Memory
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The Phenomenon of
Memory
 Memory is learning that takes place over time – it is
information that can be stored and retrieved
 Memory is like a computer – information must be
encoded, stored and then retrieved
 Encoding is the processing of information into the
memory system
 Storage is the retention of memory over time
 Retrieval is the process of getting information out of
storage
 How well information is encoded is really important
when it comes to storing and retrieving the memory
later
The Cycle of Memory
Encoded and
rehearsed information
becomes long-term
memory and is
available for retrieval
Information comes in
as Sensory Memory
Working Memory
involves conscious,
active processing of
incoming auditory
and visual-spatial
information, mixed
with retrieved
information from
long-term memory
It becomes a short
term memory – and is
either encoded
through rehearsal or
lost
Encoding
 With little to no effort – we absorb an enormous amount of
information
 Without conscious effort – we automatically process information
about:
 Space – like when you’re reading and you know where to go back
and look for something on a page
 Time – like how you unintentionally notice the sequence of your day:
forgot your coat in a classroom? It’s easy to retrace your steps from
the day
 Frequency – how effortless it is to realize how often something
happens “It’s the fourth time I’ve heard that song today”
 Since our brain is so amazing at multitasking – all of this
unconscious processing takes place while your brain is also
consciously controlling your walking, talking, driving, getting
dressed – or unconsciously monitoring your breathing, digesting,
balance
Encoding
 Automatic processing is so effortless, that it’s
difficult to turn it off
 If you see a word in your native language (on a
truck, billboard, or building) it is almost impossible not
to automatically (and without any effort) register the
meaning
 When you first learned to read – the processing was
not automatic – but like many skills and activities –
the learning over time (memory) makes the ability
automatic
Encoding
 When we give attention and conscious effort to
learn a new concept, skill, or person’s name – we
are using effortful processing
 Oftentimes, the most successful way to effortfully
process new information is through rehearsal, or
conscious repetition
 Germany (1850-1909) Ebbinghaus wants to
scientifically assess the effects of rehearsal on
memory
 Forms a list of non-sense words, randomly selects a
sample, and practices them before testing himself
(via recall)
MALES STUDY THE NON-SENSE
WORDS (BUT DON’T REHEARSE THEM)
FEMALES REHEARSE FOR ONE
MINUTE
JIH, BAZ, FUB, YOX,
SUJ, XIR, DAX, LEQ,
VUM, PID, KEL, WAV,
TUV, ZOF, GEK, HIW
WRITE DOWN AS
MANY OF THE NONSENSE WORDS AS YOU
CAN WITHOUT
TALKING!!!! YOU HAVE
30 SECONDS
WHAT OTHER FACTORS (VARIABLES)
COULD HAVE AFFECTED THE
ACCURACY OF OUR EXPERIMENT?
 Our control group and experimental group were not equal (one
all male, one all female)
 We didn’t control for:
 Sleep
 Food
 Intelligence
 Age
 Native languages
 Other?
Encoding
 What Ebbinghaus found out was that the
amount of time spent learning increased
the amount of information learned
 What kind of correlation is this???
 He also found that the minute he stopped
using the information he memorized… he
was unable to recall it!
 This happens with math facts, foreign
languages, and many other skills, too.
Can you name any?
Encoding
 Another effective way to encode information is to utilize the
spacing effect
 Information practiced over time is more likely to make its
way to make its way into your long term memory
 If we only talked about Correlation and Causation in
chapter one – you would not remember it in June – but we
consistently bring our material back to that concept
 Think about how you memorize peoples names when you
are new… can you support the idea of the spacing effect
helping long term memory?
Remember this list
1.
Eggs
12. Lettuce
23. Flour
2.
Milk
13. Plates
24. Sugar
3.
Bread
14. Napkins
25. Vegetable oil
4.
Basil
15. Shampoo
26. Dog food
5.
Cheese
16. Thyme
27. Cumin
6.
Potatoes
17. Razors
28. Cat liter
7.
Apple juice
18. Water
29. Soap
8.
Pears
19. Lemons
30. French Fries
9.
Onions
20. Cereal
10. Pizza
21. Cookies
11. Pasta
22. Pretzels
What items did you
remember?
1.
12.
23.
2.
13.
24.
3.
14.
25.
4.
15.
26.
5.
16.
27.
6.
17.
28.
7.
18.
29.
8.
19.
30.
9.
20.
10.
21.
11.
22.
Encoding
 Researchers also notice the serial positioning effect in memory
tests
 Given a list of items to remember – subjects are most likely to
remember what is at the beginning and the end of the list
 Why do you think that is?
 The beginning of the list gets repeated the most – the end of
the list is freshest in your memory
Analyze
 What do you think affected what people remembered and
misremembered about the shopping list?
 Remembered items they liked (meaning)
 Added items that weren’t there because of similar items
(shampoo was there, did you add conditioner?) (grouping,
meaning)
 Remembered items that go together (milk, eggs, cheese)
but not dissimilar items (razors and flour) (grouping)
 If you never go grocery shopping or cook – these words
might not mean anything to you: Basil, cumin, thyme
(familiarity)
Read and remember the
following paragraph. You
have 3 minutes.
 The procedure is really quite simple. First, you
arrange things into different groups. Of course,
one pile may be sufficient depending on how
much there is to do. After the procedure is
completed one arranges the materials into
different groups again. Then they can be put in
their appropriate places. Eventually they will be
used once more and the whole process will then
have to be repeated. However, that is a part of
life.
Write down everything you
remember. You have 3 minutes.
Encoding for meaning
 In 1972, Bransford and Johnson read the preceding paragraph to a
group of college students – who when asked to recall did so with very
little success.
 They also read the same paragraph to a different group of college
students, only this time they told the students they were going to listen
to a paragraph about washing clothes.
 The group that encoding with meaning (semantic encoding) displayed
a drastically improved recall than the group who encoded only with
sound (acoustic encoding) and a third group who read the paragraph
to themselves (visual encoding)




What was the independent variable?
What was the dependent variable?
Which was the control group?
Which was the experimental group?
Encoding for meaning
 Ebbinghaus’ research suggested that even with rehearsal, the
effort needed to remember meaningful material compared with
nonsense (or meaningless material) only took 1/10th of the effort
 For someone who knows what “slope” is… y=mx+b is an easy
formula to remember
 If you gave that same formula to a 1st grader who did not have
the meaning behind the formula… it would be more easily
misremembered or forgotten
Visual Encoding - Study the
following words. You have 45
seconds.
 Typewriter
 Process
 Staples
 Void
 Flower
 Ring
 Cigarette
 Disease
 Skis
 Inherent
 Deceit
 Volume
 Fire
 Skill
 Heat
Visual Encoding
 Our earliest memories (Usually something that happened
around the age of 3 or 4) are often visual and involve
imagery – or mental pictures
 We more easily remember concrete words (which lend
themselves to imagery) than we do abstract (low imagery)
words
 Memory for concrete is superior because they become
semantic (meaningful) and remain visual
 Two types of encoding are better than one!
Visual Encoding
 Visual images are so powerful – that they often override more
mundane memories
 This leads to the phenomenon of “rosy retrospect”
 Use inference to explain what you think rosy retrospect is and give an
example
 People tend to remember things better than they thought they were
at the time… Examples
 Disney was great (because you forget how hot you were and how long
the lines were)
 Having a baby didn’t hurt that bad (because the visual of seeing your
child for the first time overpowered just how bad those contractions hurt)
Visual Encoding
 Mnemonic devices (memory aids that use visual imagery and
organization) are another powerful memory tool rooted in
imagery
 ROY G. BIV, the devious little leprechaun at the end of the
rainbow is really just the colors of the rainbow
 a rat in the house might eat all the ice cream is the only way
Mrs. Summers could get us to spell correctly in math class
Visual Encoding
 One study from the late 60s had subjects remember a song using
word association to remember numbers 1 through 9 (one; bun –
two; shoe – three; tree and so on)
 Subjects soon and without much effort could count by the peg
words (bun, shoe, tree) with no effort
 Subjects were then challenged to remember a grocery list by
visually associating them with the peg words (Carrots – stick them
in a bun; Milk – fill the shoe with it; Paper towels – drape them
over a tree)
 The visual encoding was so strong for the subjects that most
scored with complete accuracy with minimal rehearsal time
Now Write down all of the
words listed a few slides
back. You have 45 seconds.
1.
6.
11.
2.
7.
12.
3.
8.
13.
4.
9.
14.
5.
10.
15.
Which words did you
remember?
Concrete
Abstract
Typewriter
Void
Cigarette
Inherent
Fire
Process
Flower
Disease
Staples
Deceit
Ring
Skill
Skis
Volume
Ring
Organizing Information for
Encoding
 Chunking – we can more easily recall information
when it is presented in familiar, manageable
chunks
 Chunking occurs so naturally that we take it for
granted
 When you give someone your phone number or
credit card information – you usually only do so a
few numbers at a time
 If too much is presented at one – the short term
memory is over whelmed and little to no
information makes it to long term.
Organizing Information for
Encoding
 We also organize information into hierarchies –
which chunk and narrow information
 Hierarchies start of broad and narrow down into
more specific information
 When given an outline or hierarchy – students
(and people in general) are able to more
accurately recall important information
Check Yo Self!!!!
(before you wreck yo self)
1. Jot down the psychological names for taking information in,
retaining it, and getting it back out
2. Explain what rehearsal is and how it works with memory
3. When people are tested on a list of words, they tend to best
remember the first and last words. What is this called?
4. Explain why this phenomena happens.
5. What is a mnemonic device?
Storage: Retaining
Information
 Iconic Memory – a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli
 Echoic memory – a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli
 George Sterling in the 1960s tested iconic memory by flashing 3 rows of 3
letters for 1/20th of a second to participants
 When asked to recall what they saw, they got less than half correct. Why
do you think that is?
 Sperling then added a tone to correspond to each row – and with this
variable, participants were able to accurately recall all nine letter
 Our brains register things we do not know they register… but storing
them and retrieving them is often too difficult without some help!
What are the limits of short
term memory
 With out rehearsal – your short term memory is pretty stinky
 To prove this – In 1959 Margaret Paterson asked people to
remember groups of 3 consonants:(KLJ, MPQ)
 She then asked them to count backwards from 100 by 3s – in order
to prevent rehearsal of the consonant groups.
 After 3 seconds, only about half of the consonants could be
recalled
 After 12 seconds, most people couldn’t remember any
What does this tell you about your studying
techniques???
Do Now
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSQJP40Pc
GI
 Count how many passes the team in white
makes. Pay attention!
Short –Term Memory
 Your short term memory is limited not only in
length of time (as demonstrated by our earlier
experiments) but also in its capacity
 The magical number 7 (plus or minus two) was
determined to be the average of what people
can remember at any given time without
rehearsal
Long-Term Memory
 Our potential for long-term memory storage is limitless
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vsYCSmBcM0
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbjJo6gs274
 People with “Amazing Meomory” say it’s all in the strategy
and anyone can learn to have a great memory
 What techniques about memory did you see the people
using? Explain the theory behind why they work .
Storing Memories in the
Brain
 For year, psychologists tried to figure out WHERE
memories are stored in the brain
 In 1950, Karl Lashey train mice to solve a maze,
then systematically cut out different regions of
their brains
 No matter what cortical area was removed, the
mice always knew, in at least part, how to solve
the maze
 What does this tell you about memory storage?
Synaptic Changes
 Memories begin as neural impulses – charges that pass
between the synapses
 By studying sea slugs (remember their brains are similar to ours),
neuroscientists saw that during a familiar experience, there was
an increased amount of serotonin in the synapses between
connecting neurons
 Those synapses then became ore effective at transmitting
signals
 Relate this to what we learned about Alzheimer's and the
plaques. How do plaques get in the way of memory?
Synaptic Changes
 The more serotonin releases between neurons, the less prompting
is needed to inspire recall of long-term memories
 Because of this finding more research is being done into
developing drugs that help with serotonin intake and and
production to help with memory loss
 What type of research found the finding?
 What type of research is using this information?
 Basic Research discovered the information. Applied Research uses
it to help develop drugs.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAKYzuhk-LY
Stress Hormones and
Memory
 If there were a drug (doctor prescribed medicine) you could
take to dull upsetting or traumatic memories, would you take
it? Why or why not?
 Would you give it to your child or younger sibling to spare them
the pain of such memories?
Stress Hormones and
Memories
 When we are stressed or excited, our body releases stress
hormones that make our brains more active
 The hormones induce glucose production, to fuel the brain
and signal that something important has happened
 The amygdala (part of which system?) helps regulate
emotion-processing and can boost the encoding of highlyemotional memories AND reduce the encoding of neutral
ones
Stress Hormones and
Memory
 According to most research, stronger emotions
make for stronger memories
 What kind of correlation is this?
 As emotion goes up, the strength of the memory
goes up. As emotion lessens, the strength of the
memory lessens.
 This is a positive correlation.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-blindnesswhen-everyone-is-a-stranger-20-03-2012/
Storing Implicit and Explicit
Memories
 A memory-to-be comes into the brain through
the senses
 Where it travels to next depends on the type of
information it is
 Some people suffer from a special type of
amnesia, or memory loss, in which they are
unable to form new memories
Jimmy
 Was injured in the war in 1945 – and lost the ability to form new
memories
 In 1975, psychologists Oliver Sacks asked him to name the
president – he replied confidently, “FDR is dead, Truman’s at
the helm”
 Sacks asked Jimmy his age, and he reported that he was 19.
Sacks then showed him his reflection in the mirror – Jimmy lost it
 Sacks then distracted him and he forgot all about it
Jimmy
 The strange thing about Jimmy (and others like him) was that he could
LEARN new things
 They could learn to solve puzzles, read mirror writing, learn complicated
new skills on the computer – but none of them REMEMBERED that they
learned how to do these things
 One test showed amnesia patients pictures of familiar people’s faces –
although they could not identify the faces explicitly, their physiological
(body) reactions to familiar faces revealed that their brains did indeed
recognized the faces
 Explicit Memories – you are aware that you have them – memories of
facts that you can know and declare
 Implicit Memories – memories that you are not conscious of having
Types of long-term
memories
Explicit
Processed in the
hippocampus
Personally
experienced events
(prior to the amnesia)
Implicit
Processed in other
brain areas, including
the cerebellum
Facts – General
Knowledge
Skills- motor and
cognitive
Classical
conditioning
Implicit or Explicit???
(Number your paper from 1-10)
1. Driving a car
2. Doing a cartwheel
3. Solving a math problem
4. Recalling the names of your siblings
5. Recalling the names of three people you just met
6. Telling someone the last song you heard
7. Remembering if you turned off the stove (or not)
8. How to use utensils
9. How to write your name
10. What your name is
Answers
1. Implicit
6. Explicit
2. Implicit
7. Explicit
3. Implicit
8. Implicit
4. Explicit
9. Implicit
5. Explicit
10. Explicit
Group B Close Your Eyes
Group A Close Your Eyes
Fill in the missing letters for
the words below.
1. PE_K
6. _INE
2. _ID
7. _AT
3. S_Y
8. CA_E
4. F_N
9. _AM
5. _OG
10.SA_D
Choices
1. PEAK-PECK
1. NINE-PINE
2. AID-KID
2. MAT·OAT
3. SAY-SPY
3. CAKE-CAVE
4. FAN-FUN
4. JAM-RAM
5. DOG·HOG
5. SAID-SAND
Retrieval – Getting
Information Out
 To most people – memory is recall – the ability to retrieve
information not in your conscious awareness (like what you ate
for dinner)
 To a psychologist – memory is ANY SIGN that something learned
has been retained.
 Recognizing (a measure of memory in which a person must
identify learned information – like a multiple choice exam)and
relearning (a measure of memory in which a person takes less
time to relearn a task) also indicate memory
Retrieval Cues
 Imagine a spider suspended in the middle of her web – held up by
many strands extending outward in all different directions to all
different points
 The process of retrieving memory is like tracing a spider from its web
- memories are “stored” in a “web” of associations – each piece of
information is interconnected with another
 The more associations you have to any piece of information, the
more likely you are to remember it
 Each bit of information acts like a hint – we call these retrieval cues
 If you can’t remember where you left something, you usually close
your eyes (or roll them up and to the right) and try to picture the last
time you had it… you are looking for retrieval cues to help you
remember where it might be
Priming
 http://gizmodo.com/5980749/this-is-how-yourbrain-works
 Priming – the usually unconscious activation of
particular associations in memory
 Priming helps us to remember things in a certain
way
Context Effects
 Putting yourself in a certain context can also help you remember
things
 HAVE YOU EVER…
 Been sitting on the couch and realized you needed chips…
 Walked into the kitchen and forgot why you were there…
 Sat back down on the couch and remembered that you wanted
chips?
 When you walked into the kitchen, you were out of the context of
being a chip eating couch potato… but as soon as you were back
– you remembered how potato-ish you were
 Context can also alter your mood – sometimes you walk into a
room and are automatically in a bad mood – because you
associate that room with something
Context Effects
 Sometimes, being in a familiar context leads us to
experience déjà vu – (French for “already seen”)
the eerie feeling that “I’ve experienced this
before”
 Really, the situation is likely filled with similar
retrieval cues to another event, that lead you to
misremember it as that exact event
Moods and Memories
 We also have state-dependent memories, ones
we can only remember when we feel a certain
way
 You are mad at your boyfriend and suddenly
remember every annoying thing he ever did
 You are feeling lovey-dovey and your boyfriend
suddenly does sweet, romantic things all the time
The Seven Sins of Memory
Forgetting
FORGETTING
1.
Absent Mindedness – inattention to details which leads to encoding failure (your mind is
elsewhere as you lay down the car keys)
2.
Transience – storage decay over time (unused information, like you locker combination from
freshman year, fades as it becomes non-essential)
3.
Blocking – inaccessibility of stored information (tip of your tongue syndrome)
DISTORTION
4.
Misattribution – confusing the source of the information (putting words in someone else’s
mouth, remembering a dream as if it were real)
5.
Suggestibility – the lingering effects of misinformation (like a leading question that becomes a
false memory… Did Ms. Appleby throw out your paper?)
6.
Bias – belief-colored recollections (current feelings towards your bf or gf might change the
way you felt about them when you first met. Was it really love at first sight or did you think he
dressed like a total dork?)
INTRUSTION
7.
Persistence – unwanted memories that seem to haunt you
Encoding Failure
 What numbers accompany 5 on your phone
(without looking?)
 Much of what we sense never gets encoded
because it is not important to our survival
 The parts of our brain that are active for encoding
also slow down with age – which explains some
age related memory loss (totally normal)
Storage Decay
 According to research, our memories fade rapidly
with non-use at first, but then level out
 This is called the forgetting curve
 Three years after high-school, you may only
remember 30% of the Spanish or French you
learned… but 25 years later, you will still have
approximately that 30%
Retrieval Failure
 Sometimes the information is in there – but we struggle to get it out
(very frustrating)
 This is where retrieval cues help. The more you have, the better
your chances of figuring it out
 Interference – sometimes new information gets in the way of
retrieving old information
 A new phone number might block your recall of an old one
 Proactive interference occurs when something you learned earlier
disrupts your recall of something you learned later
 Retroactive interference occurs when new information makes it harder
to recall older information
Which is it? Retroactive or
Proactive?
1. You are fluent in English, and so you have a really hard time
learning German.
2. You drove one way to work for six months, and so you can’t
remember the short cut a co-worker just showed you.
3. You changed your password on your computer, and now you
can’t remember what your password used to be.
4. You have a new girlfriend. But you keep calling her by your old
girlfriend’s name. Yikes.
5. You learned to drive automatic. Now, learning to drive stick is
really tricky.
Answers
1. Proactive
2. Proactive
3. Retroactive
4. Proactive
5. Proactive