Download Memory

Memory
Chapter 9
1
The Phenomenon of Memory
Memory:
• any indication that learning has persisted over time.
• ability to store and retrieve information.
Normal Memory vs. Flashbulb Memory
Flashbulb memory: clear, strong, and persistent memory
arising from a unique and highly emotional moment
FUN FACT: this memory is not free from errors!
2
Stages of Memory
Sensory
Information
Keyboard
(Encoding)
Disk
(Storage)
Sequential Process
Monitor
(Retrieval)
3
Information Processing
The Atkinson-Schiffrin (1968) 3 Stage Model of Memory
(w/ modifications to account for problems)
4
Hippocampus
(Explicit Memories)
Cerebellum
(Implicit Memories)
5
Working Memory
(a.k.a. Short-term Memory)
Theory: working memory contains auditory and visual
processing controlled by the central executive processor.
Information to be
memorized:
The Declaration of
Independence was
written in 1776.
Alan Baddeley’s Model (2002)
Encoding: Getting Information In
Automatic Processing
• Information processed
effortlessly:
• space, time, frequency
Effortful Processing
• Committing certain
information to memory
requires effort:
• concepts, names, formulas
• leads to durable and
accessible memories.
7
Effortful Processing: Rehearsal
TUV YOF GEK XOZ
http://www.isbn3-540-21358-9.de
Effortful learning
requires rehearsal or
conscious repetition.
Try it!
Ebbinghaus studied
rehearsal by using
nonsense syllables.
Hermann Ebbinghaus
(1850-1909)
8
Effortful Processing: Rehearsal
SHOCKING RESULTS!
9
Effortful Processing: Memory Effects
1. Next-in-line-Effect: anxious about being next
that you cannot remember what the person
just before you in line says
2. Spacing Effect: We retain information better
when we rehearse over time.
Learn quickly, forget quickly
3. Serial Position Effect: recall is better for first
and last items on a list, but poor for middle
items.
10
Serial Position Effect
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
TUV
ZOF
GEK
WAV
XOZ
TIK
FUT
WIB
SAR
POZ
REY
GIJ
Better recall
Poor recall
Better recall
11
Encoding Meaning
“Whale”
Q: Did the word begin
with a capital letter?
Visual
Encoding
Shallow
Q: Did the word rhyme
with the word
“weight”?
Acoustic
Encoding
Intermediate
Q: Would the word fit
in the sentence?
He met a __________
in the street.
Semantic
Encoding
Deep
Craik and Lockhart (1972)
12
Results
13
Visual Encoding
Mental pictures (imagery) => more effective encoding
“Don’t smoke.”
vs.
Both photos: Ho/AP Photo
14
Mnemonic Devices: Method of Loci
Take an imaginary walk down your street,
place objects along your route
List of Items
Imagined Locations
Charcoal
Pens
Bed Sheets
Hammer
Paper towels
.
.
.
Backyard
Neighbor’s house
Huge tree
Mailbox
Garage
.
.
.
15
Mnemonic Device: Link Method
Form a mental image of items to be remembered
in a way that links them together.
List of Items
Newspaper
Shaving cream
Pen
Umbrella
.
.
.
Lamp
16
17
Organizing Information: Chunking
Chunking: Organizing items into a familiar,
manageable unit.
Try to remember the numbers below.
1-7-7-6-1-4-9-2-1-8-1-2-1-9-4-1
If you are well versed with American history,
chunk the numbers together and see if you
can recall them better. 1776 1492 1812 1941.
18
Organizing Information: Chunking
Acronyms are another way of chunking
information to remember it.
HOMES = Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior
PEMDAS = Parentheses, Exponent, Multiply, Divide, Add, Subtract
ROY G. BIV = Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet
19
Organizing Information: Hierarchies
Complex information broken down into broad
concepts and further subdivided into categories
and subcategories.
20
Encoding Summarized in a
Hierarchy
21
Storage: Retaining Information
Three stores of memory are shown below:
Sensory
Memory
Working
Memory
Long-term
Memory
Encoding
Events
Encoding
Retrieval
Retrieval
22
Storage: Sensory Memory
The duration of sensory memory varies for the
different senses.
Iconic
0.5 sec. long
Echoic
3-4 sec. long
23
Storage: Working vs. Long-Term
Working memory (STM) => limited capacity
(7± 2 items and/or 20 seconds)
VS.
Long-Term Memory (LTM) => unlimited capacity
(Estimates on capacity: 1000 billion to 1,000,000 billion bits of information – based
upon # of synapses in brain)
Memory
Feats!
24
Biological Basis of Memories
Synaptic Changes
Both Photos: From N. Toni et al., Nature, 402, Nov. 25 1999. Courtesy of Dominique Muller
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
- synaptic enhancement after learning
(recent discovery: Gary Lynch (2002))
-Memories formed => stronger neural
connections
-Memory boosting drugs?
25
Biological Basis of Memories
Stress Hormones
- Heightened emotions (stress, fear, love) = stronger memories.
- Continued stress (abuse, PTSD) => may disrupt memory.
- Sudden stress => blocks older memories (mind goes blank)
Biological Basis of Memories
Explicit & Implicit Memories
27
Case Study: Anterograde Amnesia
After losing his hippocampus in surgery, patient
Henry M. (HM) remembered everything before the
operation but could not make new memories.
Memory Intact
No New Memories
Surgery
HM was unable to make new
memories that are explicit, but he
can form new memories that are
implicit.
28
Retrieval: Getting Information Out
Retrieval refers to getting information out of the memory store.
Measures of Memory
Recall:
retrieving information
using effort.
1. The capital of France
is ______.
Recognition:
identifying an item
amongst other choices.
1. Name the capital of France.
a. Brussels
c. London
b. Rome
d. Paris
Relearning:
amount of time (or effort) saved
when learning material for the 2nd
time.
Retrieval: Getting Information Out
Retrieval Cues
Memories are held in storage by a web of
associations. These associations are like anchors
that help retrieve memory.
water
smell
fire
smoke
Fire Truck
heat
truck
red
hose
Happy or Sad?
We usually recall
experiences that are
consistent with our current
mood. Emotions serve as
retrieval cues.
(Mood-congruent memory)
Think of as many sentences as you can that
include each of the following words.
31
Before we take the following test, please choose your race:
White
Black
Asian
Pacific Islander
Hispanic
32
Retrieval: Getting Information Out
Priming
Priming: to retrieve a specific memory from the
web of associations, you must first activate one
of the strands that leads to it.
33
Retrieval: Getting Information Out
Context Effects
Scuba divers recall more words
underwater if they learned the list
underwater, while they recall more words
on land if they learned that list on land
(Godden & Baddeley, 1975).
Cool Context
Phenomenon!
Déja Vu
Cues from the current
situation may
unconsciously trigger
retrieval of an earlier
similar experience.
Forgetting
Which penny is real?
35
Forgetting
An inability to retrieve information due to poor
encoding, storage, or retrieval.
Encoding
Failure
Storage
Decay
Retrieval
Failure
36
Forgetting: Encoding Failure
We cannot remember what we do not
encode.
37
Forgetting: Encoding Failure
Which penny is real?
38
Forgetting: Storage Decay
Poor durability of stored memories leads to
their decay (passage of time).
Bahrick (1984) showed a
Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve. similar pattern over 50 years.
Forgetting: Retrieval Failure
Failure to access retained memories.
Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) Phenomenon
- Example of retrieval failure
Can you name the Seven Dwarfs?
40
Forgetting: Retrieval Failure
Interference
Learning some new information may disrupt
retrieval of old information (& vice versa).
Forgetting: Retrieval Failure
Motivated Forgetting
People unknowingly revise their memories.
Repression:
A defense mechanism that
banishes anxiety-arousing
thoughts, feelings, and
memories from
consciousness.
Culver Pictures
Sigmund Freud
Memory Construction
Memories are constructed as we encode & altered as
we retrieve
Misinformation Effect: Incorporating misleading
information into one's memory of an event.
Classic Experiment: Eyewitness Accounts
(Loftus & Palmer, 1974).
Leading Questions:
Group A: Q: How fast were the cars
going when they hit each
other?
A: Lower speed est.
Group B: Q: How fast were the cars
going when they
smashed into each other?
A: Higher speed est.
Memory Construction
A week later…Q: Was there any broken glass?
Group B (smashed into) > Group A (hit).
Broken Glass? (%)
50
40
32
30
20
14
10
0
Group A (hit)
Group B (Smashed into)
Verb
What might happen if the subjects continue to view this video and
are asked about the accident later in life?
Source Amnesia: Attributing an event to the wrong source
that we experienced, heard, read, or imagined
(misattribution).
Memory Construction
Psych in the News
Syracuse Asst. Basketball Coach Charged with Abuse November 28th, 2011
Zach Tomaselli, says Bernie Fine molested him when he was 13…multiple times
in the course of one night in a Pittsburgh hotel room in 2002.
Tomaselli, 23, also alleges that he was abused by his father, Fred Tomaselli, in
the months before he said he met Bernie Fine. His father denies that he abused
his son and said he doesn't believe his son ever met Fine.
His father told WHCS in a phone interview that his son made up the story about
Fine, saying his son "never went to the game in Pittsburgh. It's all totally
fabricated, for whatever reason.“
Tomaselli said he met Fine at an autograph session — another thing his father
said didn't happen — where he said Fine invited him to go on the road trip to
Pittsburgh.
Tomaselli said he shared his story with friends three years ago but did not contact
police until the Penn State child molestation case involving longtime assistant
football coach Jerry Sandusky emerged as a national news story.
- USA Today
Memory Construction
False Memories
“Needle”
Children’s Eyewitness Recall
•Can be unreliable if leading questions are posed.
•Accuracy of recall increases with a neutral cognitive interview style.
•In cases of sexual abuse, this usually suggests a lower percentage
of abuse.
Controversial Topic – Memory Wars!:
Are memories of abuse repressed or falsely constructed?
Loftus’ research shows that if false memories (lost at the
mall or drowned in a lake) are implanted in individuals,
they construct (fabricate) memories of such events.
(UFO abductions, molestation, etc.)
Consensus on Childhood Abuse
Leading psychological associations of the world agree
on the following concerning childhood sexual abuse:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Injustice happens.
Incest and other sexual abuse happens.
People may forget.
Recovered memories are commonplace.
Recovered memories under hypnosis or drugs are
unreliable.
6. Memories of things happening before 3 years of age
are unreliable.
7. Memories, whether real or false, are emotionally
upsetting.
47
Improving Memory
1. Study repeatedly to boost long-term recall.
2. Spend more time rehearsing or actively
thinking about the material.
3. Make material personally meaningful.
4. Use mnemonic devices:



associate with peg words — something already
stored
make up a story
chunk — acronyms
48
Improving Memory
5. Activate retrieval cues — mentally recreate
the situation and mood.
6. Recall events while they are fresh — before
you encounter misinformation.
7. Minimize interference:
1.
2.
© LWA-Dann Tardiff/ Corbis
Test your own knowledge.
Rehearse and then determine what you do not
yet know.
49