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Memory
The persistence of learning over
time through the storage and
retrieval of information.
Take out a piece of paper…..
• Name the seven
dwarves…..
Now name them…..
Was it easy or hard?
• It depends on several
things….
• If you like Disney
movies?
• When was the last
time you have seen
the movie?
• Are people around you
being loud pain in the
butts so you cannot
concentrate?
Recall Versus Recognition
Recall
• you must retrieve the
information from your
memory
• fill-in-the blank or essay
tests
Recognition
• you must identify the
target from possible
targets
• multiple-choice tests
The Memory Process
Three step process….
1. Encoding: The processing
of information into the
memory system.
2. Storage: The retention
of encoded material over
time.
3. Retrieval: The process of
getting the information
out of memory storage.
Three Box Model of Memory
Sensory Memory
• A split second
holding tank for ALL
sensory information.
• Sperling’s research
on Iconic Memory
• Echoic Memory
Short Term Memory
• The stuff we encode
from the sensory goes
to STM.
• Events are encoded
visually, acoustically or
semantically.
• Holds about 7 (plus or
minus 2) items for
about 20 seconds.
• We recall digits
better than letters.
Short Term Memory Activity
Encoding Exercise
The Ways we can encode…
• Visual Encoding: the
encoding of picture
images.
• Acoustic Encoding:
the encoding of
sound, especially the
sounds of words.
• Semantic Encoding:
the encoding of
meaning.
Ways to remember things in
STM…so they go to LTM
• Chunking: Organizing
items into familiar,
manageable units.
• Mnemonic devices
or memory aids
• Rehearsal
1-4-9-2-1-7-7-6-1-8-1-2-1-9-4-1
"Mary Very Easily Makes Jam Saturday Unless
No Plums."
“Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally”
Long Term Memory
• Unlimited
storehouse of
information.
• Explicit (declarative)
memories
• Implicit (nondeclarative)
memories
Memories Can Be Explicit or Implicit
 Explicit Memory
 memory of facts and experiences that one can
consciously know and declare
 also called declarative memory
 hippocampus--neural center in limbic system that
helps process explicit memories for storage
 Implicit Memory
 retention independent of conscious recollection
 also called procedural memory
Explicit Memories
• Episodic Memories
– Memories of specific
events, stored in a
sequential series of events
– EX: remembering your last
date.
• Semantic Memories
– General facts and
information.
– Ex: the meaning of justice
or words to a popular song
Implicit Memories
• Procedural Memories
• Memories of skills and how to perform
them
• EX: riding a bike, typing, playing sports.
Take out a piece of paper and name all
the Presidents…
Encoding Information
• Early researcher, Ebbinghaus,
established that the order of items in
a list is related to whether or not we
will recall them.
Primacy Effect
• Predicts that we are more likely to recall items
presented at the beginning of a list
Recency Effect
• Demonstrated by our ability to recall the
items at the end of a list
– We tend to forget the items in the middle
• Both the primacy and recency effect make up
the serial position effect
Spacing Effect
• distributed practice yields better longterm retention than massed practice
• DO NOT CRAM!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
Context Matters!!!
• Tip-of-the-tongue
phenomenon
• When you try to remember
someone’s name so you
describe and list everything
about that person until you
remember the name (or
someone else does)
• By listing traits, you get closer
and closer to retrieving the
name out of memory—known
as semantic network theory
The Context Matters!!!
• Flashbulb memories--
a clear memory of an
emotionally
significant moment
or event
• EX: 9/11 or
Hurricane Katrina
The Context Matters!!!
• Mood-congruent memory—our emotions affect
the retrieval of a memory
• EX: We recall happy events when we are happy or
sad events when we are sad, etc.
• State Dependent memory—the phenomenon of
recalling events encoded while in a particular state
of consciousness
• Ex: If you remember an appointment while drifting
off to sleep, you probably won’t remember it again
until your about to go to sleep.
The Context Matters!!!
• Flashbulb Memories
• Mood Congruent
Memory
• State Dependent
Memory
Constructive Memory
• Memories are not always what they
seem.
• Elizabeth Loftus
• A constructed memory is a created
memory.
• Misinformation effect
False Memories Game
• Sometimes your brain makes up its own memories.
• List 1: read, pages, letters, school, study, reading,
stories, sheets, cover, pen, pencil, magazine, paper,
words
• List 2: house, pencil, apple, shoe, book, flag,
rock, train, ocean, hill, music, water, glass,
school
False Memories Game
• Try these words:
• List 1: sheets, pillow, mattress, blanket,
comfortable, room, dream, lay, chair, rest, tired,
night, dark, time
• List 2: door, tree, eye, song, pillow, juice,
orange, radio, rain, car, sleep, cat, dream, eat
Constructive Memory
 “Recovered memory” or False memory syndrome-condition in which a person’s identity and
relationships center around a false but strongly
believed memory of traumatic experience
 sometimes induced by well-meaning therapists
Forgetting
• One cause of forgetting is due to us not using
the memory or information for a long period
of time called decay
• Relearning effect—it will take you less time to
learn something than it did the first time.
Forgetting
Forgetting
Interference can also
cause forgetting
Getting a new bus
number and
forgetting old bus
number.
• Retroactive
Interference: new
information blocks out
old information.
• Proactive Interference:
old information blocks
out new information.
Calling your new girlfriend by old
girlfriends name.
Storing Memories
Long Term-Potentiation
• long-lasting
enhancement in signal
transmission between
two neurons that
results from stimulating
them synchronously.
• In other words…they
learn to fire together
and get better at
it…creating a memory.
Problems Storing Memories
• Anterograde amnesia—cannot encode new
memories, but can recall events already in
memory
• Possible damage to the hippocampus
• Retrograde amnesia—the inability to recall
events immediately preceding/before an
accident or injury, but without loss of earliet
memory