Chapter 6 - Memory
Memory is the system by which we retain
information and bring it to mind. It is an active
system that receives information from the senses
puts that information into usable form, and then is
able to retrieve it when needed.
Without memory, experience would leave no mark
on our behavior.
Memory – An Information
Processing System
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Without memory, we would be unable to retain the
information and skills we acquire through experience.
Memory involves three basic processes: __________,
storage, and ___________. The three processes
allows you to take information from the world around
you, encode it in a form that can be stored in
memory, and later retrieve it when it is needed.
Information comes to us through our senses. This
information must be encoded or converted into a form
we can store in memory, this is
called__________________________.
Models of Memory
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The three popular models of memory are:
1) Information-processing model; 2) Levels-of-processing model;
and 3) Parallel distributed processing model.
Information-processing model assumes the processing of
information for memory storage occurs in three stages, similar to the
way a computer processes memory.
2) The level-of-processing model argues that information that is
processed according to its meaning rather than just the sound or
physical characteristics of the word will be remembered more
efficiently and for a longer period of time.
3) The parallel distributed processing model states that the creation
an storage of memories takes place across a series of mental
networks that are stretched across the brain.
Three Stages of Memory
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Three-stage model – this model proposes three distinct
stages of memory that vary with the length of time
information is stored: sensory memory, short-term
memory, and long-term memory.
Sensory memory – is the first stage of memory, the point
at which information enters the nervous system through
the sensory systems – eyes, ears, etc. Information is
encoded into sensory memory as neural messages in the
nervous system. Sensory stimuli constantly strike your
sensory receptors, forming impressions you briefly hold
in sensory memory in a kind of temporary storage device
called a sensory register. This information lasts in
memory for perhaps a fraction of a second to as long as
three or four seconds.
Two Kinds of Sensory Memory:
Iconic (Visual) and Echoic (Hearing)
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Iconic memory is a sensory store for holding a mental
representation of a visual image for a fraction of a second. The
visual image held in iconic memory is so clear and accurate
that people can report exact details of the image.
The function of Iconic memory is two-fold: 1) To help the
visual system to view surroundings as continuous and stable in
spite of saccadic movements, and 2) It allows enough time for
the brain stem to decide if the information is important enough
to be brought into consciousness.
Echoic Sensory Memory is the brief memory of something a
person has just heard. Its’ memory’s capacity is limited to
what can be heard at any one moment and it lasts about 2 - 4
seconds.
Short-Term Memory: The Mind’s
Blackboard
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**Short-term memory (STM) is a storage system that
permits you to retain and process sensory information
for a maximum of about ____________. STM relies
on both visual and acoustic coding, but mostly on
acoustic coding/auditory form.
Working memory is an active system that processes
the information present in short-term memory. **It is
the memory system that enables you to hold and
manipulate information in your mind for brief periods
of time. It is thought to consist of three interrelated
systems: a central executive, a visual sketchpad, and
a kind of auditory recorder.
The Central Executive
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**The central executive is the control unit of working
memory. It doesn’t store information. Rather, it
receives input from the other two components and
coordinates the working memory system. It also
receives and processes information from long term
memory and filters out distracting thoughts so we can
focus our attention on information we hold in mind at
any given moment.
**The Visual sketchpad is a storage buffer for visual
and spatial material. It is a kind of drawing pad in the
brain. You engage your visuospatial sketchpad
whenever you picture in your mind an object, pattern,
or image.
The Auditory Recorder
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**The auditory recorder or phonological loop
is the speech-based, or verbal, part of working
memory. It is a storage device or buffer that
holds numbers and words we rehearse or mull
over in our minds at any given moment. It
plays the dialogue in the person’s head.
The Capacity of Short-Term
Memory
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Working memory – is the memory system that
enables you to hold and manipulate
information in your mind for brief periods of
time. Psychologist George Miller argued that
the average person can keep up to 7 digits in
their short-term memory.
4
9
1
3
5
2
7
6 1 8 2 0 4 9 5 3 7 2 5
Chunking
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Chunking is a way of holding more information in
Short Term Memory than is usual. ** It is the process
of enhancing retention of a large amount of
information by breaking it down into smaller, more
easily recalled chunks. 618 204 953 725
Most information that passes through short-term
memory fades away after a few seconds or is
transferred to long-term memory. You can extend
short-term memory beyond thirty seconds by
engaging in ________________________________,
which is the conscious rehearsal of information by
_____________ it over and over again in your mind.
How Long is Short-Term
Memory?
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Research suggests that short-term memory lasts from
about _____ to ________ seconds without rehearsal.
After that, the memory seems to rapidly
_____________.
**The process of extending retention of information
held in short-term memory by consciously repeating the
information is called __________________.
The process of transferring information from STM into
LTM by making that information meaningful in some
way is called_____________________.
Long-Term Memory
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**Long-term memory (LTM) is a storage system that
allows you to retain information for periods of time
beyond the capacity of short-term memory. It is where
information is placed to be kept more or less
_______________. It is virtually limitless.
The two types of Long Term Memory (LTM) are
Procedural LTM and Declarative LTM.
**Procedural LTM involves memory of how to do things
that require habits, conditioned responses, motor or
performance skills. Procedural Memory is often called
implicit memory. Implicit memory is memory that is not
easily brought into conscious awareness. Anterograde
amnesia is the loss of memory from the point of injury or
trauma forward, or the inability to form new long-term
memories. P
What types of memories are stored
in long-term memory?
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Declarative memory is memory of facts and
personal information that requires a conscious effort
to bring to mind; information that make up
knowledge.
Declarative memory can be grouped into two general
categories: (1) semantic memory and (2) episodic
memory.
Semantic memory is memory of facts, general
knowledge, and beliefs.
Episodic memory is memory of personal experiences
that constitute the story of your life; information that
is not readily available to others.
Explicit memory
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Episodic and semantic memories are forms of explicit
memory, memories that are easily made conscious and
brought from long-term storage into short-term memory.
The Organizational Structure of Long Term Memory:
Long-term memory can be divided into declarative
memories, which are factual and typically conscious
(explicit) memories, and procedural memory
(nondeclarative) memories, which are skills, habits, and
conditioned responses that are typically unconscious
(implicit). Declarative memories are further divided into
episodic memories (personal experiences) and semantic
memories (general knowledge, facts).
The Semantic Network Model
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The semantic network model of memory
organization suggests that information is
stored in the brain in a connected fashion, with
concepts that are related stored physically
closer to each other than concepts that are not
highly related;** that information in long-term
memory is held in networks of interlinking
concepts.
Retrieval cues
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Retrieval cue is a stimulus for remembering.
The tendency for memory of information to be improved if
related information (surroundings) that is available when
the memory is first formed is also available when the
memory is being retrieved is called
_________________________ .
The memories formed during a particular physiological or
psychological state will be easier to remember while in a
similar state is called _____________________.
There are two kinds of retrieval of memories, recall and
recognition. Recall is when the information to be retrieved
must be pulled from memory with limited external cues,
while Recognition is matching information to a stored fact.
Factors that help to minimize Interference:
1)
Sleep on it.
2)
Rehearse fresh memories – Overlearn it
3)
Give yourself a break
4)
Avoid sequential study of similar material
Serial position effect- is the tendency to recall items at
the beginning or end of a list better than items in the
middle of a list.
Primacy effect is the tendency to recall items better
when they are learned first.
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Recency effect is the tendency to recall items
better when they are learned last.
The error of recognition in which people think
that they recognize some stimulus that is not
actually in memory is called ______________.
Automatic encoding is the tendency of certain
kinds of information to enter long-term memory
with little or no effortful encoding.
Flashbulb memories are enduring memories of
emotionally charged events that seem
permanently seared into the brain.
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Referring to the retrieval of memories in which
those memories are altered, revised, or influenced
by newer information is called
_____________________.
The tendency of misleading information
presented after an event to alter the memories of
the event itself is called misinformation effect.
This affects the eyewitness testimony.
What people see and hear about an event after the
fact can easily affect the accuracy of their
memories of that event.
Theories of forgetting
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Decay theory – is a theory of____________ that posits that
memories consist of ___________ laid down in the brain that
gradually deteriorate and fade away over time. Forgetting
occurs rapidly in the first few hours after learning and then
gradually declines.
Curve of forgetting - is a graph showing a distinct pattern in
which forgetting is very fast within the first hour after learning
a list and then tapers off gradually.
Distributed practice vs. Massed practice is the tendency for
retention of learned material to be greater with spaced practice
(spacing the study of material) than with massed practice.
Hermann Ebbinghaus is one of the first researchers to study
forgetting. He studied the retention of meaningless syllables.
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The failure to process information into memory is
called ____________________.
A memory retrieval problem in which material
learned earlier interferes with the retention of
newly acquired information is called
____________________.
A memory retrieval problem that occurs when
newer information prevents or interferes with the
retrieval of older information is called
_______________________.
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The accuracy of eyewitness testimony also involves
the following factors:
Ease of recall
Degree of confidence
Having knowledge about a subject
Ethnic/racial identification
Types of questions (Suggestive or Leading
questions)
Facial characteristics
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Interference theory – is the belief that
forgetting is the result of the interference of
memories with each other.
Retroactive interference- is when newly
acquired information interferes with retention
of material learned earlier.
Proactive interference is when material learned
earlier interferes with retention of newly
acquired information.
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Recency effect is the tendency to recall items better when they
are learned last.
Retrieval theory is the belief that forgetting is the result of a
failure to access stored memories. Two principal ways in
which the retrieval process can break down, encoding failure
and lack of retrieval cues.
Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon- an experience in which
people are sure they know something but can’t seem to bring it
to mind.
Motivated Forgetting (Repression) - according to Freud, this is
a psychological defense mechanism that protects the self from
awareness of threatening material.
Recall task – is requiring retrieval of stored information with
minimal cues available.
 Recognition task – is requiring retrieval of stored information
from among a range of alternative answers.
 Amnesia is a loss of memory.
 Retrograde amnesia is a loss of memory of events occurring
prior to a traumatic injury, e.g.,
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Anterograde amnesia is the loss or impairment of the ability to
form or store new memories, e.g.,
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Childhood amnesia refers to the normal occurrence of
amnesia for events occurring during infancy and early
childhood. Before the age of three, most people can
recall virtually no memories. Reasons: (1) preverbal
memories are not well organized in the brain and (2) the
brain structures needed to form lasting memories do not
mature until a child is about 2 or 3 years of age, thereby
making memory consolidation difficult to form.
Memory consolidation is the process of converting
________________, short-term memories into stable and
enduring ones.
The changes that take place in the structure and
functioning of neurons when an engram is formed is
called ________________________.
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Dissociative amnesia is a psychologically
based form of amnesia involving the splitting
off from memory of traumatic or troubling
experiences. Memories of a traumatic
experience may become dissociated (split off)
from consciousness, producing a form of
amnesia for events occurring during a specific
time.
The Biology of Memory
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Engram – is Psychologist Karl Lashley’s term for the physical
trace or etching in the brain where he believed a memory is
stored. He never found evidence of such a trace.
Neuronal networks refers to memory circuits in the brain that
consist of complicated networks of nerve cells. *The
biochemical bases for how these circuits create memories are
beyond our present understanding.
The Hippocampus, is a structure in the brain’s limbic system,
that plays a key role in turning short-term memories into longterm declarative memories (memories of facts and personal
information). However, it appears to be a temporary storage
bin for holding new memories, perhaps for weeks or even
months, before they are transferred for long-term storage to the
cerebral cortex and other parts of the brain.
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Memory also depends on other brain structures,
including the thalamus and the amygdala, especially
during emotionally charged experiences, helping to
strengthen and preserve memories of meaningful
events.
Nobel Prize winner Erik Kandel had shown that
memory formation involves biochemical changes
occurring at the synaptic level. The long-term
strengthening of neural connections as the result of
repeated stimulation is called long-term potentiation
(LTP). Strengthened synaptic connections are more
efficient in transmitting messages between neurons.
Genetic Bases of Memory
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The transformation of short-term memory to
long-term memory depends on the production
of certain proteins. The production of these
brain proteins is regulated by certain genes.
Mnemonic- refers to a device for improving
memory, e.g., using an acronym or acrostic.
General Suggestions for Improving
Memory
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1) Pay attention – being in an area conducive to studying.
2) Practice to the third power
3) Use External Memory Aids
4) Enhance Context-Dependent Memory Effects
5) Control stress
6) Adopt Healthy Habit
7) Link Time-Based Tasks to External Cues
8) Mentally Rehearse What You Intend to Do
The End
STUDY
STUDY
STUDY
Elaborative Rehearsal
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Elaborative rehearsal is a method of rehearsal in
which you focus on the meaning of the material.
Levels-of-processing theory holds that the level at
which information is encoded or processed
determines how well or how long information is
stored in memory.
Semantic network model- argues that information is
held in networks of interlinking concepts.
Summation: Memory depends on underlying
processes (encoding, storage, retrieval) that proceed
through a series of stages (sensory memory, shortterm memory, long-term memory).
Racial Biases in Memory Schemas
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Because negative stereotyping can influence
perceptions and attitudes of people, based on the
memory schemas of the dominant culture, members
of that culture often perceive African Americans with
darker skin tones more negatively-as less intelligent,
less attractive, and less successful- than African
Americans with lighter skin tones.
Memory schema – is an organized knowledge
structure, such as a set of beliefs, that reflects one’s
past experiences, expectations, and knowledge about
the world.