Chapter 8: Memory
I.
II.
III.
The Phenomenon of Memory
a. Memory: the persistence of learning over time through storage
and retrieval of information
b. “We are what we remember.”
Studying Memory; Information-Processing Models
a. Encoding, storage, retrieval
b. Atkinson and Shiffrin
i. We record to-be-remembered information as fleeting
sensory memory
ii. From there we process information into a short term
memory bin, where we encode it through rehearsal
iii. Finally, information moves into long-term memory for later
retrieval
c. Addition: working memory (conscious, active processing incoming
auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information
retrieved from long-term memory.
Encoding: Getting Information In
a. Automatic Processing: unconscious encoding of incidental
information, such as space, time, and frequency and of welllearned information such as word meanings.
b. Effortful Processing: encoding that requires attention and
conscious effort
i. Ebbinghaus
1. The amount remembered depends on the time spent
learning
ii. Rehearsal: the conscious repetition of information, either to
maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage.
iii. Application: studying (spacing effect)
1. Massed practice (cramming): produces speedy
short-term recall
2. Distributed study time: produces better long term
recall
iv. Serial position effect
1. The tendency to recall best the last and first items in
a list
c. What We Encode
i. Levels of Processing
1. Visual: the encoding of picture images
2. Acoustic: the encoding of sound, especially the
sound of words
3. Semantic: the encoding of meaning, including the
meaning of words
ii. Visual Encoding
1. Out earlier memories involve visual imagery
2. Mnemonic devices
iii. Organizing Information Encoding
1. Chunking: organizing items into familiar,
manageable units; often occurs automatically
IV.
V.
2. Hierarchies: a few broad concepts divided into
narrower concepts
Storage: Retaining Information
a. Sensory Memory
i. George Sperling and Iconic Memory
1. A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a
photographic or picture-image memory lasting no
more than a few tenths of a second
ii. Echoic memory: a momentary sensory memory of auditory
stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still
be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds
b. Working/Short-Term Memory
i. Limited in duration and capacity
1. A few seconds
2. 5-9 items
c. Long Term Memory
i. Unlimited in duration and capacity
d. Storing Memories in the Brain
i. Synaptic Changes
1. Experience modifies the brain’s neural network
2. Increased synaptic efficiency makes for more
efficient neural circuits.
3. Long-term potentiation (LPT): an increase in a
synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid
stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for
learning and memory.
ii. Stress Hormones and Memory
1. Stronger emotional experience make for stronger
more reliable memory
2. Flashbulb memories
3. Stress acts like acid, corroding memories after a long
time
iii. Storing Implicit and Explicit Memories
1. Amnesia
2. The Hippocampus
a. Temporal love neural center that also forms
part of the brain’s limbic system
b. Active during slow wave sleep, sleep supports
memory consolidation
3. The Cerebellum
a. Brain region extending from the rear of the
brainstem, plays a key role in forming and
storing the implicit memories created by
classical conditioning.
b. Infantile amnesia
Retrieval: Getting Information Out
a. Retrieval cues
i. Recall: a measure of memory in which the person must
retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-theblank test
VI.
VII.
VIII.
ii. Recognition: a measure of memory in which the person
need only identify items previously learned, as on a
multiple choice test
iii. Relearning: a measure of memory that assesses the amount
of time saved when learning material for a second time.
iv. Priming
v. Context Effects
vi. Mood and Memory
1. Mood-congruent: the tendency to recall experience
that are consistent with one’s current good or bad
mood
Forgetting
a. Seven Sins of Memory
i. Three sins of forgetting
1. Absent-mindedness
2. Transience
3. Blocking
ii. Three sins of distortion
1. Misattribution
2. Suggestibility
3. Bias
iii. One sin of intrusion
1. Persistence
b. Encoding Failure
c. Storage Decay
d. Retrieval failure
i. Interference
1. Proactive: the disruptive effect of prior learning on
the recall of new information
2. Retroactive: the disruptive effect of new learning on
the recall of old information
e. Motivated forgetting: Repression
Memory Construction
a. Misinformation and imagination effects
i. Misinformation effect: incorporating misleading
information into one’s memory of an event.
b. Source amnesia: attributing to the wrong source an event we have
experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined.
c. Discerning true and false memories
Improving Memory
a. Study repeatedly
b. Make the material meaningful
c. Activate retrieval cues
d. Use mnemonic devices
e. Minimize interference
f. Sleep more
g. Test your own knowledge, both to rehearse it and to help
determine what you do not yet know.