Unit 7 – Ch. 9
MEMORY - ENCODING
Chapter 9: Memory
Memory
• Memory: persistence
of learning over time
via the storage and
retrieval of
information.
• Gives us our sense of
self and connects us to
past experiences.
Vivid Memories
• Flashbulb Memories: clear
memory of an emotionally
significant event or moment.
• Usually personally meaningful
or historically significant.
• 9/11
• Birth of a child
• Graduation
• Natural disasters
Memory as Information Processing
•
Memory is similar to a computer (write to file, save to disk,
read from disk).
•
3 Basic Steps to Memory:
1. Encoding: getting information into the memory system.
• File Cabinet
• Needs to be organized
2. Storage: the retention of the encoded information over
time.
3. Retrieval: process of getting information out of the
memory system.
Three Stage Processing Model of Memory
• Stage One: The initial recording of sensory information in the memory
system is referred to as sensory memory.
• Stage Two: sensory memories are processed into short term memory
your activated memory which can only hold a minimal amount of
information.
• Stage Three: short term memories are encoded into long-term
memory, the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse from which
we retrieve.
Concept of Working Memory
• Working Memory: similar to short-term
memory but focuses more on manipulation of
information.
• Working Memory and Short-Term Memory are
both quite limited in capacity and duration.
• You can only hold so much information in your
working memory at one given time.
• Magic Number tends to be 7 +/- 2.
Process of Encoding: 2 Types
Encoding
Effortful
Automatic
Types of Encoding
• Automatic Processing
• unconscious encoding of incidental information
• space
• time
• frequency
• well-learned information
• word meanings
• we can learn automatic processing
• reading backwards
Automatic Processing: Reading Backwards
• Reading backwards requires effort at first but
after practice becomes automatic.
• .citamotua emoceb nac gnissecorp luftroffE
• Automatic processing allows us to do multiple
things at once and re-illustrates the concept of
parallel processing.
Effortful Processing
• Effortful Processing: type of encoding that requires
attention and conscious effort.
• Ex: Learning new vocabulary terms, memorizing historical
events/chronology, etc.
• Encoding can be aided by maintenance rehearsal: simple
rote repetition of information in consciousness or even more
successfully by elaborate rehearsal: processing of
information for meaning which can more easily help produce
long term memories.
King of Memory Experiments is Hermann
Ebbinghaus
• Wanted to research
capacity of verbal memory.
• Looked to study to see
capacity of peoples’
memories to study strings of
non-sense syllables.
• Ex: JIH, FUB, YOX, XIR,
General Findings
• 1. Next in Line Effectdon’t concentrate/remember
when you know you are going
to have to speak next
• 2. Info right before we sleep
is not remembered
• 3. Taped info is not
remembered
Findings of Ebbinghaus
• 4. Practice makes perfect. The more
rehearsal he did on day 1, the less rehearsal
it took to learn the syllables again on day 2.
Over learning increased retention.
• 5. The Spacing Effect: the tendency for
studying over a long period of time produces
better long term retention than is achieved
through massed study or practice. SPACED
STUDYING BEATS CRAMMING!!!
Findings of Ebbinghaus
• 6. Serial Position Effect: our tendency to recall best
the last and first items in a list. Ex: Presidents
Types of Encoding
• Semantic Encoding: encoding of meaning, including the meaning of
words…
• yields best memory.
• Acoustic Encoding: the encoding of sound, especially the sound of
words….
• usually the least effective.
• “ if
the glove doesn’t fit , you must acquit”
• Visual Encoding: the encoding of picture images.
• Self Reference Effect- do better on things we relate back to
ourselves
Example
• 1. Is the word in capital letters?
• Visual
• 2. Does the word rhyme with train?
• Acoustic
• 3. Would the word GUN fit in this sentence.
The girl put the ___ on the table
• Semantic
Types of Encoding
Encoding Imagery
• Imagery: creating mental pictures, helps
effortful processing especially when combined
with semantic encoding.
• Recall of events is often colored by highest
joys and lowest lows of events…usually
remember events differently than you
evaluated them at the time.
• Mneumonics: memory aids, often use vivid
imagery and organizational devices.
Organizing Information for Encoding
• Chunking
• organizing items into familiar, manageable units
• like horizontal organization- 1776149218121941
• 1776 1492 1812 1941
• Phone numbers
• often occurs automatically
• use of acronyms
• HOMES- Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior
• A way to get over the 7 +/- 2 rule
Process of Chunking: Organized
Information is More Easily Remembered
Hierarchies
• Organized info. is remembered better
 complex
information broken down into
broad concepts and further subdivided into
categories and subcategories
Encoding
(automatic
or effortful)
Meaning
(semantic
Encoding)
Imagery
(visual
Encoding)
Chunks
Organization
Hierarchies
Memory Demo 1
ZIN
LTD
VEX
KZF
ABC
QBJ
CUG
WCF
CXK
TAJ
PSK
THR
DAZ
PBS
BNK
BIP
Demo 2
• Bed Quilt Dark Silence Fatigue Clock
Snoring Night Toss Tired Night
Toss Tired
Night artichoke Turn Night Rest Dream