Memory

1. Memory

2. Information Processing Model: The Brain works like a computer. • Encodes • Packages info • Stores • Safely keeps info for later use • Retrieves • Brings info back into the conscious mind Do you think that the brain works like a computer?

3. Three Types of Memory • In humans, information processing occurs in three systems: sensory memory, short-term memory, Long term memory.

4. Stage Model of MemoryIncludes 3 Types of Memory

5. Sensory Memory • Lasts only 1-2 seconds • Usually in the form of an icon or an echo • Allows us a very short period of time to review the overwhelming amount of sensory information. Most information is discarded, but some is selected for more extensive rehearsal.

6. Let’s Examine our own thought process • Get out a blank piece of paper and write down all responses that come to mind in the order that they occur Your Task: Name the seven dwarfs from “Snow White”

7. How difficult was this task? Was it Easy or Hard Memory is the persistence of learning over time What are some factors that made it easy or hard? To name the 7 dwarfs we must • Get the info into our brain (encoding) • Retain it over time (storage) • Get it back out (retrieval)

8. Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleep Sneezy

9. Short-Term Memory • Temporary storehouse for small bits of info • 7 ± 2 = The “Magic Number” • Often stored by sound rather than images • Sensitive to interference • “working” memory • the duration of short-term memory is limited to about 18 seconds unless the subject rehearsed the information, in which case it is maintained in short-term memory indefinitely. I will read a list of ten words. See how many you can remember through simply repeating them to yourself.

10. Meaning • But, if you were a bowler, and on one night you had bowled three games if 171, 202, and 156, then the meaning of those number groupings would allow you to think of the same numbers, in the same order, as three meaningful units or chunks. What number have meaning for you that you remember?

11. Activity • Devise a task to asses the duration and capacity of short-term memory. See if you can utilize strategies like chunking to increase your short term memory.

12. Long-Term Memory • Relatively permanent (not absolutely) • Capacity is limitless • Mistakes in LTM will be similar in meaning • Often revised/updated • “constructive processing” • TRUE or FALSE: Being confident about a memory indicates its accuracy. FALSE

13. Types of Long-Term Memory • EXPLICIT or DECLARATIVE MEMORY • episodic information • Memory of an event or episode • birthday party • your sister’s wedding • the day you won first place. . . • semantic information • Vocabulary words • General knowledge/facts

14. Types of Long-Term Memory • IMPLICIT or NON-DECLARATIVE MEMORY • Outside of awareness • Hard to put into words • Procedural information • “how to. . .” • Motor skills • Actions

15. How can we get information into LTM? • Rehearsal • Maintenance (repetition) • Elaborative  making connections with other things we already hold in memory • Chunking • Grouping into categories • Mnemonic devices • Catchwords, jingles, acronyms, wild stories • Good for memorizing, not so good for understanding What Acronyms do you know for memorization?

16. Create a story using the 11 words in order in the list below. Palace Officer Mule Wheat Market Table Student Juggler Insect Flag Tree Elephant Doctor Fireplace Clothing Whiskey Church Clock Corpse Icebox Hotel Moon

17. V X B C K P Q Z D E T M B T K Z O M T X J C H N A B C X Y Z A S U U T K S H E G O T T H E P E N MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!

18. How can we measure memory? • Recall • Must retrieve info with few clues • Example: Essay Fill-in-the-Blank (with no word bank) • Recognition • Must identify correct answer from info provided • Example: multiple choice test • Relearning • “savings” score

19. Problems with Long-Term Memory • Interference = One memory competing with and replacing another • RETROACTIVE OLD NEW New memory interferes with the old • PROACTIVE OLD NEW Old memory interferes with the new

20. Amnesia • Memory loss • RETROGRADE • Can’t retrieve memories from the past (especially the recent past) • ANTERIOGRADE • Can’t form new memories

21. Reasons for Forgetting • Encoding failure • Not storing information in the first place • Decay • Fading of memory traces in neurons • Especially a problem with sensory memories and STM • Cue-dependent • “tip of the tongue” Forgetting may be a result from retrieval failure rather than encoding or storage • If you have the right trigger, you will remember

22. Reasons for Forgetting • State-dependent or Mood-dependent • Bodily or emotional state that exists during encoding can be a trigger for later memory retrieval • Disuse • “common sense” explanation that is probably NOT accurate • Does not adequately explain LTM

23. Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Rehearsal Buffer Selective Attention Coded for Storage Incoming Info Long-Term Memory Sensory Memory STM “Consolidation” Not encoded Not attended to Forgotten Forgotten

24.  Levels of processing Shallow processing or maintenance rehearsal • Involves simple repetition of the presented material. • This is not an effective way to encode material. Example: Most people do not have accurate memories of the organization of numbers, letters, and symbols on a push-button telephone, despite having seen and used them many, many times.

25. Serial position effects Our memory for a list of items tends to be better for items at the beginning or the end of the list and worse for items in the middle of the list. • The primacy effect is the enhanced ability to recall items from the beginning of the list. • The recency effect is the enhanced ability to recall items from the end of the list. Why do we remember the first and last entries on a list?

26. Levels of processing Deep processing or elaborative rehearsal • Coding by forming associations between new information and information already stored. • Makes information more meaningful. Example: If a student attempts to relate information presented in class to his or her own life, it will be easier to remember in the future.

27. Reconstructive memory • The process of piecing together memories by fitting them to a meaningful plan or organization. • Accounts for much of the inaccuracy of our recollections. We fill in gaps with assumptions because we are uncomfortable with the gaps. Once we've done this, distinguishing what actually happened from what we filled in is almost impossible.

28. A TWA Boeing 747 had just taken off from Miami International Airport for Los Angeles when a passenger near the rear of the aircraft announced that the plane was being taken over by the People's Revolutionary Army for the liberation of the oppressed. The hijacker then held a 357 magnum to the head of Jack Swanson, a flight attendant, and forced him to open the cockpit door. There, the hijacker confronted the pilot, Jane Randall, and ordered her to change the course for Cuba. The pilot radioed the Miami Air Traffic Control Center to report the situation but then suddenly hurled the microphone at the hijacker, who fell backward through the open cockpit door and onto the floor, where angry passengers took over from there. The plane landed in Miami a few minutes later and the hijacker was arrested.

29. The errors made in each successive telling of the story are usually quite predictable and follow some basic principles of constructive memory. • describe how the story changed with the retelling • First, the story will get progressively shorter as some non-distinctive details -- the type of airplane, the name of the revolutionary group, and sometimes, the flight's origin and destination -- are left out. This is sometimes referred to as "leveling." (Particularly distinctive details, such as the calibre of the gun, and, especially for female students, the gender of the pilot, are often retained; this is sometimes referred to as "sharpening.")