Memory
The persistence of learning over time
through the storage and retrieval of
information.
Extreme memory – Mr. S
The Memory process
• Encoding
• Storage
• Retrieval
Encoding
• The processing of information into the
memory system.
Typing info into a computer
Getting a girls name at a party
Storage
• The retention of encoded material over
time.
Pressing Ctrl S and
saving the info.
Trying to remember her name
when you leave the party.
Retrieval
• The process of getting the information out
of memory storage.
Finding your document
and opening it up.
Seeing her the next day
and calling her the wrong
name (retrieval failure).
Parallel Processing
• Unlike a computer, we process many thing
simultaneously (unlike a computer that is
step by step)
– Connectionism – memories are a product of
interconnected neural networks
In the lunch room you process information about the people,
the voices, and the smells simultaneously
Exit Ticket
• Which column was easier to complete? The
second or third column?
• Out of the memory processes we just
discussed, which caused the biggest issue in
completing the activity? Explain.
• How can you use this information to help
you in other classes?
Studying Memory
Memory Models:
• Atkinson and Shiffrin Theory
– Sensory memory
– Short-term memory
– Long-term memory
• Modified version of the three-stage
processing model of memory (Alan
Baddeley)
• Working Memory
Sensory Memory
• The immediate, initial recording of sensory
information in the memory system.
• Stored just for an instant, and most gets
unprocessed.
Examples:
•You lose concentration in class during a lecture. Suddenly you
hear a significant word and return your focus to the lecture. You
should be able to remember what was said just before the key word
since it is in your sensory register.
•Your ability to see motion can be attributed to sensory memory. An
image previously seen must be stored long enough to compare to
the new image. Visual processing in the brain works like watching
a cartoon -- you see one frame at a time.
•If someone is reading to you, you must be able to remember the
words at the beginning of a sentence in order to understand the
sentence as a whole. These words are held in a relatively
unprocessed sensory memory.
Short-Term Memory
• Memory that holds a few items briefly.
• Seven digits (plus or minus two).
• The info will be stored into long-term or
forgotten.
How do you store things from short-term to long-term?
Rehearsal
You must repeat things over
and over to put them into
your long-term memory.
Short Term Memory Test
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
7485
36218
479103
2384971
36891756
747210324
8230138476
Working Memory
(Modern day STM)
•
•
Another way of describing the use of
short-term memory is called working
memory.
Working-Memory has three parts:
1. Audio
2. Visual - spatial
3. Integration of audio and visual (controls
where you attention lies) – central executive
Studying Memory
Memory Models:
Working Memory
• Modified version of the three-stage
processing model of memory
–Working memory
Studying Memory
Memory Models:
Working Memory
Long-Term Memory
• The relatively permanent and limitless
storehouse of the memory system.
Two ways to encode information
• Automatic Processing
• Effortful Processing
Automatic Processing
• Unconscious encoding of incidental information.
• You encode space, time and word meaning without
effort.
• Things can become automatic with practice.
• Implicit Memory (nondeclarative memory) –
retention independent of conscious recollection
For example, if I tell you that you are my best class,
you will encode the meaning of what I am saying to
you without any effort.
Effortful Processing
• Encoding that requires attention and conscious
effort.
• Rehearsal is the most common effortful processing
technique.
• Through enough rehearsal, what was effortful
becomes automatic.
• Explicit Memory (declarative memory) –
memory of facts and experiences that one can
consciously know and declare
• Effortful processing
• Sensory Memory
• Iconic memory – a momentary sensory memory
of visual stimuli
• Echoic memory – a momentary sensory
memory of auditory stimuli
Things to remember about Encoding
1. The next-In-Line effect: we seldom
remember what the person has just said or
done if we are next.
2. Information minutes before sleep is
seldom remembered; in the hour before
sleep, well remembered.
3. Taped info played while asleep is
registered by ears, but we do not
remember it.
Distributed Practice
• Spacing effect – DO NOT CRAM!
–Massed practice v. Distributed
practice
• Testing effect – enhanced memory
after retrieval rather than simply
rereading
Levels of Processing
• Shallow processing – encoding on a basic
level based on structure or appearance of
word
• Deep processing – encoding based on the
meaning
Building Memories: Encoding
Dual-Track Memory: Effortful Processing and Explicit Memories:
Making Material Personally
Meaningful
• Making material meaningful
• Self-reference effect
Self-Reference Effect
• An example of how we
encode meaning very
well.
• The idea that we
remember things (like
adjectives) when they
are used to describe
ourselves.
Peg-word system
Take out a piece of paper and….
List the U.S. Presidents
The Presidents
Washington
J.Adams
Jefferson
Madison
Monroe
JQ Adams
Jackson
Van Buren
Harrison
Tyler
Polk
Taylor
Fillmore
Pierce
Buchanan
Lincoln
A.Johnson
Grant
Hayes
Garfield
Arthur
Cleveland
Harrison
Cleveland
McKinley
T.Roosevelt
Taft
Wilson
Harding
Coolidge
Hoover
FD.Roosevelt
Truman
Eisenhower
Kennedy
L.Johnson
Nixon
Ford
Carter
Reagan
Bush
Clinton
Bush Jr.
Obama
Serial Positioning Effect
• Our tendency to recall best the last and
first items in a list.
Presidents
Recalled
If we graph an average person remembers presidential list- it would
probably look something like this.
Tricks to Encode
• Use imagery: mental pictures
Mnemonics use imagery. Such as peg word
system. (one is bun, two is shoe, three is tree, four is door, five
is hive, six is sticks, seven is heaven, eight is gate, nine is swine,
ten is hen)
Or ”My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas"
Mars, Venus, Earth, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.
Give me some more examples….
Chunking
• Organizing items
into familiar,
manageable units.
• Often it will occur
automatically.
1-4-9-2-1-7-7-6-1-8-1-2-1-9-4-1
Do these numbers mean anything to you?
1492, 1776, 1812, 1941 how about now?
Chunk- from Goonies
Chunking
1,3 and 5 make little sense to us. But when we chunk the characters
differently (2,4,6) they become easy to remember.
Storage
How we retain the information we encode
Review the three stage process of
Memory
Storage and Long-Term Memory
• We have yet to find the limit
of our long-term memory.
• For example, Rajan was
able to recite 31,811 digits
of pi.
• At 5 years old, Rajan would
memorize the license plates
of all of his parents’ guests
(about 75 cars in ten
minutes). He still
remembers the plate
numbers to this day.
How does our brain store long-term
memories?
• Memories do NOT reside in single specific
spots of our brain.
•They are not electrical (if the electrical activity
were to shut down in your brain, then restart- you
would NOT start with a blank slate).
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
• The current theory of how our long-term
memory works.
•Memory has a neural basis.
•LTP is an increase in a synapse’s firing
potential after brief, rapid stimulation.
In other words, if you are trying to remember a phone number, the
neurons are firing neurotransmitter through the synapse. The
neuron gets used to firing in that pattern and essentially learns to
fire in that distinct way. It is a form of rehearsal (but for our
neurons).
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
• Drugs that block LTP in mice interfere with
learning
•Drugs that enhance LTP in mice increases learning
Memory Storage
Synaptic Changes
• Aplysia – sea slug (20, 000 nerve
cells)
• Long-term potentiation
• Mild neurocognitive
disorders
• Head injuries
Memory Storage
The Amygdala, Emotions, and
Memory
• Amygdala – boosts memory forming areas
in frontal lobe and basal ganglia
• Triggered by stress
• Can sear events in
brain (PTSD)
Stress and Memory
• Stress can lead to the
release of hormones
that have been
shown to assist in
LTM.
• Similar to the idea of
Flashbulb Memory.
Flashbulb Memory
• A clear moment of an
emotionally significant
moment or event.
Where were you when?
1. You heard about 9/11
2. You heard about the
death of a family member
3. During the OJ chase
Types of LTM
Memory Storage
Retaining Information in the Brain:
Explicit-Memory System: The
Frontal Lobes and Hippocampus
• Hippocampus – not permanent
storage
– Amnesia
– Damage to either
– Consolidation during
Sleep -
hemisphere
The Hippocampus
• Damage to the
hippocampus disrupts
our memory.
• Left = Verbal
• Right = Visual and
Locations
• The hippocampus is the
like the librarian for the
library which is our
brain.
Memory Storage
Retaining Information in the Brain:
Implicit-Memory System: The
Cerebellum and Basal Ganglia
• Cerebellum – classical cond.
• Basal Ganglia – procedural
skills
Memory Storage
Retaining Information in the Brain:
Implicit-Memory System: The
Cerebellum and Basal Ganglia
• Infantile amnesia – cannot
recall first 3 years of life but still
develop reactions and skills
- hippocampus develops
late
- we access explicit
memories using words
Memory Storage
Retrieval
How do we recall the information we
thought we remembered?
Lets Jog Our Memory!!!!!!!
Take out a piece of paper
Name the Seven Dwarves
Turn your paper over.
Now pick pick out the seven
dwarves.
Grouchy Gabby Fearful Sleepy
Smiley Jumpy Hopeful Shy
Droopy Dopey Sniffy Wishful
Puffy Dumpy Sneezy Pop
Grumpy Bashful Cheerful Teach
Snorty Nifty Happy Doc Wheezy
Stubby Poopy
Seven Dwarves
Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy, Sneezy, Happy, Doc and Bashful
Retrieval: Getting Information Out
Measuring Retention
• Recall - retrieving
information that is not
currently in your
conscious awareness
• Recognition identifying items
previously learned
• Relearning - learning
something more
quickly the second or
later time
Recall versus Recognition
I probably cannot recall the Smurfs,
but can I recognize them?
Lazy Smurf or Lethargic Smurf
Papa Smurf or Daddy Smurf
Handy Smurf or Practical Smurf
Brainy Smurf or Intellectual Smurf
Clumsy Smurf or Inept Smurf
Retrieval Cues
• Things that help us
remember.
Give out priming worksheet
•We often use a process
called priming (the
activation of associations
in our memory) to help us
retrieve information.
PRIMING
• Priming occurs when people respond faster or
better to an item if a similar item preceded it.
•For the most part, priming is considered
involuntary and is most likely an unconscious
phenomenon.
Priming
Exercise 2
Context-dependent memory
• It helps to put yourself back
in the same context you
experienced (encoded)
something.
• If you study on your
favorite chair at home, you
will probably score higher if
you also took the test on the
chair.
Retrieval: Getting Information Out
Retrieval Cues:
Context-Dependent Memory
Mood-Congruent Memory
• The tendency to recall experiences that are
consistent with one's current good or bad
mood.
• If you are depressed, you will more likely
recall sad memories from you past.
• Moods also effect that way you interpret other
peoples behavior
Forgetting
Encoding Failure
Encoding Failure
• We fail to encode the information.
• It never has a chance to enter our LTM.
Test Your Memory
Which is the real penny?
Storage Decay
• Even if we encode
something well, we
can forget it.
• Without rehearsal,
we forget things over
time.
• Ebbinghaus’s
forgetting curve.
Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
Retrieval Failure
• The memory was encoded and stored, but
sometimes you just cannot access the
memory.
Types of Retrieval Failure
Proactive Interference
• The disruptive
effect of prior
learning on the
recall of new
information.
If you call your new girlfriend your
old girlfriend’s name.
Types of Retrieval Failure
Retroactive Interference
• The disruptive effect of
new learning on the
recall of old
information.
When you finally remember this
years locker combination, you forget
last years.
Forgetting
Retrieval Failure:
Interference
• Proactive interference (forward acting)
• Retroactive interference (backwardacting)
List the capitals
Alaska
Vermont
Pennsylvania
New Mexico
Washington
Oregon
South Dakota
Wyoming
Montana
Missouri
Mississippi
Connecticut
Kansas
New Hampshire
Michigan
Delaware
Idaho
Maine
North Carolina
Illinois
Alaska (J)
Vermont (M)
Pennsylvania(H)
New Mexico (SF)
Washington (O)
Oregon (S)
South Dakota (P)
Wyoming (C)
Montana (H)
Missouri (JC)
Mississippi (J)
Connecticut (H)
Kansas (T)
New Hampshire (C) Michigan (L)
Delaware (D)
Idaho (B)
North Carolina (R) Illinois (S)
Maine (A)
Alaska (J)
(Juneau)
New Mexico (SF)
(Santa Fe)
South Dakota (P)
(Pierre)
Missouri (JC)
(Jefferson City)
Kansas (T)
(Topeka)
Delaware (D)
(Dover)
North Carolina (R)
(Raleigh)
Vermont (M)
Pennsylvania(H)
(Montpelier)
(Harrisburg)
Washington (O)
Oregon (S)
(Olympia)
(Salem)
Wyoming (C)
Montana (H)
(Cheyenne)
(Helena)
Mississippi (J)
Connecticut (H)
(Jackson)
(Hartford)
New Hampshire (C) Michigan (L)
(Concord)
(Lansing)
Idaho (B)
Maine (A)
(Boise)
(Augusta)
Illinois (S)
(Springfield)
Motivated Forgetting
• We sometimes revise our own histories.
Honey, I did stick to my diet today!!!!!!
Motivated Forgetting
Why does is exist?
One explanation is
REPRESSION:
• in psychoanalytic theory,
the basic defense
mechanism that banishes
anxiety-arousing thoughts,
feelings and memories
from consciousness.
Forgetting
My Trip To Cheesecake Factory
You go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. You are
seated at a table with a white tablecloth. You study
the menu. You tell the female server you want
Avocado Egg Rolls, extra sauce, Roadslide Sliders,
Thai Lettuce Wraps, and Chino-Latino Steak
(medium). You also order a Cherry Coke from the
beverage list. A few minutes later the server returns
with your Avocado Egg Rolls. Later the rest of the
meal arrives. You enjoy it all, except the ChinoLatino Steak is a bit overdone.
Cheesecake factory
How did you order the steak?
Was the red tablecloth checkered?
What did you order to drink?
Did a male server give you a menu?
Memory Construction
• We sometimes alter our
memories as we encode
or retrieve them.
• Your expectations,
schemas, environment
may alter your
memories.
Misinformation Effect
• Incorporating misleading information into
one’s memory of an event.
My parents told me for years I met Guidry.
I have the memory- but it never happened!!!
Misinformation Effect
Depiction of Accident
Misinformation Effect
Leading Question: About how fast were the cars
going when they smashed into each other?
Source Amnesia
(Source Attribution)
• Attributing to the
wrong source an
event we have
experienced, heard
about, read about
or imagined.
Déjà Vu
• That eerie sense that you
have experienced
something before.
• What is occurring is that
the current situation cues
past experiences that are
Is déjà vu really a
very similar to the present
glitch in the Matrix?
one- your mind gets
confused.
Memory Construction Errors
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
Improving Memory
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Rehearse 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