Amber Gilewski Tompkins Cortland Community College

Explicit Versus Implicit Memories
 Explicit memory – declarative memory
 Memory for specific information; that can be stated or declared
 Information can be autobiographical (episodic) or general (semantic)
 Implicit memory – nondeclarative memory
 Memory of how to perform a procedure or skill
 Skill memories

Human Memory: Basic Questions
3 Different Memory Processes
 How does information get into memory? (ENCODING)
 How is information maintained in memory? (STORAGE)
 How is information pulled back out of memory? (RETRIEVAL)

Encoding:
Getting Information Into Memory
 Role of attention & awareness
 “ Next-in-line effect ”
 Encoding levels:
 Visual – represented as a picture
 Acoustic – represented as sounds
 Semantic – represented in terms of meanings

Enriching Encoding:
Improving Memory
 Elaboration = linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding
 Thinking of examples
 Visual Imagery = creation of visual images to represent words to be remembered
 Easier for concrete objects: Dual-coding theory
 Self-Referent Encoding
 Making information personally meaningful

Storage:
Maintaining Information in Memory
 Analogy: information storage in computers ~ information storage in human memory
 Information-processing theories
 Subdivide memory into 3 different stores
 Sensory, Short-term, Long-term

Sensory Memory
 Brief preservation of information in original sensory form
 Auditory/Visual – approximately ¼ second
Short-term Memory
 Limited capacity – magical number 7 plus or minus 2
 Chunking – grouping familiar stimuli for storage as a single unit
 Limited duration – about 10-12 seconds without rehearsal
 Rehearsal – the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about the information
(keeps info in short-term & helps to transfer to long-term memory)

Long-Term Memory:
Unlimited Capacity?
 Vast storehouse of information
 Long-term memories can be distorted
 Schemas, flashbulb memories, hypnosis
 No known limit known for amount of information stored in long-term memory
(LTM)
 Long-term memories may last a life-time

Retrieval:
Getting Information Out of Memory
 The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
– a failure in retrieval
 Retrieval cues
 Recalling an event
 Context cues
 Reconstructing memories
 Misinformation effect & overconfidence may lead to distortions
 Eyewitness: How Accurate is Visual
Memory?

 Representativeness heuristic
 Make judgments about events according to the population of events that they appear to represent
 Availability heuristic
 Estimate of probability is based on examples of relevant events
DECISION MAKING & HEURISTICS ACTIVITY

Forgetting:
When Memory Lapses
 Retention – the proportion of material retained
 Recall – reproduce without cues
 Recognition – select from options
 Relearning - learn information again & time learning curve

Why Do We Forget?
 Ineffective Encoding
 Decay theory
 Interference theory
(retroactive/proactive)
 Repression
 Amnesia (infantile, anterograde, or retrograde)

Figure 7.19 Retroactive and proactive interference

Improving Everyday Memory
 Engage in adequate rehearsal
 Distribute practice and minimize interference
 Emphasize deep processing
 Organize information
 Use verbal mnemonics
 Use visual mnemonics