Chapter 8 Remembering & judging

1. Amber Gilewski Tompkins Cortland Community College Chapter 8Remembering & judging

2. Explicit Versus Implicit Memories • Explicit memory – declarative memory • Memory for specific information; that can be stated or declared • Information can be autobiographical (episodic) or general (semantic) • Implicit memory – nondeclarative memory • Memory of how to perform a procedure or skill • Skill memories

3. Human Memory: Basic Questions3 Different Memory Processes • How does information get into memory? (ENCODING) • How is information maintained in memory? (STORAGE) • How is information pulled back out of memory? (RETRIEVAL)

4. Encoding:Getting Information Into Memory • Role of attention & awareness • “Next-in-line effect” • Encoding levels: • Visual – represented as a picture • Acoustic – represented as sounds • Semantic – represented in terms of meanings

5. Enriching Encoding: Improving Memory • Elaboration = linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding • Thinking of examples • Visual Imagery = creation of visual images to represent words to be remembered • Easier for concrete objects: Dual-coding theory • Self-Referent Encoding • Making information personally meaningful

6. Storage:Maintaining Information in Memory • Analogy: information storage in computers ~ information storage in human memory • Information-processing theories • Subdivide memory into 3 different stores • Sensory, Short-term, Long-term

7. Sensory Memory • Brief preservation of information in original sensory form • Auditory/Visual – approximately ¼ second • Limited capacity – magical number 7 plus or minus 2 • Chunking – grouping familiar stimuli for storage as a single unit • Limited duration – about 10-12 seconds without rehearsal • Rehearsal – the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about the information (keeps info in short-term & helps to transfer to long-term memory) Short-term Memory

8. Long-Term Memory: Unlimited Capacity? • Vast storehouse of information • Long-term memories can be distorted • Schemas, flashbulb memories, hypnosis • No known limit known for amount of information stored in long-term memory (LTM) • Long-term memories may last a life-time

9. Retrieval: Getting Information Out of Memory • The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon – a failure in retrieval • Retrieval cues • Recalling an event • Context cues • Reconstructing memories • Misinformation effect & overconfidence may lead to distortions • Eyewitness: How Accurate is Visual Memory?

10. Heuristic Processing • Representativeness heuristic • Make judgments about events according to the population of events that they appear to represent • Availability heuristic • Estimate of probability is based on examples of relevant events DECISION MAKING & HEURISTICS ACTIVITY

11. Forgetting: When Memory Lapses • Retention – the proportion of material retained • Recall – reproduce without cues • Recognition – select from options • Relearning - learn information again & time learning curve

12. Why Do We Forget? • Ineffective Encoding • Decay theory • Interference theory (retroactive/proactive) • Repression • Amnesia (infantile,anterograde, or retrograde)

13. Figure 7.19 Retroactive and proactive interference

14. Improving Everyday Memory • Engage in adequate rehearsal • Distribute practice and minimize interference • Emphasize deep processing • Organize information • Use verbal mnemonics • Use visual mnemonics