Memory: Organization

1. Memory: Organization AP Psych Myers – Ch. 9

2. Memory • The persistence of learning over time through storage and retrieval of information • Encoding – processing info into memory system • Storage – retention of encoded info • Retrieval – process of getting info out of storage • Memory is like a computer’s information processing system.

3. Memory Stages • Sensory memory – immediate, brief recording of sensory info • Short term memory (STM)/ working memory – activated memory that holds a few items briefly before it is encoded and stored or discarded • Long term memory (LTM) - the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse

4. Modified 3 Stage Model • Atkinson-Shiffrin and Baddley Models combined Encoding Retrieval Sensory Memory STM or Working Memory LTM Attention Encoding Sensory Input Forgetting Forgetting Forgetting

5. 15 sec to remember this in order… O T T F F S S E N T

6. Encoding • Automatic processing– effortless, unconscious encoding of info • Reading signs while driving • Effortful processing – requires attention and conscious effort • Reading the psych text book for comprehension and understanding • Rehearsal – conscious repetition • Spacing effect – memories are retained through distributed practice • Serial positioning effect – remembering the first and last items in a list

7. Write the letters I asked you to memorize a few minutes ago.

8. Encoding • Visual encoding – encoding of picture images (ex: visualization of info on page) • Imagery – mental pictures • Mnemonic devices – memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices (ex: peg-method/memory palace) • Acoustic encoding – encoding of sounds (ex: rhymes with, repetition of info out loud) • Semantic encoding – encoding of meaning (ex: assigning/creating meaning)

9. Organizing Info for Processing • Chunking – organizing items into familiar manageable units; often occurs automatically • 17761861191719412001  How can you chunk this? • How could you have chunked OTTFFSSENT? • Hierarchies – hierarchical organization can help process info by putting info into groups/sets based on schemas

10. Storage • Sensory Memory • Iconic memory – a momentary sensory memory of visual info (brief photographic memory) • You can briefly look a word’s spelling to copy the word, but cannot recall the spelling minutes later. • Echoic memory – a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli, 3-4 seconds • Teacher asks you “what did I just say?” and you can recall the last few words

11. Storage • 8 volunteers - think of your favorite food. • Now say your favorite food, plus everyone else’s favorite food before you. • STM/Working memory • 7 +/- 2 • Importance of chunking

12. Storage • LTM – Unlimited • Implicit memory – procedures/skills (processed in part in the cerebellum) • Explicit memory – retention of facts and experiences that you can consciously declare (primarily processed/stored in hippocampus) • Semantic memory – general knowledge • Episodic memory – events • Prospective memory – remembering to do something in the future

13. Storage • Flashbulb memories – clear, vivid memory of an emotionally significant event • Episodic memory

14. Long-term Potentiation • Biological look at memory storage. • Long-term potentiation (LTP) – an increase in a synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory • As experience strengthens the pathways between neurons, synapses transmit signals more efficiently

15. Retrieval • Getting memories out of storage • Recall – retrieving info not in conscious awareness • Short answer questions, fill-in-the-blank questions • Recognition – identifying items previously learned • Multiple choice questions • Relearning – learning information a second time, faster than the first time • Test corrections

16. Context Effects on Memory • Déjà vu – the eerie sense that “I’ve experienced this before.” Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience. • Context-dependent memories – memories are more easily recalled in the same context as when they were encoded • State-dependent memories - memories are more easily recalled in the same state as when they were encoded

17. Memory: Forgetting and Improvement AP Psych Myers, Ch. 9

18. Forgetting • Just as important as remembering  avoid clutter • Amnesia – the loss of memory • Biological – head injuries

19. Three Sins of Forgetting • Absent-mindedness • Inattention to details; we cannot remember something we have not encoded. A

20. Three Sins of Forgetting • Transience – storage decay • Even if we encode, we can still forget it later • Often unused info or info that no longer holds meaning.

21. Three Sins of Forgetting • Blocking – inaccessibility of stored info (“it’s on the tip of my tongue…”) • Proactive interference – the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new info. • Retroactive interference – the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old info. • Motivated forgetting • Repression – in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.

22. Three Sins of Distortion • Source amnesia – attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, hear about, read about, or imagined. • Misinformation effect – incorporating misleading info into one’s memory of an event. • Loftus’ study on recollections of car accidents using leading questions. • Bias – belief-colored recollections • Memories are perceptions of the past and as such are subject to expectations and bias.

23. One Sin of Intrusion • Persistence – haunting memories of the past • 1990s – “Memory wars” concerning real/fake repressed memories of abuse.

24. Children and Eye Witness Recall • Young child can recall events as they occurred if… • neutral adult asks non-leading questions • uses words they understand. • Children are more suggestible than adults can be lead to produce false memories through suggestive questions.

25. Improving Memory • Study repeatedly to boost long term recall. • Spend more time rehearsing or actively thinking about material. • Make material personally meaningful. • Use mnemonic devices. • Refresh memory by activating retrieval cues. • Minimize interference. • Test your own knowledge, both to rehearse the info and determine what you do not know yet.

26. Memory as Biopsychosocial(pg. 390)

27. Videos • 60 Minutes – Endless Memory (Pt. 1) • Zimbardo – Remembering and Forgetting • Brain Games – Remember This!