Download Memories?

Psychological Science, 3rd Edition
Michael Gazzaniga
Todd Heatherton
Diane Halpern
Attention and
Memory
7
Questions to Consider:
How Does Attention Determine What Is Remembered?
What Are the Basic Stages of Memory?
What Are the Different Long-Term Memory Systems?
How Is Information Organized in Long- Term Memory?
What Brain Processes Are Involved in Memory?
When Do People Forget?
How Are Memories Distorted?
How Can We Improve Learning and Memory?
How Does Attention Determine
What Is Remembered?
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Visual Attention Is Selective and Serial
Auditory Attention Allows Selective
Listening
Selective Attention Can Operate at
Multiple Stages of Processing
Critical Thinking Skill: Recognizing When
“Change Blindness Blindness” May Be
Occurring
Learning Objectives
Explain how attention is
adaptive.
Explain why we can be blind to
many changes in our
environments.
The portions of the medial temporal lobe that were removed from H.M.’s brain are indicated by the
shaded regions.
Visual Attention Is Selective
and Serial

Visual attention operates through both
automatic and effortful processes

We automatically and rapidly identify stimuli that
differ in only one single feature (e.g., size, color,
orientation)

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Parallel processing
Searching for two features (e.g., red and large)
happens slowly and serially
Parallel processing allows us to process information from different visual features at the same time
by focusing on targets (here, the red objects) over distractors.
Auditory Attention Allows
Selective Listening

We can attend to more than one message at
a time but not well

Selective listening

We process some unattended information but in a
weaker form than we process attended
information
The participant receives a different auditory messages in each ear, but is required to repeat (“shadow”)
only one.
Selective Attention Can Operate
at Multiple Stages of Processing

Change blindness

We often miss large objects in our visual field
when we are attending to something else

Although most people do not believe they can fail
to see large objects right in front of them,
numerous studies show this is the case
ZAPS: The Norton Psychology Labs
Attentional
Blink
Critical Thinking Skill

Recognizing when “change blindness
blindness” may be occurring

Thinking we always notice large changes in our
visual field may lead us to perceive things
incorrectly

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Eyewitness
Recognize the limits of attention
What Are the Basic Stages of
Memory?
 Sensory
Memory Is Brief
 Working
Memory Is Active
 Long-Term
Permanent
Memory Is Relatively
Learning Objective
Describe the stages in the
modal model of memory,
including how long each
stage lasts and how much
information it can hold.
What Are the Basic Stages of
Memory?
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Three parts of memory:
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Sensory memory

Short-term or working memory

Long-term memory
H.M.
Memory Systems Exercise
(a) The information processing model compares the working of memory to the actions of a computer.
(b) The modal memory model serves as a useful framework for thinking about the basic stages of memory.
Sensory Memory Is Brief

Visual and auditory memories are
maintained at the sensory memory
stage long enough to ensure a
continuous sensory experience
Working Memory Is Active

Immediate active memory is limited.

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Working memory holds information for about 20–
30 seconds unless you make efforts to maintain
information
Memory span
Chunking reduces information into
meaningful units that are easier to remember.
Working Memory Is Active

The components of working memory:
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Central executive

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Phonological loop

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Encodes auditory information
Visuospatial sketchpad

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The boss—filters information to long-term memory
Retrieves from long-term memory as needed
Encodes visual information
Episodic Buffer

Holds temporary information about oneself
The working memory system details the components and processes of short-term memory.
ZAPS: The Norton Psychology Labs
BrownPeterson
Task
Long-Term Memory Is
Relatively Permanent


Long-term memory (LTM) is the potentially
indefinite storage of all memories
Distinct from working memory in duration and
capacity

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Serial position effect
Meaningful memories are stored in LTM in
networklike structures
What Are the Different LongTerm Memory Systems?

Explicit Memory Involves Conscious
Effort

Implicit Memory Occurs without
Deliberate Effort

Prospective Memory Is Remembering
to Do Something
Learning Objectives
Explain the differences among
episodic, semantic, implicit,
explicit, and prospective
memories.
Provide an example of each of
these types of memory.
What Are the Different LongTerm Memory Systems?

Memory is not a single process or brain
system

Fundamental differences exist among
episodic and semantic memory, explicit and
implicit memory, and prospective memory
Explicit Memory Involves
Conscious Effort

Explicit, declarative memories that we
consciously remember include:

Episodic memory (personal events)

Semantic memory (knowledge)
Implicit Memory Occurs
without Deliberate Effort

Implicit memory consists of memories
about which we have no conscious
knowledge

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Procedural (motor) memories of how to do things
automatically
Implicit memory influences our lives in
subtle ways

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Attitude formation
Advertising
Prospective Memory Is
Remembering to Do Something

Procedural memory consists of remembering
to do something at some future time

Has “costs” in terms of reducing attention and
reducing working memory capacity
How Is Information Organized in
Long-Term Memory?
Long-Term Storage Is Based on
Meaning
 Schemas Provide an Organizational
Framework
 Information Is Stored in Association
Networks
 Retrieval Cues Provide Access to
Long-Term Storage

Learning Objectives
Illustrate the organization of
long-term memory.
Show how retrieval cues can
determine what we remember.
Long-Term Storage Is Based
on Meaning

Memory processes include encoding,
storage, and retrieval

Memories are stored by meaning

Elaborative rehearsal involves encoding
information in more meaningful ways and results
in better memory than maintenance (repetition)
rehearsal.
Participants are asked to consider a list of words according to how the words are printed, how they
sound, or what they mean.
Schemas Provide an
Organizational Framework

Schemas are structures in long-term memory
that help us perceive, organize, process and
use information

Cultural variations in schemas produce
differences in what and how information is
remembered

Can lead to biased encoding
Information Is Stored in
Association Networks

Networks of associations

Formed by nodes of information
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Nodes are linked together

Spreading activation
In this semantic network, similar concepts are connected through their associations.
Retrieval Cues Provide Access
to Long-Term Storage

A retrieval cue is anything that helps access
the right information stored in long-term
memory

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Easier to recognize than recall information
According to the encoding specificity principle,
any stimulus encoded along with an experience
can later trigger the memory of the experience

Memory’s context also activated
ZAPS: The Norton Psychology Labs
Recalling
Information
What Brain Processes Are Involved
in Memory?
There Has Been Intensive Effort to
Identify Memory’s Physical Location
 The Medial Temporal Lobes Are
Important for Consolidation of
Declarative Memories
 The Frontal Lobes Are Involved in
Many Aspects of Memory
 Neurochemistry Underlies Memory

Learning Objective
Describe the underlying changes
in the brain when something is
learned.
There Has Been Intensive Effort to
Identify Memory’s Physical Location

Research during the past thirty years has
demonstrated that memories are encoded in
distributed networks of neurons in relatively
specific brain regions

Karl Lashley

Unable to locate a specific site of memory storage
(engram)

Equipotentiality
There Has Been Intensive Effort to
Identify Memory’s Physical Location

Memories are stored in multiple regions of
the brain and linked through memory circuits

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Different regions responsible for storing different
information
Research has revealed that a number of
specific brain regions contribute to learning
and memory.
Brain Regions Associated with Memory Exercise
Medial Temporal Lobes: Important for
Consolidation of Declarative Memories
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Immediate memories become lasting
memories through consolidation
Consolidation involves changes in neural
connections
The hippocampus, a structure in the medial
temporal lobe, is important for declarative
memories
Four horizontally sliced brain images acquired using magnetic resonance imaging indicate that
regions of the sensory cortex are reactivated when we remember sensory-specific information.
Medial Temporal Lobes: Important for
Consolidation of Declarative Memories
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Spatial memory:
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Memory for the physical environment

Place cells in the hippocampus aid spatial
memory

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In lab, place cells fire only when a rat returns to a
specific location, not in a new environment
Taxi drivers
The Frontal Lobes Are Involved
in Many Aspects of Memory

Extensive neural networks connect the frontal
lobes with other memory regions of the brain

Brain imaging studies show that the frontal
lobes are crucial for encoding

Activation of neurons in the frontal lobe is
associated with deeper meaning
The amount of brain activation and the areas activated in the brain depend on the type and timing of
the material being remembered.
The Frontal Lobes Are Involved
in Many Aspects of Memory

The frontal lobe may also play a role in
working memory

Patients with damage to frontal areas, human
infants, and monkeys with frontal lesions all have
difficulty with tasks associated with working
memory
Neurochemistry Underlies
Memory

A group of neurochemicals modulates the
storage of memories (memory modulators)

Epinephrine enhances memory

Excreted from adrenal glands when an animal is
excited or afraid
Neurochemistry Underlies
Memory
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The Amygdala:
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Probably responsible for memory modulation
through activity in its norepinephrine receptors
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Amygdala is activated during emotional memory

Gender differences
Studies have shown that men’s and women’s brains respond differently to emotional experiences and to
the memories of those experiences.
(Top) This image shows the greater activity in the right amygdala of a man’s brain while the man is
viewing emotionally arousing images. (Bottom) This image shows the greater activity in the left amygdala
of a woman’s brain while the woman is viewing emotionally arousing images.
When Do People Forget?
Transience Is Caused by Interference
 Blocking Is Temporary
 Absentmindedness Results from
Shallow Encoding
 Amnesia Is a Deficit in Long-Term
Memory

Learning Objective
List and explain the basic
processes used to understand
forgetting.
When Do People Forget?

Forgetting is the inability to retrieve memory
from long-term storage

The ability to forget is just as important as the
ability to remember

Forgetting allows us to function in normal society
Transience Is Caused by
Interference

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Forgetting over time occurs because of
interference from both old and new
information.
Proactive interference
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Old information inhibits the ability to remember
new information
Retroactive interference

New information inhibits the ability to remember
old information
Proactive interference occurs when information already known (here, psychology material) interferes with the ability to
remember new information (here, anthropology material). Retroactive interference occurs when new information
(anthropology material) interferes with memory for old information (psychology material).
Blocking Is Temporary

Blocking is the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
when a person temporarily has trouble
retrieving the right word, usually from
interference from a similar word
Absentmindedness Results
from Shallow Encoding

Inattentive or shallow processing causes
memory failure

Inattentiveness also leads to change
blindness

Cultural differences seem to exist in change
blindness
Amnesia Is a Deficit in LongTerm Memory

Both injury and disease can result in amnesia

The two basic types of amnesia are:
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Retrograde amnesia(the inability to recall past
Anterograde amnesia (the inability to form new
memories)
How Are Memories Distorted?
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Flashbulb Memories Can Be Wrong
People Make Source Misattributions
People Are Bad Eyewitnesses
Critical Thinking Skill: Recognizing How the
Fallibility of Human Memory Can Lead to Faulty
Conclusions
People Have False Memories
Repressed Memories Are Controversial
People Reconstruct Events to Be Consistent
Neuroscience May Make It Possible to
Distinguish between “True” and “False” Memories
Learning Objective
Describe how memories can be
distorted.
Flashbulb Memories Can Be
Wrong

The strong emotional response that attends a
flashbulb memory may modulate the
memory’s strength and affect the memory’s
accuracy
People Make Source
Misattributions

A person can misremember the source of a
memory (source misattribution)


False fame effect
In cryptomnesia, a person thinks he or she
has come up with a new idea, but has only
retrieved a memory
People Are Bad Eyewitnesses

Poor eyewitness recall occurs
 Particularly when people try to identify those
of other ethnicities

Suggestibility leads to misinformation
 Elizabeth Loftus and her colleagues

Eyewitness confidence is high (whether they are
right or wrong), which makes them convincing
Critical Thinking Skill

Recognizing how the fallibility of human
memory can lead to faulty conclusions

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
Despite the fact that eyewitnesses are often
wrong, people tend to believe them
There is little or no relationship between a
person’s confidence and the accuracy of the
memory
Remember that memory is often inaccurate and
check it against facts whenever possible
People Have False Memories

Source amnesia occurs when a person has a
memory but cannot remember where he or
she got the information

Immature frontal lobes cause childhood
amnesia

Many events we remember from early childhood
are constructed from information learned later in
life
People Have False Memories

False memories can be implanted

Confabulation (the false recollection of
episodic memory) can occur because of brain
damage

H.W.
Repressed Memories Are
Controversial

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One of the most heated debates in
psychological science centers on repressed
memories
Some psychotherapists claim that longrepressed memories of traumatic events can
resurface
Evidence suggests that some therapeutic
techniques can result in false repressed
memories
People Reconstruct Events to
Be Consistent

Memory bias:

People’s memories change over time to maintain
consistency between their past memories, their
current knowledge, and their current attitudes
Distinguishing between “True” and
“False” Memories?

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When a memory is true (accurate), the brain
regions activated by retrieval are the same
ones that were active at encoding
By examining brain activity at retrieval,
researchers hope to distinguish true from
false memories
The current research has many flaws, but the
techniques may be improved in the future
The fMRIs below come from a study in which the investigators examined brain activity while the subjects
engaged in deception. T-score is a statistical estimate of the size of the difference in neural activity between
truth and deception conditions; on the scale here, bright yellow indicates the strongest brain activity. As the
images show, various brain regions were involved in deceptive answers. The investigators were particularly
interested in their theory linking memory and language processes to deception, and activity in areas indicated
by arrows most strongly supported their theory.
How Can We Improve Learning
and Memory?
 Mnemonics
for Learning
Are Useful Strategies
Learning Objective
Explain how we can use
scientific knowledge about
memory to improve memory.
Mnemonics Are Useful
Strategies for Learning

Practice

Memory is strengthened with repeated retrieval


Frequent testing and active responding spaced out
over time provides a strategy to enhance memory
Elaborate the material

When you relate new information to information
you already know, you create more retrieval cues,
which make you more likely to recall the new
information later
Mnemonics Are Useful
Strategies for Learning

Overlearn

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Get adequate sleep

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Creates stronger memory traces, probably
because of repeated retrieval
Because memories undergo consolidation during
sleep, it is important to get adequate sleep
Use verbal mnemonics

Catchy verbal associations can act as retrieval
cue
Mnemonics Are Useful
Strategies For Learning

Use Visual Imagery

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Imagery requires you to pay attention
Also uses both the verbal and visuospatial
components in working memory, thus creating
stronger memory traces
External aids, including paper and pencil, can be
helpful when you need to remember something
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