Download MEMORY PART TWO

MEMORY
PART TWO
Dr Mushtaq T Hashim
LONG- TERM MEMORY

Information is retained for periods from
few minutes to lifetime.
 There are two important points:
1. There are important interactions
between encoding & retrieval.
2. It is difficult to know whether forgetting
from long –term memory is due to loss
from storage or to a failure in retrieval.
Encoding
 Encoding meaning :
-For verbal material; encoding is neither acoustic nor verbal.
Instead it is based on the meaning .
 Other types of encoding can be used like phonological, visual,
taste ,odor ,….etc.
 Adding meaningful connections
-often the items we need to remember are meaningful ,but the
connections between them are not. In such cases memory can be
improved by creating real or artificial links between the items.
Example : the five lines in printed music are referred to as EGBDF
may be converted to the sentence :Every Good Boy Does Fine.
 One of the best ways to add connections is to
elaborate on the meaning of the material while
encoding it. The more deeply or elaborately
one encodes the meaning, the better the
resulting memory will be.
 This means that there is an intimate connection
between understanding & memory. The better
understanding ,the more connections we see
between the parts of the subject.
Retrieval
 Many cases of forgetting from long – term
memory result from loss of access to the
information rather than from loss of the
information itself.
 Trying to retrieve an item from LT memory is
like trying to find a book in a large library.
 Poor memory often reflects a retrieval failure
rather than a storage failure.
Evidence for retrieval failures
 How many times have you taken an
exam and not been able to recall a
specific name, only to remember it later?
 Experiment of two groups given many
different items to memorize ; those
provided with retrieval cues did better
than those who were not.
 Recognition tests versus recall tests.
Interference
 Among the factors that impair retrieval ; the
most important one is interference.
 If we associate different items with the same
cue, when we try to use that cue to retrieve
one of the items ( the target item) ,the other
items may become active and interfere with our
recovery of the target.
 Example :a new telephone no. of your friend.
Models of retrieval
 Search processes :
 Activation processes :
Forgetting – loss of information from
storage
 The fact that some forgetting is due to retrieval failures
does not imply that all forgetting is.
 Some information is almost certainly forgotten – lost
from storage.
 Some evidence comes from people who receive
electroconvulsive therapy.
 Hippocampus and consolidation of new information.
 Permanent long – term memory storage is almost
certainly localized in the cortex, particularly in the
regions where sensory information is interpreted.
Interaction between encoding and
retrieval

Operations carried on during encoding, such
as elaboration ,make retrieval easier.
 Two other encoding factors also increase the
chances of successful retrieval:
1. Organizing the information at the time of
encoding.
2. Ensuring that the context in which the
information is encoded is similar to that in
which it will be retrieved.
organization
 The more we organize the material we
encode, the easier it is to retrieve.
Suppose you were in a conference where
you meet various professionals- doctors ,
lawyers and journalists, when you later
try to recall their names, you will do
better if you initially organize the
information by profession.
context
 It is easier to retrieve a particular fact if you are
in the same context in which you coded it. For
example, it is a good bet that your ability to
retrieve the names of your classmates in the
first & second grades would improve if you
were to walk through the corridors of your
elementary school.
 Context is not always external ; it can include
what is happening inside us when we encode
information – that is our internal state.
Emotional factors in forgetting

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Emotion can influence long term
memory in five distinct ways :
Rehearsal .
Flashbulb memories.
Retrieval interference via anxiety.
Context effects.
Repression.
Implicit memory
 We have been concerned mainly with situations in
which people remember personal facts. In such case
memory is a matter of consciously recollecting the past
and is said to be expressed explicitly.
 There is another kind of memory , which is often
manifested in skills and shows up as improvement in
the performance of some perceptual ,motor, or
cognitive task without conscious recollection of the
experiences that led to the improvement. In such cases
the memory is expressed implicitly.



Memory for facts ( explicit memory).
Memory for skills ( implicit memory).
Amnesia:
-anterograde
-retrograde.

Amnesia can result from :
1.
Head injury
2.
Stroke
3.
Encephalitis
4.
Alcoholism
5.
Electroconvulsive therapy ( ECT )
6.
Surgical procedures ( removal of the hippocampus ).
 In amnesia ,implicit memory is usually
spared.
 This suggests that there may be separate
systems for explicit & implicit memory.
 Research with normal individuals also
suggest that there may be separate
systems for explicit & implicit memory.
 Brain scanning studies with normal
individuals show that explicit memory is
accompanied by increased neural activity
in certain regions , whereas implicit
memory is accompanied by a decrease
in neural activity in critical regions.
Constructive memory
 The memory is a constructive and
reconstructive process.
 The memory for an event can and does depart
systematically from the objective reality that
gave rise to it, both at the time it is formed ( via
constructive processes) and then later over
time (via reconstructive memory).
 Memory reconstruction forms the basis of
memories that, although systematically
incorrect, seem very real and are recounted
with a great deal of confidence.
Improving memory
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Chunking & memory span.
Imagery and encoding.
Elaboration and encoding.
Context and retrieval.
Organization.
Practicing retrieval.
Imagery and encoding
 Meaningful connections can improve memory.
Mental images have been found to be
particularly useful for connecting pairs of
unrelated items, and for this reason imagery is
the major ingredient in many mnemonic
systems, or systems for aiding memory.
 mnemonic
mne·mon·ic [ni mónnik]
noun (plural mne·mon·ics) memory aid: a
short rhyme, phrase, or other mental technique
for making information easier to memorize.
 A well known mnemonic system is the
method of loci ( loci is the Latin word for
places).
 Key word method
THANK
YOU