Memory
Information processing
Encoding - Getting information in
Storage - Retaining information
Retrieval - Getting information out
Automatic & Effortful processing
Encoding - Getting information in
Types on Encoding
Visual - Images are more easily remembered
than abstract concepts
Acoustic - Sounds (hearing the word)
Songs
Semantic - Meaning - (for words)
Self-reference effect
You remember items that refer to yourself
Rehearsal (continuous repetition)
Spacing Effect
Ebbinghaus’s retention
curve
We retain information
better when study time is
spaced out
Spaced study beats
cramming - E.g. 12 - 5
minute segments beat
one hour of study
Instant encoding & storage
Flashbulb memories
9-11
Titanic
President Kennedy
Space Shuttle Challenger
Serial Position Effect
We remember the first and last items better
than ones in the middle.
Mnemonics - Encoding Imagery
Mnemonics (Greek for memory)
Method of Loci
Chunking
License plate
Phone #
Words
Association
E.g. Grocery list
Mnemonics (cont.)
“Peg word” system
Numbers into pictures
1 = Bun
2 = Shoe
3 = Tree
4 = Door
5 = Hive
6 = Sticks
7 = Heaven
8 = Gate
9 = Swine
10 = Hen
 Attach items to be
remembered to the pictures
Storage - Retaining information
Iconic (sensory) memory - Movie frames
Tenths of a second
Short term memory - Phone #
Few minutes
Long term memory - Experiences
Years
Long term memories
Test
Trip to Egypt
Bike riding
Something was fun
Memory decay
Brain (synaptic) changes
Long-term potentiation (LTP)
Stimulating neurons increased efficiency
Sending neuron released its neurotransmitter more easily
Receptor sights may increase.
May explain why experience and repetition can increase
memory.
Retrieval - (Remembering)
Retrieval cues
Priming
Memories are held by a web of associations identify one strand and it leads to others
Associations
E.g. Wedding song
Retrieval cues can be sights, sounds, smells and tastes
Forgetting
Encoding failure
You did not learn it
Names are forgotten because they were never
encoded.
Storage decay
Penny example
Retrieval Failure
You can not remember it
Proactive (forward-acting) interference
Earlier learning reduces later learning
Retroactive (backward-acting) interference
Later learning reduces earlier learning
Retrieval Failure (Cont.)
Retrieval Failure (Cont.)
Memory Construction
Misinformation effect
Given misinformation about an event someone
experienced, they misremember the event.
Source amnesia
(Source misattribution)
You remember something as real, but forget the
source of the memory (e.g. a movie).
E.g. After repeatedly hearing false detailed accounts
of an accident you were in, you begin to mistakenly
“remember” that these events actually occurred.
(You forgot that they were told to you)
Repressed or constructed memories
Therapeutic techniques such as guided imagery can
easily encourage construction of false memories.
Memories “recovered” under hypnosis or drugs are
particularly unreliable.