Memory

1. Memory Chapter 9

2. The Seven Dwarves • In the corner of your notes: name the Seven Dwarves

3. Seven Dwarves Take Two • Try Again

4. Seven Dwarves • How did it go? • It probably depends on several things…. • If you like Disney movies? • When was the last time you have seen the movie? • Are people around you being loud pain-in-the-butts so you cannot concentrate?

5. What is memory Memory • The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information. Recall Recognition Must identify the target from possible targets Ex. multiple-choice tests Must retrieve the information from your memory Ex. fill-in-the blank or essay tests

6. Memory Model Structure of Memory

7. Memory Process • Three Step Processing (Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)) • Encode: Getting information into the brain • Storage: Retaining information over time • Retrieval: Getting information out of the brain External Stimuli Retrieval Sensory Memory Long Term Memory Short Term Memory Attentionencoding Further encoding

9. Step One: Sensory Memory • Short term holding spot for all information • George Sperling • Iconic memory • We take pictures of all information and hold it for a split second • Echoic Memory • Split second recording of all information • Ex. “What did I just say?”

10. Step Two: Short Term Memory • Information from sensory memory is encoded into short term memory • Encoding can be visual, acoustic, or semantic • Limited storage capacity and duration • Approx 7 characters (+/- 2) • Approx 4 chunks • Approx 20 seconds • Numbers work better than letters

11. Step Three: Long Term Memory • Unlimited storage space • Explicit (declarative) memories • Conscious recollection of fact/info from the outside world • Implicit (non-declarative) memories • Unconscious memory • Ex. Fingers on a keyboard • Ex. Reading music

12. Explicit Memories • Episodic Memories • Long term memory for specific events, situations, experiences • Autobiographical • Examples?? • Semantic Memories • Long term memory from things other than personal experience • Facts, locations, etc. • Examples?? • Flashbulb Memories • Distinct, vivid, precise memories of personal circumstances surrounding significant events

13. Implicit Memories • Procedural Memories • Knowledge of certain events and procedures that become automatic through practice • Conditioned Memories • Trained automatic responses learned through association Skills • Procedures, skills, habitats

14. Memory Process How to remember

15. Working Memory Model

16. Take out a piece of paper and name all the Presidents…

17. Encoding • Parallel Processing • Different memories are built all at the same time • Automatic Processing: processing which requires no effort • Space/layout • Time/sequence • Frequency • Effortful processing can become automatic • Examples?

18. Encoding • Effortful Processing: processing which uses effort and attention. Produces lasting and accessible memories • Techniques to boost effortful processing • Rehearsal: conscious repetition • H. Ebbinghaus: list of three letters nonsense words, practised remembering them. • Conclusion-the more the list was repeated on day one, the fewer times it was needed to be repeated on day 2. Amount remembered depends on time spent learning

19. Other Encoding Strategies • Next-in-line Effect • We struggle to remember what was said just before we have to report. • Ex. Circle Name Game • Why? • Timing of sleep • Info presented one hour before sleep=remembered well • Info presented right before sleep=remembered poorly • Sleep learning doesn’t work, although we do hearwhat is being played

20. Even More Encoding Strategies • Spacing Effect • Rehearsal should be distributed overtime for optimal learning • Bahrick’s foreign language experiments • Cramming… • Expanding • Breaks between review should get incrementally larger • Serial Position Effect (Primacy/Recency Effect) • First and last items are remembered best, why? • Immediately after input we remember last best, why? • Von Restorff Effect • New or different things are more easily recalled • How can this help us learn new names?

21. The Ways We Encode: Levels of Processing • Visual: encoding images or pictures • We remember what we see • Structural (shallow level) • Acoustic: encoding sound especially the sound of words • We remember what we hear • Slogans? • Phonemic (intermediate level) • Semantic: encoding meaning • We remember what was meant, not necessarily what was literally said or seen • Semantic (deepest level)

22. The Ways We Encode • Deep encoding works better—semantics>visual or acoustic • Craik and Tulving (1975) • Primed one type of encoding • Flashed a word • Tested later • Self-Reference Effect • Information with personal meaning is remembered best

23. Visual Encoding • Earliest memories are mental pictures • Elements that can be represented by pictures are easier to remember than elements that cannot. • Personal memories are often pictures • Best or worst images • Rosy Retrospection • We recall events more positively than we considered them at the time • So what?

24. Ways to Organize Information • Chunking • It’s easier to memorize things in meaningful chunks • Emphasis on meaningful • Many mnemonics utilize chunking • Hierarchies • Broad topics narrowed down to individual facts • Assists in efficient retrieval • AHHHHH OUTLINES!

25. Mnemonics • Mnemonics help encode by supporting the ways we encode particularly visualizing • Method of Loci • Associate a familiar place to each word and imagine moving from place to place • Acoustic • Make information into a rhyme or catchy phrase • Visual • Visually associate “peg-word” to the target http://www.learningassistance.com/2006/january/mnemonics.html

26. Encoding Failures • Age affects encoding: older adults are not as good at encoding • Decreased recall, but equal recognition • Remember: importance is attention! • We only encode what is important to us

27. Storage • Large and diverse storage capacity • Storage is not perfect • Forgetting often comes from new information interfering in retrieval and a decay in physical memory trace • Some experts doubt decay • LTMemoriescan survive brain black out!

28. But WHERE are memories stored? • Synaptic Plasticity: ability of synapses to change their strength • How did we get this conclusion • Sea snail Aplysia: with conditioning the snail releases more serotonin at certain synapses, which causes these pathways to change and become more efficient at transmitting signals • Fun Fact: in mammals synaptic plasticity is a product of increased dopamine • Long Term Potentiation (Lynch, 2002) • Stimulation of memory connectionsincreased neural sensitivity • Increase in receptor sites and increase in sensitivity of existing receptor sites

29. Drugs to Enhance Memory • Focus: Alzheimer's, mild cognitive impairment • CREB (protein) • Drug goal: increase CREB • CREB switches genes on and off • Genes can produce synapse strengthening proteins • Glutamate • Drug Goal: increase glutamate • Enhances LTP • Concerns • Side Effects • Too much memory

30. Affects of Stress on Storage • Arousal • Increased glucose and amygdala activation • Moments of arousal make it difficult to recall old memories • Stronger emotional experiences=stronger and more reliable memories • Affect of rehearsal and reliving • Reduction of stress hormones=less recall • Lasting stress corrodes neural connections and shrinks hippocampus makes it difficult to create new memories

31. Memory Storage Locations • Explicit Memories (declarative): conscious recall • Includes facts and personally experienced events • Processed in hippocampus and certain parts of the frontal lobes • Stored in the hippocampus • Damage to right hippocampus=difficulty recalling visual designs and locations • Damage to left hippocampus=difficulty recalling verbal information • Hippocampus Regions • Associating names with faces • Spatial mnemonics • Rear area: Spatial memory (and this part has actually been observed to grow!) • In time (approx. 1 month), memory moves to other areas such as the temporal and frontal lobes • Emotional associations to memory come from amygdala

32. Memory Storage Locations • Implicit Memories (procedural): without conscious recall • Processed by cerebellum • Includes motor and cognitive skills and classical and operant conditioning • Require fewer connections among cortical storage areas • How does this set up relate to childhood learning? • Verbal development • Hippocampus development

33. Retrieval • Memories are encoded with tagsaka retrieval cues • More cues the better • Types of cues • Words • Images • Tastes • Smells • Sights • Places • Process begins with priming • Priming is often unconscioussubliminal messaging

34. Importance of Context • Memories made in one place are best remembered in the same place • Mood Congruent Memories • Good or bad events become associated with corresponding emotions • We tag memories with our mood • Our moods influence the encoding and retrieval of memories (good mood=more positive memories) • Feed forward cycle • State Dependent Memories • We recall best in the same state (situation, mood, level of consciousness)

35. Retrieval Failures • Interference • Proactive Interference: prior learning disrupts recall of new info • A cluttered mind phenomenon • Retroactive Interference: new information makes it harder to recall prior info • Learning names of new students replaces names of old students • Solution: add spacing (e.g. sleep) between interfering events • Opposite of interference: positive transfer • Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon: Remember but can’t recall • Motivated Forgetting • Revise our own histories • Repression: Freud’s psychoanalytical theory of unconsciously forgetting

36. Forgetting And other memory difficulties

37. Seven Sins of Memory • Forgetting • Absent-mindness: inattention to details produces encoding failure • Transience: storage decay over time of unused info • Blocking: inaccessibility of stored information • Distortion • Misattribution: confusing the source of information • Suggestibility: incorporating suggested information into ones memory • Bias: recollections affected by beliefs • Intrusion • Persistence: unwanted memories

38. Manipulating Memories • Memories are sensitive • Car Accident Example • How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other versus when they hit each other • Misinformation Effect: Incorporation of incorrect or misleading info into your memories • Effect on eyewitness testimony • Gaps are filled in with assumptions and guesses • Imagination Inflation: imagined events become real memories

39. Amnesia • Source Amnesia: forgetting source of information • Source is one of the most fragile parts of a memory • Retrograde Amnesia: difficulty remembering old information and events • Usually accompanies anterograde amnesia or other problems • Anterograde Amnesia: difficulty remembering new information and events • Alzheimer’s Disease: severe progressive general amnesia • Starts with anterograde amnesia

40. True Versus False Memories • Interpretations influence memory • Memory persistence does not indicate reality • Detailed memories indicate reality • Gist memories last longer and are easier to recall • Collectively, people often remember incorrectly • Ex. Did the man have brown hair? • Ex. It was love at first sight or it never really worked • Ex. Recall political views more similar to our current views

41. Child Abuse • Check out pages 386-390 • Be able to apply the principles of memory processing and memory errors to recalling child abuse. • Keep in mind children (and old people) are affected by suggestive memory • How often is it actual recall versus memory errors

42. Improving Memory • Study Repeatedly: Overlearn, remember Ebbinghaus: we want that curve to level out high! (and time those breaks appropriately) • Rehearse: Exercise strengthens new memories, emphasis should be on critical reflectionnot speed reading • Make Info Personal: Put information in your own words! Use the Ask Yourself questions and create personal examples. Build on what you already know or understand and form as many different associations as possible

43. Improving Memory • Mnemonics: use peg words, chunk information into acronyms, create a story with graphic images associated to concepts • Activate Retrieval Cues: Mentally re-create the mood and situation of learning • Practice Recall Before Misinformation: Record memories before you have influence from outside sources • Minimize Interference: Do not study one hour before bed, don’t schedule study sessions back to back of similar material • Test yourself: Avoid overconfidence, by answer the objectives, outlining sections as a test, vocab flashcards, take practice tests!