Download Memory and Law

MEMORY AND LAW
3 Types of Memory - Sensory
 Sensory Memory is the shortest-term
memory.
 Acts as a buffer for stimuli received through
the five senses.
 Since no conscious attention is required, this
is outside your control.
 Decays quickly (lasts between 1/5 and 1/2 of a
second)
Sensory Memory Continued
Type of Stimuli
Name of Sensory Memory
 Visual:
 Aural:
 Touch:
 Iconic
 Echoic
 Haptic
•Smell: Since the olfactory bulb and olfactory cortex (where smells are
processed) are physically very close to the hippocampus and amygdala
(where memory is processed) smells may be more quickly and strongly
associated with memories and emotions.
•Andy Warhol wore different scents for different phases of his life to
associate that scent with that period so as to improve later recall.
3 Types of Memory – Short Term
 Sometimes also called “working
memory.”
 Memory changes from sensory to short
term when you decide to give stimuli your
attention (the cognitive process of
selectively concentrating on one aspect of
the environment while ignoring other
things).
 Can typically only hold 7 items.
Short Term Memory Continued
 Short term memory usually lasts 10-15
seconds but can be retained up to a minute
depending on the content.
 Short term memory will be forgotten if there
is no conscious effort made to retain it – such
as memorization, repetition, or motivation.
 In a list of things longer than 7 items, people
will remember the beginning and end the
best.
3 Types of Memory – Long Term
 Can store a seemingly unlimited amount of
information almost indefinitely.
 Short-term memories can become long-term
memory through the process of
consolidation, involving rehearsal and
meaningful association.
 Long term memory is encoded
“semantically” (for meaning and
association).
Long Term Memory Continued
 Forgetting occurs in long-term memory when
the formerly strengthened synaptic
connections among the neurons in a neural
network become weakened (or when the
activation of a new network is superimposed
over an older one) thus causing
interference in the older memory.
 It is possible that we do not actually forget
anything at all but that recalling the memory
becomes increasingly harder.
Encoding
 Encoding means that the stimuli is formatted
into a construct that can be stored within the
brain for recall by short term or long term
memory.
 This process begins with attention to the
stimuli, which is increased by emotion.
 An engram (or memory trace) is a
hypothetical biophysical/biochemical change
in the neurons of the brain. (No one has seen
or proved the existence of this.)
Encoding Continued
 May occur through visual, acoustic, tactile, or
semantic means (which all activate different parts of
the brain).
 The most vivid autobiographical memories tend to
be of emotional events, which are likely to be
recalled more often and with more clarity than
neutral events.
 One theory suggests that high levels of emotional
arousal lead to attention narrowing, where the
range of sensitive cues from the stimulus and its
environment is decreased, so that information
central to the source of the emotional arousal is
strongly encoded while peripheral details are not.
Consolidation
 Consolidation stabilizes the memory trace
after its initial acquisition.
 Long-term potentiation is when the synapse
increases in strength the more signals are
transmitted between the two neurons (which
is why repetition is helpful for memory).
 Synaptic/Neural Plasticity refers to the
brain’s ability to reorder itself.
Storage
 Memories are stored in any of the three
types of memory and are more likely to
become long term if it is repeated or
reused.
 It is possible that memory is encoded
redundantly so that if one engram is
accidentally erased, there are others
retrievable through different channels.
Recall/Retrival
 Known as “remembering.”
 This refers to the subsequent re-accessing of
events that have been previously encoded
and stored within the brain.
 Replays are not identical to the original
because they are mixed with an awareness of
the current situation.
 Thus, remembering can be thought of as an
act of creative reimagination.