Download Memory - Grayslake Central High School

Thinking About Memory
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What is memory?
Write about the first event in your
life that you can remember.
– Describe it in the greatest detail you
can.
– Estimate how old you were when this
event occurred.
– Why do you think you remember this?
– Why don’t you think you remember
anything before this?
Memory
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Mental processes
that enable us to
acquire, retain
and retrieve
information
Memory Processes
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Encoding: transforming info so the
nervous system can process and store it
Storage: process by which info is
maintained over a period of time so it can
be used later
Retrieval: process of recovering info so
that we are consciously aware of it
Stage Model of Memory
1.
Sensory Memory: brief storage of
info from the environment
 Iconic memory – visual sensory memory
that lasts about ¼ second
 Echoic memory – auditory sensory
memory that lasts about 3-4 seconds
2. Short-term Memory
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Limited in capacity and duration (5-9 [7+/-2] items
and up to approx. 20 seconds)
Also called working memory – imagining, problem
solving
– Maintenance rehearsal: repeating info to oneself in
order to hold it past typical 20 seconds
– IB…MFB…IGC…HSN…AS…AES…PND…VD
– IBM…FBI…GCHS…NASA…ESPN…DVD
– Chunking: grouping items to make them easier to
remember
– Next-in-line effect: unable to remember words directly
in front and behind yours
3. Long-term Memory
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Storage of info over a long period of
time (limitless in capacity and time)
Elaborative rehearsal: focus on meaning to
transfer into LTM
Self-reference and visual imagery help greatly!
Procedural: skills, operations, actions (type,
bike, run)
Semantic: facts, names, definitions, concepts,
ideas
Episodic: one’s life, including time and
occurrence
 Flash-bulb: vivid, detailed memories
Retrieving Information
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Recall: a person reconstructs already learned material
Recognition: identifying an object, idea, or situation
Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
Retrieval cues
Serial Position Effect: better able to recall info at the
beginning and end of a list (primacy, recency, serial)
Mood Congruence: a mood tends to evoke memories
consistent with that mood
State Dependent: what is learned in one state is best
recalled in the same state
Context-effects: what is learned in one environment is
best recalled in the same
Forgetting
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Interference: memories being blocked/
erased by previous or subsequent ones
– Proactive: old memory blocks new ones
– Retroactive: new memory blocks old ones
Repression: unconsciously blocking of
unpleasant memories
Suppression: conscious effort to forget
Decay: fading away of memories
Amnesia: loss of memory
Improving Memory
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Mnemonic devices: techniques using
associations to memorize and
retrieve information
– HOMES
– ROY G BIV
– Method of Loci