Download General Psychology 202 Memory

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General Psychology 202
Memory
Prologue: The Drowning
Introduction: What is Memory?
• The stage model of memory
• Sensory memory: Fleeting impressions of the world
• Short-term, working memory: The workshop of
consciousness
• Long-term memory
Retrieval: Getting Information from Long-Term Memory
• The importance of retrieval cues
• The encoding specificity principle
• Flashbulb memories: Vivid events, accurate memories?
Forgetting: When Retrieval Fails
• Hermann Ebbinghaus: The forgetting curve
• Why do we forget?
Imperfect Memories: Errors, Distortions, and False Memories
• Forming false memories: From the plausible to the
impossible
The Search for the Biological Basis of Memory
• The search for the elusive memory trace
• The role of neurons in long-term memory
• Processing memories in the brain: Clues from amnesia
Closing Thoughts
Application: Superpower Memory in Minutes per Day!
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The model of memory
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Memory as processing of information
Encoding, storage and retrieval
The model of memory
o Sensory memory
o Short-term memory
o Long-term memory
o Duration and capacity of each
Depth of processing and memory
Maintenance versus elaborative
rehearsal
Organization of information and
Memory
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Serial position effect
o Primacy effect
o Recency effect
Clustering (categories)
Hierarchies
Chunking
Mnemonics
Storage and Retrieval
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Associative networks (semantic
networks)
Types of long term memories
o Procedural
o Semantic
o Episodic
Methods of retrieving information
o Recall
o Recognition
o Free recall
Encoding specificity principle
o Context effects
o Mood congruence
o State dependent retrieval
Forgetting
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Encoding failure
Decay
Interference
o Proactive
o Retroactive
Motivated forgetting
o Supression
o Repression
Amnesia
o Retrograde
o Anterograde
o Infantile
How Reliable is Memory?
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Memory as a constructed process
Memory distortions and schemas
Perceptual sets and memory
Misinformation and leading questions
Why is learning about the reliability of
memory important?
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Memory and Behavior
What are persistent gamblers more likely to remember?
(a) Instances in which they win.
(b) Instances in which they lose.
(c) Neither, they remember each one about the
same.
(d) I am not sure.
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Psychology is sometimes not intuitively obvious
It may seem intuitive that persistent gamblers would
remember the instances in which they win than the
instances in which they lose. However, the opposite tends
to occur. Persistent gamblers tend to remember instances
in which they lose more than their wins. It is how they
remember their losses that make the difference. They
create a new category of losses called an “almost win”.
Gambling
What Non-persistent
What Persistent
Outcome
gamblers remember gamblers remember
• 33 instances of • 4 wins
• 4 wins
wins
• 66 instances of • 4 losses
• 4 losses
losses
• 4 “almost wins”
This example illustrates several things about human
thinking and memory:
• The thinking processes involved are not obvious and
can be counterintuitive.
• How you organize information in memory can affect
your thinking and your behavior.
• Persistent gambling requires knowledge of the
psychology of learning (schedules of reinforcements)
and memory (and perhaps even more).
• You can apply your knowledge in one area of
psychology (memory) to another (social psychology)
Misunderstandings of behavior, such as persistent
gambling, can make difficult to address the problem or
make intervention strategies not very effective.
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Memory as Information Processing
Psychologists use the metaphor that the mind is an
information processor that
• encodes,
• stores and
• retrieves
information. A rough analogy is that memory is like
computer processes.
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The analogy doesn’t capture other features of memory
such as that people forget and distort information and
sometimes remember events in a way that is different than
how the event actually occurred. Memory is not like a
video tape. It is like a jigsaw puzzle where we remember
bits and pieces and fill in the blanks with what is
reasonable and familiar.
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Memory
Memory is the mental processes that enable us to retain
and use information over time that involve three
fundamental processes: encoding, storage and retrieval
• Encoding: The process of transforming information
into a form that can be entered into and retained by
the memory system
• Storage: The process of retaining information so that
it can be used at a later time
• Retrieval: The process of recovering information
stored in memory so that we are consciously aware of
it.
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The Stage Model of Memory
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Encoding
Memory is the mental processes that enable us to retain
and use information over time. Memory involves three
fundamental processes: encoding, storage and retrieval
• Encoding: The process of transforming
information into a form that can be entered into
and retained by the memory system
• Storage: The process of retaining information so that
it can be used at a later time
• Retrieval: The process of recovering information
stored in memory so that we are consciously aware of
it.
We are going to look at some efficient and less efficient
strategies to encode information
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Depth of Processing
42%
65%
90%
• What do these results suggest about memory?
• What do these results suggest about bad strategies for
studying information?
• What do these results suggest about good strategies for
studying information?
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Strategies to Encoding Information--Getting
Information into Memory
Before we can have a memory to retrieve, it needs to be
encoded and stored. If you don’t effectively encode
information, it will be more difficult to retrieve that
information.
Effective strategies:
• Encode with “depth” or semantic meaning
• Elaborative rehearsal
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Organization, categories, and hierarchies
Chunking,
Visual imagery,
Mnemonics,
Schemas
Less Effective strategies:
• Encode with superficial characteristics
• Maintenance rehearsal (extends short-term memory)
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Encoding: Rehearsal strategies
Maintenance Rehearsal: The mental or verbal repetition of
information in order to maintain it beyond the usual 20second duration of short-term memory.
• hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala are all parts
of the limbic system*
• hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala are all parts
of the limbic system*
• hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala are all parts
of the limbic system*
*your book breaks the limbic system down differently
Elaborative rehearsal: Rehearsal that involves focusing on
the meaning of information to help encode and transfer it
to long-term memory.
• “I knew it was lunchtime because my hypothalamus
told me I was hungry, thirsty and cold. My
hippocampus helped me remember a new restaurant
on campus, but I got there and had to wait in line,
which my amygdala made me angry.
1. What are other examples of these rehearsal strategies?
2. Why does elaborative rehearsal work better than
maintenance rehearsal for remembering information?
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