Human Memory

The Big Three Questions
 How does information get into memory?
 How is information maintained in memory?
 How is information pulled back out of memory?

Encoding: Getting Information Into Memory
 The role of attention
 “Paying” attention and the cognitive miser
 Focusing awareness
 Selective attention = selection of input
– When does this happen?
– Early or Late?
–Debatable
– The Cocktail Party Effect

Fig 7.3
– Models of selective attention.
Early-selection models propose that input is filtered before meaning is processed. Late-selection models hold that filtering occurs after the processing of meaning. There is evidence to support early, late, and intermediate selection, suggesting that the location of the attentional filter may not be fixed.

Levels of Processing:
You Down with LOP? Yeah you know me!
 Incoming information processed at different levels:
 Deeper processing = longer lasting memory codes
 Encoding levels :
– Structural = shallow (what it looks like)
– Phonemic = intermediate (what it sounds like)
– Semantic = deep (what it means)

Fig 7.4 – Levels-of-processing theory.
According to Craik and Lockhart (1972), structural, phonemic, and semantic encoding —which can be elicited by questions such as those shown on the right — involve progressively deeper levels of processing, which should result in more durable memories.

Enriching Encoding: Improving Memory
 Elaboration = linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding
–Thinking of examples: tying in previous chapters
 Visual Imagery = creation of visual images to represent words to be remembered
–Easier for concrete objects: Dual-coding theory
–Creates two codes: visual and semantic
 Self-Referent Encoding
–Making information personally meaningful
–Brain structures and my Grandfather

Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally
(and other memory tricks)
Acronyms
– PEMDAS
Method of Loci
– Groceries in my bedroom
Peg Method
– Bacon on peg 5
The bizarreness effect
– The talking neuron
• Check out my Soma!

Maintenance and storage in memory

Storage: Maintaining Information in Memory
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– Subdivide memory into 3 different stores
• Sensory, Short-term, Long-term

Fig 7.8 – The Atkinson and Shiffrin model of memory storage .

Sensory Memory: Not just for the 4th of July
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Brief preservation of information in original sensory form
Auditory/Visual – approximately ¼ second
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 Why?
Sparklers (or my flashlight)
Listen. To. This.
Sentence.

Short Term Memory (STM)
 Limited capacity – Miller’s magical number 7 plus or minus 2
- How many digits are there in a telephone number?
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– Chunking – grouping familiar stimuli for storage as a single unit ( so that 7 + / - 2 still applies)
Limited duration – about 20 seconds without rehearsal
– Rehearsal – the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about the information
– Right before a test… but elaborative rehearsal is better :)

ShortTerm Memory as “Working Memory”
 STM not limited to phonemic encoding
 Loss of information not only due to decay
 Interference, too (think of the last example…)
 Could those numbers interfere?
 3 components of working memory
– Phonological rehearsal loop
– Visuospatial sketchpad
– Executive control system

Long-Term Memory: Unlimited Capacity
 Permanent storage?
– Flashbulb memories
– Evidence for permanence?
–The question of accuracy… misinformation…
–The 9-11 studies; eyewitness testimony
Debate: are STM and LTM really different?
– Phonemic vs. Semantic encoding
– Decay vs. Interference based forgetting

How is Knowledge Represented and
Organized in Memory?
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Clustering and Conceptual Hierarchies
 Remembering similar items in groups
 Sort of a natural chunking
Schemas and Scripts
 Sets of abstract knowledge about an object or event…
-Instructors schema
The “saying hello” script
Semantic Networks
Connectionist Networks and PDP Models
 I like birds

Retrieval: Getting Information Out of Memory
 The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon – a failure in retrieval
– Retrieval cues… the first letter of the word…
 Recalling an event
– Context cues… remember elementary school?
 Reconstructing memories
– Misinformation effect
– Cryptomnesia: inadvertent plagiarism
• Source monitoring: where did the info come from?
• reality monitoring: did I think that, or did it really happen?

Forgetting: When Memory Lapses
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Retention – the proportion of material retained
– Recall: no cues
– Recognition: identification out of an array or list
– Relearning : how quickly you learn material the second time around
Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
 Important Dead dude, studied his own memory for nonsense syllables.
-Plotted the now famous forgetting curve

Fig 7.18 – Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve for nonsense syllables.

Why Do We Forget?
 Ineffective Encoding didn’t get in.
 Decay theory: use it or loose it
 Interference theory: other info gets in the way
– Proactive : previously learned info interferes with new info
– Retroactive : new info interferes with previously learned info

Fig 7.21 – Retroactive and proactive interference.
Retroactive interference occurs when learning produces a “backward” effect, reducing recall of previously learned material. Proactive interference occurs when learning produces a “forward” effect, reducing recall of subsequently learned material.