Cognition
7A – Memory
7B – Thinking, Problems Solving,
Creativity, and Language
Memory
Memory - the persistence of
learning over time through the
storage and retrieval of
information.
Examples:
Sensory Memory
Long-term memory
Short-term
Working memory
Implicit/Procedural Memory
Explicit memory
Episodic memory
Semantic memory
Flashbulb memory
Mood Congruent memory
Context Dependent Memory
Prospective Memory
The Memory Process
Basic three step process….
1. Encoding: The processing of
information into the memory system.
– Getting the info into the brain
– Example: Getting the names of the 7
dwarfs into your brain
2. Storage: The retention of encoded
material over time.
– Retaining the info
– Example: Rehearsing the names of the
dwarfs so that they are stored in memory
3. Retrieval: The process of getting the
information out of memory storage.
– Getting the info back out
– Example: Recalling or Recognizing the
names of the dwarfs to get them back out
of storage
3 Memory Models
1. Atkinson-Shiffrin 3
stage model
2. Modified AtkinsonShiffrin
3. Connectivism Model
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s 3 Step Model of
Memory
1.
Sensory memory – brief recording of sensory information
• Example: the sea of faces as you walk down the hallway
2. Short-term memory – memory that holds few items briefly before
info is forgotten unless consciously activated
• Example – a new phone number is remembered only long enough
to dial it
3. Long –term memory – relatively permanent and limitless storage of
memory.
• Examples: Knowledge, skills, experiences (flashbulb)
Sensory Memory
• Sensory Memory - A
split second holding
tank for ALL sensory
information
• Examples:.
– Iconic Memory –
momentary sensory
memory of visual
stimuli
– Echoic Memory –
momentary sensory
memory of auditory
stimuli
Short Term Memory
• Short –term memory
– consciously activated
– limited capacity –
• Holds items for about 30
seconds without rehearsal
• holds a few items briefly
(7 digits +/-2) until it is
forgotten or stored
– Encoded visually,
acoustically or
semantically through
rehearsal.
Short Term Memory Activity
Long Term Memory
• Long-term memory Unlimited storehouse of
knowledge, skills and
experiences.
– Unlimited capacity
– Relatively permanent
– Organized and indexed
• Examples:
– Explicit (declarative)
memories – (Facts)
– Implicit (non-declarative)
memories (remembering how
to do a task)
Modified Atkinson – Shiffrin modified
(3 Stage) Model
• 2 New concepts
1. Working Memory – active processing
that combines novel (?) or important
info along with info retrieved from long
term memory
– Instead of short-term memory being
just a 20 sec. holding tank, this
model includes the ability to briefly
process info
• Some info skips the 1st two stages in
Atkinson’s/Shiffrins and is
processed automatically into longterm memory
• Example – Daydreaming in class
Modified Three-stage Model of
Memory
Connectionism Model of Memory
• Connectionism – theory that states that memory is
stored throughout the brain in connections between
neurons
– Many neurons may work together to process a single memory
• memory emerges from particular activation patterns
within the network
• retrieval of the memory is a reconstruction based on
each of the elements of the pattern
On a piece of paper: Name
the 3 memory models
discussed today. Which do
you think is most useful in
explaining memory? Why?
Did you encode the info?
Is it in storage, if not why
not?
Are you able to retrieve
it?
1. Pick 3 of the following terms and give an
personal example of YOU using them:
– Encoding
– Storage
– Retrieval
– Sensory Memory
– Short-term Memory
– Long-term Memory
– Working Memory
– Connectionism
2. Name the 3 memory models we discussed
yesterday
How We Encode
2 Ways of Encoding
1. Automatically Processing
– Automatic
– Parallel
2. Effortful processing
– Rehearsal
Encoding - Automatic Processing
Automatic Processing - unconscious encoding of
incidental information
– Examples: Unintentionally encoding…and later remembering
– Time – day’s sequence of events, and remembering later you left
your AP note cards on the lunch table
– space – place on a page in your AP textbook where the term
automatic processing occurs..
– Frequency – number of times you saw your Mr. Gielink in the hall
– well learned info – understand every word in your AP Textbook
– Unique or engaging info – “pop out” effect; things that stand out
Automatic Processing
• Parallel Processing – processing of
many things simultaneously
– Allows many sensory experiences to be
encoded all at once, some automatically,
some with effort
– Example: process a red car coming straight at you,
you know to get out of the way!
Automatic Processing
Spring is the
the most beautiful
time of the year
Encoding – Effortful
Processing
1. Effortful Processing –
encoding that requires
conscious effort and attention
– Example: Studying for
your unit test on memory
• Rehearsal – conscious
repetition of info to encode
it for storage
– Example: Reviewing your
AP note cards every
night
Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
• Ebbinghaus Curve - The amount
remembered depends on the
time spent learning
– Used nonsense syllabus to study
memory
– JIH, BAZ, FUB, YOX SUJ, XIR
– The more time you rehearse on
day 1, the less time it takes to
relearn the info on day 2
• Overlearning – additional
rehearsal after we learn
material increases retention
Effortful Processing
• Spacing effect – distributed study is
better for long-term recall than
massed study (cramming)
– DO NOT CRAM!!!!!!!!!!!!
– Example: Start studying now for your
midterm—1/2 once per week!
• Testing effect – repeated quizzing or
testing improves retention
– Example: giving comprehensive quizzes
every month, or even better, quizzing
yourself repeatedly
Encoding Information
• Serial Positioning Effect – we
tend to remember the first
and last items on a list
– Primacy Effect – remember
items at the beginning of a list
• Example: Washington, Adams..
– Recency Effect – remembering
items at the end of a list (most
recent
• Example: Obama, Bush…
– Rostorff effect – remembering
unique items on a list
• Example: Lincoln, Kennedy
What We Encode…
Encoding Exercise
1. Visual Encoding: the encoding of
picture/visual images.
Example – appearance of letters – are
they in ALL CAPS, Bolded, In Red
2. Acoustic Encoding: the encoding of sound,
especially the sounds of words.
Example: “If the glove doesn’t fit you
must acquit”
3. Semantic Encoding: the encoding of
meaning.
Example: “rambutan” may not mean
anything to you – but if you put a meaning
to it (a tropical fruit which means “hair”
in Malaysian, similar to its physical
qualities), you might remember it
Encoding Exercise
Visual Encoding
– Imagery – visual images help us remember
concrete words (aided by semantic encoding)
Example: Ipod, process, college, claim
– Rosy Retrospection – recalling high points,
forgetting the worst
• Example: After a trip to Disney World, you
remember meeting Mickey, Space Mountain, the
turkey leg you ate, but forget the long lines, and the
heat
Encoding Exercise
Mneumonics
– Mnemonic Devices – any memory aid that uses
visual images and clever ways of organizing
material
• EXAMPLES:
1. Peg word system – memorizing a jingle
and using imagery to associate items
with the jingle
»
One is a bun (chicken squashing the bun),
two is a shoe (corn filling up shoe)…
2. Method of Loci – use visual information
with familiar objects on a path to
recall info on a list
»
Example: remembering items on a grocery
list by associating them with a place in our
house (chicken is pecking at front door,
corn is smashed in the foyer etc)
Encoding Exercise
Mneumonics
3. Hierarchies – broad
concepts divided and
subdivided into
narrower concepts and
facts
• Example: See picture
4. Chunking - Organizing
items into familiar,
manageable units
(acronyms)
• Example: PORN – Proactive
Interference: Old info
interferes with New
Retroactive Interference:
New interferes with Old
Every Good Boy Does Fine
1-800-IBM-HELP
Acoustic Encoding
Acoustic Encoding
•Example:
The melody of your
favorite song has been
encoded into long-term
memory
Semantic Encoding
• Semantic Encoding
• Examples:
• Children in Israel, can sing the top rock songs
from the United States but they don’t know
what the words mean. This is because they are
using an acoustic code to remember a song and
sing it, but they do not have a semantic code
for the meaning of the words.
• Self Reference Effect – the tendency to
remember information that is “relevant to me”
compared to less personally relevant
information
• Example: I remember the meaning of
rambutan because I was in Malaysia and ate
them…yum!
Comparing Types of Encoding
• You’re given the word
EXTROVERTED, which of the
following is an example of Visual,
Acoustic, Semantic Encoding?
– The word
– The word
– The word
– The word
consists of 10 letters
rhymes with perverted
written in capitals
describes you well
• Which would you remember better?
Storage
Types of Memory
1. Sensory Memory
Iconic
Echoic
–
–
2. Working Memory/Short-term
3. Long-Term Memory
Implicit Memory/Procedural Memory
–
• Conditioned Memories
Explicit Memory
–
•
•
•
•
Episodic Memory
Semantic Memory
Flashbulb Memories
Prospective memory
Sensory Memory
• Sperling’s memory experiment
– Momentary photographic memory
• After flashing an image, participants had a momentary
mental image of all 9 letters
• Iconic memory – photographic or picture image
memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second
– A momentary mental image that remains after the image is
gone
– Example:
• A momentary mental image that remains after seeing a
phone number flashed on the TV
• The afterimage of Twirling a sparkler
Sensory Memory
• Echoic memory – auditory memory lasting
no more than a 3-4 seconds (mind’s echo
chamber)
– A momentary auditory impression that remains
after the sound is gone
– Example: a moment after hearing your teacher say
something when you weren’t paying, you are able to
answer the question “What did I just say?”
Working/Short-Term Memory
• Duration – Brief (30 sec or less) without
active processing
– Slightly better for auditory info than visual info
– Numbers better than letters
• Capacity - Limited
– Magic number Seven
• 5-9 bits of information, ave. = 7
• The list of magic sevens
–
–
–
–
–
–
Seven
Seven
Seven
Seven
Seven
Seven
wonders of world
seas
deadly sins
primary colors
musical scale notes
days of the week
Types of Long Term Memory
• Implicit Memory/Procedural Memory
– Conditioned Memories
• Explicit Memory
– Episodic Memory
– Semantic Memory
– Flashbulb Memory
– Prospective Memory
Types of Long-Term Memory
Implicit Memories
• Implicit/Procedural Memories –
without conscious recall
– Processed by cerebellum and
other brain areas
 still intact with anterograde
amnesia
• Examples:
– Bike Riding, Playing an
instrument
– Conditioned Memories –
memories from conditioned
learning
• Example: Fear
Explicit Memories
• Explicit Memories – memories of
facts and experiences, consciously
recalled
– Processed by the Hippocampus
• Verbal information is stored in the left
hippocampus
• visual designs are stored in the right
hippocampus.
– Infantile amnesia – can’t remember
events before age 3
• Hippocampus is one of the last brain
structures to develop
• Example: Remembering the first
President of the U.S.
Explicit Memories
Episodic Memories - memories of
autobiographical events, situations,
and experiences
Example: Remembering you 5th
Birthday Party
Semantic Memories – memory of
words, meanings, and
understandings
Example: Remembering the meaning
of vocab from AP Psych
Explicit Memories
• Flashbulb Memories – clear moment of
a emotionally significant event
– Facilitated by stress hormones
– Prolonged stress however, can inhibit
memory formation by shrinking the
hippocampus
– Amygdala (emotion center of the brain)
boosts activity & proteins into memory
forming areas of the brain
– Example: 9/11
• Prospective Memory – remembering to
perform a planned action
– Example: Remembering to meet your
study group for the AP Psych Exam
Review
• Come up with your own example of three of following
terms:
–
–
–
–
Iconic Memory
Echoic Memory
Implicit Memory
Explicit Memory
•
•
•
•
Episodic
Semantic
Flashbulb
Prospective
Storing Memories
Memory trace – memory is distributed
across groups of neurons
Long Term-Potentiation – Increases in
synaptic firing potential of a neuron by
increasing the number of receptors on the
receiving neuron.
– physical basis for learning and memory .
– Neurons that fire together wire together…creating
a memory.
– Example: Rats given drug that enhances LTP learn a
maze with about ½ the normal mistakes
• Memory boosting drugs
– CREB – proteins that make a cell more likely to keep
a memory
– Glutamate – enhances synaptic communication (LTP)
which strengthens neural connections
Amnesia
• Amnesia – loss of memory
– Retrograde Amnesia – inability
to remember past events
• Example
– Stroke, accident
– “The Vow”
– Anterograde Amnesia – inability
to create new memories
• Loss of Explicit Memory but not Implicit
memories
• Examples:
– Clive wearing
– HM (Henry Moliason)
– 50 1st dates
Think Pair Share
• Explain where explicit and implicit
memories are stored in the brain, and
the possible implications of these
locations for amnesia victims.
Retrieval
• Recall - you must
retrieve the
information from
your memory
• Example: fill-in-the
blank or essay tests
• Recognition - you
must identify the
target from possible
targets
• Example: multiplechoice tests
Ways to help you retrieve info
• Relearning – learning material for the
second time, saves time.
– Example: Taking Psych in college
should save you time for going to
football games
• Retrieval Cues – anchor points used
to access target info for retrieval later
– Example: Mnemonics, words, events
places , emotions, tastes, smells,
that trigger memory
– Priming – unconscious activation of
associations in memory
– Example: See a rabbit and asked to
spell hair, you spell hare
Context Matters
• Context-dependent memory memory is more easily
recalled if you are in the
same setting that learning
took place
– Example: taking your AP exam
in the same room and seat you
learned the info
• Déjà vu – eerie sense that you’ve
experienced something before
– Example: When I saw the play Billy Elliot
I had déjà vu …
The Context Matters!!!
• Mood Congruent Memory – recalling
memories consistent with current mood
– Example: When you break up with your
girlfriend you think about all the other times
you’ve been dumped
• State Dependent Memory – learning
that takes place in one physiological
"state" is generally better remembered
later in a similar physiological state
– Example: info learned when person is drunk is
better recalled when person is drunk
Forgetting
• Encoding Failures
• Storage Decay
• Retrieval Failures
• Interference
Forgetting
• Schacter’s sevens sins of memory
– Sins of Forgetting
• Absent-mindedness – encoding failure (inattention
to detail)
• Transience – storage decay
• Blocking – inaccessibility to stored info
– Sins of distortion
• Misattribution – confusing the source
• Suggestibility – linger effects of misiformation
• Bias – belief colored recollections
– Sin of intrusion
• Persistence – unwanted memories
Encoding Failure
Example – You can’t remember a
person’s name that you were just
introduced to because you weren’t
paying attention
What should you do to prevent an
encoding failure?
Storage Decay
Ebbinghaus Curve
Apply the Ebbinghaus curve to Psych Class
Retrieval Failure
Retrieval Failures
•
Retroactive Interference: new
information blocks out old information.
– Example: Getting a new bus number
and forgetting old bus number.
•
Proactive Interference: old information
blocks out new information.
– Example: Calling your new girlfriend
by old girlfriends name.
•
PORN
•
Positive Transfer – old info helps you
learn new info
– Example: learning Spanish helps you learn
French
•
Tip of the tongue phenomenon - the
feeling that a name, word, or phrase-though momentarily unrecallable--is known
and will soon be recalled.
Motivated Forgetting
• Motivated Forgetting –
revising past memories
– Example: Forgetting how much
money I actually spent on
Christmas shopping!
• Repression – (Freud’s
Psychoanalytic Theory)
• A defense mechanism that banishes
painful memories from
consciousness to minimize anxiety
– Example: Woman with
unexplained fear of running
water had repressed a memory
of almost drowning
Constructive Memory
• Constructed memory (Loftus) - a
created memory, altered when
encoded or retrieved.
• 4 causes
1.
2.
3.
4.
Misinformation effect
Imagination effect
Source amnesia
Suggestibility
Constructive Memory
• Misinformation Effect – incorporating
misleading info into a memory
Example:
• Suggestibility – incorporating leading questions into
memory (misrecalling a yield sign as a stop sign);
hypnotically refreshed memories,
• Imagination Effect/Inflation – imagining
nonexistent actions and events can create
false memories
Example:
• imagining that Solon beat Mentor, you may create
a false memory (:
• Source Amnesia – retaining the memory of an
event, but not the source
•
Example: Someone told you that Solon
beat Mentor, but you think you read it in the
newspaper
Cognitive Interview Technique – witness visualizes
scene, then recalls without interruption
Lotus Study
• IV?
– The wording of the questions
• Op Def?
– ½ participants will receive
question stated as “How fast was
Car A going when it ran the stop
sign”, ½ will receive “how fast
was Car A going when it turned
right”
• DV?
– Answer to question
• Op Def
– Record the total number of
responses that said they saw a
stop sign”
• Results:
– Wording of questions can
alter the way we remember
an event
– Memories are not just
replaying events, but rather
new information (false
presumptions) can be
unintentionally integrated
into a memory
– Repressed memories don’t
exist, we tend to remember
traumatic memories best
Discerning True and False
Memories
• Memory studies – real vs. false
– Real memories have more detail
– False memories often feel as real
– Hypnotically refreshed - misinformation
effect
• Eye witness testimony
– Constructed memories
• Misinformation
• Source Amnesia
• Suggestability
Children’s Eyewitness Recall
• Children’s memories of abuse
Suggestibility – susceptibility to
suggestion
• Children more susceptible than adults to the
misinformation effect
– Children more credible if adults have not discussed the issue with
them prior to an interview
• Ask less suggestive and more effective questions to
reduce misinformation effect
– Use neutral words
Repressed or Constructed
Memories of Abuse?
• Areas of agreement
– Sexual abuse happens
– Injustice happens
– Forgetting happens
– Recovered memories are incomplete
– Memories before 3 years are unreliable
– Hypnotic memories are unreliable
– Memories can be emotionally upsetting
Improving Memory Techniques
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Study repeatedly
Make the material meaningful
Activate retrieval cues
Use mnemonic devices
Minimize interference
Sleep more
Test your own knowledge, both to
rehearse it and to help determine what
you do not yet know