MEMORY & THOUGHT
CHAPTER 3
OBJECTIVES
• Describe the concept of information processing
• Identify the different types of memory systems
• Explain the different theories that account for memory
• Describe the psychological perspective on thought
• Define problem-solving and outline the development of
problem-solving strategies
MEMORY AS A FILING SYSTEM
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Pledge of Allegiance
5th grade classroom
Lines from your favorite movie
State capitals
• How do we solve problems?
• How do we create ideas?
MEMORY
Memory – the ability to retain
information through the processes
of encoding, storing and retrieving
INFORMATION PROCESSING
• Psychologists refer to all cognitive and mental
activities (from memorizing lists, writing poems,
recalling learned information) as information
processing
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Three steps of I.P.
1. Encoding
2. Storage
3. Retrieval
MEMORY THEORIES
• Molecular Theory (James McConnell)
• Memory stored in RNA molecules
• Example: Flatworm experiment
McConnell made the astonishing discovery that memory has an
identifiable chemical basis. He trained flatworms to run mazes, and
noted how long it took to do so. (The mazes were extremely simple T
shapes. The planarian goes in the bottom foot of the T. Food goes in one
of the top arms, always the same one. Untrained planaria swim up the T
and then turn one way or the other at random; trained planaria know to
head toward the arm where the food always is. Pretty impressive, for a
worm.)
Then McConnell took the trained worms and ground them up and fed
them to untrained worms. The untrained worms learned to run the maze
a lot faster than the original worms had, apparently demonstrating that
there was some sort of information in the trained worms that survived
being ground up and ingested. The hypothesis was that the information
was somehow encoded in RNA molecules, and could be physically
transferred from one individual to another.
MEMORY THEORIES
• Holistic Theory (Karl Lashley)
• Memories stored in “Whole brain”
Neural Circuitry Theory
Memories cause neurochemical and structural
changes in the brain
ENCODING
• Encoding – storing information in memory using a
mental representation that the brain can register
• 50 states in 1 minute
• Activity
• List the 50 states on a separate piece of paper
• You have only one minute, GO!
ENCODING
• 50 states – very simple demonstration that shows
how people encode and store information in
different, yet predictable ways
• Read list of states in original order
• Familiar patterns
• Alphabetical order
• Region
• Similarity of name (i.e. New Mexico, New York)
Familiar ways to individual (Systematic)
Where one has lived, significant event, NFL teams
TYPES OF MEMORY
• Slippery Snakes activity
• Directions handout
TYPES OF MEMORY
• 1. Declarative (Explicit) Memory
• Knowledge that can be called forth consciously as needed
• Examples: what street you live on, your telephone number
TYPES OF MEMORY
• Two subcategories of Declarative Memory:
• A.) Semantic Memory – Memories of factual
knowledge that are independent of personal
experience
• Examples: types of food, capital cities, vocabulary, spelling
TYPES OF MEMORY
• Two subcategories of Declarative Memory:
• B.) Episodic Memory – Memories of one’s personal
experiences in life
• Example: 1st date/kiss, vacations/trips with family
• Flashbulb Memory – Vivid, detailed and emotionally
charged memories of personal/historic events
• Example: 9/11, LBJ
TYPES OF MEMORY
• 2. Procedural Memory
• Memories of actions, skills, operations that do not require
conscious recollection
• THESE ACTIONS ARE AUTOMATIC
• Examples: Throwing a ball, riding a bike, tying a tie, juggling,
driving, writing in cursive
TYING TIES/JUGGLING!
TYPES OF MEMORY
• 3. Eidetic Memory (Photographic Memory)
• Recall entire image at a later date
• Who THINKS they have a photographic memory?? Anyone?
• Let's try!
STAGES OF MEMORY
• 1. Sensory Memory (SM)
• Initial process that holds information for approximately 1
second
• Example: gaps in film reel
• Example: listen to first few seconds of a song & then decide
whether to listen further
• Iconic Memory – form of sensory memory that holds visual
information for approximately 1 second
• Example: flash memory
DID YOU SEE THIS?
STAGES OF MEMORY
• Echoic Memory
• Holds auditory information for approximately 1 second
• Example: Teacher asks OFF TASK student a question
Narrowing input
Selective Attention: “Party Phenomenon”
Selective Attention/Awareness Test
Feature Extraction
locate significant characteristics of selectively attended stimulus
Example: picture of soldier - pg. 56
FEATURE EXTRACTION
• SMILE BREAK
SHORT-TERM MEMORY
• Please read the words aloud as they appear
• After all words are complete, you will be instructed
to do something.
SHORT-TERM MEMORY
• Peach
• Brick
• Book
• Bed
• Sword
• Salt
• Car
• Flower
• Enemy
• Calendar
• Mirror
• Airplane
• Shoe
• Clock
• Thermometer
SHORT-TERM MEMORY
• Peach
• Book
• Sword
• Car
• Enemy
• Mirror
• Shoe
• Thermometer
• Brick
• Bed
• Salt
• Flower
• Calendar
• Airplane
• Clock
SHORT-TERM MEMORY
• Short-term Memory (STM)
• Working memory – continuous, active process
• Capacity – (7 +-2) pieces of information
• STM test
• Chunking
• Grouping information for easier processing
• Examples: Social Security #, Phone #
CHUNKING
• Look at this list of numbers for 20 seconds:
• 17761234201143212323
• List them
• Look at this list of numbers for 20 seconds:
• 1776
1234
2011
4321
2323
• List again – which was easier?
MNEMONIC DEVICES
• MD – any technique that aids memory
• Narrative chaining – creating a story
• Rhyming - '59 was the date,
When Alaska and Hawaii became new states
• Non-Rhyming - PEMDAS
SIMON
INTERFERENCE
• Proactive Interference
• Earlier memory blocks or prevents a new memory
• Example: moving to a new home
• Retroactive Interference
• Newer memory blocks or prevents a previous memory
• Example: remembering name of the 10th person you’re
introduced to at a party
• Interference Activity
MEMORY
MEMORY STORAGE
• Levels of processing
• Maintenance Rehearsal (shallow processing)
• Repetition
Elaborative Rehearsal (deep processing)
Making associations between new & old information
LONG-TERM MEMORY
• Long-Term Memory
• Storing almost unlimited amounts of information over long
periods of time
• LTM information organized by categories and features
RUMOR CHAIN
• Does long-term memory get distorted during
encoding or retrieval?
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Prior knowledge
Schemas about the world
Gender role expectations
General bias
• 5 people to the hall
• Do not laugh when errors are made
RUMOR CHAIN STORY
• A Boeing 747 had just taken off from the Dallas-Fort Worth
Airport for Chicago when a passenger near the rear of the
aircraft announced that the plane was being taken over by
the People’s Revolution Army for the liberation of the
oppressed. The hijacker then held a 22-caliber pistol to the
head of James Buckner, a flight attendant, and forced him to
open the door to the cockpit. There, the hijacker confronted
the pilot, Melanie Adams, and ordered her to change course
for Mexico. The pilot radioed the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Air
Traffic Control Center to report the situation, but then suddenly
hurled the microphone a the hijacker, who fell backward
through the open cockpit door and onto the floor, where
angry passengers took over from there. The plane landed
back at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport a few minutes later and
the hijacker was arrested.
RUMOR CHAIN STORY
• Were there errors made in the re-telling of the story?
• Shorter?
• Details left out? (Name of airport, terrorist group)
• This is called leveling
Descriptions will reflect tellers’ schemas
Ex: Pilots are men, women are flight attendants
(This was backwards in the story)
LONG-TERM MEMORY
• Whose portrait is on the $10 bill?
• Is Lincoln facing to the
right or left on the penny?
RETRIEVAL OF INFORMATION
• The key to retrieval is organization
• Recognition
• Identify previously learned information
• Example: Photographs, multiple-choice tests, 7 dwarfs
• Name the 7 dwarfs
RETRIEVAL OF INFORMATION
• Recall – active reconstruction of memory
• Example: Essay tests
Confabulation
Unconsciously filling in memory gaps
Example: Eye-witness testimony
Schemas
Learned generalizations about objects, events, people
Created based on expectations by past experiences
INDIVIDUAL FAMILY INTERVIEWS
• Ask family members to recall and describe their
memories of a shared past event, such as a wedding or
a holiday celebration.
• Write down two sets of responses and compare how
different people construct the event and what kind of
details are recalled.
• What are different people revealing about their personal
interests, values and needs when they describe an
experience?
• Homework – due next class
MAZE TIME
PRIMACY & RECENCY EFFECTS
• All-purpose memory demonstration
• Recall activity
• Recall scores should be..
• Primacy Effect – remember words at beginning of a list the
best
• Recency Effect – remember words at the end of the list the
best
PRIMACY AND RECENCY EFFECTS
• Retrieval of Information
• Words in the middle of the list should have lowest recall rates
• How many recalled the world “sleep”? Constructive Memory!
• Except for artichoke which should be recalled better than its
neighbors because of it distinctiveness (it has nothing to do
with sleep)
• The word night should also have a particularly high score, not
only because of the recency effect but because its higher
frequency on the list allowed for better rehearsal
• Toss and turn, due to chunking, recalling one should evoke the
other (who recalled both words?)
FORGETTING
• Forgetting
• Inability to retrieve information in LTM
• Herman Ebbinghaus – “Forgetting curve”
• Steep decline initially, then gradual decline
• Conducted one of the 1st studies of retention and forgetting in
the late 1800s. He learned a large number of nonsense syllables,
3-letter combinations that had no meaning, studying the
material until he could recite it perfectly. He then tested himself
on what he remembered after certain periods of time had
elapsed.
EBBINGHAUS FORGETTING CURVE
• Encoding Failure
• Inadequate retrieval cues poorly encoded info
• Decay
• Memory traces weaken over time
REPRESSION
• Freudian Defense Mechanism
• Unpleasant experiences are kept out of consciousness and
cannot be retrieved voluntarily
• Example: False accusation based in repressed memories
MEMORY:THE UNRELIABLE WITNESS
• Read handout
EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY
• Let's see how well you do!
• 60 minutes documentary
• Eyewitness
AMNESIA
• Causes: head injury, physical trauma or disease
• Includes:
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Rapid forgetting
New information fades from memory within a few minutes
Old memories, such as those from childhood, are retained
Permanent (no cure)
AMNESIA
• Two types: Anterograde & Retrograde
• A: forgetting events that follow an injury or trauma
• people find themselves forgetting info, people, or events
within seconds or minutes
• Example: 10 second Tom in 50 First Dates
R: forgetting events that occurred before injury or
trauma
unable to recall some or all of their life or identity prior to the
onset
Example: The Vow
BRAIN DISEASES THAT AFFECT
MEMORY
• Alzheimer’s
• Chronic brain disease that gradually erodes an individuals
memory, intellectual abilities and personality
• Inability to learn and remember new information
• In advanced stages, the ability to think, speak or perform
basic tasks such as getting dressed or eating can be
severely impaired.
BRAIN DISEASES THAT AFFECT
MEMORY
• Dementia
• Loss of brain function that occurs with
certain diseases. It affects memory,
thinking, language, judgment and
behavior.
REVIEW
• Questions?
• Study Guide