“The true art of
memory is the art of
attention.”
- Samuel Johnson
Can you remember
something you probably see
every day?
Describe the front
of a penny…
•
•
•
•
•
Lincoln
facing to the right
“Liberty”
“In God We Trust”
the year it was minted
Memory factoids
• The hippocampus (“seahorse”-shaped) brain area is probably
the brain’s “switchboard” – injuries to it cause you to lose your
ability to acquire new memories
• Hand gestures can help us retrieve elusive words from their
memories
• There is a biological intersection of music and memory in your
brain that links music – not other sound – to short and longterm memory
• Humans seem to remember even from in utero – especially
their mother’s voice
• Females generally have better memories for all kinds of details
WHY
DO WE
FORGET???
People remember:
20% 0f what they hear
75% of what they see
90% of what they do
“I hear and I forget,
I see and I remember,
I do and I understand.”
old Chinese proverb
Memory “fades”:
the
DECAY
THEORTY
Use it or lose it
All forest animals, to this very day, remember exactly where they were and
what they were doing when they heard Bambi’s mother had been shot.
“Flashbulb” Memories
• The intensity freezes the memory
• They are not always solid – President Bush said he’d seen the
1st plane hit the World Trade Center on 9-11, but actually
nobody saw that on live TV; he was speaking from shock
• Personal life experiences that seem to transform our brains
into virtual cameras:
– Defensive arousal (car crash, armed robbery)
– Threat to self-esteem or social position (pants fell down, fired from a
job)
– Related to sex and reproduction (your first kiss)
Memory is “lost” or
“misplaced”:
the RETRIEVAL
THEORY
When you can’t remember
where (or if!!) you “filed”
the information
The tip-of-the-tongue
phenomenon
•
•
•
•
•
What do you call trees that shed leaves?
What makes blood red? h-------What’s the 2nd stomach in a bird? g------A stone with crystals inside? g---Best actor this year? D--------
Memory gets
“changed”:
the
RECONSTRUCTION
THEORY
Information is made more
symmetrical or is coached
• Smythe
 Smith
•
Y
• Did your Mommy lose you at the
mall?
• Eyewitness testimony
Read:
read, pages, letters, school,
study, reading, stories, sheets,
cover, pen, pencil, magazine,
paper, words
Read this one:
house, pencil, apple, shoe,
book, flag, rock, train,
ocean, hill, music, water,
glass, school
Which of these words were on the
1st slide?
read, pages, letters, school,
study, reading, stories, sheets,
cover, pen, pencil, magazine,
paper, words
house, pencil, apple, shoe,
book, flag, rock, train,
ocean, hill, music, water,
glass, school
Memory is “hidden”:
the
PSYCHOLOGICAL
THEORY
Information can be repressed
and unavailable
Parapaxis – noun. “beyond” + “act”
slip of the tongue
A Freudian slip is like
saying one thing,
but meaning your mother (oops)
Memory is shoved
out:
the
INTERFERENCE
THEORY
Old information interferes with getting the new;
new interferes with holding onto the old
old facts 
NEW facts 
Information gets
crowded
ou





15 items
KQZ
NLR
XOJ
BTK
YSW





Got it?
KQZ
KQZ
YSW
KQZ
NLR
XOJ
BTK
YSW





Try these 15…
BLT
CBS
SOS
FYI
NFL





Got it?
BLT
CBS
SOS
FYI
NFL





It’s going to get easier…
WIN
SIT
LIE
SAW
NOT





Were there only 15?!
WIN
SIT
LIE
SAW
NOT





Try these 15…
WAS
THE
CAR
RUN
OFF





Were there only 15?!
WAS
THE
CAR
RUN
OFF?
15 letters making one sentence!
Memorize these 15
digits!
In order!!
149162536496481
A hint:
149162536496481
Find the pattern &
you can add 9 more
to make 24 digits:
149162536496
481100121144
A big color hint:
1491625364964
81100121144
A gigantic visual
hint:
1 4 9 16
25 36 49 64
81 100 121 144
24
separate
digits...
are 1
concept:
perfect
squares