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Thanks for the memories

Thanks for the memories. Functional aspects of memory Richard Fielding Department of Community Medicine HKU. Outline. Learning objectives Memory concepts Levels of processing Storage: maintaining information Retrieval Forgetting Memory breakdown Improving memory Conclusions.

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Thanks for the memories

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  1. Thanks for the memories Functional aspects of memory Richard Fielding Department of Community Medicine HKU

  2. Outline • Learning objectives • Memory concepts • Levels of processing • Storage: maintaining information • Retrieval • Forgetting • Memory breakdown • Improving memory • Conclusions

  3. Learning objectives • Outline the main performance characteristics of sensory or peripheral registers • Outline the main components and features of working (short-term) memory (STM) • Outline the main features of long term memory (LTM) and describe at least three components of LTM • Define encoding and stimulus organization influences on LTM • Give common reasons for “forgetting”.

  4. Memory concepts • Functionally, memory has three stages: ENCODING STORAGE RETRIEVAL • “Early” versus “late” selection of input. • Available attentional capacity is determining criteria for input selection stage. • Levels of processing: sensory, shallow, intermediate, deep.

  5. Levels of processing • Sensory encoding - most superficial: sensory stores “buffer” registers; 200ms. Eidetic; echoic registers. • Attentional theory of remembering. • Structural encoding • Phonemic encoding • Semantic encoding

  6. Storage: maintaining information • Information-processing models of memory input Sensory store attentionrehearsal Short-term (Working) memory storageretrieval Long-term memory

  7. Schematic of working memory Articulatory loop LTM Executive Control System Visuo-spatial sketchpad

  8. Storage in LTM • Rehearsal of data in STM facilitates transfer to LTM - (maintenance versus elaborative) • Primacy and recency effects (first and last information preferentially stored) • Organization: if data not organized in LTM, impossible to find anything: clustering, concept hierarchies, semantic networks, schemas/scripts.

  9. Retrieval • Recall a function of memory strength: • weak, strong, weak consistent pattern of recall. • Use of retrieval cues: • tip-of-the-tongue phenomena = retrieval failure • cues, such as first letter, aid recall of words. • Event contexts: (crime scene reconstructions) • mood: “state-dependent memory” vs. mood congruence • “reconstructive” memory

  10. Forgetting • Forgetting is rapid for meaningless data ~35% retention after 1 day. • Why? • Ineffective encoding • Trace decay • Interference (retroactive / pro-active) • Retrieval failure.

  11. Memory breakdown • Amnesia - memory loss. • Retrograde amnesia: loss of memories for events prior to injury • Anterograde amnesia: loss of memories for events following injury. • Do not confuse loss of content storage/ recall with loss of ability to follow procedure. • Implicit memory (retention when remembering not intended), mostly unaffected by amnesia. Suggests different memory systems involved. • Declarative (fact) vs. Procedural (skill) memory

  12. Improving memory • Adequate rehearsal • Distributed practice • Minimize interference • Use deep processing • Emphasize transfer-appropriate processing • Enrich encoding with verbal mnemonics • Enrich encoding with visual imagery • Organize information

  13. Conclusions • Memory processes extensive and complex • Numerous systems for memory and “types” of memory • Memory is not perfect recall, it is partially reconstructive • Relevance to medical practice in obtaining history from patients and giving information to patients.

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