Memory Storage
Long-Term Memory
Long-Term Memory
• Once information passes from sensory to
working memory, it can be encoded into
long-term memory
Maintenance Rehearsal
Encoding
Sensory
Input
Sensory
Memory
Attention
Long-term
memory
Working or
Short-term
Memory
Retrieval
Long-Term Memory
• Function—organizes and stores information
– more passive form of storage than working memory
• Unlimited capacity
• Duration—thought by some to be permanent
Maintenance Rehearsal
Encoding
Sensory
Input
Sensory
Memory
Attention
Long-term
memory
Working or
Short-term
Memory
Retrieval
Long-Term Memory
• Encoding—process that controls movement from
working (STM) memory to long-term memory
storage (getting info in)
• Retrieval—process that controls flow of information
from long-term to working memory store (getting
info out)
Maintenance Rehearsal
Encoding
Sensory
Input
Sensory
Memory
Attention
Long-term
memory
Working or
Short-term
Memory
Retrieval
Dimensions of LTM
• Explicit memory—memory with awareness;
information can be consciously recollected;
also called declarative memory
• Implicit memory—memory without
awareness; memory that affects behavior but
cannot consciously be recalled; also called
nondeclarative memory
Processing/Encoding leads to LTM
Hippocampus
Cerebellum
Types of LTM
Explicit/Declarative
General Knowledge
(semantic memory)
Personal Events
(episodic memory)
Explicit Memories are easy to explain facts or experiences.
Implicit
Skills and
Procedures
(procedural
memory)
Conditioning
(CC & OC)
Implicit Memories are hard to put into words. They
Involve skills and reactions we’ve learned.
BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF MEMORY
Biological Basis of Memory
Karl Lashley searched for a localized memory trace or
engram
Believed that memory was localized
– specific memory stored in a
specific area.
Removed parts of rat’s cerebral
cortex but found no one area
contained the memory of the maze
Found that maze-learning in rats was
distributed throughout the brain
Memory and the Brain
• Play “The Locus of Learning and Memory”
(6:28) Module #16 from The Brain:
Teaching Modules (2nd edition).
• Watch first 3 minutes on Lashley’s
Experiment and if time view Penfield’s
experiment & why it was flawed.
Biological Basis of Memory
Richard Thompson
Reflexive Behaviors are localized in the
cerebellum
• Thought that cerebellum
was changed after
classically conditioning a
rabbit to blink to a tone.
He was right!
• Removing this area
caused the rabbit to no
longer blink to a tone but
only reflexively. Shows
localized memory.
• This did not work for
complex behaviors like
running a maze, which
seem to be distributed
Brain Structures Involved in Memory
Temporal Lobe
• Includes:
– hippocampus
– Amygdala
• Verbal
information is
stored in the left
hippocampus
and
• Visual designs
are stored in the
right
hippocampus
Memory and the Hippocampus
Memory and the Hippocampus
• Damage to the hippocampus would
result in the inability to form new
explicit memories, but the ability to
remember the skills of implicit
memories
•To view someone
with this damage
checkout the video
by clicking on it
(7:38)
Implicit Memory Structures
• Cerebellum – Stores procedural (muscle
memory) skills
– Riding a Bike, Swimming, Typing, playing an
instrument
• Basal Ganglia – Helps plan & control complex
patterns of movement laying down a memory
of the physical procedure.
– Works without telling your consciousness (frontal
lobe)
Evidence for Separate
Implicit/Explicit Systems
• Neurophysiological evidence
• Patient H.M. (Henry Gustav Molaison)
– life-threatening seizures originating in temporal lobe
– surgically removed portions of temporal lobe
• Surgery was effective in reducing seizures
• BUT, had other side effects as well
• Can remember explicit memories acquired before the
surgery
– e.g., old addresses, normal vocabulary
• Cannot form NEW explicit memories
– e.g., remembering the name of someone he met 30 minutes
prior
– cannot name new world leaders or performers
– can recognize a picture of himself from before his surgery but
not from after and doesn’t recognize himself in a mirror
• Click HERE for a video on H.M. (10 Min) – click
the launch video button on this website to view.
Patient H.M.
• H.M. has severe explicit / declarative memory disorder
• H.M. is almost normal on procedural or implicit memory tasks
including priming, classical conditioning, and learning motor
skills
• When given the same procedural puzzle to solve for several
days in a row, H. M. was able to solve the puzzle more quickly
each day however, had no recollection of learning it.
• This shows that explicit memory depends upon the
Hippocampus and implicit does not
Infantile Amnesia
•
•
Infantile Amnesia – Inability to recall events from
the first few years of life.
Possible Reasons for this:
1. Too many differences between the world of an infant
and ours for us to be able to make connections or
retrieval cues to retrieve them (encoding specificity
principle).
2. Hippocampus is still developing so they cannot form
new LTM but they can make procedural memories.
3. One reason adults typically recall little of their first
three years of life is that during infancy they were
unable to verbally label most of their experiences
(semantically encode the info).
Emotions & the Amygdala
• Amygdala may help in formation of emotional
memories.
Flashbulb Memory
• A type of Episodic Memory
• Memory of an event so surprising
or significant to us that it is as if we
photographed it in our mind.
• Why do these happen?
– We pay more attention to special
events
– We think about them more often
(repetition)
– We connect them to other events in
our lives
• Accuracy declines over time even
though it feels extremely accurate
Where were you on
September 11, 2001?
Memory and the Brain
• Play “Remembering What Matters” (8:30)
Segment #16 from Scientific American
Frontiers: Video Collection for Introductory
Psychology (2nd edition).
• How does adrenaline affect our ability to
remember something?
• Which part of the brain seems to be active
when you form flashbulb memories?
• How do evolutionary psychologists explain
flashbulb memories?
New Memories in a Snail
• Aplysia—a sea
snail was used
to study how
memories can
change
neurons
Eric Kandel
Kandel’s Sea Snail Experiment
• Eric Kandel – studied neural changes that took place in
Aplysia, a sea snail. Click HERE to view it (4 min)
• Squirted it with water followed by an electric shock that
classically conditioned it to withdrawal its gills next time it
was squirted.
• This changed the three neuron circuit in the snail.
Long-Term Potentiation – Neural change that occurs when
you learn!
• Function of the neuron changed:
– increase in the amount of the neurotransmitter
produced by the neuron.
• Structure of the neuron changed:
– number of interconnecting dendrites and axon terminals
increased
– receptor sites for neurotransmitters increasing allowing
for more communication points (synapses).
Long-Term Potentiation
Memory Processing
Review
Figure 32.5 Our two memory systems
David G. Myers: Myers’ Psychology for AP®, Second Edition
Copyright © 2014 by Worth Publishers
Aging and Memory
• Ability to recall new information, unaided by
clues, declines with age,
• But ability to recognize new information, as in
a multiple-choice question, does not.
• Elderly may need more time to retrieve
memories but still can do as well as a young
person.
Culture & Memory
• Levy and Langer study of cultural views of
aging show that society’s expectation that
older people will have poorer memories can
be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• In cultures where that is not believed (Asia)
the elderly show memories just as good as the
young.
Misao Okawa of Osaka, Japan, was 117 when she died