Unit 2 – Memory
Section 1: Memory Processing
What is Memory?
• The ability to remember things we have
experienced, imagined, or learned
• Memory is often seen as steps in an informationprocessing system (FACTORY)
– Encoding – (The process of putting information into
digital format.)
– Storage – Hard Drive
– Retrieval – Accessing the Hard Drive
Three Processes of Memory
• These are different than types of memory
(sensory, short-term, and long-term)
Sequence of Information Processing
Information Processing
Model
1. Encoding
gone
2. Storage
Long Term Memory
3. Retrieval
All the rest
External
Stimuli
Retrieval
Sensory Registers
Attention
Short Term Memory
Encoding
•
Entering information in the memory bank
•
Example: Entering books into the library database
•
Without encoding, there can be no storage or retrieval!
Attention
• Selects certain information for further
processing
• We normally pay attention to only a small
portion of incoming information
– Divided (More than 1)
– Sustained (Vigilant)
Levels of Processing
• Increasing “depth” of processing: depth of
processing information enhances retention
Forms:
• Visual  how does it look ? (Detection)
• Phonological  how does it sound ? (recognition)
• Semantic  what does it mean ? (Associations)
• (Shallowest  Deepest)
• Criticized as not falsifiable
Encoding in Short-Term Memory
• Much information is stored in STM
phonologically (according to how it sounds)
• Some information is stored visually
• Research has shown that memory for visually
encoded information is better than
phonologically encoded information
Elaboration and Imagery
• Elaboration – Forming connections around a
stimulus
– Occurs at every level
– Spider Web of Information
• Imagery – Useful to make distinctive memories
– Case of S.
• Most people can do 5 to 9 recall terms
• S. could do over 70 (accurately in reverse, for 15 years after
exposure)
– Represented each word as a visual image
UNIT 2 - MEMORY
Section 2 - Storage and Long Term Memory
Information Processing
Model
1. Encoding
gone
2. Storage
Long Term Memory
3. Retrieval
All the rest
External
Stimuli
Retrieval
Sensory Registers
Attention
Short Term Memory
Important Details about Storage
• Span: how much info
the system can hold
• Duration: how long it
holds it for
Three Types of Memory Systems
• Sensory – Fraction of a second to several seconds
• Short Term – Up to 30 seconds
• Long Term – Up to a lifetime
• This is called the Atkinson-Shiffrin Theory
Sensory Memory
• 1st Stop brief storage of perceptual information
before it is passed to short-term memory
• The sensory registers are very large, but
information stays for only a very short time
Two types:
• iconic (visual)  about 1 sec
– implicated in photographic memory
• echoic (auditory)  5 – 10 sec
Visual and Auditory Registers
• Visual register holds images, or icons, that
represent all aspects of a visual image
– Icons normally last about ¼ second in the visual
register
• Auditory register holds echoes of sound
– Echoes can last up to several seconds in the auditory
register
• Current research has demonstrated that STM can
hold whatever is rehearsed in 1.5 to 2 seconds
• Larger amounts of information can be held by
using the process of chunking
Short Term Memory
• Closely related to “Working Memory”
• Processes conscious information for long term
storage
• Duration: no longer than 30 seconds
• Limited capacity: Magic Number = 7 ± 2 bits of
information (Memory Span)
Baddeley’s Working Memory
• Explains what Atkinson-Shiffrin cannot.
• Working Memory
– Problem solving, where do things go
– Performing Tasks while holding information
– 3 Parts
• Phonological Loop – Speech based info
• Visuospatial Working Memory – Storing visual and spatial
information
• Central Executive – attention, planning, organization
Long Term Memory
• Relatively enduring (from minutes
to years) retention of information
stored about facts, skills,
experiences
– larger capacity
– longer duration
– biggest drop within 2 years,
then levels off
– Permastore: appears to be
permanent after initial drop-off
– How you initially learn is more
important that how long ago
you studies it.
Types of Long Term Memory
EXPLICIT: information that we can recall intentionally
- AKA declarative memory
- Requires effort and awareness
•
Episodic: memory for an event where one was
present
•Example: Your 16th birthday
•
Semantic: memory of generalized knowledge
•Example: 16th President of the U.S.
Types of Long Term Memory
IMPLICIT: recalling information without doing it deliberately (not
conscious effort; unintentional)
• Procedural: memory of how something is done; motor skills and
habits
– e.g. how to tie your shoes
– Example: Classical Conditioning
• Priming: ability to identify a stimulus more easily or quickly when
similar stimuli were previously encountered
– AQUARIUM
– SWIM
– F___
Long Term Memory
• Can you think of an activity that might
necessitate three types of memory:
episodic, semantic, & procedural?
• Sports
– Episodic – what happened in the last game?
– Semantic – knowing the rules of the game
– Procedural – skills required (e.g., dribbling ball,
skating, shooting)
How Memory is Organized - Schemata
• A schema is a set of beliefs or expectations
about something based on past experience
• Incoming information is fit with existing
schemata
– concept maps
• Schemata can also influence the amount of
attention paid to a given event
– Schematic Script
Schemas
•Script: type of schema specifying set order of expected events
Remove clothes
Turn on faucet
Check water temperature
Step into shower
Soap
•Reduces cognitive effort by simplifying world
•Oversimplifying
•memory illusions
UNIT 2 SECTION 3- MEMORY
RETRIEVAL
Retrieval
• Reactivation or reconstruction of
experiences from memory storage
• Example: retrieving the correct book
from shelf in the library
Serial Position Effect (RECALL)
• People tend to recall the first items (primacy
effect) and last items (recency effect) in a list
• Demonstrates how short- and long-term
memory work together
• Primacy effect reflects long-term memory
• Recency effect reflects short-term memory
Long Term Memory
Serial Position Curve
Primacy effect
- remember early
words better
- more reps?
Recency effect
- remember late words
better
- still in STM
Von Restorff effect
- remember unique / distinctive words better
Retrieval Cues
Retrieval cues –
hints to make
it easier
• Driving past
restaurant
took girlfriend
last year
Measuring Memory
•Recall : generating previously remembered
information
•Essay questions, Jeopardy
•Recognition: selecting previously remembered
information from an array of options
•Multiple choice tests, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
Recall
• Please write down the names of the
twelve signs of the zodiac.
Recall
• By a show of hands, how many of you were
able to recall ALL TWELVE of the Zodiac
names?
Recognition
Aries
Hydra
Leo
Libra
Zeus
Minerva
Pisces
Asteria
Taurus
Gemini
Ceres
Scorpio
Sagittarius
Promethus
Capricorn
Athena
Hestia
Cancer
Virgo
Apollo
Themis
Atlas
Chronos
Aquarius
Recognition
Aries
Hydra
Leo
Libra
Zeus
Minerva
Pisces
Asteria
Taurus
Gemini
Ceres
Scorpio
Sagittarius
Promethus
Capricorn
Athena
Hestia
Cancer
Virgo
Apollo
Themis
Atlas
Chronos
Aquarius
Retrieval
• Why is it easier to recognize than to
recall?
•
Recall requires two steps:
•
Recognition only requires evaluation of
(picking) the correct answer
• generating an answer
• evaluating whether the answer is correct
Encoding Specificity
• Remember something better
when conditions of retrieval are
similar to conditions of encoding
• Context-dependent learning
• Doesn’t always replicate
• State-dependent learning
• Similar internal state
• Doesn’t always replicate
• Mood-dependent learning
Special Cases of Retrieval
• Extraordinary memory
– Includes eidetic imagery
– Likely due to well developed memory
techniques
• Flashbulb Memory – Imagery and
intense nature of event heightens
accuracy of information and engrains it
– Allows for interpretation and recreation
– Stress hormones in personal trauma
(amygdala)
• Autobiographical Memories: Special
form Episodic Memory
– (2nd and 3rd Decades of life – Novel
Experiences/Identity)
Special Topics in Retrieval
• Eyewitness testimony
– Shown to be unreliable
– People’s recall for events may be influenced by what they heard
or constructed after the incident
– Memory is reconstructed
– Memories are not stored like snapshots, but are instead like
sketches that are altered and added to every time they are
called up
– At least 255 convictions on eyewitness testimony overturned on
non-matching DNA evidence
– Witnesses overconfident in their accuracy
– Stressful situation/weapon focus
– Sequential vs. simultaneous lineups
– Blind presentation of the lineup
Special Topics in Retrieval
• Eyewitness testimony cont’d
– Elizabeth Loftus has shown subjects who are given false
information about an event or scene tend to incorporate it
into their memories, and "recall" the false information as a
part of their original memory even two weeks later.
– Loftus gives the example of the sniper attacks in the fall of
2002. "Everybody was looking for a white van even though
the bad guys ended up having a dark Chevy Caprice."
That's because some people reported seeing a white van
at the scene of the crime. "Witnesses overhear each
other," says Loftus, and police may also unintentionally
influence people's memories when they talk about a
crime.
UNIT 2 – SECTION 4 - FORGETTING
Forgetting
An inability to retrieve information
due to poor encoding, storage, or
retrieval.
Why do we forget?
• Biological Reasons
• Experience Factors
Forgetting can occur at any
memory stage. We filter,
alter, or lose much
information during these
stages.
Stress Hormones & Memory
Heightened emotions (stress-related or otherwise)
make for stronger memories.
Hormones such as Epinephrine act on brain centers in
the brain
Extreme stress undermines learning and later recall
How does this apply to an exam?
Biological Factors
• Nervous System
• Damage to the Hippocampus
– Difficulty forming new memories
– Diminished in Alzheimer’s patients
• Neurotransmitters play a role
– Acetylcholine
– Alzheimer’s patients show low levels of this
• Decay theory (Ebbinhaus)
– Memories deteriorate because of the passage of time
– Distractor Studies – information fades from STM
Bahrick (1984)
showed a
similar
pattern of
forgetting and
retaining over
50 years.
Retrieval Aspect: Motivated Forgetting
Repressed Memory: A defense
mechanism that banishes anxietyarousing thoughts, feelings, and
memories from consciousness.
* Forgets the act of forgetting
Motivated Forgetting: People
unknowingly revise their
memories.
* Where does suggestion fit in?
Sigmund Freud
Some “forgetting” isn’t
a retrieval problem at all.
Encoding Failure
We cannot remember what we do not
encode.
Retrieval Failure
Although the information is retained in the
memory store, it cannot be accessed.
• Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) is a retrieval failure
phenomenon.
• Interference
Experiences can affect Memory
• Interference
• Retroactive interference
– Occurs when new information interferes with
information already in memory
– The ‘retro’ old info is interfered with by the new
Forgetting: Decay vs. Interference
• decay: information fades
• interference: memories
compete with each other
Retroactive interference 
new info blocks old
– longtime Spanish-speaker
having difficulty with
Spanish after learning Italian
Proactive interference old
info blocks new
– difficulty learning how to
play the drums in Rock Band
if you are a longtime
drummer
Interference
• Proactive interference
– Because of proactive interference, new learning is disrupted by
old habits.
– Psychologists have found that recall of later items can be
improved by making them distinctive from early items. For
example, people being fed groups of numbers to remember did
much better when they were suddenly fed a group of words
instead. This is called release from proactive interference
Red
Yellow
Green
Blue
Red
Blue
Yellow
Green
Blue
Red
Interference
• When you look
at the words you see
both its color and meaning.
• When they are in conflict you must make a
choice
• Experience has taught you that word
meaning is more important than color so you
retrieve that information.
• You are not always in complete control of
what you pay attention to.
Interference
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon
•
Retrieval failure; we know answer but can’t
access it
State
California
Alaska
Louisiana
Wyoming
North Dakota
Vermont
New York
Capital
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon
•
Retrieval failure; we know answer but can’t
access it
State
Capital
California
Alaska
S
J
Louisiana
B
Wyoming
C
North Dakota
B
Vermont
M
New York
A
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon
•
Retrieval failure; we know answer but can’t
access it
State
Capital
California
Alaska
Sacramento
Juneau
Louisiana
Baton Rouge
Wyoming
Cheyenne
North Dakota
Bismarck
Vermont
Montpelier
New York
Albany
Prospective Memory
• Retrospect – Past Memories
• Prospective Memory – Remembering about
doing something
– Time Based vs Event Based
– Absentmindedness (Preoccupation)
– Prospective memory presents itself when
situations can lead to goal achievement
How to Reduce Forgetting
• Develop motivation
• Practice memory skills
• Be confident in your
ability to remember
• Minimize distractions
• Stay focused
• Make meaningful
connections to what is in
long-term memory
• Use mental imagery
• Use retrieval cues
• Rely on more than
memory alone
• Be aware of possible
distortion due to
schemata
UNIT 2 SECTION 5 – MEMORY
OTHER (BIOLOGICAL) APPLICATIONS OF
MEMORY
The Biology of Memory:
Two Questions For Today
• Where are memories stored?
– There is no one place
– Different parts of the brain are specialized for
different types of information
• How are memories formed?
– Changes in synaptic connections among neural
cells
– Called long-term potentiation
Long-Term Potentiation
– Strengthening of connections
between neurons over time from
repetitive stimulation
• Neurons that “fire together, wire
together”
– Thin slices of hippocampus
• See how cells respond at baseline
• Apply strong stimulus
• Cells’ response is enhanced
– LTP occurrence where sending
neuron releases glutamate
• This may enhance learning
• The Brain Module 17
Storing Memories in the Brain
1. Using rats, Lashley (1950) suggested that even after
removing parts of the brain, the animals retain
partial memory of the maze.


Concluded that there was no memory localization
(The Brain Module 16)
Through electrical stimulation of the brain, (Wilder
Penfield 1967)

Concluded that old memories were etched into the brain’s temporal lobe
1. Loftus and Loftus (1980) reviewed Penfield's data
and showed that only a handful of brain stimulated
patients reported flashbacks.

Memories are stored where they are processed!
Where Are Memories Stored?
Biology Continued - Amnesia
• Memory loss caused by accidents, surgery,
poor diet, or disease
• Retrograde amnesia
– Loss of memory from prior to an accident or injury
– Like a computer crashing without saving your
essay.
Biology Continued - Amnesia
• Anterograde – loss of events that
occurred AFTER the accident
• Retrograde – loss of events that occurred
BEFORE the accident
Accident
Retrograde
Anterograde
Biology Continued - Amnesia
• Childhood Amnesia (Infantile Amnesia)
– Generally poor memory for events prior to age 2-3
– May occur because brain is not fully developed at birth
• Hippocampus not fully formed until age 2
– May be due to a lack of a clear sense-of-self in young
children
– May be the absence of language
False Memories
False Memories
•Memories are fallible
•People are more confident in
memories than they should
be
•Source Monitoring: Lack of
clarity about origin of a memory
oWho said that?
oDream vs. Memory?
•Cryptomnesia: “Hidden
memory”
•Failure to recognize that our ideas
originated from somewhere else
Implanting False Memories
•Suggestive memory techniques: procedures that strongly
encourage people to recall memories
•Misinformation Effect:
•Creation of fictitious memories by providing misleading
info about an event after it takes place
o Lost in the mall example
Implanting False Memories
Review
• How memory operates
– Sensory, short term, long term
• 3 processes of memory
– Encoding, storage, retrieval
• Biology of memory
– Long term potentiation
• False memories
– Flashbulb memories
– Implanting false memories
– Eyewitness testimony
UNIT 2 – TIPS TO IMPROVE
MEMORY
Study Tips
• Don’t underline words in
your textbook
• Do take notes while
reading the textbook
• Don’t study by reciting
material to yourself
• Do organize the info
along the way
• Don’t cram for the test
• Do study the same
material multiple times
Creating a Concept Map?
• Dual coding – images are encoded both visually and
phonologically
• Chunking - Organizing information so that it fits into
meaningful units. This gets it into STM.
• Listen to music but not the lyrics! Domain specific
working memory systems!
• LTM storage is by meaning
• Overcomes serial positioning effect
• Forces elaborative rehearsal
• Creates Psychology schemata (categories =>
hierarchies)
Rehearsal
Effortful learning
usually requires
rehearsal or conscious
repetition.
Ebbinghaus studied
rehearsal by using
nonsense syllables:
TUV YOF GEK XOZ
Hermann Ebbinghaus
(1850-1909)
Rehearsal
The more times the
nonsense syllables were
practiced on Day 1,
the fewer repetitions
were required to
remember them on Day
2.
Maintaining Memory
• Rehearsal: repeating information mentally
Maintenance (rote) rehearsal : repeating original form
- phone number
- This technique is not very effective in creating long
term memories
- Creates no meaning
Elaborative rehearsal : link them in some meaningful
way (visualize, understand relationship)
Improving Short Term Memory
Maintenance Rehearsal
• Repeating an item over and over
– “The shoe is brown, plain, and has no laces.”
• Good for memory over a short period of time
Maintenance Rehearsal Example
Maintenance
Rehearsal
“The shoe is brown, plain, and has no laces.”
Minutes
Elaborative Rehearsal
• Linking new info to what’s already in memory
– “This shoe has no laces and is so plain, it reminds me of
my crazy friend George who went insane.”
• Goal is to understand, not memorize
Elaborative Rehearsal Example
Elaborative
Rehearsal
“The shoe has no laces and is so
plain, it reminds me of my crazy friend George who went insane.”
Hours, Months, Years
FBICIANBCFOX
Chunking
FBICIANBCFOX
Organizing items into a familiar, manageable
unit. Try to remember the numbers below.
1-7-7-6-1-4-9-2-1-8-1-2-1-9-4-1
If you are well versed with American history,
chunk the numbers together and see if you
can recall them better. 1776 1492 1812 1941.
HOMES = Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior
PEMDAS = Parentheses, Exponent, Multiply, Divide, Add, Subtract
ROY G. BIV = Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet
Spacing Effect
Distributing rehearsal (spacing effect) is better
than practicing all at once.
Mnemonics
A trigger to aid memory, involving prompts
such as visual imagery or sounds.
Since iimagery is at the heart of memory.
Mnemonic techniques use vivid imagery in
aiding memory.
1. Method of Loci
2. Link Method
Method of Loci
• Thing of a familiar building, such as your house.
• Take a moment to conduct a mental walk through the rooms in your
house.
• Make sure you can move easily from one room to another.
• Along your route create a list of "loci" :i.e. well defined parts of the
room that you can use later to memorize things. A locus can be a
door, a bed, a oven, etc.
• Be sure that you can easily go from locus to locus as you visit the
house.
• Now, when you are faced with a list of words or ideas to be
memorized, you must form visual images for each of the words and
place them, in order, on the loci in your route. To recall the words or
ideas now you take a mental walk throughout your house, asking
yourself , "What is on the living-room door? What's on the sleeping
room bed. What's in the oven?" And so on.
Link Method
List of Items
Newspaper
Shaving cream
Pen
Umbrella
.
.
.
Lamp
Involves forming a mental image of items to be
remembered in a way that links them together.
Hierarchy
Complex information broken down into broad
concepts and further subdivided into categories
and subcategories.
Retrieval Cues
Memories are held in storage by a web of
associations. These associations are like anchors
that help retrieve memory.
water
smell
fire
smoke
Fire Truck
heat
truck
red
hose
Priming
To retrieve a specific memory from the web of
associations, you must first activate one of the
strands that leads to it. This process is called
priming.