Memory
 Memory
 persistence of learning over time through the
storage and retrieval of information
Encoding: Getting Information
In
Encoding
Automatic
Effortful
Effortful Encoding
 Rehearsal: conscious repetition of information
 Types
 Maintenance Rehearsal: rote memory
 Elaborative Rehearsal: associating unlike terms
 Deep Processing: understand meaning
Effortful Encoding
 Imagery
 mental pictures
 Mnemonics
 techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational
devices
Effortful Encoding
 Chunking
 organizing items into familiar, manageable units
• XIBMCIAFBICBSMTV
• X IBM CIA FBI CBS MTV
Encoding Phenomena
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•
•
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Serial Position Effect
Next-in-Line Effect
Sleep Effect
Spacing Effect
– Distributed practice over mass practice
Storage
 Sensory Memory
 the immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the
memory system
 extremely temporary
 Iconic memory
 Echoic memory
 determine what needs to passed on and what does not
 bypassed by rehearsal techniques
Storage
 Short-Term Memory
 consciously activated memory that holds a few items
briefly
 our mental scratch pad
 will hold approx. 7 +/- 2 items
 time and space limited
Storage
 Long-Term Memory
 the relatively permanent and limitless
storehouse of the memory system
Storage: Long-Term Memory
Subsystems
Types of
long-term
memories
Explicit
(declarative)
With conscious
recall
Facts-general
knowledge
(“semantic
memory”)
Personally
experienced
events
(“episodic
memory”)
Implicit
(nondeclarative)
Without conscious
recall
Skills-motor
and cognitive
Dispositionsclassical and
operant
conditioning
effects
Retrieval
•
Encoding Specificity Principle: retrieval is affected by
encoding situations
– context: things going on internally (mood congruent
memory) and externally (environment) while encoding
– physical state: if under the influence of a substance
such as caffeine while encoding, will best retrieve
under the influence of that substance (state dependent
retrieval)
Retrieval
 Recall
 measure of memory in which the person must
retrieve information learned earlier
 as on a fill-in-the blank test
 Recognition
 Measure of memory in which the person has only to
identify (recognize) items previously learned
 as on a multiple-choice test
Retrieval Cues
 Deja Vu (French)--already seen
 Often causes the eerie feeling of “having experienced
before”
 cues from a current situation may subconsciously trigger
retrieval of an earlier similar experience (priming)
 Flashbulb memories
 Vivid recollection of often emotional events
 Where were you when the 911 attacks took place?
Biological Basis of Memory
 Synaptic changes
 Long-term Potentiation
 increase in synapse’s firing potential of memory
neurons after brief, rapid stimulation
 Strong emotions make for stronger memories
 some stress hormones boost learning and retention
 Hippocampus