Download Module 3 - socialscienceteacher

Module 12
Remembering &
Forgetting
Basics to Understand !
• We remember mostly through (2) abilities:
1. Recall> retrieving prior learned knowledge without
the use of aids or cues (hints).
2. Recognition> identifying previously learned
information with the use of external cues.
- Recognition
is much easier; this is why it is
easier is answer a multiple choice question
rather than a fill-in-the-blank question with no
word bank!
HOW WE ORGANIZE MEMORIES
1. Network theory of memory organization
– theory says that we store related ideas in
separate categories, or files, called nodes
•
We Make Associations
– linking of nodes or categories of ideas together by
making associations or mental roads between
new information and old information that was
previously stored
•
Which Creates A Network
– thousands of interconnected nodes, which form
an enormous cognitive network for arranging and
storing files
An example of how we
make memory
associations
Basics of the Network Theory
• Organization of network hierarchy theory
– refers to the arrangement of nodes or memory
files in a certain order or hierarchy (Your memory
of what a car is includes such things as: tires,
seats steering wheel etc.)
– bottom of the hierarchy are nodes with very
concrete information, which are connected to
nodes with somewhat more specific information,
which in turn are connected to nodes with general
or abstract information
Example of Network Theory
1. Abstract: Motor Vehicle (any machine that uses an
engine to transport people)
2. More Specific: (SUV> Sport Utility Vehicle> a vehicle
that can seat a number of people and looks similar to
a truck)
3. Concrete: )Ford Explorer> You can describe what this
vehicle looks like and how it differs from other similar
SUV's)
REASONS FOR FORGETTING
• Overview: Forgetting
– refers to the inability to retrieve, recall, or
recognize information that was stored or is still
stored in long-term memory
1. Repression
– according to Freud, repression is a mental
process that automatically hides emotionally
threatening or anxiety-producing information in
the unconscious, from which repressed
memories cannot be recalled voluntarily, but
something may cause them to enter
consciousness at a later time.
Forgetting
Decay
Theory
Interference
Theory
Retrieval
Failure
Motivated
Forgetting
_______________
______________
______________
______________
Decay Theory
• Application of memory being lost simply
to the passage of time and disuse.
STM: As we know lasts merely 20-30
seconds after this time if we haven’t
tried to remember it, well it’s lost!
LTM: How much long term
storage is lost is still not known
Interference Theory
•
Theoretical approach, that your memories
simply interfere with one another.
1. Proactive interference: occurs when old
information (learned earlier) blocks or disrupts the
remembering of related new information (learned
later)
2. Retroactive interference: occurs when new
information (learned later) blocks or disrupts the
retrieval of related old information (learned earlier)
Retrieval Failure
• The inability to remember a memory
partially or completely.
Memories with little meaning or
organization are often effected, but
illness, and other physical factors can
have an effect.
 Retrieval Cues: Often times the mental
reminders (cues) that help us remember
items are off and allow us to recall the
wrong information.
Retrieval Failure
• An example of how interference or
retrieval cues can effect us is the:
- Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
– refers to having a strong feeling that a
particular word can be recalled, but
despite making a great effort, we are
temporarily unable to recall this
particular information
Motivated Forgetting
• Repression: pushing out memories that
are very disturbing to us.
• Amnesia: is severe memory loss
caused by brain injury, shock, fatigue,
repression.
 The many cases of sexual abuse that
exist today would be a form of
repressed amnesia called Dissociative
Amnesia: in which through therapy a
child would be able to recall traumatic
experiences
Other Reasons For Forgetting
• Cue-Dependent Learning
1. Context Dependent: associations you formed
between situational cues and learned information. If
you study while listening to your favorite CD, you will
remember better if you played that CD.
2. State-Dependent: You will remember info better if
you are in the same emotional state of mind when
you learned it. Ex: You read a book angry> you will
remember it better if your angry.
• If a college student studies when drunk, theoretically
they should take their exam drunk.
Cues?
• The power of situational cues may be the cause of:
• Déjà vu (French for “already seen”)> you feel you
recognize someone or some place with no basis
for the memory (ex: you walk into a house feeling
like you have already been there).
- A cue about the house (an odor, design of a room),
triggers a partial memory of something else.
Thus
A cue falsely recognizes this house and confuses
you!
BIOLOGICAL BASES OF MEMORY
• Location of memories in the brain
1.cortex
• Short term memories
– ability to hold words, facts, and events in shortterm memory depends on activity in the cortex
• Long term memory
– ability to remember or recall songs, words, facts,
and events for days, months, or years depends
on areas widely spread throughout the cortex
p268 AREAS BRAIN INVOLVED MEMORY
BIOLOGICAL BASES OF MEMORY
• Location of memories in the brain
2. Amygdala: emotional memories
2. Amygdala, located in the tip of the temporal
lobe receives input from all the senses and is
associated with emotional memory
3. Hippocampus: transferring memories
• transfers words, facts, and personal events
from short-term memory into permanent longterm memory
BIOLOGICAL BASES OF MEMORY
• How do we make a long-term memories?
– Long-term potentiation (LTP)
• refers to change in the structure and function
of neurons after they have been repeatedly
stimulated
• neuroscientists believe that the LTP process,
which changes the structure and function of
neurons, is the most likely basis for learning
and memory in animals and humans
How do we make a long-term
memories?
•Learning something new like a phone number creates a
link between a number of neurons, therefore whenever
you try to remember the number> instantly these neurons
work together to recall the number.
MNEMONICS & MEMORIZATION
METHODS
• Improving your memory
– Mnemonic methods
• ways to improve encoding and create better retrieval
cues by forming vivid associations or images, which
improve recall.
– Method of loci
• encoding technique that creates visual associations
between already memorized places and new items to be
memorized
– Peg method
• encoding technique that creates associations between
number-word rhymes and items to be memorized
A med student has
to remember the
brachia plexus
nerves for an
exam. So they…
MNEMONICS
http://www.valuemd.com/anatomy2.php
http://www.mind-expanding-techniques.com/method-of-loci.html
Method of loci
Peg method diagram to explain
example, and to use for test! 
Eyewitness Testimony
• Def: refers to recalling or recognizing a suspect
observed during a potentially disrupting and
distracting emotional situation that may have
interfered with accurate remembering:
Reasons for being unreliable:
1. Own-race bias
2. Source misattribution
3. False suggestions
4. Misleading Questions
5. Misinformation