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Memory. How can you increase your memory?. How do you process information?. Encoding - Getting information in Storage - Retaining information Retrieval - Getting information out. Encoding. Storage. Retrieval. Encoding - Getting information in. How can you get it into your brain?.
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Memory How can you increase your memory?
How do you process information? • Encoding - Getting information in • Storage - Retaining information • Retrieval - Getting information out Encoding Storage Retrieval
How can you get it into your brain? • Types of encoding • Visual - Images are more easily remembered than abstract concepts • Acoustic - Sounds (hearing the word) • Songs • Semantic - Meaning - (for words) • Self-reference effect • You remember items that refer to yourself Liberty
What is the best way to study? • Spaced repetition • Spacing Effect • Ebbinghaus’s retention curve • We retain information better when study time is spaced out • The amount remembered depends on the time spent learning • Spaced study beats cramming - E.g. 12 - 5 minutesegments beat one hour of study
Why does repetition help you remember? • Brain (synaptic) changes • Long-term potentiation (LTP) • Stimulating neurons increased efficiency • Sending neuron released its neurotransmitter more easily • Receptor sights may increase. • May explain why experience and repetition can increase memory.
Why can you instantly remember something? • Flashbulb memories • 9-11 • Space Shuttle Challenger • Car accident
What is the Serial Position Effect? • We remember the first and last items better than ones in the middle. • E.g. Grocery list
How can you remember better ?Mnemonics - Encoding Imagery • Mnemonics (Greek for memory) • Method of Loci • Chunking • License plate • Phone # • 1-800-HOLIDAY • Words • Association • E.g. Grocery list
“Peg word” system Numbers into pictures 1 = Bun 2 = Shoe 3 = Tree 4 = Door 5 = Hive 6 = Sticks 7 = Heaven 8 = Gate 9 = Swine 10 = Hen Attach items to be remembered to the pictures Mnemonics (cont.)
Do you remember? • What types of encoding are there to help you remember? • What two things did we learn from the Ebbinghaus retention curve to help you remember? • What are flashbulb memories? • If you list your advantages on a resume, where do you put your most important ones you want remembered? • How could you use the peg word system?
Storage - Retaining information Iconic (sensory) memory - Movie frames Tenths of a second Short term memory - Phone # Few minutes Long term memory - Experiences Years
Long term memories Test Trip to Egypt Bike riding Something was fun
What things help you remember? • Retrieval cues • Priming • Memories are held by a web of associations - identify one strand and it leads to others • Associations • E.g. Wedding song • Retrieval cues can be sights, sounds, smells and tastes
What causes you to forget? • Encoding failure • You did not learn it • Names are forgotten because they were never encoded. • Storage decay • Penny example
What interferes with memory? • Retrieval Failure • You can not remember it • Proactive (forward-acting) interference • Earlier learning reduces later learning • Retroactive (backward-acting) interference • Later learning reduces earlier learning
Do you remember? • How does priming relate to retrieval cues? • What causes you to forget? • What is proactive and retroactive memory interference?
Memory Construction Do you remember things that never happened?
Misinformation effect • Given misinformation about an event someone experienced, they misremember the event. • E.g. After repeatedly hearing false detailed accounts of something that happened to you, you begin to mistakenly “remember” that these events actually occurred.
Source amnesia (Source misattribution) • You remember something as real, but forget the source of the memory (e.g. a movie). • (You forgot that they were told to you)
Repressed or constructed memories • Therapeutic techniques such as guided imagery can easily encourage construction of false memories. • Memories “recovered” under hypnosis or drugs are particularly unreliable.
Do you remember? • If Sally is falsely told, usually repeatedly and in detail, that she was abused as a child; might she begin to remember abuse that never happened? • If someone says, ”I remember this, but I forgot where I heard it”. What happened? • Can guided imagery, hypnosis and drugs be used to recover reliable memories?