Chapter 8 Memory

1. Chapter 8Memory

2. The Importance of Memory • http://www.intelecomonline.net/VideoPlayer.aspx?Code=A3F5114255DB8752BAAF50674B16407E604E1F0388F4A62847FB8A03F20CBE0182062CB060091E62E537497DA235EF89

3. Memory: Some Key Terms • Memory: Active system that stores, organizes, alters, and recovers (retrieves) information • Encoding: Converting information into a useable form • Storage: Holding this information in memory for later use • Retrieval: Taking memories out of storage

4. Fig. 8-1, p. 252

5. Is memory like a video recording? • http://www.intelecomonline.net/VideoPlayer.aspx?Code=A3F5114255DB8752EEA71AB5CB3C41AD0205C539BF516CA61041B1C3B1C9B82BA09577A2C05AF330227B8A8178FA1F2F13DBF8B4354FAA2F

6. Sensory Memory • Sensory memory: Storing an exact copy of incoming information for a few seconds or less (either what is seen or heard); the first stage of memory • Iconic memory: A mental image or visual representation • Echoic memory: After a sound is heard, a brief continuation of the activity in the auditory system

7. Short-Term Memory (STM) • Storing small amounts of information briefly • Working memory: Part of STM; like a mental “scratchpad” • Selective attention: Focusing (voluntarily) on a selected portion of sensory input (e.g., selective hearing) • Phonetically: Storing information by sound; how most things are stored in STM • Very sensitive to interruption or interference

8. Long-Term Memory (LTM) • Storing meaningful information relatively permanently • Stored on basis of meaning and importance

9. Fig. 8-2, p. 253

10. Flashbulb Memories • Memories created during times of personal tragedy, accident, or other emotionally significant events • Where were you when you heard that terrorists had attacked the USA on September 11th, 2001? • Includes both positive and negative events • Not always accurate • Great confidence is placed in them even though they may be inaccurate

11. Memory and the Brain • http://www.intelecomonline.net/VideoPlayer.aspx?Code=A3F5114255DB8752BAAF50674B16407E604E1F0388F4A628A5E1AD7B6EE847EAC666343ED94FE42739B6B85C21A4667B

12. Memory Structures • Hippocampus: Brain structure associated with emotion and transfer of information passing from short-term memory into long-term memory • If damaged, person can no longer “create” long-term memories and thus will always live in the present • Memories prior to damage will remain intact • What happens in the brains of people with long-term depression?

13. Short-Term Memory Concepts • Digit span: Test of attention and short-term memory; string of numbers is recalled forward or backward • Magic number 7 (±2): STM is limited to holding seven (plus or minus two) information bits at once • Information bit: Meaningful single piece of information, like numbers or letters

14. More Short-Term Memory Concepts • Recoding: Reorganizing or modifying information to assist storage in memory • Information chunks: Bits of information that are grouped into larger units • VERY USEFUL FOR STM • Easier when you can create meaningful chunks, such as: • A D L O R B U G (OR and BUG)

15. Maintenance Rehearsal • Repeating information silently to prolong its presence in STM • Remember rote learning from Chapter 7. Is this the best way to learn? • What would be a better way? (Let’s look ahead)

16. Elaborative Encoding • Links new information with existing memories and knowledge in LTM • Good way to transfer STM information into LTM

17. Long-Term Memory Concepts • Constructive processing: Updating memories on basis of logic, reasoning, or adding new information • Pseudo-memories: False memories that a person believes are true or accurate • What is a “memory jam”? • Network model: views memory as an organized system of linked information (Figure 8.5, p. 259) • Arranged by rules, images, categories, symbols, similarity, formal meaning, personal meaning

18. Fig. 8-5, p. 259

19. Fig. 8-3, p. 256

20. Cognitive Interview • Use of various cues and strategies to improve eyewitness memory • Example: recreate a crime scene to stimulate “retrieval cues”

21. Memory Distortion • http://www.intelecomonline.net/VideoPlayer.aspx?Code=A3F5114255DB8752EEA71AB5CB3C41AD0205C539BF516CA62318106A75BA7A91AEFBE8FBBEC95052848AF343C43FDBB151095132A022F589

22. Fig. 8-4a, p. 258

23. Fig. 8-4b, p. 258

24. Redintegration • Memories that are reconstructed or expanded by starting with one memory and then following chains of association to related memories • What happened on your wedding day (or another important date)? What happened before and after that day?

25. Types of Long-Term Memories • Procedural (skills): Long-term memories of conditioned responses and learned skills (e.g., driving, building a tree house, making lasagna) • Declarative (fact): Part of LTM that contains factual information • Expressed in words or symbols • Can be divided into semantic and episodic memory

26. Subparts of Declarative Memory • Semantic memory: Includes impersonal facts and everyday knowledge • A basic dictionary of human knowledge • Very lasting and usually not forgotten • Examples: names of objects, days of the weeks or months, seasons, simple math skills, work and language • Episodic: Includes personal experiences linked with specific times and places • “Autobiographical” in nature • More susceptible to forgetting than semantic memories

27. Fig. 8-7, p. 260

28. Measuring Memory: Is it an all-or-nothing phenomenon? NO. • Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) state: Feeling that a memory is available but not quite retrievable • Feeling of knowing: Feeling that allows people to predict beforehand whether they’ll be able to remember something

29. Deja vu • “Déjà vu is the illusion that you have already experienced a new situation that you are actually seeing for the first time. . . . Déjà vu occurs when a new experience triggers vague memories of a past experience without yeilding any details. The new experience seems familiar even though the older memory is too weak to rise to the level of awareness.” -Text: page 261

30. Memory Tasks: Ways of Measuring MemoryRecall, Recognition & Relearning • Recall: Direct retrieval of facts or information • Easier to remember first and last items in a list • Hardest to recall items in the middle of an ordered list; known as the serial position effect • Let’s check this out!

31. Measuring Memory Continued • Recognition memory: Previously learned material is correctly identified (especially accurate with pictures and photos) • Usually superior to recall • Distractors: False items included with a correct item • Wrong choices on multiple-choice tests due to being too similar to the correct choice • False positive: False sense of recognition, usually when not enough choices are provided • How could this impact eye-witness identification?

32. More on Measuring Memory • Relearning: Learning again something that was previously learned • Used to measure memory of prior learning • Savings score: measuring tool for relearning. Amount of time saved when relearning information

33. Measuring Memory Concluded • Explicit memory: Past experiences that are consciously brought to mind • Recall, recognition and tests at school rely on explicit memories • Implicit memory: A memory not known to exist; memory that is unconsciously retrieved • Such as the knowing the keys on a keyboard • Priming: When cues are used to activate hidden memories

34. p. 266

35. Forgetting • Most forgetting occurs directly after memorization • Can be due to a failure in encoding, storage or retrieval processes

36. Forgetting • http://searchcenter.intelecomonline.net/playClipEmbed.aspx?id=A3F5114255DB8752BAAF50674B16407E604E1F0388F4A628DF43A3156C90A7342AF805586E7866B1AFB413880D008B4A

37. Forgetting: Encoding Failure • Encoding failure: When a memory was never formed in the first place • Often due to divided attention • Actively thinking or attending can prevent encoding failure

38. Fig. 8-12, p. 265

39. Forgetting: Storage Failure • Memory traces: Physical changes in nerve cells or brain activity that occur when memories are stored • Memory decay: When memory traces become weaker; fading or weakening of memories

40. Forgetting: Retrieval failure • Cue Dependent Forgetting: Aperson will forget if cues are missing at retrieval time • Memory cue: Any stimulus associated with a memory; usually enhances retrieval of a memory

41. More retrieval failure • State-Dependent Learning: When memory retrieval is influenced by bodily state at time of learning; if your body state is the same at the time of learning AND the time of retrieval, retrievals will be improved • If Robert is drunk and forgets where his car is parked, it may be easier to recall the location if he gets drunk again!

42. Fig. 8-13, p. 267

43. More retrieval failures: Interference • Retroactive interference: Tendency for new memories to interfere with retrieval of old memories • Proactive interference: Prior learning inhibits (interferes with) recall of later learning

44. Fig. 8-14, p. 268

45. Fig. 8-16, p. 268

46. More than simply forgetting: Dimentia • http://www.intelecomonline.net/VideoPlayer.aspx?Code=A3F5114255DB8752DF4A345BCAFCFE16AC7C1896C44BA5C1AB670AC3478DFF8600D090531200AC76051DBE29C41F7EF8 • Causes of dimentia: http://www.intelecomonline.net/VideoPlayer.aspx?Code=A3F5114255DB8752DF4A345BCAFCFE16AC7C1896C44BA5C1D4CD60E81525D3F00DBF61BAE0DC2906DE0FD889B4DDFCB5

47. These impact retrieval too: Transfer of Training • Positive transfer: Mastery of one task aids learning or performing another • Example: Learning to play violin faster because you already plan mandolin • Example: Surfing and skateboarding • Negative transfer: Mastery of one task conflicts with learning or performing another • Example: Backing up a car with a trailer using the same strategy you would use to simply back up a car

48. Retrieval failures:Repression and Suppression • Repression: Unconsciously pushing painful, embarrassing, or threatening memories out of awareness/consciousness • Motivated forgetting • Suppression: Consciously putting something painful or threatening out of mind or trying to keep it from entering awareness

49. Memory Formation • Consolidation: Forming a long-term memory in the brain • this takes some time • Retrograde Amnesia: Forgetting events that occurred before an injury or trauma • Often from head injury • Anterograde Amnesia: Forgetting events that follow an injury or trauma • Often from head injury

50. Eidetic Imageryaka “photographic memory” • Occurs when a person (usually a child) has visual images clear enough to be scanned or retained for at least 30 seconds • Usually projected onto a “plain” surface, like a blank piece of paper • Usually disappears during adolescence and is rare by adulthood • Rome in three days: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlNiAqYN6ZQ