Psychology Study Guide Chapter 8
 Memory refers to the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of
information and skills
 Recall is analogous to “fill in the blank” you retrieve info previously learned and
unconsciously stored
 Recognition is a form of “multiple choice” you identify which stimuli match your stored
information
 Reinforcement – measure of how much less work it takes you to learn information you had
studied before you don’t recall having seen the information before
 Eroding: info gets into our brains in a way that allows it to be stored
 Storage: the information is held in a way that allows it to later be retrieved
 Retrieval- retracting and recalling the information producing it in a form similar to what was
encoded
 Atkinson-Shriffin Model (1968)
 Stimuli are recorded by our senses and held briefly in our sensory memory
 Some of the info is processed in to short term memory and encoded through rehearsal
 Info then moves into long term memory where it can be retrieved later
 Modifying the model
 More goes into short term memory besides rehearsal this is now called working
memory
 Some information seems to go straight from sensory experience into long term
memory this is automatic processing
 from stimuli to short term memory
 some of the stimuli we encounter are picked up by our sense and are processed by
the sensory organs this generates info which enters the sensory memory
 before this information vanishes from sensory memory we select details to pay
attention to and send this information into working memory for rehearsal and then
processing
 working memory: functions
 hold info not just to rehearse it but to process it (such as hearing a word problem in
math and doing it in your hear)
 short term memory integrates info from long term memory with new information
coming in form sensory memory
 dual track processing – explicit/implicit memories
 explicit/declarative memories are facts and experiences that we can consciously know
and recall
 info through effortful processing – formed through studying rehearsing thinking
processing and then storing info in long term memory
 some memories formed without going through all Atkinson-Shriffin stages – implicit
memories – ones not fully aware
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automatic processing – forms without our awareness that we are building a memory
and without rehearsal of other processing in working memory
automatic processing
 some experiences go directly to long term implicit memory without any effortful
working memory processing
 procedural memory – riding a bike
 conditioned associations: a certain smell associated with a place
 info about space: picturing a room
 info about time: retracing events up to when you lost something
 frequency: 3rd time that had happened
sensory memory
 refers to the immediate very brief recording of sensory info before it is processed into
short term, working, or long term memory
 we very briefly capture a sensory memory analogous to an echo of an image of all
the sensations we take in
 How brief? Sensory memory consists of 3.5 seconds for an echo and ½ a second for
images
 evidence auditory sensory memory called echoic memory – ex: when a teacher asks
what they just said and you can repeat it even if you were not paying attention
 evidence of visual sensory (iconic) memory
 George Sperling (born 1934) exposed people to a 1/20th of a second view of a
grid of letters followed by a tone which told them which row of letters to pull
from iconic memory and recall
 Without the tone people recalled 50% of letters with tone recall for any rows
was 100%
Capacity short term and working memory
 George miller (born 1910) pronounced we can hold 7 +/- info bits
 Most recent research suggest average person with no distraction can hold
 7 digits 6 words and 5 words
 Working memory which uses rehearsal focus analysis linking and other processing has
greater capacity of working memory varies some people have better concentration
Duration short term memory
 Lloyd Peterson and Margret Peterson wanted to know the duration of short term
memory (1959)
 People trisects of consonants (three consonants grouped together)
 People rehearsing = give distracting task
 People tested various times for recall after about 12 seconds most memory
consonants had decayed and would not be retrieved
Encoding
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 Effortful processing strategy – a way to encode information into memory to keep it from
decaying and makes it easier to retrieve
 Effortful processing is also known as studying
 Chinking (grouping)
 Mnemonics: images maps and key words
 Hierarchies and categories
 Rehearsal – especially distributed practice
 Deep processing
 Sematic processing
 Making information personally meaningful
Chunking
 Easier to encode in chunking
 Chunking- organizing detail into manageable units
 Works best if they are in meaningful groups
Mnemonics
 Encode better with the help of images
 Mnemonics is a memory trick that connects imagery or structure
 A peg word system refers to the technique of visual associating new words with an
existing list that is already memorized along with numbers
Hierarchies/categories
 More likely to recall a concept if we encode it in a hierarchy – a branching set of
categories and sub-categories
Rehearsal/distributed process
 Massed practice refers to cramming info in all at once, which is not time effective
 Spacing effect – 1st by Herman E. in the late 1800’s develop better retention and recall
especially in long run same amount many shorter periods
 Not study every day longer time between study sessions. Better the long term retention
fewer sessions you need (Harry B)
 Testing effect (Henry Roeoliger1947) found if you distributed practice including testing
having to answer questions about the material you will learn more and retain more than
if you just re-read
Deep/sematic processing
 More likely to retain if we deeply process even a simple word list by focusing on the
sematic (meaning of the words)
 Shallow processing = memorizing sound/appearance of the words
Make information personally meaningful
 We can memorize a set of instructions easily if we know what they mean – not just a list
of words
 Takes 1/10th the effort of memorizing nonsense syllables
 Self-reference effect – relating material to yourself
Memory storage: capacity and location
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 Brain not like a hard drive, not a file but an overlapping system of neural networks
 Brain long term memory storage does not get full it get more elaborately rewired and
interconnected
 Part of each memory can be distributed throughout the brain
 Karl Lashley (1880-1958) showed that rats who had learned a maze retained parts of
that memory even when various small parts of their brain were removed
Memory processing in the brain
 Different storage and retrieval/activation system in the brain for explicit/declarative
memory and for implicit/procedural memory
 When emotions become involved yet another part of the brain can mark/flag memories
for quick recall
 Storage occurs by changing how neurons link to each other in order to make al used
neuron networks of neurons easier to activate together
Explicit memory processing
 Explicit/declarative memories: facts such as meanings of words
 Retrieval and use of explicit memories which is in a part of working memory or
executive function is directed by frontal lobes
 Encoding and storage of explicit memories is facilitated by the hippocampus events and
facts are held there for a couple of days before consolidating involving other parts of the
brain for long term storage much of consolidation occurs during sleep
Implicit memory processing
 Implicit memories include skills procedures and coordinated associations
 Cerebellum “little brain” forms and stores other conditioned responses
 Basal ganglia, next to thalamus, controls movement and forms ad stores procedural
memory and motor skills
Infantile amnesia
 Implicit memory from infancy can be rehearsal including skills and conditioned
responses however explicit memories our recall for episodes only goes back to about
three for most people
 Nearly three year blanks in our memories has been called infantile amnesia
 Encoded memories not stored well because hippocampus and last areas of the brain to
develop
 We have verbal minds – preverbal memories as declarative memories
Emotions and memories
 Strong emotions especially stress can strengthen memory formation
 Flashbulb memories refer to emotionally intense events that become “burned in” as
vivid seemingly memory
 Flashbulb memories not as accurate as they feel
 Vividly strong information about dangers may have helped our ancestors survive
Emotions stress hormones the amygdala and memory
 Emotions can trigger rise in stress hormones
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 Hormones trigger activity in the amygdala located next to memory forming
hippocampus
 Amygdala increases memory forming activity and engages frontal lobes and basal
ganglia to “tag” the memories that are important
 As a result memories are stored with more sensory and emotional details
 Details can trigger a rapid and unintended recall of memory
 Traumatized people can have intrusive recall that can be so vivid it feels like they are
re-experiencing the event
Synaptic changes
 When people form memories their neurons release neurotransmitters to other neurons
across the synapses the junctions between neurons
 With repetition they synapses undergo long term potentiation – signals are sent across
the synapse more effectively
 Synaptic changes include a reduction in the prompting needed to send a signal and an
increase in the number of neurotransmitter receptor sites
Messing with long term potentiation
 Chemicals and shocks that prevent long term potentiation (LTP) can prevent learning
and even erase recent learning
 Preventing LTP keeps new memories form consolidating into long term memories, for
example, mice forget how to run a maze
 Drugs that boost LTP help mice learn a maze more quickly and with less mistakes
Memory retrieval
 Recall: some people through proactive visual strategies or biological differences have
the ability to solve and recall 1000’s of words and digits and reproduce them later
 Recognition: some people are unable to form new memories especially of episodes
although they would not recall a puzzle solving lesson the still might be able to solve
the puzzle easier each lesson
 Our storage/recall capacity virtually unlimited
 Capacity recognition > recall
 Relearning hindsight that memories are there even if we cannot recall forming them
Relearning
 More you review the less you have to learn latter
Retrieval cues
 Retrieval challenge memory is not sorted as something that can be retrieved by
searching alphabetically
 Instead it is like a web of associations
 Conceptual
 Contextual
 Emotional
 Memory involves a web of associated concepts
Priming
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 Priming triggers a thread of associations that bring us to a concept, just as a spider finds
movement in its web and follows it to find the bug
 Our minds work by having one thing trigger another his maintains a flow of thought
 Priming has been called invisible memory because if affects us unconsciously
 May have biases and associations stored in memory that also influence our choices
Context: dependent memory
 Part of the web of associations of a e=memory is context what else was going on at the
time we formed the memory
 We retrieve a memory more easily when in the same context was when we formed the
memory
State dependent memory
 Memories not just linked to external context when we learned them
 Memories can be ties to emotional state we were in when we formed the memory
 Mood congruent memory refers to the tendency to selectively recall details that are
consistent with one’s current mood
Serial position effect
 Serial position effect refers to the tendency when learning information in a long list to
more likely recall the first terms (primary effect) and the last items
Forget
 Remember everything – cant prioritize important memories
 Hard to think abstractly and making connections if our brain was devoted to compiling
isolated bits of information
 Lead forgetting
 Brain damage
 Encoding failure
 Storage decay
 Retrieval failure
 Interference
 Motivated forgetting
 Hyper-thymesia recalls everything and cannot forget anything
Two track mind
 Removal of someone’s hippocampus rendered them unable to form any new memories
Brain damage and amnesia
 Retrograde amnesia is the inability to retrieve memory of past
 Anterograde amnesia – inability to form new long term declarative memories
 No sense of time has passes since the brain damage
 Retrograde
 Head injury and emotional trauma usually temporarily
 Caused more severe brain damage, may include anterograde amnesia
 Anterograde
 No past trauma memories formed
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 Encoding
 Never paid attention details and didn’t select from sensory memory to hold into
working memory
 Storage decay
 In long term memory may be in short term memory if never encoded
 LTP in reverse unused connections/networks
 Decay tends to level off
 What doesn’t decay fast tends to stay intact long term
 Retrieval failure
 Sometimes memory itself does not decay instead what decays are the associations and
links that help us find our way to the stored memory
 As a result some stored memories seem just below the surface I know that name is
starts with a B…
 To prevent retrieval failure when storing and retrieving memories you can build multiple
associations linking images in categories lists and sues
 Interference and proactive transfer
 Downside of forgetting is that old memories can interfere with each other making it
difficult to store and retrieve new ones
 Occasionally opposite happens in proactive transfer, old info makes it easier to learn
new related information
 Proactive interference occurs when past information interferes in with learning new
information
 Retroactive interference and sleep
 Occurs when new stimuli and learning interferences with the storage and retrieval of
previously formed memories
 Study = do better of study + sleep vs. study + stay active
 Creating restricting and retrieving passwords
 Need to be stored in memories for safety passwords should be different and a mix of
numbers and symbols at least 10 digits long. How will we remember so many
passwords?
 Strategies
 Use familiar retrieval sues – not too obvious
 Minimize interference by repeating passwords or patterns
 Rehearse passwords regularly
 Motivated forgetting
 Memory is fail-able and changeable and we can practice motivated forgetting that is
choosing to forget or change our memories
 Sigmund Freud believed we sometimes made an unconscious effort to bury our
anxiety provoking memories and hide them from conscious awareness – called this
repression
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New techniques if psychotherapy and medication institutes may allow us to erase
“prevent reconsolidation” of recalled memories
 Recall is full of errors
 People try not to think about painful memories, fail to rehearse those memories
they can fade
Forgetting
 Can happen at any stage
 As we process information we alter of lose much of it
Why memory is full of errors
 Memory not any gets forgotten but it get constructed (imagined,, selected, changed)
 Altered every time we recall (actively reconstruct them, altered again when we
reconsolidate them so the memory changes when it goes into long term storage
 Later info alters earlier info
 No matter how accurate our ideas of memory seems they are full of alterations
Implanted memories
 Inaccurate adding of details
 Visualizing activates smaller brain areas
 Help people recall and plant false memory
 How you recall memory is by how it feels
Source amnesia/misattribution
 Source amnesia – forgetting where the story came from and attributing the source to
your own experience
De ja vu
 Already seen
 Refers to the feeling that you’re in a situation that you’ve seen or been in before
 We can feel certain that we’ve seen a situation before even when we have not, can be
seen as a source amnesia – a memory (from current sensory memory) that we
misattribute as being from long term memory
 Sense of familiarity and recognition kicks in too soon and our brain explains is as being
caused by prior experience
Constructed memories
 Tend to alter our memories to fit our current view, explains why hindsight bias feels like
you are telling the truth
 Kids have underdeveloped frontal lobes they are even more prone to implanted
memories
 kids – imagined events are hard to differentiate from experienced events
 Can’t ask leading questions
Recovered memories of past abuse
 Can people recover memories after thoroughly repressed/forgotten
 False memories implanted by leading questions may not people reporting events that
didn’t happen may believe that they are telling the truth
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 False accusations sometimes happen even if they don’t mean to
 Understanding past abuse
 Repressed memories are rare unreported memories abuse common
 People don’t rehearse memories eventually fade
 An implanted/constructed memory can be just as troubling and more confusing thatn
the memory from direct experience
 Grades
 Learn more than one day many retrieval cues
 Examples and connections
 Minimize interference
 Multiple study sessions
 Test yourself, teach others
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