Myers’ EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY (4th Ed)

1. Myers’ EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY (4th Ed) Chapter 7 Memory James A. McCubbin, PhD Clemson University Worth Publishers

2. Memory • Memory • persistence of learning over time via the storage and retrieval of information • Flashbulb Memory • a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

3. Memory • Memory as Information Processing • similar to a computer • write to file • save to disk • read from disk • Encoding • the processing of information into the memory system

4. Memory • Storage • the retention of encoded information over time • Retrieval • process of getting information out of memory

5. Memory • Short term memory • activated memory that holds a few items briefly • e.g., the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten • Long term memory • the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system

6. Encoding Effortful Automatic Encoding

7. Encoding • Sensory Memory • immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the memory system • Automatic Processing • unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, frequency and well-learned information, such as word meanings

8. Encoding • Effortful Processing • encoding that requires attention and conscious effort • Rehearsal • conscious repetition of information • to maintain it in consciousness • to encode it for storage

9. Encoding • Ebbinghaus used nonsense syllables • TUV ZOF GEK WAV • the more times practiced on Day 1, the fewer repetitions to relearn on Day 2 • Spacing Effect • distributed practice yields better long term retention than massed practice

10. 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

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

12. What do we Encode? • Semantic Encoding • encoding of meaning • including meaning of words • Acoustic Encoding • encoding of sound • especially sound of words • Visual Encoding • encoding of picture images

13. Encoding • Imagery • mental pictures • a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with semantic encoding • Mnemonics • memory aids • especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

14. Encoding • Chunking • organizing items into familiar, manageable units • like horizontal organization- 1776149218121941 • often occurs automatically • use of acronyms • HOMES- Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior • ARITHMETIC- ARat In Tom’s House Might Eat Tom’s Ice Cream

15. Encoding- Chunking • Organized information is more easily recalled

16. Encoding (automatic or effortful) Meaning (semantic encoding) Imagery (visual encoding) Organization Chunks Hierarchies Encoding • Organization benefits memory

17. Encoding • Forgetting as encoding failure • Information never enters the memory system • Attention is selective • we cannot attend to everything in our environment • William James said that we would be as bad off if we remembered everything as we would be if we remembered nothing

18. Attention Encoding External events Sensory memory Short-term memory Long-term memory Encoding Encoding failure leads to forgetting Encoding • Forgetting as encoding failure

19. Encoding • Forgetting as encoding failure • Which penny is the real thing?

20. Storage-Retaining Information • Sensory Memory • the immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the memory system • Iconic Memory • a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli • a photographic or picture image memory lasting no more that a few tenths of a second • Registration of exact representation of a scene • Echoic Memory • momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

21. 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Percentage who recalled consonants 3 6 9 12 15 18 Time in seconds between presentation of consonants and recall request (no rehearsal allowed) Storage-Short Term Memory • Short Term Memory • limited in duration and capacity • “magical” number 7+/-2

22. Storage-Long Term Memory • Long Term Memory • virtually limitless capacity • we don't have to discard old items to remember new items • Ebbinghaus- forgetting curve over 30 days • initially rapid, then levels off with time

23. Percentage of list retained when relearning 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 10 15 20 25 30 Time in days since learning list Storage-Long Term Memory

24. How Does Storage Work? • Karl Lashley (1950) • trained rats to solve maze, then cut out pieces of their cortex and retested their memory of maze • partial memory retained • Long-Term Potentiation • increase in synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation • Strong emotions make for stronger memories • some stress hormones boost learning and retention

25. Storage-Long Term Memory • Amnesia- the loss of memory • Implicit Memory • retention without conscious recollection • skills and dispositions • also called nondeclarative memory • Explicit Memory • memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare • hippocampus- neural center in limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage

26. Hippocampus Storage-Long Term Memory • MRI scan of hippocampus (in red)

27. Types of long-term memories Explicit (declarative) With conscious recall Implicit (nondeclarative) Without conscious recall Personally experienced events (“episodic memory”) Dispositions- classical and operant conditioning effects Facts-general knowledge (“semantic memory”) Skills-motor and cognitive Storage- Long Term Memory Subsystems

28. Retrieval • Recall • measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier • like fill-in-the-blank test • Recognition • a measure of memory in which the person need only to identify items previously learned • like on a multiple choice test

29. Retrieval • Relearning • a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when relearning material for a second time • Priming • activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

30. Retrieval Cues • Reminders of information we could not otherwise recall • Guides to where to look for info • Context Effects • memory works better in the context of original learning

31. Percentage of words recalled 40 30 20 10 0 Water/ land Land/ water Land/ water Land/ land Different contexts for hearing and recall Same contexts for hearing and recall Retrieval Cues

32. Retrieval Cues • Deja Vu- (French) already seen • eerie sense that "I've experienced this before" • cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier similar experience • Mood Congruent Memory • tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current mood • memory, emotions or moods serve as retrieval cues • State Dependent Memory • what is learned in one state can more easily be remembered when in same state

33. Attention Encoding Sensory memory Short-term memory Long-term memory External events Encoding Retrieval Retrieval failure leads to forgetting Retrieval • Forgetting can result from failure to retrieve information from long-term memory

34. Forgetting- Interference • Learning some items may interfere with retrieving others • Proactive (forward acting) Interference • disruptive effect of prior learning on recall of new information • Retroactive (backwards acting) Interference • disruptive effect of new learning on recall of old information

35. Forgetting- Interference • Motivated Forgetting • people unknowingly revise history • Repression • defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness • Positive Transfer • sometimes old information facilitates our learning of new information

36. Sensory memory - the senses momentarily register amazing detail Short term memory - a few items are both noticed and encoded Long-term storage - Some items are altered or lost Retrieval from long-term memory - depending on interference, retrieval cues moods and motives, some things get retrieved, some don’t Forgetting • Forgetting can occur at any memory stage • As we process information, we filter, alter, or lose much of it

37. Memory Construction • We filter information and fill in missing pieces • Misinformation Effect • incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event • Source Amnesia • attributing to the wrong source an event that we experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined (misattribution)

38. Memory Construction • People fill in memory gaps with plausible guesses and assumptions • Imagining events can create false memories • Children's eyewitness recall • Child sexual abuse does occur • Some innocent people suffer false accusations • Some guilty cast doubt on true testimony

39. Memory Construction • Memories of Abuse • Repressed or Constructed? • Child sexual abuse does occur • Some adults do actually forget such episodes • False Memory Syndrome • condition in which a person’s identity and relationships center around a false but strongly believed memory of traumatic experience • sometimes induced by well-meaning therapists

40. Memory Construction • Most people can agree on the following: • Incest happens • Forgetting happens • Recovered memories are commonplace • Memories “recovered” under hypnosis or drugs are especially unreliable • Memories of things happening before age 3 are unreliable • Memories, whether false or real, are upsetting

41. Improve Your Memory • Study repeatedly to boost recall • Spend more time rehearsing or actively thinking about the material • Make material personally meaningful • Use mnemonic devices • associate with peg words- something already stored • make up story • chunk-acronyms

42. Improve Your Memory • Activate retrieval cues- mentally recreate situation and mood • Minimize interference • Test your own knowledge • to rehearse it • to determine what you do not yet know