King of Memory Experiments: Hermann Ebbinghaus

1. King of Memory Experiments: Hermann Ebbinghaus • Studied his own learning & forgetting on new verbal material. • Strings of non-sense syllables. • Ex: JIH, FUB, YOX, XIR,

2. Findings of Ebbinghaus • 1. Practice makes perfect. The more rehearsal (conscious repetition) he did on day 1, the less rehearsal it took to learn the syllables again on day 2. Over learning increased retention. • 2. The Spacing Effect:. SPACED STUDYING BEATS CRAMMING!!!

3. Findings of Ebbinghaus • 3. Serial Position Effect: our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list. Ex: Presidents

4. Explaining the Serial Position Effect • Primacy Effect: remember concepts at the beginning of a list (terms we see most often while reviewing) • Recency Effect: remember concepts at the end of the list (seen most RECENTLY). • MIDDLE IS FORGOTTEN MOST OFTEN.

5. Types of Encoding • Semantic Encoding: encoding of meaning, including the meaning of words….yields best memory. Use letters to make sense. • Acoustic Encoding: the encoding of sound, especially the sound of words….usually the least effective. Try to remember by saying the letters out loud • Visual Encoding: the encoding of picture images.

6. “I studied for FOREVER and I still failed!”

7. practice saying and writing the words over and over --- but, of course, the most effective rehearsal is distributed REHEARSAL

8. SHORT-TERM Memory The most we can hold in our short term stores is just 5-9 items! But what if you have to remember more than that?

9. group like things together CHUNKING 9528295379 How do you remember a phone #? You CHUNK it! 952- 829- 5379

10. make it VISUAL HUMANISM –a psychological approach that focuses on free will So when you see the word “humanism” I tell you to think about: I want you to remember: Free Willy!

11. make it MEANINGFUL • Whose phone numbers do you remember? Why?

12. make it RHYTHMIC • “Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue in 1492” • “The THALAMUS is a grand station, it sends and receives information.”

13. FALSE MEMORIES • Are you a reliable eyewitness?

14. Storage – Retaining Information (Stages of Memory) • 1. Sensory Memory • 2. Short-Term Memory • 3. Long –Term Memory

15. Types of Sensory Memory Sensory Memory: the initial recording of sensory information in the memory system. All info is held here briefly (1/2 to 4 seconds) Sensory Memories include both: • Iconic Memory: a momentary sensory memory of a visual stimuli. Lasts for a few tenths of a second. • Echoic Memory:a momentary sensory memory for auditory stimuli. Sound memories can usually last up to 3 or 4 seconds. Sensory memory is very hard to measure since it fades as we try to measure it.

16. George Sperling’s Experiment to Measure Iconic Memory

17. How Does Sensory Memory Get Processed Into Memory? • Sensory memories disappear unless you focus your selective attention on the information. • Attention causes information to be further processed. • What does this say about subliminal messages?

18. Is Long Term Memory Like an Attic? • Sherlock Holmes: “I consider that a man’s brain is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose…It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it, there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something you knew before.” • Is this true?

19. Neural Basis and Emotional Impact For Memory • Long Term Potentiation (LTP): refers to the long-lasting strengthening of the connection between 2 neurons. (Neural basis for learning and memory) • Process occurs naturally when we learn through association…after learning, neurons involved in process become more efficient at transmitting the signals. • Drugs that block LTP interfere with learning • Trying to develop drugs that boost glutamate to enhance LTP for Alzheimer’s • When learning occurs, serotonin is released at synapses

20. Stress and Memory • Stronger Emotion = Longer lasting memories • Stress hormones make more glucose available to fuel brain activity • Prolonged stress can corrode neural connections & shrink hippocampus • Amygdala – boost activity in memory-forming areas • Flashbulb Memories – clear memory of emotionally significant event

21. Sequence of Information Processing

22. Storage Loss: Amnesia • Amnesia refers to the loss of memory. • Amnesiac patients typically have losses in explicit memory. • Explicit Memory (declarative memory): memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare.

23. Types of Amnesia • Anterograde Amnesia: type of memory loss where patients are UNABLE TO FORM ANY NEW MEMORIES. Can’t remember anything that has occurred AFTER a traumatic head injury. • Retrograde Amnesia: type of memory loss where patients are UNABLE TO REMEMBER PAST EVENTS. May forget everything that happened BEFORE a traumatic head injury.

24. Hippocampus’s Role in Explicit Memory • Hippocampus: neural center located in limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage.

25. Implicit Memory • Other type of memory storage is known as Implicit Memory (Procedural or Skill Memory): retention of things without conscious recollection.

26. Cerebellum’s Role in Implicit Memory • Cerebellum: helps facilitate associate learning responses ie classical conditioning. • Cutting pathway to the cerebellum makes rabbits unable to learn conditioned responses.

27. Retrieval: Getting Information Out • Recall: a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier. • Ex: Fill in the Blank.

28. Retrieval: Getting Information Out • Recognition: a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned. • Ex: Multiple Choice

29. Retrieval Cues • Priming:activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations of memory.

30. Retrieval Cues • Context Effects Memory Retrieval: able to retrieve information better when you are in the same context you learned it in. • Emotional/Mood Impact of Memory: • State-Dependent Memory: information is most easily recalled when in same “state” of consciousness it was learned in. • Mood Congruent Memory: tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current mood.

31. Forgetting • Forgetting is a result of either: • Encoding Failure • Storage Decay OR • Retrieval Failure

32. Forgetting As Storage Decay • Ebbinghaus’s study concluded that forgetting occurs rapidly at first and then levels off over time. His famous forgetting curve is below.

33. Forgetting As Interference • 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

34. Self Quiz: Retroactive or Proactive? • Time Warner cable changes the channel numbers on your TV and you keep clicking the old channel numbers when trying to turn the channels instead of new ones.

35. Self Quiz: Retroactive or Proactive? • Get a new cell phone number and your old one keeps getting in the way of you remembering your new one.

36. Self Quiz: Retroactive or Proactive? • Teacher learning names of current students makes them forget the names of last years’ students.

37. Self Quiz: Retroactive or Proactive? • Keep putting in locker combination from last year when trying to open this year’s locker.

38. Self Quiz: Retroactive or Proactive? • You were an expert skier but after learning to snowboard, you have had trouble getting used to skiing again.

39. Self Quiz: Retroactive or Proactive? • Mom reorganizes kitchen and you look for a plate in the place it used to be.

40. Revisiting Terms: Retrieval Failure • Tip of the Tongue phenomenon: when we are certain we know something yet we are unable to recall it. • Relates to retrieval failure, usually priming or external cues will help you recall the information you are looking for.