Download Memory - HomePage Server for UT Psychology

Persisted Learning: Memory
Lecture 9
2/25/04
Memento

Inspired by the condition of
anterograde amnesia that he learned
about in a Georgetown psychology
class, Nolan wrote a short story
entitled “Memento Mori” about a man
with this illness trying to deal with a
traumatic event in his past.
H.M., 8/23/53


Epileptic Seizures
Bilateral medial temporal lobe
removal




Including hippocampus
IQ, personality, perceptual abilities
Memory prior to surgery = ok **
Severe ANTEROGRADE amnesia


Every new moment = new & fresh
Any delay between presentation &
recall = impaired
H.M. continued



Doesn’t know where he lives, who cares
for him, what he ate at his last meal,
what year it is, who the president is, how
old he is…
In 1982, failed to recognize picture of
himself on 40th birthday
BUT, can learn some new things and not
know it


Mirror-drawing task
Classical conditioning*
What did we learn…


Structures that store are separate
from mechanisms that encode
Declarative and Procedural memory
are distinct


D: conscious knowledge of facts/ events
P: implicit memory for motor
skills/behaviors
Memory as information processor
• Encode, store & retrieve
Overview
Sensory Memory

Registers incoming information;
leaves trace on NS for split second
Short term memory

We pay attention to and encode
important/ novel stimuli
Long term memory

If rehearsed (stare) long enough, or
deemed important, encoded for longterm storage & can be retrieved
The Sensory Register: George Sperling
Testing for Iconic Memory

P’s recalled more
letters when signaled
to recall only one row
compared to trying to
recall all the letters
Short-term Memory: Capacity
Chunking
iujhgyegdbnjkofiutyhs
Iuj hgy egd bnj kof iut
Short-term Memory: Duration

Can hold things for ~20 seconds


Rapidly decays UNLESS actively rehearsed
E.g. 1hr per day X 3-4 weeks


Digit span from 7 to 80
Interference

Example (consonants & counting)
Short-term Memory: Function

Working memory




ACTIVE
Access to senses AND
LTM
“inner voice”
Serial Position Curve


Primacy
Recency
AND
Long-Term Memory

Elaborative Rehearsal








Tree
LION
Shoe
APPLE
Turquoise
Is the word printed in capital letters?
Does the word rhyme with ____?
What does the word mean?
More thought = Better memory
Are any of these self-descriptive?


Number 1-20
Circle the numbers of selfdescriptive adjectives
Self-reference effect

Retrieval superiority for info related
to self-schema


REMINDER:
Password
Deeper processing of self-relevant terms
Schema = useful framework to help
us perceive, organize, process and
use information
LTM: Access







“Mild torment, something like the brink
of a sneeze”
Definitions, line drawings, odors, faces
Occur ~1/wk, increase w/age
Words related in spelling, then meaning
First letter guessed 50-71% time
Number of syllables 80% time
~40-666% resolved after 1 minute
Quick note: Storage***
Long Term Memory: access

Retrieval cues

Encoding specificity

Any stimulus encoded with experience can
later trigger it
When learn & retrieve in same context…
 Divers




Beach vs 15ft under
Cafeteria Noise
Scent of Chocolate
Russian/ English bilinguals
State-dependent memory


On alcoholics and their keys…
Marijuana & Alcohol



NOTE: BEST SOBER ON BOTH


Tested sober vs. high
Memory best when tested in same state
in which studied
Worst performance by intoxicated then
sober!
Internal state = retrieval cue

Emotions & moods…
Implicit Memory

Amnesics may know more than they
think…

Memory during amnesia
“cancer”
 “you will not feel any pain”
 “beached whale”


In everyday life
Implicit memory…

Déjà vu


The false-fame effect


Names presented only once, familiarity but no
real memory, assume person is famous
Eyewitness transference


A sense of familiarity but no real memory
Face is familiar, but situation in which they
remembering seeing face is incorrect
Unintentional plagiarism

Take credit for someone else’s ideas without
awareness
Autobiographical Memory

Recollections of
personal experiences
and observations


Most vivid for times of
transition
In college, memories from
the beginning of the first
year and end of the last year.
Autobiographical Memory

Flashbulb Memories


Childhood Amnesia


Highly vivid and enduring memories,
typically for events that are dramatic and
emotional
The inability of most people to recall events
from before the age of three or four
Hindsight Bias

The tendency to think after an event that one
knew in advance what was going to happen