Memory

1. Memory Chapter 08

2. Information Processing Model • Encoding - getting information into the memory system • Storage - the retaining of encoded information over time • Retrieval - getting encoded information out of memory storage

3. Automatic Processing • The unconscious encoding of some information without effort • Usually information on space, time and frequency

4. Effortful Processing • Encoding that requires attention and a conscious deliberate effort • The best processing is through rehearsal or practice.

5. Rehearsal • The conscious repetition of information in order to encode it • The more time spent on rehearsal, the more information one tends to remember.

6. Rehearsal and Retention(From Baddeley, 1982)

7. Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909) • German philosopher who did early memory studies with nonsense syllables • Developed the forgetting curve, also called the “retention curve” or “Ebbinghaus curve”

8. Overlearning • Continuing to rehearse after the point the information has been learned • Rehearsing past the point of mastery • Helps ensure information will be available even under stress

9. Serial Position Effect • The tendency to recall the first and last items in a list • Primacy effect – the ability to recall information near the beginning of a list • Recency effect – the ability to recall information near the end of a list

10. Primacy/Recency Effect(From Craik & Watkins, 1973)

11. Spacing Effect • The tendency for distributed practice to yield better retention than is achieved through massed practice

12. Distributed Practice • Spreading rehearsal out in several sessions separated by period of time • Usually enhances the recalling of the information

13. Massed Practice • Putting all rehearsal together in one long session (cramming) • Not as effective as distributed practice

14. Semantic Encoding • The encoding of meaning • Encoding information that is meaningful enhances recall

15. Semantic Encoding(From Craik & Tulving, 1975)

16. Acoustic Encoding • Encoding information based on the sounds of the information

17. Acoustic Encoding(From Craik & Tulving, 1975)

18. Visual Encoding • Encoding information based on the images of the information

19. Visual Encoding(From Craik & Tulving, 1975)

20. Self-Reference Effect • The enhanced semantic encoding of information that is personally relevant • Making information meaningful to a person by making it relevant to one’s life

21. Mnemonic Device • A memory trick or technique for remembering specific facts • “Every good boy does fine” to remember the notes on the lines of the scale • “People say you could have odd lots of good years” as a way to remember how to spell “psychology”

22. Method of Loci • A mnemonic device in which the person associates items to be remembered with imaginary places

23. Peg-Word System • A mnemonic device in which the person associates items to remember with a list of peg words already memorized • Goal is to visualize the items to remember with the items on the pegs

24. Peg Word System

25. Chunking • Organizing information into meaningful units • More information can be encoded if organized into meaningful chunks.

26. Three Storage Systems • Three distinct storage systems : • Sensory Memory • Short-Term Memory (includes Working Memory) • Long-Term Memory

27. Sensory Memory • The brief, initial coding of sensory information in the memory system • Iconic store – visual information • Echoic store – sound information • Information held just long enough to make a decision on its importance

28. Short-Term Memory • Conscious, activated memory which holds information briefly before it is stored or forgotten • Holds approximately seven, plus or minus two, chunks of information • Can retain the information as long as it is rehearsed • Also called “working memory”

29. Long-Term Memory • The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system • Holds memories without conscious effort

30. Flashbulb Memory • A vivid, clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event • Can be personal memories or centered around a shared event

31. Long-Term Potentiation • An increase in a synapse’s firing efficiency • Believed to be the neural basis of learning and memory

32. Explicit Memory • Memory of facts and experiences that one must consciously retrieve and declare • Processed through the hippocampus

33. Implicit Memory • Memory of skills and procedures that are retrieved without conscious recollection • Processed through the cerebellum

34. Implicit Memories

35. Memory and the Hippocampus • Damage to the hippocampus would result in the inability to form new explicit memories, but the ability to remember the skills of implicit memories

36. Memory and the Hippocampus

37. Retrieval • The process of getting information out of memory storage • Two forms of retrieval • Recall • Recognition

38. Recall • A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier • Essay, fill-in-the-blank, and short answer test questions test recall

39. Recognition • A measure of memory in which a person must identify items learned earlier • Multiple choice and matching test questions test recognition

40. Context Effect • The enhanced ability to retrieve information when you are in an environment similar to the one in which you encoded the information

41. Context

42. State Dependent Memory • The enhanced ability to retrieve information when the person is in the same physical and emotional state they were in when they encoded the information • The retrieval state is congruent with the encoding state

43. Information Processing Model • Encoding - getting information into the memory system • Storage - the retaining of encoded information over time • Retrieval - getting encoded information out of memory storage

44. Encoding Failures • People fail to encode information because: • It is unimportant to them • It is not necessary to know the information • A decrease in the brain’s ability to encode

45. Which is the Right Penny?(From Nickerson & Adams, 1979)

46. Which is the Right Penny?(From Nickerson & Adams, 1979)

47. Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909) • German philosopher who did early memory studies with nonsense syllables • Developed the forgetting curve, also called the “retention curve” or “Ebbinghaus curve”

48. The Forgetting Curve(Adapted from Ebbinghaus, 1885)

49. Permastore Memory • Long-term memories that are especially resistant to forgetting and are likely to last a lifetime

50. Interference • A retrieval problem when one memory gets in the way of remembering another • Two types of interference: • Proactive interference • Retroactive interference