: I knew that was gonna
happen
Misinformation Effect
False memories issue: lowers accuracy.
No such thing as age regression.
How does forgetting happen?
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Ebbinghaus’ “curve of forgetting”. Things
disappear quickly at first, then slow down
Distributed practice (study – break – study)
works better than massed practice
Sometimes we’ve really got encode failure
LTMs decay from disuse. Connections get
weak or disappear, but not from aging.
Proactive interference: my new phone # ?
Retroactive interference: I’d love my new
Mac. Now I forgot how my PC worked.
Where are memories stored exactly?
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STMs stored in the prefrontal cortex and
the temporal lobes
Procedural memories in a separate system
LTMs widely distributed in frontal cortex
and temporal lobes (separate from STMs)
How does Amnesia Work?
Retrograde: often associated with injury
Anterograde: associated with dementia
Consolidation Interruption? Hippocampus
essential for storing new memories.
Infantile Amnesia. A developmental issue?