Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY

1. Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY Chapter 9 Memory

2. What is Memory? • Memory • Your mind’s storehouse • Ability to store and retrieve information • persistence of learning over time • Capacity of memory is most apparent in recall of unique or highly emotional moments • Called “flashbulb memories”

3. Building of Memory • Building of a memory • Similar to how you write an essay • First, research and sources of information • Gathering of information • Organizing the information • Then you write drawing from your research that you organized and what you already knew about the subject

4. Information Processing • Memory as Information Processing • similar to a computer • write to file • save to disk • read from disk • From a computer to our brains • Get information to our brains is encoding • Retain the information is storage • Get the information back out is retrieval

5. 3-Stage Processing Model • Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) • We form memories through 3 stages • Sensoryshort-termlong-term • Sensory Memory • the immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the memory system • Where we first record “to-be-remembered” information • Fleeting

6. 3-Stage Processing Model • Short-Term Memory • A bin where sensory memories are processed into • activated memory that holds a few items briefly • look up a phone number, then quickly dial before the information is forgotten • Can be rehearsed for encoding into long-term memory

7. 3-Stage Processing Model • Long-Term Memory • the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system • Later retrieval • Flawless? • Not even close! • For example, something can skip the first 2 steps and immediately enter long-term memory (without our awareness)

8. Shining the Light • We are bombarded with sensory information all the time • We have to shine a light (focus our attention) on what is important (what we want to know) • Incoming stimuli with information we retrieve from our long-term memory becomes a conscious short-term memories in a temporary construction zone • Here we rehearse and manipulate the information • “Working memory” • Fades unless we keep on using it or rehearsing it

9. Working Memory • Includes auditory and visual-spatial elements • What we hear and see • These are coordinated by a central executive processor • The central executive allows each subsystem (auditory and visual-spatial) to process simultaneously • Why we can talk while driving

10. Working Memory’s Limitations • Working memory has limitations • Why we can’t easily remember the melody of one song while listening to another

11. Lobes! • Just of side note… • Scans show… • Frontal lobes are active when the central executive focuses on complex thinking • Parietal and temporal lobes are active when processing auditory and visual information

12. Attention to important or novel information Sensory input Encoding External events Sensory memory Short-term memory Long-term memory Encoding Retrieving A Simplified Memory Model

13. End Day 1

14. Encoding – Getting Information In • Once sensory information is registered it must get encoded and transferred into the memory system • Two ways: • Automatic • Effortful

15. Encoding Effortful Automatic Encoding: Getting Information In

16. Automatic Processing • With little or no effort or without conscious effort • Possible thanks to parallel processing • Such as: • Space • Remember seeing something somewhere when you are later looking for it – you can visualize where you saw it • Time • Retracing your steps to find something based on what you were doing at certain times • Frequency • How many times things happen

17. Easier with Time and Practice • Effort and attention required at first, but with experience and practice it become automatic • Learning to read is one example of that • What does this say? • !kcor strops tiorteD • Detroit sports rock! • Hard at first, easier with practice reading it backwards

18. Effortful Processing • Requires attention and conscious effort • Such as what you are learning right now • Learn through rehearsal/conscious repetition • Hermann Ebbinghaus is to the study of memory as Pavlov was to classical conditioning • Amount learned depends on time spent learning it • Overlearning increases retention, so…no such things as studying too much…sorry!

19. Encoding • Ebbinghaus used nonsensical syllables • TUV ZOF GEK WAV • the more times practiced on Day 1, the fewer repetitions to relearn on Day 2 • Interesting phenomena: • Next-in-line effect • Before sleep • Spacing Effect

20. Next-in-Line • Every stand up – come to front and stand in circle. • Starting with me, we are going to name our favorite meal! • Try to remember what everyone says • Who’s answers do you remember best? • NOT the person next to you! • Why? • You were thinking about what you were going to say and not paying attention to what he/she was saying

21. Sleep! • You do not remember information that was presented in the seconds before sleep • Consciousness is fading • But – you do remember information presented in the hour before sleep • You will see why later! • (Teeheehee)

22. Spacing Effect • We retain information better when our rehearsal is distributed over time • Increase the time between each rehearsal and the retention get’s better • Lesson here: Don’t cram for exams!

23. Time in minutes taken to relearn list on day 2 20 15 10 5 0 8 16 24 32 42 53 64 Number of repetitions of list on day 1 Encoding

24. Serial Positioning • Remember that list we did where you remembered the words at the beginning and the end better than the ones in the middle? • That is serial positioning • Last ones are in working memory • Shift attention and can remember the first ones

25. 90 Percentage of words recalled 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Position of word in list Encoding: Serial Position Effect Serial Position Effect--tendency to recall best the last items in a list

26. End Day 2 • Homework. • You will receive a handout. • On your handout are your instructions. Follow them exactly! • Do NOT do your homework with anyone – this is an INDIVIDUAL assignment and needs you INDIVIDUAL attention.

27. What Do We Encode? • Verbal information must be given a meaning • We do this by associating it with something we already know or imagine • Working memory interacts with long-term memory • Semantic Encoding • encoding of meaning of words • Acoustic Encoding • encoding of sound (especially sound of words) • Visual Encoding • encoding of picture images

28. Best? • Which type of encoding works best? • Each has it’s own brain system • So, each works best in their own unique ways • Acoustic enhances memorability • Rhyming – “if the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit” • Experiments have been done to measure which works best • Semantic relies on deeper meaning and therefore aided better recall later • Rephrasing is also important. If you don’t get it one way, putting it other words you will get will help • Better recall when we can relate it to ourselves

29. Encoding

30. Visual Encoding • Greater ease of remembering mental pictures • Earliest memories (age 3-5) are likely visual memories • We often recall memories with mental snapshots • Rosy retrospection – we recall events as better than they actually were because we remember high points and forget the average-to-low points (i.e. think about vacations)

31. Mnemonics • “Tricks” used to remember things • Can be visual or create imagery in our heads • Mnemonics • memory aids • especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. Order of operations Super Man Helps Every One. Great Lakes Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge. Musical notes on scale My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles. Planets (yep – poor Pluto is gone ) M, I, crooked letter, crooked letter, I, crooked letter, crooked letter, I, hump-back, hump-back, I Mississippi

32. Encoding • Meaning and imagery help memory by helping us organize the information • Chunking • organizing items into familiar, manageable units • Happens naturally • Reading is an example – we chunk letters together to form words that we recognize • Best remember things when we can organize the information into PERSONALLY meaningful arrangements or chunks • 1492177618122001 • Meaningless set of numbers, but you can remember by breaking it into 1492, 1776, 1812, and 2001 • use of acronyms • HOMES--Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior • ARITHMETIC--ARat In Tom’s House Might Eat Tom’s Ice Cream

33. Hierarchy • Hierarchies • Chunking is clustering information into meaningful and manageable units • Hierarchies is dividing information into logical levels, beginning with general and moving to specific • complex information broken down into broad concepts and further subdivided into categories and subcategories • I.E. taking notes in outline format or organizing what you are studying or using a chapter’s organization to help you better remember it’s content

34. Encoding (automatic or effortful) Meaning (semantic Encoding) Imagery (visual Encoding) Organization (spatial encoding) Chunks Hierarchies Encoding • Summary of encoding process

35. End Day 3 • Homework! • You are to review what we have covered in AP Psych so far and create an organizational tool to help you remember a concept or idea • It can be based in chunking, mnemonics, or hierarchy. • It needs to be written large on a blank sheet of white paper • There needs to be an explanation on the back. What it is, what does it mean, what does it help you to remember, what type of encoding does it rely on (acoustic, semantic, or visual) and then identify what type of organizational tool is it (chunking, mnemonic, hierarchy). • I will compile these and put them in a packet to share with each other!

36. Memory • E - encoding • S - storage • R - retrieval

37. Storage • If you can later recall something – then at some point you encoded it and stored it • If in long-term memory it must be reconstructed by a cue • Must look at temporary and long-term memory store capacity

38. Storage:Sensory Memory • If 9 letters are flashed before you and removed at lightning speed you will be able to recall all 9 – if even for just a few moments (Sperling) • Iconic Memory - visual • a fleeting photographic memory • lasts no more that a few tenths of a second • Echoic Memory - auditory • momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli • 3-4 seconds

39. Short Term/Working Memory • Of all the sensory information we illuminate some with the flashlight • Trip from calculator to paper to write the number • Disappears quickly without rehearsal • Limited in capacity and duration • Can store seven (+/-2) bits of info at a time (Miller)

40. Percentage who recalled consonants 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 Time in seconds between presentation of contestants and recall request (no rehearsal allowed) Storage:Short-Term Memory

41. Short Term: Interesting Facts • Better with random digits than letters • Better with what we hear than what we see • 4 chunks at a time • Recall is generally limited to how many words we can speak in 2 seconds • When they added area code to phone numbers, people started to complain. • Could remember 7 digits, but not 10! • Magical number 7 (+/- 2)

42. Long Term Memory • Capacity for long term memory is limitless • We do not get rid of old memories to make room for new ones • One man memorized all of Shakespeare’s works. All. How? • We have to look at the biology

43. In the Brain • Despite initial experiments, memories are NOT stored in certain places in the brain • Lashley had rats memorize a maze then cut out parts of their brains, no matter what part he cut out – they still knew the maze (at least partially) • New experiences can interfere with our retrieval of old

44. Memory Trace • Based in electrical activity of the brain? • Nope? Disconnect the battery, create a blackout, turn the power back on and we still remember • So…we turn to synapses • Memories begin as impulses zooming through brain circuits • What is they leave a permanent neural trace? • Neural change likely at the synapses

45. Synapses • In experiment with snails, Kandel and Schwartz were able to pinpoint that when learning occurs, more of the neurotransmitters serotonin is released and the synapses then became more efficient in transmitting signals • More synaptic efficiency = more efficient neural circuits • Sending neuron now needs less prompting to release the neurotransmitter

46. Storage:Long-Term Memory • Amnesia--the loss of memory • Explicit Memory • memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare • also called declarative memory • hippocampus--neural center in limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage • Implicit Memory • retention independent of conscious recollection • also called procedural memory

47. LTP • Long-term potentiation • Prolonged strengthening of potential neural firing • Neural basis for learning and remembering associations • Drugs that block LTP interfere with learning

48. CREB • A protein that can turn genes on and off • Genes code the production of protein • With repeated neural firing, a nerve cell’s genes produce synapses-strengthening proteins • This enables long-term memories to form • Increase CREB, increase long-term memory? • Just one example of how science is trying to boost memory

49. Memory Consolidation • We must have time to consolidate (turn short-term into long-term) • If that does not occur then the memory will not be encoded into long-term memory • Being knocked unconscious – can’t remember what happened right before • Explains why we can’t remember what we experience right before we fall asleep

50. Stress Hormones • Stress hormones make more glucose available to fuel brain activity • The amygdala also boost activity in the brain’s memory forming areas • The result is that stronger memories are formed • Prolonged exposure to stress (combat or abuse) can act like an acid that corrodes the hippocampus and new memories are not formed.