Download memory - College Psychology

Understanding Psychology
9th Edition
Charles G. Morris and Albert A. Maisto
Chapter 6
Memory
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ENDURING ISSUES
• Mind–Body
 What are the biological bases of
memory?
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ENDURING ISSUES (con’t)
• Diversity–Universality
 In what ways does memory differ
among individuals and across cultures?
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ENDURING ISSUES (con’t)
• Stability–Change
 In what ways does memory change in
the first few years of life?
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ENDURING ISSUES (con’t)
• Person–Situation
 To what extent can memories be
changed by events outside the person,
and what is the importance of
environmental cues in triggering
memories?
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• memory - the ability to remember the things
that we have experienced, imagined, and
learned.
• information-processing model - a computer
like model used to describe the way humans
encode, store, and retrieve information
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The Sensory Registers
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Describe the role of the sensory registers and the
length of time information remains there.
Distinguish between the icon and the echo.
• Compare Broadbent and Treisman’s theories of
attention. Explain what is meant by the “cocktailparty phenomenon” and “inattentional blindness.”
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The Sensory Registers
 Sensory registers are the entry points for all of
the raw information from the senses.
 We don’t always remember this information.
 Visual and sensory registers have been studied
most extensively.
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Visual and Auditory Registers
 New information continues to enter the visual
register.
 New visual information replaces old
information almost immediately.
 Auditory information fades more slowly.
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Attention
 Attention is the process of selectively looking,
listening, smelling, tasting, and feeling.
 Broadbent (1958) suggested that there is a
filtering process at the entrance of the
nervous system.
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 Treisman (1960, 1964, 2004) modified the filtering
theory by suggesting that the filter is not a simple
on-and-off switch, but a variable control—like the
volume control on a radio, which can “turn down”
unwanted signals without rejecting them entirely.
 Treisman’s modification to the filtering theory
explains the cocktail phenomenon.
 Sometimes automatic process monitoring fails and
we overlook important information. This is referred
to as unintentional blindness.
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Short-term Memory
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Define short-term memory (STM), explain
why it is called “working memory” and
describe the way information is encoded in
STM.
• Describe the capacity of STM including the
role of chunking and interference,
maintenance of information in STM, and the
effect of stress on STM.
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Short-term Memory
 Short-term memory has two primary
functions:
 to briefly store new information and
 work on that (and other) information
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Capacity of STM
 The short-term memory can hold only as
much information that can be repeated or
rehearsed-about 1.5 or 2 seconds.
 Chunking, the grouping of information into
meaningful units, helps to increase this
capacity.
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Encoding in STM
 Most verbal and visual information is stored in
STM phonologically-the way it sounds.
 Other information (painting, diagrams, maps)
is stored in visual form.
 Research suggests that memory for images is
better than memory for words.
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Maintaining STM
 Rote rehearsal, repeating information over
and over, is useful in holding information in
short-term memory.
 Our ability to store large amounts of
information for an indefinite periods of time is
essential to mastering complex skills and to
remember personal experiences.
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Long-term Memory
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Define long-term memory (LTM) including the
capacity of LTM and the way information is encoded
in LTM. Explain the serial position effect.
• Differentiate rote rehearsal from elaborative
rehearsal and explain the role of mnemonics and
schemata as forms of elaborative rehearsal.
• Distinguish between episodic memories, semantic
memories, procedural memories, emotional
memories, explicit memories, and implicit memories.
Explain how priming and the tip-of-the-tongue
phenomenon shed light on memory.
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Long-term Memory
 Long-term memory is the portion of memory
that is more or less permanent, corresponding
to everything we “know.”
 Unlike short-term memory, long-term memory
has the capacity to store a large amounts of
information for years.
 Most information in long-term memory stored
in terms of meanings.
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Serial Position Effect
 Research has shown that what we remember
is influenced by the serial position effect.
• serial position effect - the finding that when
asked to recall a list of unrelated items,
performance is better for the items at the
beginning and end of the list.
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Maintaining LTM
 There are three processes that are used to
hold information in long-term memory:
• rote rehearsal - repeating information over and
over.
• elaborative rehearsal - more effective type of
rehearsal that involves linking new information in
short-term memory to familiar material stored in
long-term memory.
• Schemata - sets of beliefs or expectations about
something that is based on past experience.
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Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Types of LTM
 There are several types of long-term memories:
• episodic memories - long-term memories of personally
experienced events.
• semantic memories - long-term memories of general facts
and information.
• procedural memories - long-term memory that stores
information relating to skills, habits, and other perceptualmotor tasks.
• emotional memories - learned emotional responses to
various stimuli.
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Explicit and Implicit Memory
• explicit memory - memory for information
that we can readily express in words and are
aware of having; these memories can be
intentionally retrieved from memory.
• implicit memory - memory for information
that we cannot readily express in words and
may not be aware of having; these memories
cannot be intentionally retrieved from
memory.
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 Studies on priming demonstrates the
distinction between explicit and implicit
memory.
 The tip of the tongue phenomenon, knowing
a word but not being able to immediately
recall it, also demonstrates the distinction
between explicit and implicit memory.
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The Biology of Memory
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
• Define long-term potentiation. Identify the
areas of the brain that play a role in the
formation and storage of long-term
memories. Describe the role of sleep in the
formation of new memories.
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The Biology of Memory
 Research indicates that memories consist of
changes in the synaptic connections among
neurons.
 When we learn something, new connections
are formed in the brain.
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Where Are Memories Stored?
 Different types of memory stored in different
parts of the brain.
 episodic memories - frontal and temporal lobes
 procedural memories - cerebellum
 semantic and episodic memories - hippocampus
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The Role of Sleep
 Sleep plays a important part in the formation
of new memories.
 Brain imaging with animals and humans
shows the same patterns of neural activity in
the hippocampus that during the initial
learning of information as well as deep sleep.
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Forgetting
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Describe the biological factors that influence
forgetting, including the phenomenon of
retrograde amnesia.
• Differentiate between retroactive and
proactive interference.
• Explain what is meant by “state dependent
memory” and the “reconstructive” nature of
remembering.
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The Biology of Forgetting
 According to decay theory, the passage of
time leads to deterioration of memories.
 Head injuries can lead to retrograde amnesia,
which is the inability to recall events
preceding an accident or injury.
 Alzheimer’s disease is associated with belownormal levels of the neurotransmitter
acetylcholine.
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Experience and Forgetting
 Forgetting can be caused by:
 inadequate learning
 interference
 previously learned material can prevent new learning
(proactive interference)
 new learning can impede the recollection of previously
learned material (retroactive interference)
 situational factors
 state-dependent memory
 reconstructive process
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In retroactive interference, the experimental group usually does not perform as well on tests of recall as those in the
control group, who experience no retroactive interference from a list of words in Step 2. In proactive interference,
people in the experimental group suffer the effects of proactive interference from the list in Step 1. When asked to
recall the list from Step 2, they perform less well than those in the control group.
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Special Topics in Memory
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Describe the influence of culture on memory.
• Define autobiographical memory and describe
the several theories that attempt to explain
childhood amnesia.
• Describe examples of extraordinary memory
(including eidetic imagery and flashbulb
memories).
• Discuss the accuracy of eyewitness testimony
and recovered memories.
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Cultural Influences
 Culture influences the types of things that
people remember.
 People are more likely to remember
information about things that are relevant to
their culture.
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Autobiographical Memory
 Autobiographical memories refer to our recollection
of events that have happened in our life and when
those events took place.
 These types of memories are central to our identity
and emotional experiences.
 Recent life events are usually easier to recall than
earlier ones.
• childhood amnesia - the difficulty adults have
remembering experiences from their first two years
of life.
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Extraordinary Memory
 Some people have exceptional memory
abilities.
• eidetic imagery - the ability to reproduce
unusually sharp and detailed images of
something one has seen. Also known as
photographic memory.
• mnemonists - people with highly developed
memory skills.
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Flashbulb Memories
 Flashbulb memories are vivid recollections of
certain events and the incidents surrounding it
even after a significant amount of time has
passed.
 People assume that because the memories
are so vivid, they must be accurate. But this is
not likely.
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Eyewitness Testimony
 Eyewitness testimony is also assumed to be
accurate. But eyewitness testimony is often
inaccurate because of:
 source error - confusion about what you have
heard about an event with what you actually
witnessed.
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Recovered Memories
 Recovered memories is a controversial topic as
it typically involves the “recollection” of real
or imagined experiences of physical and/or
sexual abuse.
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