Test Subject
Memory
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Topics to Explore
1. Stages of Memory
2. Encoding Information into Memory
3. Retrieving Information from Memory
4. Improving Memory
Part 1
Stages of Memory
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Memory: Key Terms
Memory: Active system that stores, organizes, alters, and
recovers (retrieves) information
Encoding: Converting information into a useable form
Storage: Holding this information in memory
Retrieval: Taking memories out of storage
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Stages of Memory
1. Sensory Memory
2. Short-Term Memory
3. Long-Term Memory
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Sensory Memory
Sensory Memory: Storing an exact copy of incoming
information for less than a second; the first stage of memory
Icon: A fleeting mental image or visual representation
Echo: After a sound is heard, a brief continuation of the sound
in the auditory system
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Short-Term Memory (STM)
Short-Term Memory (STM): second stage of memory; stores
small amounts of information briefly; very sensitive to
interruption or interference
Phonetically: Storing information by sound; how most things
are stored in STM
Memory Span: STM is limited to holding seven (plus or minus
two) information bits at once
Chunk: Meaningful units of information in memory
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Storing Info in STM
Recoding: Reorganizing or modifying information in STM
Maintenance Rehearsal: Repeating information silently to
prolong its presence in STM
Elaborative Rehearsal: Links new information with existing
memories and knowledge in LTM; Good way to transfer STM
information into LTM
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Long-Term Memory (LTM)
Long-Term Memory (LTM)
• Storing information relatively permanently
• Stored on basis of meaning and importance
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Types of Long-Term Memory
Explicit (declarative) memory (facts): factual knowledge &
personal experiences
• Semantic Memory: Impersonal facts and everyday
knowledge
• Episodic Memory: Personal experiences linked with
specific times and places
Implicit (procedural) Memory (skills): Long-term memories
of conditioned responses and learned skills, e.g., driving
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Example: Skill vs. Fact Memory
Amnesiac patient was able to solve tower puzzle in 31 moves
(minimum possible), but each time he began, he swore he
couldn’t solve the puzzle. Evidence that skill memory and fact
memory are separate and distinct.
Graphic: Patterns of Blood Flow
in Cerebral Cortex
Front of brain is related to episodic memory.
Back of brain is related to semantic memory.
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Memory Organizational Chart
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Loss of Memory
• Anterograde amnesia: the inability to form new explicit longterm memories for events following brain trauma or surgery.
Explicit memories formed before are left intact. Cause possibly
is damage to hippocampus
• Retrograde amnesia: the disruption of memory for the past,
especially espisodic memory. After brain trauma or surgery,
there often is retrograde amnesia for events occurring just
before.
• Infantile/child amnesia: the inability as adults to remember
events that occurred in our lives before about 3 years of age.
Due possibly to fact that hippocampus is not fully developed.
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Serial Position Effect
Recall: Direct retrieval of facts or information
Serial Position Effect:
• Hardest to recall items in the middle of a list
• Primacy effect: easier to remember items first in a list than
items in the middle, because first items are studied the most
• Recency effect: easier to remember items last in a list
than items in the middle, because the last items were last
studied
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Graphic: Stages of Memory
Comparison of
Three Stages of Memory
Sensory
Short Term
Long Term
1. Large capacity
1. Limited capacity
1.Unlimited
capacity
2. Contains sensory 2. Acoustically
information
encoded
2.Semantically
encoded
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3. Very brief
3. Brief storage (up
retention (1/2 sec
to 30 seconds
3.Storage
for visual; 2 secs
w/o rehearsal)
presumed
for auditory)
permanent
4. Conscious
processing of
4.Information highly
information
organized
Part 2
Encoding Information into Memory
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Types of Processing
• Automatic processing: memory processing that occurs
subconsciously and does not require attention.
Example: How many of you can sing the theme song for
Gilligan’s Island? How many learned it on purpose?
• Effortful processing: memory processing that occurs
consciously and requires attention
Example: How many of you can name all of the divisions of
the nervous system? How many learned it on purpose?
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Levels-of-Processing Theory
• Levels-of-processing theory: a theory of information
processing in memory that assumes that semantic processing
leads to better long-term memory
• Physical memory processing: encoding the word “birthday”
by the way it is spelt, b – i – r – t – h – d – a – y
• Acoustic memory processing: encoding the word “birthday”
by the way it sounds
• Semantic memory processing: encoding the word “birthday”
by its meaning, “a day of joy and celebration commemorating
the anniversary of one’s birth.”
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Factors Affecting Encoding
• Encoding specificity principle: the principle that the
environmental cues present at the time information is encoded
into long-term memory serve as the best retrieval cues for the
information.
• State-dependent memory: long-term memory retrieval is
best when a person’s physiological state at the time of
encoding and retrieval is the same.
• Mood-dependent memory: long-term memory retrieval is
best when a person’s mood state at the time of encoding and
retrieval is the same.
• Mood-congruence effect: long-term memory retrieval is best
for experiences and information that are congruent with a
person’s current mood.
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Example: Mood & Memory
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Improving Encoding
• Mnemonics: a memory aid
• Method of loci: a mnemonic in which sequential pieces of
information are encoded by associating them with sequential
locations in a very familiar room or location.
• Peg-word system: a mnemonic in which the items in a list to
be remembered are associated with the sequential items in a
memorized jingle (“Every good boy does fine”)
• Spacing (distributed study) effect: long-term memory is
better when spaced study is used than when massed study
(cramming) is used
Part 3
Retrieving Information from Memory
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Measuring Retrieval
• Recall: a measure of long-term memory retrieval that
requires the reproduction of the information with essentially no
retrieval cues.
• Recognition: a measure of long-term memory retrieval that
only requires the identification of the information in the
presence of retrieval cues.
• Relearning: the savings method of measuring long-term
memory retrieval, in which the measure is the amount of time
saved when learning information for the second time.
Example:
Recall versus Recognition
Example of Recall:
The process of storing information in
memory is called ______________.
Example of Recognition:
The process of storing information in
memory is called:
a. rehearsal
b. deep processing
c. encoding
d. retrieval
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Forgetting Due to
Encoding Failure?
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Encoding failure theory: a theory that proposes that
forgetting is due to the failure to encode the information into
long-term memory
Forgetting Due to
Decay in Storage?
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Storage decay theory: a theory that proposes that forgetting
is due to the decay of physical traces of the information in the
brain; periodically using the information helps to maintain it in
the brain
The “Use it or lose it” theory!
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Graphic: Forgetting Curve
Forgetting Due to
Interference?
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Interference theory: a theory that proposes that forgetting is
due to other information in memory interfering
Proactive interference: old information interferes with the
retrieval of newly-stored information
Retroactive Interference: newly-stored information interferes
with the retrieval of previously-stored information
Retroactive vs. Proactive
Interference
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Graph: Effect of Interference
Percent
recalled
dependent on
number of
previous lists
memorized
Forgetting Due to
Loss of Cues?
Cue-dependent theory: a theory that proposes that
forgetting is due to the unavailability of the retrieval cues
necessary to locate the information in long-term memory.
This is one explanation for why we do not seem to have
many memories from early childhood (ages 3 to 6 or so)
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Part 4
Improving Memory
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Some Ways to Improve Memory
Knowledge of Results: Feedback allowing you to check your
progress
Recitation: Summarizing aloud while you are learning
Rehearsal: Reviewing information mentally (silently)
Selection: Selecting most important concepts to memorize
Organization: Organizing difficult items into chunks; a type of
reordering
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More Ways to Improve Memory
Whole Learning: Studying an entire package of
information at once, like a poem
Part Learning: Studying subparts of a larger body of
information (like text chapters)
Progressive Part Learning: Breaking learning task into a
series of short sections
Serial Position Effect: Making most errors while
remembering the middle of the list
Overlearning: Studying is continued beyond bare mastery
Yet More Ways to
Improve Memory
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Spaced Practice: Alternating study sessions with brief rest
periods
Massed Practice: Studying for long periods without rest
periods
• Lack of sleep decreases retention; sleep aids consolidation
• Hunger decreases retention
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Memory & Sleep
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A Last Method to Help Memory
Mnemonics: Memory “tricks”; any kind of memory system
or aid
- Using mental pictures
- Making things meaningful
- Making information familiar
- Forming bizarre, unusual or exaggerated mental
associations