Chapter 7

Human Memory – 8th Edition

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Figure 7.1 – Nickerson & Adams (1979) –

Which is the correct penny?

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Human Memory: Basic Questions

How does information get into memory?

How is information maintained in memory?

How is information pulled back out of memory?

Memory timeline

– Short term – recent?

– Long term – remote?

– Operational definitions

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Encoding: Getting Information Into Memory

The role of attention

Focusing awareness

Selective attention = selection of input

– Filtering: early or late? – F 7.3

Multitasking – issues of driving performance and cell

phone use – study by Strayer and Johnson (2001) –

F 7.4

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Figure 7.4 Divided attention and driving performance – Strayer & Johnson (2001)

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Levels of Processing: Craik and Lockhart (1972)

Incoming information processed at different levels: F

7.5

Deeper processing = longer lasting memory codes

Encoding levels:

– Structural = shallow

– Phonemic = intermediate

– Semantic = deep

– Study results – F 7.6

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Figure 7.6 – Retention at three levels of processing

– Craik & Tulving (1975)

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Enriching Encoding: Improving Memory

Elaboration = linking a

stimulus to other information at

the time of encoding

– Thinking of examples

Visual Imagery = creation of

visual images to represent

words to be remembered

– Easier for concrete objects: Dual-

coding theory – Figure 7.7, Paivio

et al. (1968) >>>>>>>>>>>

Self-Referent Encoding

– Making information personally

meaningful

Figure 7.7

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Storage: Maintaining Information in Memory

Analogy: information storage in computers ~ information storage in human memory

Information-processing theories – Atkinson & Shiffrin (1977) – Subdivide memory into 3 different stores

• Sensory, Short-term, Long-term

xx 7.8

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Sensory Memory

Brief preservation of information in original sensory

form

Auditory/Visual – approximately ¼ second

– George Sperling (1960)

• Classic experiment on visual sensory store

• Partial report procedure – F 7.9

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Short Term Memory (STM)

Limited capacity – magical number 7 plus or minus

2

– Chunking – grouping familiar stimuli for storage as a single

unit

Limited duration – about 20 seconds without

rehearsal

– Peterson and Peterson (1959) – F 7.10

– Rehearsal – the process of repetitively verbalizing or

thinking about the information

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Short-Term Memory as “Working Memory”

STM not limited to phonemic encoding

Loss of information not only due to decay

Baddeley (2001) – 4 components of working memory

– F 7.11

– Phonological rehearsal loop

– Visuospatial sketchpad

– Executive control system

– Episodic buffer

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Long-Term Memory: Unlimited Capacity

Penfield’s neural stimulation – p. 284 – data was reinterpreted

Permanent storage? – Flashbulb memories

– Brown and Kulick (1977) – study of assassinations

– Talarico & Rubin (2003) – page 285-286 data in F 7.12 – 9-11 study

– Recall through hypnosis

Debate: are STM and LTM really different? – Phonemic vs.

Semantic encoding

– Decay vs. Interference based forgetting

Figure 7.12

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How is Knowledge Represented and Organized in Memory?

Clustering and Conceptual Hierarchies – F 7.13

Schemas and Scripts – Shank & Abelson (1977)

Semantic Networks – Collins & Loftus (1975) – Figure 7.14

Connectionist Networks and PDP Models – McClelland and

colleagues - pattern of activity – neuron based model

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Figure 7.14 A semantic network..

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Retrieval: Getting Information Out of Memory

The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon – a failure in retrieval – Retrieval cues – Brown & McNeil (1966) study – resolve

block 57% of the time with first letter of failed to retrieve word

Recalling an event – Context cues – Godden & Baddeley (1975) – context-

dependent memory study with scuba divers

– Bartlett memory research – War of the Ghosts – F 7.15

Reconstructing memories – Loftus studies – Loftus & Palmer (1974) – Figure 7.16 – I: smashed (40.8); collided

(39.3); bumped (38.1); hit (34.0); contacted (31.8) II: smashed (32%) hit (14%) control (12%) (broken glass?)

– Misinformation effect

• Source monitoring, reality monitoring

• cryptomnesia

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Seven Sins of Memory – Daniel L. Schacter

Transience – loss of

memory over time

Absent Mindedness –

breakdown of interface

between attention & memory

Blocking – thwarted search

for information to retrieve

Bias – influence of current

knowledge and belief on how

we remember our past

Misattribution – assigning a

memory to the wrong source

Suggestibility – memories

implanted as a result of

leading questions,

comments or suggestions

when a person is trying to

recall a past experience

Persistence – repeated

recall of disturbing

information or events that

one may want to forget

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Forgetting: When Memory Lapses

Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve – F 7.17

Retention – the proportion of material retained –

F 7.18

– Recall

– Recognition

– Relearning

Hill of reminiscence – time frame of remembering

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xxx 7.18

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Why Do We Forget?

Ineffective Encoding

Decay theory

Interference theory – Type of material

– Figure 7.19

– Proactive

– Retroactive

– Figure 7.20

Figure 7.19

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xxx 7.21

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Retrieval Failure

Encoding Specificity

Transfer-Appropriate Processing

Repression and the memory wards - F 7.21

– Authenticity of repressed memories?

– Memory illusions

– Controversy

False memories – Roediger & McDermott (1995)

procedure – Figure 7.22

Loftus & Pickrell’s (1995) lost-in-the-mall study

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The Physiology of Memory

Biochemistry – Alteration in synaptic transmission

• Hormones modulating neurotransmitter systems

• Protein synthesis

Neural circuitry – Localized neural circuits

• Reusable pathways in the brain

• Long-term potentiation – changes in postsynaptic neuron

Anatomy – Anterograde and Retrograde Amnesia – F 7.24

– case of H.M. – resection in 1953

– http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7584970

– http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/us/05hm.html

– Clive Wearing

• Figure 7.23 - Cerebral cortex, Prefrontal Cortex, Hippocampus,

• Dentate gyrus, Amygdala, Cerebellum

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xxx 7.23

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xxx 7.24

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Are There Multiple Memory Systems?

Figure 7.25

Implicit vs. Explicit

Declarative vs. Procedural

Semantic vs. Episodic

Prospective vs. Retrospective – Figure 7.26

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xxx 7.25

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Figure 7.26 – Retrospective versus prospective memory

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Improving Everyday Memory

Engage in adequate rehearsal – overlearning

Testing effect – F 7.27 – Roediger & Karpick (2006)

Serial position effects – F 7.28

Distribute practice and minimize interference - F 7.29

Emphasize deep processing and transfer-appropriate processing

Organize information

Encoding specificity – vary location of studying

Use verbal mnemonics – narrative stories – Figure 7.30 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Use visual mnemonics – method of Loci – Figure 7.31

Akira Haraguchi, 60, needed more than (10/3/2006) 16 hours to recite pi (π) to 100,000 decimal places, breaking his personal best of 83,431 digits set in 2005.

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Eyewitness Accounts

Use of Eyewitness in court cases – Cutler & Penrod

(1995), Loftus (1993)

What did Jennifer See?

Post information distortion

Source confusion

Hindsight bias

Overconfidence