AP Psychology
12/12/13
Finish from yesterday
1. Write down a flashbulb memory you have.
2. Contrast effortful processing with automatic
processing.
3. What do rehearsal and spacing have to do with
memory?
4. What is the next-in-line effect? What is the serial
position effect? Why do they differ?
5. Define visual, acoustic, & semantic encoding.
6. Give an example of a mnemonic device.
7. Give an example of chunking.
8. What does the Atkinson-Shiffrin model suggest?
Atkinson-Shiffrin Processing Model
• Sensory memory
• Short-term memory
• Long-term memory
Sensory memory
• Iconic memory: the ability to remember an
exact representation of a visual stimuli for a
few tenths of a second.
• Echoic memory: the ability to remember an
auditory stimuli for 3-4 seconds, even if
attention is diverted.
Short-term memory
• Your short-term memory is very limited
without meaning or rehearsal—both in time
and capacity (Magical Number Seven ± two).
Long-term memory
• Our space to store information is basically
limitless (see: Kim Peek).
Storing memories
• Are memories contained to one single spot?
Penfield (1939) removed parts of the temporal lobe
or hippocampus to control epilepsy. No memory
loss initially suggested two locations for memory.
Lashley (1950) cut out pieces of rats’ brains and
tested their ability to complete previously
completed mazes. There was no single spot.
Hypothesis: memories are in engrams. An engram is
a memory trace stored on neural tissue.
Synaptic changes
• Neural changes occur in synapses.
• When learning, synapses release more serotonin,
which increases efficiency of transmitting signals.
• The strengthening of these neural signals is called
long-term potentiation (LTP).
• LTP helps us learn & form associations—memory!
• LTP cannot be shut down with an electrical signal,
as Gerard (1953) hypothesized. It is already in
long-term memory.
Implicit vs. Explicit memory
• Implicit memory: no conscious awareness of
learning (also called procedural memory).
Can still occur without hippocampus…cerebellum is
responsible.
• Explicit memory: conscious, intentional
recollection of learning (also called declarative
memory—you can declare it).
Occurs in hippocampus (called consolidation).
• Alzheimer’s patients: perfume.
• Create your own test to see if both implicit and
explicit memory are functioning.
Retrieval
• Two types of retrieval: recall and recognition.
• Recall: ability to summon information learned
(answering an open-ended question)
• Recognition: ability to identify information
learned (answered a multiple-choice question)
…why multiple-choice tests are dumb!!
• Relearning: you learn things quicker if you’ve
learned them before.
Retrieval Cues
• The context of your memory: associated surroundings,
moods (called mood-congruent memory), tastes,
smells, sights, etc.
• This is called the “encoding specificity principle.”
• Mnemonic devices…what is this one for??
Can Mary Kate adequately detain the lilting kleptomaniac
moving closer?
• Priming: an implicit memory that is related to another
memory, helping to bring it to the forefront of explicit
memory.
• Inability to remember a word: TOT phenomenon.
• Déjà vu: the feeling that you have experienced
something before due to context.
Essential Question
• Explain how knowledge of a stimulus is later
retrieved, using all relevant steps and terms
(you do not need to include sensation unless
you are really feeling ambitious).
• Switch papers & critique each others’
explanation.
Quiz…
• Observe these pictures. Write down the first
thing you think of for each question.
1
• Spell the word Mr. Phillis says.
2
• What team is going to win this weekend?
3
• Spell the word Mr. Phillis says.
4
• Who is the most average student?
5
• Spell the word Mr. Phillis says.
End of class/homework
• Read pages 375-392. If you don’t finish, this is
your homework.
• Answer after reading: How does memory fail
us?
• Next class: read an article about Elizabeth
Loftus & the fallibility of eyewitness memory.