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Memory. Warm Up. Objective. What part of psychology are you least prepared for on the final? What concepts do you not understand and would like to have clarification on?.
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Warm Up Objective • What part of psychology are you least prepared for on the final? What concepts do you not understand and would like to have clarification on? • Students will compare murals to the information so that they may see the connection between the pictures representing memory to the background information.
What is memory? • Memory is the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information • Our memory is our link to highly emotional moments in our past • Do you remember December 11th, 7 years ago? • Flashbulb memory is a clear memory of an emotionally significant event in out lives • Do you remember September 11th, 12 years ago?
Processing Information • How do you get information into your brain and stick in your brain? • You first encode the information, then you store it, and lastly you retrieve it. • Think about a computer. First you download the information and find somewhere to store it. When you need the information again, you find where it is stored and retrieve it. • Three types of memory • Short term memory – holding a few items briefly like phone numbers when dialing. • Long term memory – permanent and limitless storage of information such as knowledge and skills. • Working memory – processing your audio or visual information to process them at the same time. • This is why some of us can multitask
Encoding – Taking in information • Two forms of processing • Automatic processing • Unconscious encoding of accidental information such as space, time, and frequency, and of well learning information • Very difficult to shut it off, such as when you see the word “One way”, you automatically understand that traffic goes 1 way. • Effortful Processing • Encoding which requires attention in order to encode it • This can become automatic processing through repetition and constant exposure • This is known as rehearsal • The more the rehearse something the better you know it • Next in line effect – you worry about how you will perform, get anxious and do not always remember what the person next to you just said (this is why popcorn reading does not work) • Consciousness determines how much we encode – lose consciousness, lose encoding • Sleep learning does not work, you must rehearse to be well versed (spacing effect) • Fun fact- spacing things out works better than cramming information, not like you care • Serial position effect – we remember the first and last items in a list
What do we encode? • Visual Encoding (what we see) • Imagery • Mental pictures which help aid effortful processing • Works best when paired with semantic encoding • Mnemonic devices • How you remember things by associating them with other items • ROYGBIV • Acoustic Encoding (what we hear) • Semantic Encoding (what we mean) • Chunking • Organizing familiar manageable units • This often occurs automatically • Why do we remember phone numbers? We chunk them together into 3-3-4 • Lock combinations? Associate them with a jersey number from a sport. • Hierarchy • Divide the information into logical levels from general to specific
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JnDBYf9odc • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIg73ppoVZw
Storage – Retaining Information • Iconic memory vs. echoic memory • Iconic – instant visual memory which lasts a split second • Echoic memory – instant auditory memory which lasts 3 to 4 seconds if not paying attention. • When you are not paying attention to the teacher and he asks you a question, you may be able to recall what was said
Working and Short Term Memory • Think about this like a flashlight, you flash your light some where and can see what is there, but if you take off the light, you might not remember everything you saw • The longer you are exposed to something, to more you will remember it • Magical Number 7 plus/minus 2– we usually can remember up anywhere from 5-9 digits depending on the digits • It is easier to remember numbers than it is letters.
Long Term Memory • Memory does decay over periods of time • You do not remember memories as a whole, but break them down and retrieve them bit by bit • LTP – long term potentiation, basis for learning by increased potential for a synapse to fire • Emotional arousal can help make a memory be retained in the brain • Think of your best birthday, think of a very sad event, think of a time when you were very angry. • The stronger the emotion, the stronger the memory • When the stress occurs over a consistent amount of time, it can have a negative effect where it blocks other memories
Storage of implicit and explicit memories • Amnesia is the loss of memory • Often it is portrayed in the media incorrectly • This is where you lose memory and you get it back, but in reality, you do not gain any more memory, not being able to register new memory. • Amnesia is a loss of conscious memory, they can still do things which they have always done through automatic processing, such as be classically conditioned • Implicit memory (independent of conscious recollection) vs. explicit memory (needs to be “declared” and consciously deemed important)
H-i-p-p-o-c-a-m-p-u-s • Neural center of the limbic system • Damage to the hippocampus can lead to memory loss • Two sides (lateralized) • Left is verbal information while right is visual information • Hippocampus processes more recent memories while old memories are stored in the brain. • Think about the hippocampus as the librarian who sorts books (memories). Books come in, whether new or old, and they are kept until they are processed and placed correctly
Retrieval – Getting information back out • Memory is a three step process – remembering it, storing it somewhere, and getting the information (recall) • Recognizing something faster or relearning information indicates memory • Looking at your old yearbook, you might remember your classmates and memories you have associated with them, but without the visual cue, you might not remember them. • Relearning demonstrates memory • Learn to ride a bike as a child, but do not ride one until last year. You might be rusty to begin, but you will pick it up quicker than the first time you learned it.
Retrieval Cues • Memory is not stored as a single memory, but in pieces in parts of your brain. • Using your senses to added to the experience will help you retrieve the memories • Priming refers to a increased sensitivity to certain stimuli due to prior experience. • Direct retrieval utilizes explicit memory, while priming relies on implicit memory. • Context clues • You remember through associating the memory with the activity you were doing. • Example: you forget what you were going to say, but when you hear a word your classmate says, you instantly remember your question. • Déjà vu – “already seen” in French • Cues trigger the event which relates to an earlier experience (whether real or fictitious)
Moods and Memories • Easiest way to retrieve memories of a specific mood is to be in that mood again. • State dependant memory • Mood-congruent memory • We recall memory that are consistent with our good or bad mood • If you are depressed, you most likely will have a negative outlook by priming negative associations (when it rains it pours). • Can influence how we interpret other people’s behavior. If you are in a bad mood, someone looking at you is mad dogging you but if you are in a good mood, they are interested
Making or forgetting memories • How you forget • Being absent minded – not paying attention • Transience – unused memory after a duration of time • Blocking – cannot access the memory needed • How you alter memory • Misattribution – remembering something fictitious as real or believing someone said words when they did not • Suggestibility – a suggestion becomes memory (were you touched inappropriately as a child to child molestation) • Bias – how you feel now may make you alter the memory when recalling it • How memory can haunt you • Persistence – unwanted memories which keep resurfacing
Forgetting • Age is a factor to how we encode memory • Something that is not meaningful we will not remember even though we are exposed to it on a daily basis
Decay in memory • We quickly forget things that we don’t use often • If you do not forget it in the first week, you will most likely remember that information in the long run. The longer the memory is not accessed, the more the memory will decay • Do you believe that you will know Spanish learned in high school 3 years from now if you are just learning the language?
Failure to Retrieve • The book is in the library but you cannot check the book out. The name is on the tip of your tongue but you cannot remember the name. • Interference • Proactive (forward acting) vs. interactive (backward acting) interference • Disruptive effect of prior learning on new information vs. new learning on prior information
Motivated Forgetting • We remember what we want to remember. • When we find something desirable, we will “remember” that we do these things, when it is undesirable we will “forget” • To remember the past, we revise it to make ourselves look or feel better • Repression • A defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories • We self sensor painful information by repressing • If the emotion of being happy help remember memories, does the emotion of being sad make us forget?
Memory Construction • Listen to the paragraph. Try and remember clues about the paragraph. • When you remember you may construct false memories • This is most evident in traffic accidents. • Dependent on the words which are said during the question. • Would you think there is a difference between hit and smashed? • Misinformation effect • Incorporating misleading information into one’s memory. • Very hard to think about what is real and what is fake • Your imagination can contribute to misinformation
Improve your memory! • Study repeatedly to boost long term recall • Spend more time rehearsing and thinking about the material • Make them personal with meaning behind them • Use mnemonic devices like the memory palace. • Refresh your memory by activating retrieval cues • Recall the events when they are fresh, before they misinformation comes into play • Minimize interference • Test your knowledge to see what you know and don’t know!
