J. Hagopian
Prof. Parisi
PSYCHE
10/14, 16/08
Memory
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The Phenomenon of Memory
o Information processing
o Flashbulb memories-- M. Proust- network of memories cause us to
associate some incidences (flashbulb memories or involuntary
memory) with others
Encoding: Getting information in
o Some info (route to school) is automatically processed
o However, new or unusual information (friend’s new cell #) requires
attention and effort
o Rehearsal: Effortful learning usually requires rehearsal or conscious
repetition.
o Ebbinghaus studied rehearsal by using nonsense syllables: TUV YOF
GEK XOZ
 Why nonsense? We won’t attach associations to them until
after rehearsal
o Memory Effects:
 Next in line effect: When you are so anxious about being next
that you cannot remember what the person just before you in
line says, but you can recall what other people around you say.
 Spacing Effect: We retain information better when we rehearse
over time
 Consolidation: things get more solid with time
 IE- Being knocked unconscious—brain doesn’t have
anything encoded so there is no memory
 Retrograde- before impact
 Anterograde- forward/in front of impact
 Serial Position effect: When your recall is better for first and
last items on a list, but poor for middle items.
o We encode: Visually, acoustically, visually and with meaning
o Mnemonics: imagery is at the heart of many memory aids. Mnemonic
techniques use vivid imagery in aiding memory
 Method of Loci
 To have places that you associate with things
 Link Method
o Chunking:
 Organizing items into a familiar, manageable unit. (1772-14921812-1941)
 Capacity: “The Magical Number 7, plus or minus two”
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o Stress Hormones and memory: Heightened emotions (stress-related
or otherwise) make for stronger memories. Continued stress may
disrupt memory
 IE- eyewitness testimony
o H.M.- 1950’s, Had severe epilepsy and took out sections of both
temporal lobes and hippocampus removed as well
 He forgets new memories
 Anterograde amnesia (memory intact | surgery | no new
memories)
o Explicit (declarative)- with conscious recall; processed in
hippocampus facts/general knowledge; personally experiences
o Implicit memory (procedural)- without conscious recall
Storage retaining information
o Korsakoff’s syndrome- vitamin B deficiency leads to killing of brain
cells in hippocampus area
o Misinformation effect- imagination takes over due to wording of a
question (hit/smash)
o Motivated forgetting- people unknowingly revise their memories
o Repression- a defense mechanism that banished anxiety- arousing
thoughts, feeling, and memories from consciousness.
Retrieval: Getting information out
Memory construction
o Misinformation and imagination effect
o Source amnesia
o Discerning true and false memories
o Children’s eyewitness recall
o Repressed or constructed. Memories of abuse?
Improving Memory
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