Module 12 Remembering & Forgetting

1. Module 12Remembering & Forgetting

2. Recall vs. Recognition • Recall • Retrieving previously learned information without the aid of or with very few external cues • Recognition • Identifying previously learned information with the help of more external cues

3. Organization of Memories • Network Theory • We store related ideas in separate categories, called nodes • As we make associations between information, we create links among thousands of nodes • Nodes make up a huge interconnected network of files

4. Network Hierarchy • Nodes • Memory files that contain related information organized around a specific topic • Network hierarchy • Arrangement of nodes in a certain order • At the bottom, are nodes with very concrete information • These nodes are linked to more specific information, which is connected to more general information • 1. ABSTRACT: animal • 2.MORE SPECIFIC: bird • 3. CONCRETE: blue jay

5. Forgetting Curve • Measures the amount of previously learned information that subjects can recall across time • Ebbinghaus • One of the 1st psychologists to study memory & forgetting • He tested his own memory of nonsense syllables

6. 4 Reasons for Forgetting 1) Repression • Mental process that automatically hides emotionally threatening or anxiety-producing information in the unconscious 2) Poor Retrieval Cues • Retrieval cues are mental reminders that we create by forming vivid mental images or creating associations between new information & information we already know 3) Amnesia • Loss of memory due to a blow or damage to the brain after drug use or after severe psychological stress 4) Interference • Recall of a memory is blocked by other related memories

7. 2 Types of Interference • Proactive • Old information blocks the remembering of new information • Retroactive • New information blocks the remembering of old information

8. Retrieval Cues • Mental reminders that you create by forming vivid mental images of information or associating new information with information that you already know

9. Retrieval Cues (cont.) • State Dependent Learning • It is easier to recall information when you are in the same physiological or emotional state or setting as when you originally learned the information • Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon • Strong feeling that a particular word can be recalled, but despite a great deal of effort, we are temporarily unable to recall the info. • Poor encoding or interference

11. Location of Memories in the Brain • Cortex - short & long term memories • Thin layer of brain cells that cover the surface of the forebrain • Amygdala – emotional memories • Almond-shaped structure lying below the surface of the cortex in the tip of the temporal lobe • Plays a critical role in adding a wide range of emotions to our memories • Hippocampus – transferring memories • Curved, finger-like structure that lies beneath the cortex in the temporal lobe • Transfers declarative information (words, facts & events) from STM into LTM

12. Location of Memories in the Brain (cont.)

13. Mnemonic Methods • Ways to improve encoding and create better retrieval cues by forming vivid associations or images • Mr. MIMAL • 2 Types 1) Method of Loci • Create visual associations between already memorized places & new items to be memorized 2) Peg Method • Create associations between number-word rhymes and items to be memorized • One is a bun; two is a shoe; three is a tree; four is a door; five is a hive

14. Can False Memories Be Implanted? • Researchers interviewed parents about events that occurred in their children’s lives during the past 12 months • Each 3- to 6-year-old was read a list of these events including some fictitious events • Children were asked to “think hard” & identify the events that actually happened Bar graph data from “Repeatedly Thinking About a Non-Event: Source Misattributions Among Pre-Schoolers,” by S. J. Ceci, M. L. C. Huffman, E. Smith & E. Loftus, 1994, Consciousness and Cognition, 3, 388-407.

15. How Accurate is an Eyewitness? • Own-Race Bias • Researchers found that an eyewitness of one race is less accurate when identifying an accused person of another race • Confidence • 6 reviews of studies concluded that there is a weak relationship between correct identification & level of witness confidence