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PSY 190: General Psychology
Chapter 7: Memory
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Memory
◦ An indication that learning has persisted
over time; information that has been
stored and can be retrieved

Explicit (declarative) Memory
◦ The conscious, intentional recollection of previous
experiences and specific information
◦ The ability to state a fact
◦ Such as names or events, etc.
◦ Types:
 Episodic Memory
 Memories of past experiences
 Semantic Memory
 Memories of meanings, factual information and
general knowledge
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Implicit (nondeclarative) memory
◦ The type of memory in which previous
experiences aid in the performance of a task
without conscious awareness of these
previous experiences
◦ Types:
 Procedural Memory
 A memory of how to do something
 Ride a bike, bake a cake, etc.
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Our memory system works much like that of a
computer:
◦ Research suggests (Craik & Lockhart, 1972) that the
most important determinant of memory is how
extensively memory is encoded or processed when it
is first received
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How extensively is the encoding (acquisition of
information processed) during the initial
formation of memory?

Information in sensory stores and STM is lost
unless it is encoded, or processed into long
term memory
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Which is the real penny?
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3 stages of processing for manipulation of
mental representations:
Encoding (acquisition of info)
Storage (retention of info)
Retrieval (recovery of info)
STM 
time
Encoding/Failure
Retrieval? (LTM)

How does storage of information take place?
◦ Maintenance Rehearsal
 Repeating things over and over
 Spacing effect
◦ Elaborate Rehearsal
 Involves thinking about how new material
relates to information already stored in
memory
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Worked as philosopher at University in Berlin
Performed experiments on himself published in
classic volume entitled: ‘Über das Gedächtnis’
(1885)
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Invented lists of 16
nonsense syllables to
minimize influence of
meaningful associations
and learner’s history
His goal: study memory in
‘pure’ form
Introduced criterion for
successful learning
(2 errorless recitations)
Nonsense syllables 
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Ebbinghaus founded the experimental study of
memory
Serial Learning Experiments
◦ A list of items presented one at a time; you must
recall them in order
◦ Memorizing lists in sequence until they can be
recalled perfectly
◦ Ran tests on himself for six years
◦ Memorized thousands of lists of nonsense syllables
(ZAB, VUB, DAL, etc.)
◦ Invented 2300 of these syllables, arranged them in
random lists and tested them after various delays
What problems do you see with this methodology?

Serial Learning Experiments
◦ Learning to criterion
 Ebbinghaus would repeatedly attempt to
learn the material until he achieved a
perfect reproduction (every item
memorized in the order originally
presented)
◦ “Method of savings“
 Subtracting the number of repetitions
required to relearn material to a criterion
from the number originally required to
learn the material to the same criterion

Serial Position (Primacy/Recency) Effect

List-length effect
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Distributed practice
◦ Subjects are much more likely to remember
items at the beginning of a list (primacy effect)
and at the end of the list (recency effect)
◦ Ease of learning and amount of information not
related in linear one-to-one fashion
◦ Disproportionate increase in difficulty with more
than 7 syllables
◦ Beneficial effects of distributed practice for
repetitions

Forgetting Curve
◦ Recollection of words drops dramatically during
the first hour of learning

Most influential historically & most
comprehensive model…
◦ In order for info to become firmly embedded in
memory, must pass through 3 stages of mental
processing:
 Sensory Memory
 Short-Term Memory (STM)
 Also referred to as working memory
 Long-Term Memory (LTM)
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Major function is to hold info long enough so
that it can be processed
Iconic Memory
◦ Visual – usually less than a second
Echoic Memory
◦ Auditory – possibly a little longer (maybe up
to 3 seconds)

STM
◦ Researchers differ saying that without maintenance
rehearsal something stays in STM for between 6-30
seconds.
◦ After this its either lost forever or somehow makes its way
into LTM
◦ Miller (1956)
 7 +/- 2 meaningful groupings
◦ Chunking
 Can help with STM - organizing information into
meaningful units so that it can better be remembered
 Items can be arranged in a hierarchy – superordinate,
subordinate

LTM
◦ Infinite (permastore)

High school Spanish was tested 30 years later
◦ Participants had no use of the language
since finishing the course
◦ Those who had received the highest grades
remembered the most 30 years later

Main differences
◦ Dependence on retrieval cues
 They help in LTM; no help in STM
◦ Differences in capacity
 LTM is immeasurable and probably
limitless; STM is relatively small and
easily measured
◦ Differences in duration
 LTM are relatively permanent; not
affected by the passage of time much;
STM can hold only a few items very
briefly
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Grouping items into meaningful sequences or
clusters
Ericcson, Chase, & Faloon (1980)
◦ College student had an initial digit span of 7
◦ After 230 one-hour training sessions for 2 years, he
could remember up to 79 digits
How did he do it?
◦ Combing the numbers with meaningful sets
◦ 3 4 9 2  3 hr 49 min 2 sec
◦ 8 1 1 0  almost emergency (9 1 1)
◦ 8 9 3  very old man, 89.3

Baddeley & Hitch (1974)
◦ These researchers updated views related
to STM
◦ Refers to the system for temporarily
maintaining mental representations that
are relevant to the performance of a
cognitive task in an activated state
1.
2.
Working memory consists of a number of
parts
Working memory helps us manipulate
information to carry out complex tasks, not
just store information
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Emotion-triggered hormonal changes can
explain why we can long remember exciting
or shocking events
These are extremely vivid episodic memories
(memory for specific events in one’s life)
usually attached to a surprising, significant, or
vivid event
+
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A feeling that one knows a response yet is unable to produce
it
Brown and McNeil (1966)
◦ Task:
 Retrieve the word corresponding to its provided definition
 e.g. “A musical instrument comprising a frame holding
a series of tubes struck by hammers”
 Participants were asked to indicate if they were in a TOT
state
 If so, guess the number of syllables and any other
information about the word (e.g. first letter)
◦ Results:
 Participants are better at remembering associated
information than they were at producing the
actual word (e.g. XYLOPHONE)
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Stimuli that help us to get information
stored in LTM
◦ Seems to help the best if it taps into
information that was encoded at the time
of learning (encoding specificity principle)
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Identifying items from choices
Memory for picture recognition and matching of
names with faces of yearbook portraits was
remains pretty accurate even after decades
Bahrick, Bahrick, and Witlinger (1975)
◦ Picture Recognition Test
◦ Participants shown a year-book picture and
asked to recall the name of the person
Multiple-Choice Name Matching Test
◦ Participants asked to match names with
pictures
◦ Each picture had four names with it
Results
 Picture Recognition Test
◦ 50% recall after 34 years
 Name Matching Test
◦ 75% recall at 34 years
◦ 60% recall after 47 years
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The memory for faces of high school classmates
seems quite durable
Forgetting is rather gradual
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Context-Dependent Memory
◦ Déjà vu Effect
◦ Putting yourself in the same context in
which you have experienced something can
help with retrieval
 Godden & Baddeley (1975)
 Grant et. al (1998)
See next two slides 
Godden & Baddeley (1975)
Grant et. al (1998)
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State Dependent Memory
◦ Information learned in a particular
emotional state (e.g., depressed, happy,
somber) may be more easily recalled when
in that same state of mind
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Proactive Interference
◦ The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall
of new information (old materials increasing the
forgetting of new materials)

Retroactive Interference
◦ The disruptive effect of new information on the
recall of previous information (new materials
increasing the forgetting of old materials)
Time 1
Time 2
Study French Study Spanish
Study French Study Spanish
Test
Recall Spanish
Recall French
Interference
Proactive
Retroactive
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This 45 year-old
woman is able to
recite every day of
her life since she was
14
Much in great detail
This condition is
referred to as
hyperthymesia
Click on picture for video 
Jill Price
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These are recollections of events or details of
an event that did not occur
◦ Wade, Garry, Read, & Lindsay (2002)
 Hot air balloon study
Click on picture for video 
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After exposure to subtle misinformation,
many people tend to misremember
As memory fades with time, the injection of
misinformation becomes easier
Experiment 1
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Cars were driving on what appeared to be a one-lane
highway
Subjects saw the same film of a car accident
Later, different subjects were asked: “How fast were
the cars going when they…”
◦ smashed
◦ collided
◦ bumped
◦ contacted
◦ hit
Click on picture for video 
Experiment 1
 Subjects estimates of speed varied
with the verb they got in the question
◦ Subjects who got the stronger verb
(smashed) gave higher estimates of
speed
 Did the question about speed alter
their memory of the accident?
◦ Would they remember a more
severe accident than they had
actually seen?
See next slide 
Elizabeth Loftus
Experiment 1
 Results
Experiment 2

This time the accident took place at an intersection
and cars were going considerably slower.
 The key question:
◦ Group 1: "About how fast (MPH) were the cars going
when they hit each other?
◦ Group 2: "About how fast (MPH) were the cars going
when they smashed into each other?
◦ Group 3: Participants in this control group were not
interrogated about vehicular speed

Results successfully replicated Experiment 1 as
smashed group said cars were going faster than hit
group
 Smashed: 10.46 MPH
 Hit: 8.00 MPH
Experiment 2
 A week after seeing the film:
◦ “Did you see any broken glass?”
◦ Note: No glass was in the film
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32% in the “smashed” group said YES
◦ Compared to 14% of the “hit” group
The likelihood of saying YES increased as the
estimates of speed increased
The question
about
“smashed” was
not just a
leading
question, it was
a source of
misleading
information
How accurate is Eyewitness Testimony???
 A lot is involved here
◦ Perception – can only remember what is perceived
 This depends on one’s attention level at the time
 Also, may depend on top-down processing
 Schemas may be involved - The way we mentally
represent the world
◦ Retroactive interference
 Something new and this might cause something
old to be forgotten
◦ Integration
 Might involve an integration of old memories with
new memories

Unpublished study conducted by John
Goodman at Eastern Washington University
Click on picture for video 

Some of the slides in this presentation prepared with the
assistance of the following web sites:
◦ www.csupomona.edu/.../PSY335%20PPTs/Baddeley/BChap8....
◦ www.csupomona.edu/.../PSY335%20PPTs/Baddeley/BChap9....