Download Memory

Memory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJAH4ZJBi
N8
• Goal  How do we encode
information for memory?
• Learning Target: Describe memory in
terms of information processing, and
explain the encoding process.
Take out a piece of paper…
• Name the seven
dwarves…..
Now name them…..
Was it easy or hard?
• It depends on
several things….
• If you like Disney
movies?
• When was the last
time you have seen
the movie?
• Are people around
you being loud pain
in the butts so you
cannot concentrate?
Recall Versus Recognition
Recall
• you must retrieve the
information from your
memory
• fill-in-the blank or
essay tests
Recognition
• you must identify the
target from possible
targets
• multiple-choice tests
The Memory Process
Three step process….
1. Encoding: The processing of
information into the memory
system.
2. Storage: The retention of
encoded material over time.
3. Retrieval: The process of
getting the information out of
memory storage.
Three Box Model of
Memory
Encoding Process
Encoding
Effortful
Automatic
Info-Processing
• Automatic
– Parallel processing
(brain does many things
at once)
– Remembering space,
time, frequency, welllearned info
• Effortful
– Rehearsal/repetition
Ebbinghaus
 Ebbinghaus used nonsense syllables
 TUV ZOF GEK WAV
 the more times practiced on Day 1, the fewer
repetitions to relearn on Day 2
http://www.intropsychresources.com/pmwiki/pmwiki/uploads/ResourcesByTopic/allpurpo
sedemo.ppt
Take out a piece of paper and
name all the Presidents…
Encoding Information
• Primacy Effect
• Recency Effect
• Serial Positioning
Effect
Spacing Effect
• DO NOT CRAM!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
The ways we can encode…
• Visual Encoding: the
encoding of picture
images.
• Acoustic Encoding: the
encoding of sound,
especially the sounds of
words.
• Semantic Encoding: the
encoding of meaning.
Encoding
 Imagery
 mental pictures
 a powerful aid to effortful processing,
especially when combined with semantic
encoding
 Mnemonics
 memory aids
 especially those techniques that use vivid
imagery and organizational devices
Encoding
 Chunking
 organizing items into familiar, manageable units
 like horizontal organization--1776149218121941
 often occurs automatically
 use of acronyms
 HOMES--Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior
 ARITHMETIC--A Rat In Tom’s House Might Eat
Tom’s Ice Cream
Encoding: Chunking
 Organized information is more easily
recalled
Encoding
 Hierarchies (Semantic Networks)
 complex information broken down into broad
concepts and further subdivided into categories
and subcategories
Encoding
(automatic
or effortful)
Meaning
(semantic
Encoding)
Imagery
(visual
Encoding)
Chunks
Organization
Hierarchies
Peg-Word System
•
•
•
•
•
One is a bun
Two is a shoe
Three is a tree
Four is a door
Five is a hive
•
•
•
•
•
Six is sticks
Seven is heaven
Eight is a gate
Nine is swine
Ten is a hen
Method of Loci
•
•
•
•
•
Honey
Dog food
Sugar
Oranges
Ice cream
•
•
•
•
•
Peanut butter
Bread
Pork chops
Milk
Potato chips
• Goal Describe memory in terms of
information processing, and distinguish
among sensory, short-term, and longterm memory.
Storage: Sensory Memory
• Iconic memory
– Brief sensory
memory of images
(tenths of a second)
• Echoic memory
– Brief sensory memory
of sounds (2-4 secs)
Storage: Short-Term (STM)/
Working Memory
Percentage
90
who recalled
consonants 80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
3
6
9
12
15
• Limited duration &
capacity
• Magical number (7+/2 items)
• Events are encoded
visually, acoustically
or semantically.
• We recall digits
better than letters.
18
Time in seconds between presentation
of contestants and recall request
(no rehearsal allowed)
Storage: Long-Term Memory (LTM)
 How does storage work?
 Karl Lashley (1950)
 rats learned maze, lesioned
cortexes, retested memory  still
partial memory
 Synaptic changes
 Long-term Potentiation
 increase in synapse’s firing
potential after brief, rapid
stimulation
Storage: Long-Term Memory (LTM)
 Strong emotions make for stronger memories =
FLASHBULB MEMORIES
• Mood-congruent memory  remember when in
same mood as learned/rehearsed
• State-dependent memory  remember when in
same conscious state as learned/
rehearsed
Storage: Long-Term
Memory Subsystems
Types of
long-term
memories
Explicit
(declarative)
With conscious
recall
Facts-general
knowledge
(“semantic
memory”)
Personally
experienced
events
(“episodic
memory”)
Implicit
(nondeclarative)
Without conscious
recall
Skills-motor
and cognitive
Dispositionsclassical and
operant
conditioning
effects
Storage: Long-Term Memory
 MRI scan of hippocampus (in red)
Hippocampus
Retrieval
• Recall v. recognition tasks
• Relearning - how much less time it takes
to learn material the second time
• Priming - activation of unconscious
associations in memory
Retrieval: Context Effects
• Godden and Baddeley (1975)
Percentage of
words recalled
40
30
20
10
0
Water/
Land/
land
water
Different contexts for
hearing and recall
Water/
Land/
water
land
Same contexts for
hearing and recall
Retrieval: Context & Mood
• Déjà Vu (French)-”already seen”
• cues from the current situation may
subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier
similar experience
• Mood-congruent
•
memory
State-dependent
memory
• What is the color of the top stripe of the
American flag?
• Most wooden pencils are not round. How
many sides do they typically have?
• In what hand does the Statue of Liberty
hold her torch?
• The White House is pictured on the back
of a $20 bill. What is the on the back of
a $10 bill? $5 bill? $1 bill?
• What four words besides “In God We
Trust” appear on most U.S. coins?
Forgetting: Encoding Failure
• Info never gets to LTM
Attention
External
events
Short- Encoding LongSensory
term
term
memory Encoding
memory
memory
Encoding
failure leads
to forgetting
Forgetting: Encoding Failure
Forgetting: Storage Decay
Percentage of
list retained
when
relearning
60
 Ebbinghaus
forgetting
curve over 30
days-initially rapid,
then levels
off with time
50
40
30
20
10
0
12345
10
15
20
25
Time in days since learning list
30
Forgetting: Storage Decay
 The forgetting curve for Spanish learned in school
Percentage of 100%
original
90
vocabulary
80
retained
Retention
drops,
70
then levels off
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1 3 5
9½
14½
25
35½
49½
Time in years after completion of Spanish course
Forgetting: Retrieval Failure
 Forgetting can result from failure to
retrieve information from long-term memory
Attention
External
events
Sensory
memory
Encoding
Encoding
Short-term
Long-term
memory
Retrieval memory
Retrieval failure
leads to forgetting
Forgetting: Interference
• Proactive (forward-acting)
interference  old info
disrupts memory of new info
• Retroactive (backward-acting)
interference  new info
disrupts memory of old info
Forgetting
 Forgetting can
occur at any
memory stage
 As we process
information, we
filter, alter, or
lose much of it
 Repression?
Amnesia
• Retrograde amnesia:
inability to remember
info before a trauma
• Anterograde amnesia:
inability to remember
info after a trauma
Amnesia
• Infantile amnesia:
difficult to remember
vivid memories from
before ages 2-3
• Dissociative amnesia:
inability to remember
info due to
psychological trauma
Forgetting- Interference
 Motivated Forgetting
 people unknowingly revise memories
 Repression
 defense mechanism that banishes from
consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts,
feelings, and memories
Memory Construction
 We filter information and fill in missing
pieces
 Misinformation Effect
 incorporating misleading information into
one's memory of an event
 Source Amnesia
 attributing to the wrong source an event that
we experienced, heard about, read about, or
imagined (misattribution)
Memory Construction
Depiction of actual accident
 Eyewitnesses
reconstruct
memories when
questioned
Leading question:
“About how fast were the cars
going when they smashed into
each other?”
Memory
construction
Memory Construction
 Memories of Abuse
 Repressed or Constructed?
 Child sexual abuse does occur
 Some adults do actually forget such episodes
 False Memory Syndrome
 condition in which a person’s identity and
relationships center around a false but strongly
believed memory of traumatic experience
 sometimes induced by well-meaning therapists
Memory Construction
 Most people can agree on the following:
 Injustice happens
 Incest happens
 Forgetting happens
 Recovered memories are commonplace
 Memories recovered under hypnosis or drugs are
especially unreliable
 Memories of things happening before age 3 are
unreliable
 Memories, whether false or real, are upsetting
Improve Your Memory
 Study repeatedly to boost recall
 Spend more time rehearsing or actively thinking
about the material
 Make material personally meaningful
 Use mnemonic devices
 associate with peg words--something already stored
 make up story
 chunk--acronyms
Improve Your Memory
 Activate retrieval cues--mentally
recreate situation and mood
 Recall events while they are fresh-before you encounter misinformation
 Minimize interference
 Test your own knowledge
 rehearse
 determine what you do not yet know