Memory
Chapter 7
AP Psychology
Alice F. Short
Hilliard Davidson High School
Chapter Preview
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The Nature of Memory
Memory Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval
Forgetting
Study Tips
Memory and Health and Wellness
The Nature of Memory
• memory - retention of information or
experience over time; three phases of
memory
– encoding – the first step in memory, the process
by which information gets into memory storage
• “typing”
– storage –
• “saving”
– retrieval
• “opening”
Encoding Sensory Input
• encoding – the first step in memory, the process by
which information gets into memory storage
• “typing”
• automatic vs. effortful encoding
• What is the role of attention?
– selective attention (purposive focus) – focusing on a
specific aspect of experience while ignoring others
– divided attention (multitasking) – concentrating on more
than one activity at the same time
• heavy media multitaskers performed worse on a test of taskswitching ability (decreased ability to filter out interference
– sustained attention (vigilance) – the ability to maintain
attention to a selected stimulus for a prolonged period of
time
• Example: paying close attention to notes while studying
Encoding: Levels of Processing
• Encoding occurs on a continuum…
– shallow processing (amygdala)
– intermediate processing
– deep processing (prefrontal cortex)
Encoding: Elaboration
• elaboration – the formation of a number of
different connections around a stimulus at a
given level of memory encoding
– can enhance memory
• number of mental connections
– weave a complex spider web around concept
– think of concrete examples
– provide vivid examples
– create self-referencing effect
A SHORT Time to Ponder
• How could knowing more things in general
help you encode information?
Encoding: Imagery
• memory wizards (see p. 211)
– S. created a visual narrative to learn a crazy
formulas
• dual-code hypothesis (Paivio)
– verbal code – word or label
– image code – detailed and distinctive
• image codes are stored as both
• superior to verbal codes alone
Memory Storage
• storage – the retention of information over
time and how this information is represented
in memory
• Atkinson-Shiffrin Theory (1968) – theory
stating that memory storage involves three
separate systems:
– sensory memory
– short-term memory (STM)
– long-term memory (LTM)
Atkinson-Shiffrin Model
• Atkinson-Shiffrin Theory (1968)
– sensory memory – memory system that involves holding information
form the world its original sensory form for only an instant
• lose it if strategies to convert to short- or long-term memory not used
– short-term memory (STM) – limited-capacity memory system in which
information is usually retained for only as long as 30 seconds unless
we use strategies to retain it longer
– long-term memory (LTM) – a relatively permanent type of memory
that stores huge amounts of information for a long time
Storage: Sensory Memory
• rich and detailed information held in original
sensory form
• very brief duration
• echoic (auditory) memory
– up to several seconds
• iconic (visual) memory
– ¼ second
• other senses (little research)
Storage: Short-Term Memory
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attention: sensory memory  STM
limited duration (about 30 seconds)
limited capacity (7 ± 2)
memory span – most college students 8-9
numbers
Storage: Short-Term Memory
• How can we improve STM?
– chunking
• grouping items into a unit
– rehearsal
• conscious repetition of information
• prolongs STM duration indefinite
– deep, elaborate processing = best for memory
Working Memory:
An Alternative to STM
• Is Atkinson-Shiffrin’s theory too simplistic?
• working memory (RAM)
• Active Memory System
– phonological loop – speech-based info
– visuospatial working memory – visual/spatial infor,
visual imagery
– central executive – integrates phonological loop,
visuospatial working memory, long-term memory
• attention, planning, organizing
Working
Memory Model
working memory –
a three-part
system that
allows us to
perform
cognitive tasks; a
kind of mental
workbench on
which the brain
manipulates and
assembles
information to
help us
understand,
make decisions,
and solve
problems
Storage: Long-Term Memory
long-term memory - relatively permanent with
“unlimited” capacity
• explicit long-term memory (declarative)
– episodic memory
– semantic memory
• implicit long-term memory (nondeclarative)
– procedural memory
– classical conditioning
– priming
Storage: Long-Term Memory
• explicit long-term memory (declarative)
– episodic memory
– semantic memory
• implicit long-term memory (nondeclarative)
– procedural memory
– classical conditioning
– priming
Storage: Explicit LTM
• explicit memory (declarative memory) – the
conscious recollection of information, such as
specific facts or events and, at least in humans,
information that can be verbally communicated
– Who? What? Where? When? Why? (Not How?)
• conscious recollection of specific facts and events
that can be verbally communicated
• Bahrick (1984) – recall college Spanish
– initial learning is important (grades, intelligence, etc.)
– permastore content
– effect of distributed practice
Storage:
Explicit LTM
• Bahrick (1984) –
recall college
Spanish
– initial learning is
important
(grades,
intelligence, etc.)
– permastore
content
– effect of
distributed
practice
Storage: Explicit LTM
Subtypes of Explicit Memory
• episodic memory – the retention of information about
the where, when, and what of life’s happenings—that
is, how individuals remember life’s episodes
– autobiographical memories
• semantic memory – a person’s knowledge about the
world, including his or her areas of expertise; general
knowledge, such as of things learned in school; and
everyday knowledge
– knowledge about the world
• fun fact: amnesia just affect one or the other
Storage: Explicit LTM
Storage: Implicit LTM
• implicit memory (nondeclarative memory) –
memory in which behavior is affected by prior
experience without a conscious recollection of
that experience
– procedural memory – memory for skills
• examples: typing, driving, how to tie a shoe
– classical conditioning – automatic learning of
associations between stimuli
– priming – the activation of information that people
already have in storage to help them remember new
information better and faster
• can influence social behavior
A SHORT Time to Ponder
• Consider priming… if you were going to make
a poster for school to “prime” desirable
behaviors in students, what would you create?
• How could you prime yourself (or other
people) to make healthy food and exercise
decisions?
Memory: Organization
• schemas – a preexisting mental concept or framework
that helps people to organize and interpret
information. Schemas from prior encounters with the
environment influence the way we encode, make
inferences about, and retrieve information
– script (event schema) – often contains information about
physical features, people, and typical occurences
• connectionist networks
– connectionism (a.k.a. parallel distributed processing or
PDP) – the theory that memory is stored throughout the
brain in connections among neurons, several of which may
work together to process a single memory
A SHORT Activity
• Write a quick schema for a unit in AP
Psychology? Is this a script as well? Is it not a
script? Why?
Memory: Location
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storage is diffuse
circuits of neurons
neurotransmitter involvement
long-term potentiation
– more connections, better chance of long-term
memory
A SHORT Time to Ponder
• Think back to the States of Consciousness
Unit… what type of impact can drugs have on
memory? What bout drugs with permanent
damaging side effects to neurotransmitter
production or receptors?
Memory: The Smell of Memory
• memory and sensation link
– primary olfactory cortex – linked to:
• amygdala (emotion)
• hippocampus (memory consolidation)
• Proust effect – the ability of a smell to
transport us to a vivid memory
• implications/applications
• why is smell special?
Memory: Brain Structure
• Explicit Memory
– hippocampus, frontal lobes, amygdala
• Implicit Memory
– cerebellum (skills = more historically necessary),
temporal lobes, hippocampus
Memory: Brain Structures
Memory Retrieval
retrieval – the memory process that occurs when information that was
retained in memory comes out of storage
– how encoded?
– how retained?
• serial position effect
• retrieval cues and the retrieval task
– recall and recognition
– encoding specifity
– context at encoding and retrieval
• special cases of retrieval
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autobiographical memories
emotional memories
repressed memories
traumatic events
repressed memories
eyewitness testimony
special cases of retrieval
• autobiographical memories – a special form of episodic
memory consisting of a person’s recollections of his or her
life experiences
• emotional memories
– flashbulb memory – the memory of emotionally significant
events that people often recall with more accuracy and vivid
imagery than everyday events
• repressed memories
– repression – a defense mechanism by which a person is so
traumatized by an event that he or she forgets it and then
forgets the act of forgetting
• traumatic events
• eyewitness testimony
Serial Position Effect
• …tendency to recall items at beginning and
end of a list more readily than those in middle
• primacy effect
– more space in working memory for elaborative
rehearsal during encoding
• recency effect
– items still in working memory
Retrieval: Tasks and Cues
• types of tasks
– recall (essay tests)
– recognition (multiple choice tests)
• encoding specificity
– information present at encoding effective as
retrieval cue
– context-dependent memory
• know name at school
• don’t know name outside of school
Retrieval: Special Cases
• “reconstructive”… subjective
• autobiographical memories
– life time periods
• reminiscence bump – he effect that adults remember more events from
the second and third decades of life than from other decades
– general events
– event-specific information
• emotional memories
– flashbulb memories – emotionally significant; more accurate and
vivid than everyday events
– traumatic events – has inaccuracies (aided by stress hormones of
amygdala)
• perceptual errors
• distorted information
• incorporated others bits of information
– repressed memories: motivated forgetting
• first forgotten and later recovered
• Freudian defense mechanism
False Memory Recovery
• childhood sexual abuse, other events
• recovered or discovered memories?
– abuse is under-acknowledged
– most victims accurately remember at least a part
– loss of memory for abuse is possible
– false reconstruction of memory is possible
– difficult to separate accurate and inaccurate
memories
Eyewitness Testimony
• Distortion
• Bias
• Inaccuracy
Forgetting: Memory Failure
• Ebbinghaus
• encoding failure
• retrieval failure/interference theory – the theory that
people forget not because memories are lost from
storage but because other information gets in the way
of what they want to remember
– proactive interference – situation in which material that
was learned earlier disrupts the recall of material that was
learned later
– retroactive interference – situation in which material that
was learned later disrupts the retrieval of information that
was learned earlier
A SHORT Time to Ponder
• How does proactive interference and
retroactive interference influence your
learning / retrieval of AP Psychology
terminology? What can you do to help your
scores?
Forgetting: Interference
Forgetting: Memory Failure
• decay theory – theory stating that when we
learning something new, a neurochemical
memory trace forms, but over time this trace
disintegrates
– passage of time --> forgetting
– does not explain all instances of forgetting
• tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon – effortful retrieval of known information
– can retrieve some information but not all
Forgetting: Memory Failure
• retrospective memory – remembering information
from the past
• prospective memory
– remembering to do something in the future
• content – remembering what to do
• timing – remembering when to do it
– absentmindedness
• amnesia – the loss of memory
– anterograde amnesia
• inability to store new information and events
– retrograde amnesia
• inability to retrieve past information and events
A SHORT Time to Ponder
• If you had to suffer from either anterograde
amnesia or retrograde amnesia, which form of
memory loss would you prefer?
Study Tips: Organize
• review course notes routinely and catch
potential error and ambiguities
• organize the material in a way that will allow
you to commit it to memory effectively
• experiment with different organizational
techniques
Study Tips: Encoding
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give undivided attention
process deeply
make associations
use imagery
encode early and often
Study Tips: Rehearse
• rewrite, type, or retype your notes
• talk to people about what you have learned
and how it is important to real life in order to
reinforce memory
• test yourself
• while reading and studying, ask yourself
questions
• treat your brain kindly
Study Tips: Retrieval
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redo notes
talk to others
test yourself
ask yourself questions
rest and eat well
use retrieval cues
sit comfortably, take a deep breath and stay calm
Memory and Health and Wellness
• redemptive vs. contamination stories
– redemptive – more likely to contribute to future generations
• Roles of Autobiographical Memories
– learn from our experience
– develop sense of identity
– bond with others
• Memory and Aging
– indicator of brain functioning
– activity inoculates against mental decline
– both physical and mental activity are important
Chapter Summary
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Identify three phases of memory.
Explain how memories are encoded.
Discuss the three stages of memory storage.
Summarize how memories are retrieved.
Describe how the failure of encoding and
retrieval are involved in forgetting.
• Evaluate study strategies based on an
understanding of memory.
• Discuss the multiple functions of memory in
human life.
Chapter Summary
• Encoding
– attention, levels of processing, elaboration, and
imagery
• Storage
– sensory, short-term, and long-term memory
• Retrieval
– serial position, retrieval cues, types of memory
Chapter Summary
• Forgetting
– encoding failure, retrieval failure, interference, decay,
motivated forgetting, amnesia
• Study Tips
– encoding, storage, retrieval
• Memory and Health and Wellness
– autobiographical memory, memory and aging