Memory and Thought
Unit 6
Exploring Psychology
• John Kingsley came to our attention in a shocking news
story about an 83-year-old Alzheimer’s patient who was
found unattended in his wheelchair at a dog race track
outside of Spokane, Washington. Attached to his chair a
note misidentifying him. John did not know who he was
or how he got to the races. He could not help authorities
find his family or his previous caregivers. John Kingsley,
like many other patients during advanced stages of
Alzheimer’s disease, is alive, but without life. Without a
memory of his past, or the ability to remember anything
new, John’s life is nothing but the existing moment.
-from Psychology: Science, Behavior, and Life by R.H. Ettinger, Robert L. Crooks, and Jean Stein,
1994.
The
• Which would be more frightening to you –
not being able to remember the past or not
being able to learn anything new? Why?
Ever Had a Day Like This???
•
You get to school and realize you
forgot your lunch at home. You take a
test and you can't remember half the
answers. You see the new kid who just
joined your class, and you can't
remember his name. Some days, it
seems like your brain is taking a
holiday--you can't remember anything!
Memory
• The storage and retrieval of what has been
learned or experienced.
– Who were your friends in eighth grade?
– Who sings your favorite song?
The Process of Memory
• Encoding
– The transforming of information so the
nervous system can process it.
• Acoustic
• Visual
• Semantic
• Storage
– The process by which information is
maintained over a period of time.
• Retrieval
– The process of obtaining information that has
been stored in memory.
What do you see?
You will have twenty seconds to look at the picture.
How many items can you name?
What do you hear?
Our Memory Is Like
A Filing Cabinet…
Three Stages of Memory
• Sensory
– Very brief memory storage immediately following
initial stimulation of a receptor.
• Short-term
– Memory that is limited in capacity to about seven items
and in duration by the subject’s active rehearsal.
• Long-term
– Memory that is stored over extended periods of time.
Sensory Memory
• Sight and hearing.
– Iconic – visual playback
– Echoic – auditory playback
• Hold memory for fractions of a second.
• If it is not important it will be lost.
• Serves three functions:
– Prevents you from being overwhelmed.
– Gives you some decision time.
– Allows for continuity and stability
Short-Term Memory
• A few things (no more than seven) for a short
period.
• Maintenance rehearsal
– Keeping information for a short period by repeating it
to your self. (example: phone number).
• Chunking
– The process of grouping items to make them easier to
remember.
• Kept in short term memory for less than 20
seconds. If it is important it will be transferred to
long-term memory. If not, it will be lost.
Find the Real Penny
Chunking
• MTVCIACCCFBIMIALOLBRBONFRWL
TBAFYINISNCISTCSUASSCCPWBHS
milk
cheese
butter
eggs
flour
apples
grapes
shampoo
bread
ground beef
cereal
catsup
green beans
jelly
(cont.)
• Primacy-recency
– Refers to the fact that we are better able to recall
information presented at the beginning and end of a list
• Primacy – the first few on the list because of rehearsal time
• Recency – the last few on the list because they are still
accessible for short-term memory.
• Working memory (aka short-term)
– Short-term memory + information from long-term that
has been recalled for current information.
Long-Term Memory
• Types:
– Semantic
• Knowledge of language, including its rules, words, and
meaning.
– Recalling the first five presidents.
– Episodic
• Memory of one’s life, including time of occurrence.
– Recalling where you went on your 13th birthday.
– Declarative
• Memory of knowledge that can be called forth consciously as
needed.
– Suddenly thinking of a friend’s name without knowing why.
– Procedural
• Memory of learned skills that does not require conscious
recollection (swimming, riding a bike, fear of bugs).
Three Systems of Memory
Maintenance
Rehearsal
Sensory
Input
Sensory
STM
Memory
(Working)
Unattended
information is
quickly lost
Unrehearsed
information is
quickly lost
LTM
Some information
may be lost over
time
Stages of Memory
Sensory
Memory
Short-term
Memory
Long-term
Memory
Capacity
Virtually
About 7 items in
everything you see healthy adults
or hear at one
instant
Vast, uncountable
Duration
Fraction of a
second
Less than 20
seconds if not
rehearsed.
Perhaps a lifetime.
Example
You see something
for an instant, and
then someone asks
you to recall one
detail
You look up a
telephone number
and remember it
long enough to
dial it
You remember the
house where you
lived when you
were 7 years old
Retrieving Information
Exploring Psychology
What a Memory!
• Rajan Mahadevan stood before the packed house of the International Congress
on Yoga and Meditation. He recieted, from memory, the first 30,000 digits of
pi, which is often rounded off to two decimal points, of 3.1Rajan Mahadevan
stood before the packed house of the International Congress on Yoga and
Meditation. He recieted, from memory, the first 30,000 digits of pi, which is
often rounded off to two decimal points, of 3.14. He did not err until the
31,812th digit. This feat took 3 hours and 44 minutes and earned him a place
in the Guinness Book of World Records…
Rajan can repeat a string of 60 numbers after a single hearing, while
most of us can repeat and average of about seven random numbers. Rajan is
one of only a half-dozen people in the world know to have such gargantuan
memory powers.
Despite Rajan’s unbelievable ability to memorize numbers, he seems to
be worse than average at recalling faces, and he constantly forgets where he
put his keys.
-adapted from Introduction to Psychology by Rod Plotnki, 1996
The Question
• What are your best functions of memory.
• How good are you at names?
• How good are you at faces?
Ever Had Days Like This???
The Key to Memory…
Ways to Retrieve
• Recognition
• Can you name the names of all your teachers since
first grade?
• You may not remember the names of your teachers
but chances are you would remember it if you heard
it.
– Memory retrieval in which a person identifies
an object, idea, or situation as one he or she has
or has not experienced before.
George Clooney
Nancy Pelosi
Anna Nicole Smith
James Spann
Katie Couric
Bugs Bunny
Captain Kangaroo
• Recall
– Memory retrieval in which a person
reconstructs previously learned material.
– Remembering is an active process guided by
our experience, knowledge, and cues we
receive from the environment.
Recite the
Preamble to the Constitution
• We the People of the United States, in
Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic
Tranquility, provide for the common
defence, promote the general Welfare, and
secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves
and our Posterity, do ordain and establish
this Constitution for the United States of
America.
Types of Recall
• Reconstructive Processes
– The alteration of a recalled memory that may be simplified,
enriched, or distorted, depending on an individual’s experiences,
attitudes, or inferences.
• Confabulation
– The act of filling in memory gaps.
• Schemas
– Conceptual frameworks a person uses to make sense of the word.
– What does the word flipped mean to you?
• Eidetic Memory
– The ability to remember with great accuracy visual information on
the basis of short-term exposure.
– Children tend to exhibit this recall more so than adults.
• Both recognition and recall are declarative
memory.
• Define it:
– Memory of knowledge that can be called forth
consciously as needed.
I Can’t Believe I Forgot!!!
Forgetting is Normal
• It’s called decay.
• Interference
– Blockage of a memory by previous or subsequent memories.
• Proactive
– An earlier memory blocks you from remembering related new
information.
» You’ve moved to a new home and have trouble remembering your
new phone number and address because you know your other one.
• Retroactive
– A later memory or new information blocks you from remembering
information learned earlier.
» You’ve moved to a new home and have learned your new address
and phone number. Now you have trouble recalling your old
address and phone number.
A Way to Remember
• Mnemonic devices
– Techniques for using
associations to memorize
and retrieve information.