UNIT 7 COGNITION
7A MEMORY
7B COGNITION
pgs 255-294
11 Objectives
• How can we remember things
we have not thought about in
years, yet forget the name of
someone we met a minute ago?
• How are memories stored in our
brains?
• Why do some painful memories
persist while other memories
leave too quickly?
• How can people’s memories of
the same event be so different?
DEFINITION OF MEMORY
• Memory
• the persistence of
learning over time
through the storage
& retrieval of
information
OBJECTIVE 1:
HOW DO PSYCHOLOGIST’S DESCRIBE
THE HUMAN MEMORY SYSTEM?
• Information Processing System Model (computer)
• Encode
• info in
• Store
• Retain
• Retrieve
• info out
Connectionism
Memories emerge
from interconnected
neural network
ATKINSON-SHIFFRIN MEMORY MODEL
1. Sensory memory
- fleeting
2. Short-term memory
- lasts a minute or so
- encoded through rehearsal
3. Long-term memory
- stored for later retrieval
MODELS OF MEMORY
Modified version of the three-stage
processing model of memory
2 major additions…
1. some info skips 1st two stages & goes directly into long-term memory,
w/o our conscious awareness
2.Working memory
• focuses on conscious, active processing of
incoming auditory & visual-spatial information, &
of information retrieved from long-term memory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
U6PoUg7jXsA
Ted Talk (20:30) Memory Intro
OBJECTIVE 2:
ENCODING
• Automatic Processing
• Parallel processing
• the processing of many
aspects of a problem
simultaneously; the brain’s
natural mode of
information processing for
many functions. Contrasts
with the step-by-step
(serial) processing of most
computers and of
conscious problem solving
ENCODING: GETTING INFORMATION IN
HOW WE ENCODE
• Automatic processing
• Space
• Time
• Frequency
• Well-learned information
ENCODING: GETTING INFORMATION IN
HOW WE ENCODE
• Effortful Processing
• attention & conscious effort
• Rehearsal
• conscious repetition
• Maintain it in consciousness
or encode it in storage
• Ebbinghaus Curve
• Scientifically studied his own
learning & forgetting
• CVCs
• The amount remembered
depends on time spent
learning
ENCODING: GETTING INFORMATION IN
HOW WE ENCODE
• Ebbinghaus curve
ENCODING: GETTING INFORMATION IN
HOW WE ENCODE
Spacing effect
• Massed practice
• Distributed practice
• Testing effect
ENCODING: GETTING INFORMATION IN
HOW WE ENCODE
• Serial position effect
• Recency effect
• Primacy effect
OBJECTIVE 3:
WHAT EFFORTFUL PROCESSING METHODS AID
IN FORMING MEMORIES?
• Levels of Processing
• Visual encoding
• Acoustic encoding
• Semantic encoding
• Self-reference effect
• We have especially good recall for information we can
meaningfully relate to ourselves.
Encoding: Getting Information In
What We Encode
Encoding: Getting Information In
What We Encode
Encoding: Getting Information In
What We Encode
Encoding: Getting Information In
What We Encode
ENCODING: GETTING INFORMATION IN
WHAT WE ENCODE
• Organizing Information for Encoding
• Chunking
• acronym
We more easily
recall when we can
organize into
familiar chunks.
ENCODING: GETTING INFORMATION IN
WHAT WE ENCODE
• Visual Encoding
Typewriter
• Imagery
Void
• Rosy
retrospection
Cigarette
Inherent
• Mnemonics
Fire
• Peg-word
system
Process
ENCODING: GETTING INFORMATION IN
WHAT WE ENCODE
• Organizing Information for Encoding
• Hierarchies
OBJECTIVE 4:
WHAT IS SENSORY MEMORY?
• Sperling’s memory
experiment
• Iconic memory
• a momentary sensory memory of
visual stimuli; a photographic or
picture-image memory lasting no
more than a few tenths of a
second
• Echoic memory
• momentary sensory memory of
auditory stimuli; if attention is
elsewhere, sounds and words can
still be recalled within 3 or 4
seconds
OBJECTIVE 5:
WHAT ARE THE DURATION AND CAPACITY OF STM AND
LTM?
• STM Duration: 3-12 seconds
• STM Capacity: 7 +/- 2 (Miller)
• recall random digits slightly better than random
letters.
• recall is slightly better for what we hear vs. what
we see
• w/o rehearsal, retain in STM about 4 information
chunks
OBJECTIVE 6
HOW DOES THE BRAIN STORE OUR MEMORIES?
Our whole past is NOT in our memories
Memory is NOT stored, physically, in one
spot in brain
 proof? (rat experiment)
• Memory happens at synaptic level
• MEMORY TRACE
• Long-term potentiation (LTP)
• Strengthening of potential neuron firing for
memories
• Memory boosting drugs
• CREB – increased production of protein
• glutamate
OBJECTIVE 6
STORAGE…STRESS HORMONES &
MEMORY
• Emotions and memories
• Stress hormones make glucose more available signaling brain that
something important is happening
• Flashbulb memory
Stronger emotion=
stronger memory
Sudden Stress – older memories
can be blocked
Prolonged Stress – decays neural
connections
OBJ. 6:
STORAGE…RETAINING INFORMATION
• Storing Implicit and Explicit Memories
• Amnesia
• H.M. Studies
Anterograd
Retrograd
What was discovered, in working with
HM and others like him, that was so
amazing?
They can learn!
They can be classically
conditioned!
Memory is not a single, unified, conscious system.
Two memory systems at work.
STORAGE: RETAINING INFORMATION
STORING MEMORIES IN THE BRAIN
• Storing Implicit and Explicit Memories
• Implicit memory
• (nondeclarative/procedural memory)
• Explicit memory
• (declarative memory)
• Hippocampus
• Cerebellum
• infantile amnesia
Storage: Retaining Information
Storing Memories in the Brain
OBJECTIVE 7
RETRIEVAL: HOW DO WE GET INFO OUT OF MEMORY
• Recall
• Recognition
• Relearning
RETRIEVAL: GETTING INFORMATION OUT
RETRIEVAL CUES
• Retrieval
cues
• Mnemonic
devices
• Priming
• We don’t consciously remember everything, but an experience
can prime us to interpret things a certain way
• memoryless memory
page 275
OBJECTIVE 8
HOW DO EXTERNAL CONTEXTS & INTERNAL
EMOTIONS INFLUENCE MEMORY RETRIEVAL
• Context effects
• Déjà vu
• Cues from the current
situation may
subconsciously trigger
retrieval of an earlier
experience.
Retrieval: Getting Information
Out
Context Effects
Retrieval: Getting Information
Out
Context Effects
Retrieval: Getting Information
Out
Context Effects
Retrieval: Getting Information
Out
Context Effects
Retrieval: Getting Information
Out
Context Effects
Retrieval: Getting Information
Out
Context Effects
RETRIEVAL: GETTING INFORMATION OUT
MOODS AND MEMORIES
• State dependent memory
• Mood
congruent
memory
FORGETTING
HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=SOXSMMV538U
• A.J.
SCHACTER’S SEVEN SINS OF MEMORY
Forgetting – Distortion-Intrusion (pg 279)
Sins of Forgetting
Absent-mindedness
Transience
Blocking
Sin of intrusion
persistence
Sins (of distortion
Misattribution
Suggestibility
Bias
WHY DO WE FORGET?
Encoding Failure
Decay
Retrieval Failure
STORAGE DECAY
Ebbinghaus curve
STORAGE DECAY
Ebbinghaus curve
Ebbinghaus Curve
Ebbinghaus Curve
RETRIEVAL FAILURE
INTERFERENCE
P.O.R.N
Proactive Old Retroactive New
Proactive= old Info gets in way (interferes) with
new
Retroactive= new info interferes
Retrieval Failure
Interference
Retrieval Failure
Interference
Retrieval Failure
Interference
Retrieval Failure
Interference
Retrieval Failure
Interference
RETRIEVAL FAILURE
MOTIVATED FORGETTING
• Self-serving
personal histories
• Repression
• Defense Mechanism
RETRIEVAL FAILURE
MOTIVATED FORGETTING
• Self-serving
personal histories
• Repression
RETRIEVAL FAILURE
MOTIVATED FORGETTING
• Self-serving
personal histories
• Repression
RETRIEVAL FAILURE
MOTIVATED FORGETTING
• Self-serving
personal histories
• Repression
MEMORY CONSTRUCTION
Read pages 285292
Concepts to Know:
Misinformation effect
Memory construction
Imagination inflation
Source amnesia/misattribution
True/false memories (p. 284)
Eyewitness recall
“Memory Wars”
Elizabeth Loftus
MISINFORMATION AND IMAGINATION
EFFECTS
• Loftus memory studies
• Misinformation effect
SOURCE AMNESIA
• Source amnesia
• source misattribution
DISCERNING TRUE AND FALSE MEMORIES
• Memory studies
• Eye witness testimony
CHILDREN’S EYEWITNESS RECALL
• Children’s memories of abuse
• Suggestibility
REPRESSED OR CONSTRUCTED MEMORIES
OF ABUSE?
• Areas of agreement
• Sexual abuse happens
• Injustice happens
• Forgetting happens
• Recovered memories are incomplete
• Memories before 3 years are unreliable
• Hypnotic memories are unreliable
• Memories can be emotionally upsetting
REPRESSED OR CONSTRUCTED MEMORIES
OF ABUSE?
• Loftus studies with children
IMPROVING MEMORY
IMPROVING MEMORY TECHNIQUES
• Study repeatedly
• Make the material meaningful
• Activate retrieval cues
• Use mnemonic devices
• Minimize interference
• Sleep more
• Test your own knowledge, both to rehearse it
and to help determine what you do not yet know
THE END