Memory

1. Memory What would life be like without memories?

2. Memory • “…you are what you remember. Without memory…there would be no savoring of past joys, no guilt or anger over painful recollections. You would instead live in an enduring present, each moment fresh. But each person a stranger, every language foreign, every task… a new challenge. You would even be a stranger to yourself.”

3. What is memory? • Memory: the input, storage, and retrieval of what has been learned or experienced

4. Memory • One important to thing to remember when discussing memory: • Memory is personally constructed!

5. What is Memory? • Processing Model of Memory- Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

6. Sensory Memory • A very brief memory storage immediately following initial stimulation of a receptor

7. Sensory Memory Cont. • Types of Sensory Memory • Echoic (sound) or Iconic (visual) memory • How long does it last? • Iconic lasts up to 1 second • Echoic lasts up to 1 to 2 seconds • If it is not rehearsed or thought to be important than it is forgotten • Purpose: • Keeps you from being overwhelmed • Decision time • Allows stability & continuity

8. Short Term Memory (STM) • STM is memory that is limited in capacity to about seven-ten items and in duration by the subject’s active rehearsal • Lasts anywhere from 20 seconds to 1 minute • Maintenance Rehearsal- If information is not rehearsed then it will be forgotten • Working memory • Focusing on what is novel or important • When using information from Long Term Memory it is believed the information enters into STM so we can “work” from that information

9. How many circles are on the next slide?

10. Chunking

12. Chunking

14. Chunking The process of grouping items to make them easier to remember. Roy G. Biv

15. You have 5 seconds to remember the following list…

16. Mrs. Sunda’s Grocery List • Milk • Cheese • Butter • Eggs • Flour • Cat food • Sugar • Apples • Grapes • Shampoo • Bread • Green beans • Jam

17. What does Mrs. Sunda need from the grocery? • List as many as you can remember!

18. Mrs. Sunda’s Grocery List • Milk • Cheese • Butter • Eggs • Flour • Cat food • Sugar • Apples • Grapes • Shampoo • Bread • Green beans • Jam Primary Recency Effect- you are better able to recall info at the beginning and end of the list.

20. Long Term Memory (LTM) • Long Term Memory is the storage of information over extended periods of time • LTM does not work like a filing cabinet • Instead we reconstruct the information that we need at a given time • LTM is the result of the other two levels of memory

21. Types of LTM • Semantic- knowledge of language, including its rules, words and meanings • Episodic- chronological retention of the events of one’s life • Declarative- stored knowledge that can be called forth consciously as needed • Procedural- permanent storage of learned skills that does not require conscious recollection

22. LTM Continued

23. Miscellaneous • Process of memory is limited and fallible • Primarily focus on important stimuli or novel stimuli • Information we do keep in STM rapidly decays unless rehearsed • Flashbulb Memory • A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

24. The Processes of Memory • There are 3ways to process memory • Encoding • Storage • Retrieval

25. 1. Encoding • The processing of information into the memory system • How We Do IT: • Two types of processing • Automatic • Effortful

26. Encoding • Automatic Processing • Occurs with little to no effort • Automatic processing is another example of parallel processing • Cannot switch off encoding

27. Encoding • Effortful Processing • Information we remember only with effort and attention • Boost memory through rehearsal: conscious repetition of information either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it

28. Encoding • Rehearsal was demonstrated by Hermann Ebbinghaus • Studied learning and forgetting

29. Encoding • JIH • BAZ • FUB • YOX • SUJ • XIR • DAX • IEQ • VUM • WAV • ZOF • GEK • HIW

30. Ebbinghaus discovered the simple principle of memory and learning • The amount remembered depends on the time spent learning • Even after we learn material additional rehearsal increases retention

31. Encoding • Spacing Effect • We retain information better when rehearsal is distributed over time • Spacing effect= much better than cramming!!!!!!!!!!

32. Encoding • Serial Position Effect (Primary Recency Effect) • Our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

33. Encoding • What we encode: • When encoding verbal information we usually encode its meaning • We remember what is encoded • Encoding Verbal Information • Semantic encoding- encoding meaning • Acoustic encoding- encoding of sound • Visual encoding- encoding of picture images

34. Encoding • Craik and Tulvig • Flashed words at people and then asked a question that required the people to process the words visually, acoustically or semantically • Found semantic encoding elicited much better memory • Ebbinghaus estimated that meaningful material required 1/10 of the effort when compared to learning nonsense material • What does this mean? • We recall information we can relate to ourselves • Self-reference effect • Find personal meaning in what you are studying!!!!!

35. Encoding • Encoding imagery • Imagery: mental images • Rosy retrospection: people tend to recall events more positively than they evaluated at the time

36. Encoding • Mnemonics: memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices • Developed by the ancient Greeks

37. Storage & Retrieval

38. Storage • The process by which information is maintained over time. • How much information is stored depends on how much effort was put into encoding the information and it’s importance. • Info can be stored for a few seconds or for much longer. • Think about playing an instrument: • What all goes into this?

39. Storage • Karl Lashley (1950) found that memories do not reside in a particular spot of the brain • Train rats and cut out parts of the brain and can still run a maze • MEMORY IS STORED THROUGHOUT THE BRAIN!

40. Storage • Synaptic Changes • Kandel and Swartz (1982) looked that the Aplysia • Found that during the learning process (classical conditioning) the slug released serotonin • Synapses then become more efficient at transmitting signals. • Long-term Potentiation (LTP)- increase in a synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. • Believed to be the neural basis of memory

41. Storage • Confirmation of Long-term Potentiation (LTP)- • Drugs that block LTP interfere with learning • Mutant mice engineered to lack enzyme needed for LTP can’t learn their way out of a maze (and vice-versa) • Injecting rats with a chemical that blocks the preservation of LTP erases recent learning

42. Storage • Pharmaceutical Companies are competing to develop new memory boosting drugs • Alzheimer’s • Mild cognitive impairments • Drug would boost the protein CREB- turns genes off or on • Repeated neural firing of genes produce synapse strengthening proteins allowing Long-term Potentiation . • CREB may help to reshape and consolidate STM into LTM • Developing drugs that boosts glutamate • Enhances synaptic communication

43. Storage • Electroconvulsive therapy • Passing an electric current through the brain will not disrupt old memories but will wipe out recent memories

44. Storage • Emotions/Stress and Memory • When stressed or excited hormones make more glucose energy • Amygdala boosts activity and available proteins in brain’s memory forming areas • “Stronger emotional experiences make for stronger, more reliable memories.” (and vice versa) • People given drugs that block stress hormones are more likely to forget details of stressful events

45. Storage • Implicit memory: retention independent of conscious recollection • Explicit memory: memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare

46. Storage • Hippocampus: • Explicit-facts and episodes are processed here and fed to other parts of the brain for storage • Works like a store room • Active during slow-wave sleep • Left damage- impacts verbal memory • Right damage- impacts visual memory and location memory

47. Storage • Cerebellum • Forming and storing implicit memories created by classical conditioning reflexes • Dual implicit and explicit memories explains infantile amnesia • Inability to recall information prior to three years of age • The implicit reactions and skills we learned during infancy reach far into our future, yet as adults we recall nothing (explicitly) of our first three years. • Hippocampus one of the last brain structures to mature.

48. Retrieval • Occurs when information is brought to mind from storage. • The ease with which information can be retrieved depends of how efficiently it was encoded and stored.

49. Retrieval • Remembering is more than storage and encoding • Memory is: • Recall- A measure of memory in which a person must retrieve information learned earlier, info not in our conscious awareness. • Recognition-A measure of memory in which a person need only identity items previously learned • Relearning-Measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time • Learning occurs faster the second time around

50. Retrieval • Harry Bahrick • Studied high school graduates that were 25 years removed • Had these graduates look at pictures from their yearbook • Could not recall classmates out-right, but 90% could recognize names and faces