GENERAL
PSYCHOLOGY
Lecture 7
Memory & Thinking
Visiting Assistant PROFESSOR YEE-SAN TEOH
Department of Psychology
National Taiwan University
Unless noted, the course materials are licensed
under Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike
2.5 Taiwan (CC
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BY-NC-SA 3.0)
S
Memory
S
How do we remember things?
S
Information
is retained
in memory.
RETRIEVAL
New
Information
is taken in.
STORAGE
ACQUISITION
3 Aspects of the Memory Process
Process of
searching
for some
item in
memory &
finding it.
Acquisition
Gaining new knowledge establishing new
memories in long-term
storage
S
Not just copying information - requires some intellectual
engagement with the material.
What we think about it is what is actually stored in
memory….which has implications for:
a.What you will remember.
b.Under what circumstances you will remember.
c.How accurate your memory will be.
Intentional Learning
S Deliberate memorization.
S Placing of new info in memory when person
anticipates that his/her memory will be tested
later.
S E.g. Revising for General Psychology exam.
Incidental Learning
S Learning that takes place without
any intention to memorize.
S Often occurs without the awareness that
learning is actually occurring.
S E.g. Remembering what you ate for dinner last
night without trying to memorize that fact.
Stage Theory of Memory
When information first arrives….
SENSORY MEMORY
Process of selection & interpretation
SHORT-TERM / WORKING
MEMORY
Further process of selection &
interpretation
LONG TERM MEMORY
Sensory Memory
S “Raw” sensory information.
S Information enters the senses, triggering neural
messages that are sent to the brain.
i. Iconic memory: Visual sensory information.
ii. Echoic memory: Auditory sensory information.
Short-Term/Working Memory
(STM/WM)
S Place where you hold a small amount
of information while you’re ‘working’
on it.
S Can hold for very short periods of time.
Long-Term Memory (LTM)
S Can hold vast amounts of information for extended
periods of time.
S More permanent storage place.
Primacy & Recency Effects
Free Recall: A test of memory that asks for as many
items in a list as the subject can recall regardless of order.
i.Primacy Effect = Tendency to recall the first items on a
list more readily than those in the middle.
ii.Recency Effect = Tendency to recall items at the end
of the list more readily than those in the middle.
Why?
S There’s a limit on how many things someone can think
about at once.
S Limit to how many items can be maintained in
working memory.
Recency Effect
S New words entering working memory will bump out
the words that were there a moment ago.
S Last few words don’t get bumped out because no new
information was presented to bump them out, so those
items are still in working memory.
Primacy Effect
S Primacy effect must involve long-term memory.
S The first few words presented get more attention and
rehearsal than the later ones, which enables them to be
more likely to be established in long-term memory.
The capacity of working memory
S Working memory capacity is 7 items, plus or minus 2
S Chunking: Reorganizing materials in memory so that
more can be remembered.
FYIUSATHXBRB
(12 items)
Chunk into 4 units?
FYI USA THX BRB
(4 items).
Establishing
long-term memories
S
Importance of Active Engagement
S LTM is not automatic.
S Requires mental engagement.
S Not all information we are exposed to gets established
in LTM.
S The more we make sense or process the material, the
more likely that memory will be retained.
LTM & Understanding
Greater levels of activity in the brain (especially
in the hippocampus & prefrontal cortex) during
initial memory acquisition
Greater probabilities of retention later on.
Best study techniques?
S Techniques that emphasize efforts toward understanding
the material are likely to pay off with good memory later
on.
S Mechanical strategies (repetition) may produce no benefit
at all.
Memory Connections
Connections
Mnemonics: Deliberate techniques that people use to help
them memorize new information.
Link new material to ideas
already in memory
Link various elements of the
new material to each other
Visualizing – Form mental
pictures of the items that you
need to remember interacting
with each other.
Memory storage
S
Memory Trace
S Record in the nervous system that actually preserves a
memory of a past experience.
Memory Consolidation
S Biological process taking place for a period of time
(several hrs) after an event is experienced.
S Transforms memories from transient & fragile status to
more permanent & robust state.
S Time period allows creation of new pattern of
communication among neurons to represent the newly
acquired memory.
Significance of Memory Consolidation
Retrograde Amnesia
Suffer loss of memory for
events prior to brain injury.
Can be caused by head
injury, tumors, diseases,
strokes.
Injury interfered with the
consolidation process of
recent memories.
Older memories has
enough time to consolidate
before the injury occurred.
Memory
retrieval
S
Retrieval Processes
RECALL
• Drawing information
from memory in
response to cue or
question.
• Task in which some item
must be produced from
memory.
• E.g. Essay Qs
RECOGNITION
• Participant must judge
whether he or she has
encountered a
stimulus previously.
• E.g. Multiple-choice
Qs.
What can help memory retrieval?
S
Retrieval Cues
S Stimulus that helps one to recall a memory.
S Cue needs to recreate the context in which the original
learning occurred.
S E.g. Childhood memories might return to those who
return to their hometown and see the city buildings and
their old home.
Context Reinstatement
S When we put ourselves back into the same mental or
physical state that we were in during the initial learning.
S We can improve our ability to remember the
information.
S E.g. Memory for lists of words learned on land vs.
underwater.
Encoding Specificity
S Retrieval is most likely if the context at the time of
recall is similar to the original encoding context.
S Memory trace is specific – represents copy of original
material + your thoughts & understanding.
S Specificity has powerful effects on retrieval because the
retrieval cues must reflect the content or context of the
original stimulus.
Example:
“Something heavy” will be a good cue for the word
“piano” if you were shown the word in the context of:
“The man lifted the [piano]”
But not in the context of:
“The man tuned the [piano]”
Why Do We Forget?
Why Do We Recall the Wrong Info?
S
Forgetting
S Ebbinghaus (1964/1885)- Memory declines
with the passage of time, but the decline is
uneven, being sharpest soon after learning, and
then becoming more gradual.
• Memories decay as time passes.
• Normal metabolic processes
wear down the memory traces
until they fade & finally
disintegrate.
• New information getting added
to LTM somehow disrupts the
old information that was already
in storage.
Exceptions for new learning
Dissimilar Information
SNo interference found when the new learning consists of dissimilar
material.
SE.g. Learning how to skate will not interfere with your memory of Intro to
Psyc material.
Consistent Information
SNo interference found when the new learning is consistent with
older learned information.
SE.g. Taking college psyc course will help you remember the information
learnt in high school psyc course.
Intrusion Errors
S Memory mistakes in which someone remembers elements
that did not actually occur as part of an earlier event, so that
these other elements are mixed into the memory.
S Intrusions are often small…
E.g. Thinking you called your mum last night when it was
really 3 nights ago.
S But can be large errors…
E.g. Recalling an event that never happened.
The Misinformation Effect
S When people are presented with incorrect information
(misinformation) about an event they witnessed, this
incorrect information is often incorporated into their
original memory of an event.
S How can misinformation be introduced?
S Leading questions or through other people’s reports.
Intrusions from Schematic Knowledge
SCHEMAS
Mental
representation
that summarizes
what we know
about a certain
type of event or
situation.
When we try to
remember an
event, we rely on
Example: Our
the schema to
schema for a
make reasonable professor’s office bookshelves lined
assumptions
with books.
about what
probably
occurred.
Intrusions from Semantic Associations
Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Paradigm
Tendency to falsely recall a target word from a set list
of words centered around that target word.
Example: List of words all related to ‘sleep’, but ‘sleep’
is not on list – incorrectly remember ‘sleep’ as being on
the list.
Varieties of Memory
Explicit Memory
Implicit Memory
S
Types of explicit memory
S
Semantic Memory
S Type of explicit memory that includes knowledge
of words and concepts.
S Knowledge is not tied to any time or place.
S Also called generic memory.
S E.g. “What is the capital of Taiwan?”
Episodic Memory
S Type of explicit memory which includes memory for
specific events (episodes).
S E.g. 16th Birthday, or what you had for breakfast this
morning.
A Few Types of Episodic Memory
- Autobiographical Memory
- Flashbulb Memories
- Memory for Traumatic Events
Memory for Traumatic Events
S Sometimes traumatic events are not recalled until much later –
this can be explained by:
(a) Physical duress – e.g. sleep deprivation, head injuries, alcohol
abuse, which can disrupt memory process.
(b) Extreme stress assoc with the event may disrupt the biological
processes needed for establishing memory in the first place.
(c) Repressed – pushed out of consciousness by defense mechanisms
designed to shield a person from psychological harm.
Flashbulb Memories
S Vivid, detailed memories said to be produced by unexpected,
highly distinctive, and emotionally important events.
S Most examples involve negative events that trigger fear,
horror, or grief.
S E.g. when the Twin Towers were hit on Sept 11.
S While flashbulb memories are associated with strong
confidence in their accuracy, they are not often
associated with actual accuracy (e.g. Neisser & Harsch,
1992).
S Of course, flashbulb memories involve stress at the time
of encoding, which may enhance people’s memories – at
least for certain aspects of the event (e.g. Buchanan &
Lovallo, 2001).
Implicit memory
S
Procedural Memory
Procedural Knowledge
• Knowing how
• Ride a bike, use chopsticks, tie a shoe.
• Typically involves behaviors.
Example of Implicit-Explicit Memory
Distinction
H.M – Patient with epilepsy treated surgically; most of
hippocampus, amygdala removed.
SResulted in anterograde amnesia – couldn’t form new
explicit memories.
SCould acquire implicit memories from specialized
testing.
SCould be taught how to work his way through a maze.
SBut no recollection of ever having seen the maze or
learning how to work the maze.
Thinking
S
Mental Representations
• Content of thought – how our thoughts are
represented in the mind.
• Contents stand for some object or event, allowing us
to think about those things even in their absence.
S Mental representations can also stand for things that
exist only in our minds.
S Internal symbols, actions, images, or words.
Types of Mental Representation
Analogical
S Shares some of the physical characteristics of an object.
S Usually takes form of mental images.
S E.g. When trying to remember whether a person had short
or long hair, one will usually call to mind a mental image
of the person’s head to mentally “see” the hairstyle.
Types of Mental Representation
Symbolic
S Does not correspond to the physical characteristics of that
which it represents.
S E.g. The word ‘mouse’ does not resemble the small rodent
it represents. (as opposed to the picture of a mouse)
Mental Images
• Our mental images are like pictures.
• Neuroimaging studies show that many of the same brain
structures are active during both visual perception &
visual imagery.
• Primarily in the occipital lobe.
Classic Study of Mental Imagery
S Participants are asked to memorize the map of a fictitious
island and form a mental image of it.
S Then asked to imagine a black speck traveling from one
location to another.
S Time needed for speck to “travel” across the mental image
was directly proportional to the distance between the 2 points
on the original map.
Duck-Rabbit Study
• Picture of duck/rabbit is easily reinterpreted.
• But the corresponding mental image (duck, rabbit) is
already organized and interpreted to some extent.
• Mental images can’t be easily reinterpreted .
4 Types of
Directed Thinking
Judgment
Reasoning
Decision Making
Problem Solving
S
Judgment
S
Judgment
S Drawing conclusions from experience.
S Various steps are used to reach beyond the evidence
encountered so far.
S Involves some extrapolation and some element of risk that
the extrapolation will be mistaken.
Judgment
Example
S We conclude that we like all movies with the actor Tom
Cruise, because we have liked all the movies that we have
seen him in it.
S But this judgment may be a mistake because we might
come across a movie with him in it that we may not like.
Using Heuristics to
Make a Judgment
S Rule of thumb that can describe how humans solve
particular problems.
S Strategies that help us make judgments more quickly but
at the cost of occasional mistakes.
The Availability Heuristic
S Rule of thumb often used to assess how often one has
encountered a particular event or object.
S When examples of events come easily to mind – we conclude
that circumstance is a common one.
S Errors – very vivid events will be easily remembered but may
also be rare.
The Representativeness Heuristic
S Rule of thumb by which we estimate the probability that an
object/event belongs to a certain category based on how
prototypical it is of that category.
S Strategy assumes that each member of the category is
“representative” of that category – so we know what to expect
the next time.
S Errors – generalizing the results of a single case to other cases
or situations.
Reasoning
S
Reasoning
S Drawing implications from our beliefs.
S “If I believe in X, what other claims follow from this?”
S Deduction = Derive new assertions from premises
(assertions already in place).
S If Premise A (Engineers are good at math);
Premise B (Tao is a an engineer);
then C (Tao is good at math).
Why is Reasoning Important?
S Allows us to use our knowledge in new ways.
S E.g. We know that if it’s raining, today’s BBQ will be canceled;
we see that it is raining, so we can reason that the BBQ will be
canceled.
S Provides means of testing our beliefs.
S E.g. You reason that if someone likes you, s/he will say “yes”
with enthusiasm if you ask him/her out; you can test that
theory and find out if the person likes you.
Confirmation Bias
S Tendency to seek or endorse evidence to support one’s
beliefs, and ignore or dismiss evidence that will challenge
our beliefs.
S E.g. Compulsive gambling – remember wins vividly
which reinforces belief that I can win again, remember
losses as near wins , bad luck.
Decision Making
S
Utility Theory
S One should always consider the possible outcomes of a
decision and choose the most desirable one.
S Attractiveness of the outcome: Choose the option with
the greatest benefit & the least cost.
S Likelihood of achieving that outcome: Choose the option
that gives the greatest likelihood of achieving the things
you value.
Framing
S Our decisions can be influenced by how a question is
phrased or how our options are described.
S Affects the subjective desirability of an event by changing
the standard of reference for judging that desirability.
S E.g. Comparing all outcomes to the worse possible result
(50% failure rate); vs, comparing them to the best
possible result (50% success rate).
Problem Solving
S
Problem Solving
S The thinking we do when we know what our goal is, but
need to find a sequence of steps that will move us towards
that goal.
S Means-end Analysis: Strategy in which one continually
evaluates one’s current position & resources with respect to
one’s goal.
S What is the difference between my current state and goal?
S What means do I have available for reducing this difference?
Example of M-E Analysis
S “I want to get to class”
S What is the difference between my current state & my
goal? [Distance]
S What means do I have available for reducing this
difference? [My bike]
Means-End Analysis
S Replaces initial problem with a series of subproblems.
S Initial goal gets broken down into a series of subgoals,
and the subgoals can be broken down into smaller
subproblems.
Automaticity
S Ability to do a task without paying attention to it.
Automaticity in reading in adults
S Stroop Task
S Participant must name the color a word is printed in.
S As fast as possible.
The Stroop Effect
S Significant decrease in the speed of naming colors.
S Reading becomes automatic so participants can’t help but read
the word “red”.
S Competing responses – responses become slower than when
reading non-color related words or nonsense words.
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