Write down the names of
the Seven Dwarves
As you might have guessed, the next topic
we are going to examine is…….
Memory
The persistence of learning over
time through the storage and retrieval
of information.
So what was the point of the seven dwarves
exercise?
Turn your paper over.
Now pick pick out the seven
dwarves.
Grouchy
Smiley
Droopy
Puffy
Grumpy
Snorty
Wheezy
Gabby Fearful Sleepy
Jumpy Hopeful Shy
Dopey Sniffy Wishful
Dumpy Sneezy Pop
Bashful Cheerful Teach
Nifty
Happy Doc
Stubby Poopy
Seven Dwarves
Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy, Sneezy, Happy, Doc and Bashful
The Memory process
• Encoding—Selective Attention
• Storage
• Retrieval
Encoding
• The processing of information into the
memory system.
Typing info into a computer
Getting a girls name
Spacing Effect
• We encode better
when we study or
practice over time.
• DO NOT
CRAM!!!!!
In your notes….
List the U.S. Presidents
The Presidents
Washington
J.Adams
Jefferson
Madison
Monroe
JQ Adams
Jackson
Van Buren
Harrison
Tyler
Polk
Taylor
Fillmore
Pierce
Buchanan
Lincoln
A.Johnson
Grant
Hayes
Garfield
Arthur
Cleveland
Harrison
Cleveland
McKinley
T.Roosevelt
Taft
Wilson
Harding
Coolidge
Hoover
FD.Roosevelt
Truman
Eisenhower
Kennedy
L.Johnson
Nixon
Ford
Carter
Reagan
Bush
Clinton
Bush Jr.
Obama
Serial Positioning Effect
• Our tendency to recall best the last and
first items in a list.
Presidents
Recalled
If we graph an average person remembers presidential list- it would
probably look something like this.
AKA--Primacy vs. Recency Effect
Types of Encoding
• Semantic Encoding: the encoding
of meaning, like the meaning of
words--BEST
•Acoustic Encoding: the encoding of
sound, especially the sounds of words.
•Echoic Memory— 2nd best
•Visual Encoding: the encoding of
picture images.
•Iconic Memory— 3rd best
Iconic Memory
• a momentary sensory memory of visual
stimuli, a photograph like quality lasting
only about a second.
• We also have an echoic memory for
auditory stimuli. If you are not paying
attention to someone, you can still recall the
last few words said in the past three or four
seconds.
Self-Reference Effect
• An example of how we
encode meaning very
well.
• The idea that we
remember things (like
adjectives) when they
are used to describe
ourselves.
Peg-word system
Tricks to Encode
• Use imagery: mental pictures
Mnemonic Devices use imagery. Like my “peg
word” system or….
“My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.“
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune, Pluto
Give me some more examples….
Links to examples of mnemonic devices.
Storage
• The retention of encoded material over
time.
Pressing Ctrl S and
saving the info.
Trying to remember her name
when you leave the party.
Retrieval
• The process of getting the information out
of memory storage.
Finding your document
and opening it up.
Seeing her the next day
and calling her the wrong
name (retrieval failure).
Did you do better on the first or second dwarf memory
exercise?
Recall v. Recognition
• With recall- you must retrieve the
information from your memory (fill-in-the
blank or essay tests).
• With recognition- you must identify the
target from possible targets (multiple-choice
tests).
• Which is easier?
Retrieval Cues
• Things that help us
remember.
•We often use a process
called priming (the
activation of associations
in our memory) to help us
retrieve information.
Rest
Snore
Sound
Tired
Bed
Comfort
Awake
Eat
Wake
Dream
Slumber
Night
Last
PRIMING EFFECT
• Priming effect occurs when people respond
faster or better to an item if a similar item
preceded it.
•For the most part, the priming effect is
considered involuntary and is most likely an
unconscious phenomenon. The priming effect
basically consists of repetition priming and
semantic priming.
Context Effects
• It helps to put yourself back
in the same context you
experienced (encoded)
something.
• If you study at a desk at
home, you will probably
score higher because you
take tests at a desk here at
school.
Effects on Memory
• Mood Congruent Memory--The tendency to
recall experiences that are consistent with
one's current good or bad mood.
– If you are depressed, you will more likely recall sad memories from
you past.
• State Dependent Memory—recalling events
encoding during a certain state of
consciousness.
– If you are sleepy, and remember an appt. you need to write it down
because you won’t remember it until you are sleepy again.
Types of Memory According to
the Three Box/Info Processing
Model
• Sensory Memory:
• Short-Term Memory
• Long-Term Memory
Opposing theory is the Levels of Processing
Model which says we tend to remember things
that we deeply or elaboratively process.
Review the three stage process of
Memory
Sensory Memory
• The immediate, initial recording of sensory
information in the memory system.
• Stored just for an instant, and most gets
unprocessed.
Example:
If someone is reading to you, you must be
able to remember the words at the
beginning of a sentence in order to
understand the sentence as a whole. These
words are held in a relatively unprocessed
sensory memory.
Storage and Sensory Memory
George Sperling played one of three tones (each tome
corresponding with a row of letters). Then he flashed the
letters for less than a second and the subjects were able to
identify the letters for the corresponding row,
Short-Term Memory
• Memory that holds a few items briefly.
• Seven digits (plus of minus two).
• The info will be stored into long-term or
forgotten.
How do you store things from short-term to long-term?
*****Rehearsal
You must repeat things over
and over to put them into
your long-term memory.
Storage and Short-Term Memory
• Lasts usually
between 3 to 12
seconds.
• Can store 7 (plus or
minus two) chunks
of information.
• We recall digits
better than letters.
Short-term memory exercise.
Chunking—Mnemonic Device
• Organizing items
into familiar,
manageable units.
• Often it will occur
automatically.
1-4-9-2-1-7-7-6-1-8-1-2-1-9-4-1
Do these numbers mean anything to you?
1492, 1776, 1812, 1941 how about now?
Chunk- from Goonies
Working Memory
(Modern day STM)
•
Another way of describing the use of
short-term memory is called working
memory.
Long-Term Memory
• The relatively permanent and limitless
storehouse of the memory system.
At 5 years old, Rajan would
memorize the license plates of all
of his parents’ guests (about 75
cars in ten minutes). He still
remembers the plate numbers to
this day.
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
• The current theory of how our long-term
memory works.
•Memory has a neural basis.
•LTP is an increase in a synapse’s firing
potential after brief, rapid stimulation.
Example--If you are trying to remember a phone number, the
neurons are firing neurotransmitter through the synapse. The
neuron gets used to firing in that pattern and essentially learns to
fire in that distinct way. It is a form of rehearsal (but for our
neurons).
Flashbulb Memory
Where were you when?
1. You heard about 9/11
2. You heard about the
death of a family member
3. When Obama became
President.
• A clear moment
of an
emotionally
significant
moment or
event, which is
easy to recall.
• Stress seems to
enhance LTM.
Types of LTM
• Episodic Memory— Episodes of your life
– Explicit Memory
• Semantic Memory— Just the facts/info
– Explicit Memory
• Procedural Memory— Things you know
how to do—usually non- declaritive
– Implicit Memory
Eidetic or Photographic
Memory
• Alexandra Luria studied a patient who
would repeat a list of 70 letters or digits.
• The patient could do it backwards and recall
it up to 1.5 years later!!!!
• It is like you take a picture of information
and store it in your brain. 
The Hippocampus
• Damage to the
hippocampus disrupts
our memory.
• Left = Verbal
• Right = Visual and
Locations
• The hippocampus is the
like the librarian for the
library which is our
brain.
Forgetting
Encoding Failure
We fail to encode the information.
It never has a chance to enter our LTM.
Test Your Memory
Which is the real penny?
Forgetting
• Decay--Without
rehearsal, we forget
things over time.
• Ebbinghaus’s
forgetting curve.
• Anterograde
Amnesia--?
• Tip of the Tongue-temporary inability
to remember
• Semantic Network
Theory—Memories
are connected
Types of Retrieval Failure
Proactive Interference
• The disruptive
effect of prior
learning on the
recall of new
information.
If you call your new girlfriend your
old girlfriend’s name.
Types of Retrieval Failure
Retroactive Interference
• The disruptive effect of
new learning on the
recall of old
information.
When you finally remember this
years locker combination, you forget
last years.
Motivated Forgetting
Why does is exist?
One explanation is
REPRESSION:
• in psychoanalytic theory,
the basic defense
mechanism that banishes
anxiety-arousing thoughts,
feelings and memories
from consciousness.
• Recovered Memories
What do you remember from 9/11?
• Write down all the things you can
remember from 9/11.
• Write down all the things
you remember about each
crash site.
• Be specific.
Pentagon
Memory Construction—
Reconstructive Memory
• We sometimes alter our
memories as we encode
or retrieve them.
• Your expectations,
schemas, environment
may alter your
memories.
Elizabeth Loftus—Lost in a Mall???
Misinformation Effect
 Incorporating misleading information into
one’s memory of an event.
Depiction of Accident
Misinformation Effect
Leading Question: About how fats were the cars
going when they smashed into each other?