General Psychology 202 Memory - Lane Community College Media Server

LP 6A structure of memory 1 03/23/09

General Psychology 202 Memory

Prologue: The Drowning

Introduction: What is Memory? • The stage model of memory • Sensory memory: Fleeting impressions of the world • Short-term, working memory: The workshop of

consciousness • Long-term memory

Retrieval: Getting Information from Long-Term Memory • The importance of retrieval cues • The encoding specificity principle • Flashbulb memories: Vivid events, accurate memories?

Forgetting: When Retrieval Fails • Hermann Ebbinghaus: The forgetting curve • Why do we forget?

Imperfect Memories: Errors, Distortions, and False Memories • Forming false memories: From the plausible to the

impossible

The Search for the Biological Basis of Memory • The search for the elusive memory trace • The role of neurons in long-term memory • Processing memories in the brain: Clues from amnesia

Closing Thoughts

Application: Superpower Memory in Minutes per Day!


The model of memory

• Memory as processing of information • Encoding, storage and retrieval • The model of memory

o Sensory memory o Short-term memory o Long-term memory o Duration and capacity of each

• Depth of processing and memory • Maintenance versus elaborative

rehearsal

Forgetting • Encoding failure • Decay • Interference

o Proactive o Retroactive

• Motivated forgetting o Supression o Repression

• Amnesia o Retrograde o Anterograde o Infantile

Organization of information and Memory

• Serial position effect

o Primacy effect o Recency effect

• Clustering (categories) • Hierarchies • Chunking • Mnemonics

How Reliable is Memory? • Memory as a constructed process • Memory distortions and schemas • Perceptual sets and memory • Misinformation and leading questions • Why is learning about the reliability of

memory important?

Storage and Retrieval • Associative networks (semantic

networks) • Types of long term memories

o Procedural o Semantic o Episodic

• Methods of retrieving information o Recall o Recognition o Free recall

• Encoding specificity principle o Context effects o Mood congruence o State dependent retrieval


Memory and Behavior

What are persistent gamblers more likely to remember? (a) Instances in which they win. (b) Instances in which they lose. (c) Neither, they remember each one about the same.

(d) I am not sure.


Psychology is sometimes not intuitively obvious

It may seem intuitive that persistent gamblers would remember the instances in which they win than the instances in which they lose. However, the opposite tends to occur. Persistent gamblers tend to remember instances in which they lose more than their wins. It is how they remember their losses that make the difference. They create a new category of losses called an “almost win”.

Gambling Outcome

What Non-persistent

gamblers remember

What Persistent

gamblers remember

• 33 instances of wins

• 4 wins • 4 wins

• 66 instances of losses

• 4 losses • 4 losses • 4 “almost wins”

This example illustrates several things about human thinking and memory: • The thinking processes involved are not obvious and

can be counterintuitive. • How you organize information in memory can affect

your thinking and your behavior. • Persistent gambling requires knowledge of the

psychology of learning (schedules of reinforcements) and memory (and perhaps even more).

• You can apply your knowledge in one area of psychology (memory) to another (social psychology)

Misunderstandings of behavior, such as persistent gambling, can make difficult to address the problem or make intervention strategies not very effective.

LP 6A structure of memory and encoding 5 03/23/09

Memory as Information Processing

Psychologists use the metaphor that the mind is an information processor that • encodes, • stores and • retrieves

information. A rough analogy is that memory is like computer processes.


The analogy doesn’t capture other features of memory such as that people forget and distort information and sometimes remember events in a way that is different than how the event actually occurred. Memory is not like a video tape. It is like a jigsaw puzzle where we remember bits and pieces and fill in the blanks with what is reasonable and familiar.


Memory Memory is the mental processes that enable us to retain and use information over time that involve three fundamental processes: encoding, storage and retrieval • Encoding: The process of transforming information

into a form that can be entered into and retained by the memory system

• Storage: The process of retaining information so that it can be used at a later time

• Retrieval: The process of recovering information stored in memory so that we are consciously aware of it.


The Stage Model of Memory


Encoding

Memory is the mental processes that enable us to retain and use information over time. Memory involves three fundamental processes: encoding, storage and retrieval • Encoding: The process of transforming

information into a form that can be entered into and retained by the memory system

• Storage: The process of retaining information so that it can be used at a later time

• Retrieval: The process of recovering information stored in memory so that we are consciously aware of it.

We are going to look at some efficient and less efficient strategies to encode information


Depth of Processing

42% 65% 90%

• What do these results suggest about memory? • What do these results suggest about bad strategies for

studying information? • What do these results suggest about good strategies for

studying information?


Strategies to Encoding Information--Getting Information into Memory

Before we can have a memory to retrieve, it needs to be encoded and stored. If you don’t effectively encode information, it will be more difficult to retrieve that information. Effective strategies: • Encode with “depth” or semantic meaning • Elaborative rehearsal • Organization, categories, and hierarchies • Chunking, • Visual imagery, • Mnemonics, • Schemas

Less Effective strategies: • Encode with superficial characteristics • Maintenance rehearsal (extends short-term memory)


Encoding: Rehearsal strategies

Maintenance Rehearsal: The mental or verbal repetition of information in order to maintain it beyond the usual 20-second duration of short-term memory. • hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala are all parts

of the limbic system* • hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala are all parts

of the limbic system* • hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala are all parts

of the limbic system* *your book breaks the limbic system down differently

Elaborative rehearsal: Rehearsal that involves focusing on the meaning of information to help encode and transfer it to long-term memory. • “I knew it was lunchtime because my hypothalamus

told me I was hungry, thirsty and cold. My hippocampus helped me remember a new restaurant on campus, but I got there and had to wait in line, which my amygdala made me angry.

1. What are other examples of these rehearsal strategies? 2. Why does elaborative rehearsal work better than

maintenance rehearsal for remembering information?

General Psychology 202 Memory - Lane Community College Media Server

Documents

Transcript of General Psychology 202 Memory - Lane Community College Media Server