Take out a piece of paper
Name the Seven Dwarves
 Was
the exercise easy or difficult?
It depends on certain circumstantial factors:
•Whether you like Disney movies
•How long ago you watched the movie
•How loud the people are around you when
you are trying to remember
Memory
The Phenomenon of Memory

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What is memory? What role does it play in the lives of
humans?
Luis Bunuel, Spanish filmmaker, said, “Memory is
what makes our lives … Without it, we are nothing.”
The Roman statesman Cicero once said: “Memory is
the treasury and guardian of all things.”

To a psychologist, Memory is any indication that
learning has persisted over time. Memory is our ability
to store and retrieve information.

Our capacity for remembering the many voices,
sounds, and songs, flavors, smells, textures, faces,
sights, and events, general knowledge, and procedures
is amazing!!
Your Memory…
Your memory ability is most apparent in your recall of unique
and/or highly emotional moments in your past.
– For example: a vivid memory of a car accident; your first romantic
kiss; your context when you heard some tragic news
When forming memories you must select, process, store, and
retrieve information.
Encoding, storage, and retrieval are the three aspects of
memory process.
Encoding
The processing of information into the
memory system (into our brains)
Typing info into a computer
Getting a girls name at a party
Storage
The retention of encoded material
over time
Pressing Ctrl S and
saving the info.
Trying to remember her name
when you leave the party
Retrieval
The process of getting the information
out of memory storage
Finding your document
and opening it up
Seeing her the next day
and calling her the wrong
name (retrieval failure)
Turn your paper over
Now pick pick out the
seven dwarves
Grouchy Gabby Fearful Sleepy
Smiley Jumpy Hopeful Shy
Droopy Dopey Sniffy Wishful
Puffy Dumpy Sneezy Pop
Grumpy Bashful Cheerful Teach
Snorty Nifty Happy Doc Wheezy
Stubby Poopy
Seven Dwarves
Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy, Sneezy, Happy, Doc and Bashful
Did you do better on the first or second dwarf memory
exercise?
Recall vs. Recognition
 With recall- you must retrieve the
information from your memory (fill-in-the
blank tests).
 With recognition- you must identify the
target from possible targets (multiplechoice tests).
 Which is easier?
Memory … once again …

First: Acquisition (to remember you must acquire)

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During acquisition, the relevant experience(s) leave some record
or mark in the nervous system – called Memory Trace
Second: Storage (storing information)
Third: Retrieval (“trying to remember” – dredge
particular memory trace)
Therefore, it is clear that there can not be any
remembering without prior acquisition (learning).
Memory is the process by which we recollect prior
experiences and information and skills learned in the
past
Memory … once again …


There are different types of memory.
Memory can be categorized according to kinds of
information it stores:
 Events (experiences) - Episodic
 General Knowledge - Generic
 Skills (physical abilities) - Procedural
Episodic Memory


Memory of specific events
Memories of things that happen or
experiences


Example: what you ate for dinner last dinner
or taking a quiz last Friday.
Some episodic memories are very
surprising, significant, or traumatic  we
tend to recall these events in great details.
These are called: Flashbulb memories
Generic Memory


General knowledge. For example: we
“remember” that Thomas Jefferson was
the _______ president of the United
States.
Unlike Episodic memory, with Generic
memories we do not usually remember
when we acquire that information.
Procedural Memory

It consists of skills or procedures you have
learned.


Example: riding a bike, skipping rope,
swimming, etc.
Once such a skill has been learned it usually
stays with you for many years. Even if you
do not use it, you are unlikely to forget the
procedure.
How does our brain store longterm memories?

Memories do NOT reside in single specific
spots of our brain.
•They are not electrical (if the electrical activity
were to shut down in your brain, then restartyou would NOT start with a blank slate).
Sensory Memory
The immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the
memory system
Stored just for an instant, and most gets unprocessed
Large capacity (can hold many items at once)
Iconic Memory & Echoic Memory
Examples:
•You lose concentration in class during a lecture. Suddenly you hear a significant
word and return your focus to the lecture. You should be able to remember what
was said just before the key word since it is in your sensory register.
•Your ability to see motion can be attributed to sensory memory. An image
previously seen must be stored long enough to compare to the new image. Visual
processing in the brain works like watching a cartoon -- you see one frame at a
time.
•If someone is reading to you, you must be able to remember the words at the
beginning of a sentence in order to understand the sentence as a whole. These
words are held in a relatively unprocessed sensory memory.
Short-Term Memory
Memory that holds a few items briefly
Capacity: Limited = Seven digits
(plus or minus two)
The info. will be stored into long-term or
forgotten
How do you store things from short-term to long-term?
Rehearsal
You must repeat things over
and over to put them into
your long-term memory.
Working Memory
(Modern day STM)
Another way of describing the use of
short-term memory is called working
memory.
Working-Memory has three parts:
1.
2.
3.
Audio
Visual
Integration of audio and visual (controls
where you attention lies)
Long-Term Memory
The relatively permanent and limitless
storehouse of the memory system.
Final stage in processing memories
*Encoding = controls movement
from working to long-term memory
*Retrieval = controls flow of info.
from long-term to working memory
Review the three stage process of
Memory
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
The current theory of how our long-term
memory works.
•Memory has a neural basis.
•LTP is an increase in a synapse’s firing
potential after brief, rapid stimulation.
In other words, if you are trying to remember a phone
number, the neurons are firing neurotransmitter through the
synapse. The neuron gets used to firing in that pattern and
essentially learns to fire in that distinct way. It is a form of
rehearsal (but for our neurons).
Stress and Memory
Stress can lead to
the release of
hormones that
have been shown
to assist in LTM.
Similar to the idea
of Flashbulb
Memory.
Types of LTM
The Hippocampus
Neural center located in
limbic system that helps
process explicit memories
The hippocampus is like the
librarian for the library which
is our brain.
The librarian assigns diff.
info to diff. regions (frontal
lobes & temporal lobes)
Damage to the hippocampus
disrupts our memory.
Left = Verbal
Right = Visual and Locations
*Implicit memories
processed by Cerebellum
(back of our head) &
Amygdala (emotional
memories)
Encoding :
Getting the information in our heads!!!!
Two ways to encode information
Automatic Processing
Effortful Processing
Automatic Processing
Unconscious encoding of incidental information.
You encode space, time and word meaning
without effort.
Things can become automatic with practice.
For example, if I tell you that you are a jerk, you
will encode the meaning of what I am saying to
you without any effort.
Effortful Processing
Encoding that requires attention and
conscious effort.
Rehearsal is the most common effortful
processing technique.
Through enough rehearsal, what was
effortful becomes automatic.
Things to remember about
Encoding
1. The Next-In-Line Effect: we seldom
remember what the person has just said
or done if we are next.
2. Information minutes before sleep is
seldom remembered; in the hour before
sleep, well remembered.
3. Taped info played while asleep is
registered by ears, but we do not
remember it.
Spacing Effect
We encode
better when we
study or practice
over time.
DO NOT
CRAM!!!!!
Take out a piece of paper and….
List the U.S. Presidents
The Presidents
Washington
J.Adams
Jefferson
Madison
Monroe
JQ Adams
Jackson
Van Buren
Harrison
Tyler
Polk
Taylor
Fillmore
Pierce
Buchanan
Lincoln
A.Johnson
Grant
Hayes
Garfield
Arthur
Cleveland
Harrison
Cleveland
McKinley
T.Roosevelt
Taft
Wilson
Harding
Coolidge
Hoover
FD.Roosevelt
Truman
Eisenhower
Kennedy
L.Johnson
Nixon
Ford
Carter
Reagan
Bush
Clinton
Bush Jr.
Hargrave
Serial Positioning Effect
Our tendency to recall best the last
and first items in a list.
Presidents
Recalled
If we graph an average person remembers presidential list- it
would probably look something like this.
Primacy and Recency Effects
Primacy and Recency effects: when we try to
remember a series of information, our
memories of the first and last bits of info. tends
to be sharpest. This primacy (first) and recency
(last) effects.
Types of Encoding
Semantic Encoding: the
encoding of meaning, like the
meaning of words
•Acoustic Encoding: the encoding
of sound, especially the sounds of
words.
•Visual Encoding: the encoding of
picture images.
Which type works best?
Self-Reference Effect
An example of how
we encode meaning
very well.
The idea that we
remember things (like
adjectives) when they
are used to describe
ourselves.
Tricks to Encode
Use imagery: mental pictures
Mnemonic Devices - Memory aids using
imagery and organizational devices.
"Mary Very Easily Makes Jam Saturday Unless No Plums."
Mars, Venus, Earth, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.
*** Peg-word System
*** Method of Loci
Give me some more examples….
Chunking
Organizing items
into familiar,
manageable units
Often it will occur
automatically
1-4-9-2-1-7-7-6-1-8-1-2-1-9-4-1
Do these numbers mean anything to you?
1492, 1776, 1812, 1941 how about now?
Chunk- from Goonies
Retrieval
How do we recall the information
we thought we remembered?
Let’s Jog Our Memory!!!!!!!
Recall versus
Recognition
I probably cannot recall the
Smurfs, but can I recognize them?
Lazy Smurf or Lethargic Smurf
Papa Smurf or Daddy Smurf
Handy Smurf or Practical Smurf
Brainy Smurf or Intellectual Smurf
Clumsy Smurf or Inept Smurf
Retrieval Cues
 Things
that help us
remember
•We often use a process
called priming (the
activation of
associations in our
memory) to help us
retrieve information.
PRIMING EFFECT
 Priming
effect occurs when people
respond faster or better to an item if a
similar item preceded it.
•For the most part, the priming effect is
considered involuntary and is most likely an
unconscious phenomenon.
Repetition Priming
Repetition priming refers to the fact that it is
easier (quicker) to recognize a face or word if you
have recently seen that same face or word.
Semantic Priming
Semantic priming refers to the fact that it is
easier (quicker) to recognize someone or word
if you have just seen someone or a word closely
associated.
Context Effects
 It
helps to put yourself
back in the same context
you experienced
(encoded) something.
 If you study on your
favorite chair at home,
you will probably score
higher if you also take the
test on the chair.
Déjà Vu
 That
eerie sense that you
have experienced
something before
 What is occurring is that
the current situation cues
past experiences that are
Is déjà vu really a
glitch in the Matrix? very similar to the present
one- your mind gets
confused.
Mood-Congruent Memory
 The
tendency to recall experiences that
are consistent with one's current good or
bad mood.
 If you are depressed, you will more likely
recall sad memories from you past.
 Moods also effect that way you interpret
other peoples’ behavior