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CHAPTER 6
Memory
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Defining Memory
• Memory – brain’s ability to analyze, use, store, and
retrieve information
• Major tasks:
1.
Encoding – getting the information to the brain
2.
Storage – saving information for later use
3.
Retrieval – pulling information back out for future use
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Encoding (1 of 3)
• Encoding – transforming something one sees, hears,
thinks, or feels into a memory
• Automatic or effortful
• Depends on attention, emotional state, & ability to make
connections with what is already known
• Flashbulb memory – vivid memories of a surprising and
highly emotional event
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Encoding (2 of 3)
• Maintenance rehearsal – saying something over and
over again so it stays in short-term memory
• Elaborative encoding – encoding into a memory by
connecting it to known information
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Encoding (3 of 3)
• Depth of processing model – the deeper the analysis
and the more connections made, the greater the odds a
new memory will be formed
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Storage
• Encoding information for use at a later time
• Three-stage theory – memory passes through two
different memory systems prior to the final stage of
permanent, long-term storage (“three-box model”)
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Figure 6.1
Three Stages of Memory
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The Three-Stage Theory (1 of 6)
• Components of the three-box model:
1. Sensory memory – momentarily holds sensory
information for only a few seconds
• Iconic memory – the visual trace of a sight
• Echoic memory – the auditory traces of a sound
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The Three-Stage Theory (2 of 6)
2.
Short-term memory (STM) – second stage of memory
that holds small amounts of information for about 5 to
30 seconds
• Humans can hold about seven pieces of information in short-term
memory
• Chunking – improving capacity by grouping information so that it
can be stored as a single unit
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The Three-Stage Theory (3 of 6)
• Short-term memory’s other functions:
• Processes received information
• Processes the data into either visual, spatial, or language-based
units
• Working memory – holds information retrieved from long-term
memory for analysis
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The Three-Stage Theory (4 of 6)
3.
Long-term memory – stores vast amounts of
information (names, dates, facts, and personal
memories)
• May last through the entire life
• Anything recalled for longer than 30 seconds has made its way into
long-term memory
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The Three-Stage Theory (5 of 6)
• Memories are:
• distributed and interconnected throughout the brain
• not stored one at a time in a single place
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The Three-Stage Theory (6 of 6)
• Connectionist model – each new memory is related to and
classified in the brain based on previous memories and
experiences
• Interconnections referred to as semantic networks
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Figure 6.2
Semantic Network
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Categories of Long-Term Memories
1.
Explicit memories (declarative memories) – memories
easily brought into consciousness
• semantic memory – knowledge of facts and ideas
• episodic memories – personal, autobiographical accounts of the life
2.
Implicit memories (nondeclarative memories) –
memories that are difficult to verbalize
• procedural memories – how to do tasks
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Figures 6.3 and 6.4
Explicit Memories and Implicit Memories
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Retrieval
• Retrieval cue – clue or prompt that triggers the retrieval
of long-term memory
• Memories more easily recalled when cues are present
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Serial Position Effect
• Serial position effect – better recall for the items at the
beginning and the end of a list
• primacy effect – tendency to remember the first items in a series
• recency effect – tendency to remember items that occur near the
end of a list
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Context-Dependent Learning
• Context-dependent learning – physical environment,
physiological state, and mood serve as cues for retrieving
information
• Increased ability to remember when the context in which
information is learned is similar to the context in which asked to
recall the information
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Culture-Specific Learning
• Culture can create a lens through which new information
is perceived
1.
Information paid attention to
2.
Amount and type of information recalled about an event
• priority to objects or contexts
• self-relevant or group-relevant information
• details or “the gist” of an experience
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Reconstructive Nature of
Long-Term Memories
• Memories are reconstructed
• New information entering can interfere with the retrieval of
earlier memories
• Misattribution – confusing memories with other, similar
memories
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Memory and the Brain
• Memory involves:
• biochemical processes
• structural changes in neurons
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Brain Regions Involved in Memory
• Sensory cortex
• Part of the cerebral cortex responsible for processing sights, tastes,
smells, and sounds
• Includes the visual cortex, the auditory cortex, frontal cortex, and
parietal lobes
• Sensory events create temporary connections in the sensory cortex
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System Consolidation of Memory
• Hippocampus
• Encodes information and allows it to become part of long-term
memory
• Repeatedly sends messages along the same path (known as the
Papez circuit) to strengthen connections
• System consolidation – information repeatedly sent through the
Papez circuit until the memory begins to “stabilize”
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Figure 6.6
Papez Circuit
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Synaptic Consolidation of Memory
• Engram – the physical evidence that a new memory has
occurred:
• distributes among networks of neurons
• long-term potentiation (LTP) – cellular changes underlying
increased synaptic strength between neurons
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Engrams
• Lie dormant until activated by the memory retrieval
process
• Subject to the “use it or lose it” phenomenon
• paths not receiving regular activation weaken over time and
memories will fade
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Forgetting
• A useful process that reflects the brain’s efficiency
• Makes room for more important pieces of information
• Ebbinghaus curve of forgetting – most information tends
to be forgotten quickly after memorization
• Forgetting greatest just after learning
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Figure 6.7
Ebbinghaus’s Curve of Forgetting
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Explanations for Memory Failure (1 of 7)
• Reasons include:
• brain injuries
• disease
• environmental causes
• by-products of the normal memory systems
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Explanations for Memory Failure (2 of 7)
• Encoding failure – insufficient information is stored to
form a retrievable memory
• likely due to inattentiveness or shallow encoding
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Explanations for Memory Failure (3 of 7)
• Interference – information trying to be retrieved becomes
confused with other information in long-term memory
• retroactive interference – new learning interferes with the recall of
old memories
• proactive interference – old memories interfere with the recall of
newer memories
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Explanations for Memory Failure (4 of 7)
• Aging
• decay theory – some memories naturally fade as time passes
• Decrease in episodic memory, working memory, and
speed of processing
• Impairment in the memory consolidation process during
sleep
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Explanations for Memory Failure (5 of 7)
• Amnesia – forgetting that is the result of injury, disease,
or other trauma to the brain
• Retrograde amnesia – loss of all memories for the period
of time leading up to the brain trauma
• Anterograde amnesia – loss of ability to form new
memories after a brain trauma
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Explanations for Memory Failure (6 of 7)
• Alzheimer’s disease – severe and widespread changes
in the brain that lead to progressive declines in various
mental skills, including memory function
• early signs are difficulty in remembering recent events or
conversations
• all aspects of memory eventually affected
• associated with dysfunction in memory networks, including the
hippocampus circuitry
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Explanations for Memory Failure (7 of 7)
• Alcohol Amnesic (Korsakoff’s) syndrome – caused by
brain damage due to a thiamine deficiency
• Common in those who have consumed excessive amounts of
alcohol over many years
• Person often repeats same story over and over
• Unable to learn and remember new information or experiences
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Motivated Forgetting
• Repression – Freud’s theory that individuals may be
psychologically motivated to push traumatic events out of
consciousness
• Dissociation – psychological mechanism in which a person may
experience amnesia not for just the trauma, but for his or her
personal identity
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Recovered Memories
• False memory syndrome – painful memories recovered
during therapy may be false memories
• Result from:
• suggestions and methods of the therapist
• people seeking psychotherapy may be more likely to believe in the
possibility of repressed memories
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Exceptional Memory
• Four categories of people with exceptional memory
abilities:
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1) Expert Knowledge
• “Experts” are better able to encode, store, and retrieve
information
• organize information more quickly and recognize familiar patterns
• hold more information in short-term memory through chunking
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2) Eidetic Imagery
• Eidetic imagery – rare ability to continue to “see” an
image after removed from view
• Most common in children
• Term “photographic memory” misleading because no one is able to
record images in exactly the same way as a photograph
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3) Super-Memorists
• Super-memorist – individual with extraordinary ability to
remember new information
• may have innate or neurological characteristics not found in most
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4) Savant Syndrome
• Savant syndrome – condition in which people with
serious mental disabilities show extraordinary genius in
one area
• always accompanied by a unique type of remarkable memory
• may possess skills in music, art, numerical mathematics, or
calendar calculations
• Often autistic
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Techniques for the Ordinary
Person (1 of 6)
• Metamemory – process of becoming aware of your own
memory system
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Techniques for the Ordinary
Person (2 of 6)
• Commercial memory aids – products specially designed
to help people with their memory
• Example: a pillbox with compartments for each day of the week
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Techniques for the Ordinary
Person (3 of 6)
• Rehearsing, elaborating, and assessing:
• overlearning – rehearsing something even after mastering it
• recitation – summarizing aloud while reading
• elaboration – connecting information to things already known
• test effect – strengthening recall by assessing learning through
quizzes and feedback
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Techniques for the Ordinary
Person (4 of 6)
• Spaced practice – study sessions are distributed in small
chunks over a period of time
versus
• Massed practice – studying in one long session
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Techniques for the Ordinary
Person (5 of 6)
• Mnemonic device – connecting something familiar to
something unfamiliar to improve recall
• using a “trick,” a strategy or a system that aids memory
• Examples: acrostic sentences, acronyms, rhymes and wordplay,
using mental pictures, making ideas or objects meaningful, and
forming bizarre mental associations
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Techniques for the Ordinary
Person (6 of 6)
• Keeping mentally fit
• Keeping physically fit
• eating, sleeping, and exercise habits can influence memory
function
• aerobic exercise leads to an increase in the size of the
hippocampus
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