Memory

Unit VII Modules 31-33

Memory

• We take our memory for granted until it does not work correctly

• Our memory is what defines our life• Our memory allows us to recognize family,

speak our language, find our way home, and locate food and water

• It is our memory that allows us to enjoy an experience and then mentally replay and enjoy it again *

Memory

• Without memory there would be no savoring past joys, no guilt or anger over painful recollections

• We would live an enduring present with no memory• Each person would be a stranger, every language

foreign, every task a new challenge• You would even be a stranger to yourself, lacking

that continuous sense of self that extends from your distant past to your momentary present *

Memory

• Memory- the persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information

• Encoding- the processing of information into the memory system- for example, by extracting meaning

• Storage- the process of retaining encoded information over time

• Retrieval- the process of getting information out of the memory storage *

Memory

• Unlike computers that must process information sequentially, our brains can function on a dual-track

• Our brains can process many things simultaneously by means of parallel processing– The processing of many aspects of a problem

simultaneously– The brain’s natural mode of information processing

for many functions *

Memory

• Sensory memory- the immediate very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

• Short-term memory- activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten

• Long-term memory- the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system– Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences *

Memory

• Atkinson and Shiffrin developed a model for memory that says things enter your sensory memory first, then it enters your short term, and lastly it is stored in your long term memory

• Recent research shows that your short term memory is not just a temporary shelf for holding incoming information as stated by Atkinson and Shiffrin *

Memory

• It is actually an active desktop where your brain process information, making sense of new input and linking it with long-term memories

• To emphasize the active processing that occurs in the middle stage, psychologists use the term working memory– A new understanding of short-term memory that focuses on

conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory

• Right now, you are using your working memory to link the information you’re reading with your previously stored information *

Building memories

• Explicit memories- memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare– Also called declarative memory

• We encode explicit memories through conscious, effortful processing– Encoding that requires attention and conscious

effort *

Building memories

• Other information skips the conscious encoding track and goes directly into storage

• Automatic processing- unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well learned information, such as word meanings

• Automatic processing produces implicit memories– Retention independent of conscious recollection– Also called nondeclarative memory *

Building memories

• Our implicit memory includes procedural memory for automatic skills like how to ride a bike

• Our implicit memory also includes classically conditioned associations among stimuli

• Without conscious effort we automatically process information about space, time, and frequency *

Building memories

• Space- while studying you often encode the place on a page or in your notebook where certain material appears; later when needing to retrieve the information you may visualize where it was on the page

• Time- while going about your day, you unintentionally note the sequence of its events; later in the day if you realize you lost something, you may retrace your steps to try and find it

• Frequency- you effortlessly keep track of how many times things happen, as when you suddenly realize this is the third time you have run into someone today *

Building memories

• Because we have a two track mind, we can use one track to focus on automatic, routine things, and use the other to focus on conscious, effortful processing

• When you see words in your native language on the side of a truck, you automatically read them and retrieve their meaning

• Learning to read was not automatic *

Building memories

• .citamotua emoceb nac gnissecorp luftroffe• At first, reading this takes effort, but with

practice you can start to perform the task almost automatically

• We often must use much effort to learn new tasks that we will eventually be able to do automatically *

Building memories

• Sensory memory feeds our active working memory, recording momentary images of scenes or echoes of sounds

• George Sperling’s studies of sensory memory demonstrated iconic memory– A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli– A photographic or picture image memory lasting no

more than a few tenths of a second– Our visual screen clears quickly, as new images are

superimposed over old ones *

Building memories

• We also have an impeccable, though fleeting, memory for auditory stimuli

• 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• When not paying attention in class and the

teacher asks what she just said, you can recover the last few words from your mind’s echo chamber *

Building memories

• It is proposed that short term memory can hold about seven information bits

• It is believed we can recall 7 digits, 6 letters, or 5 words• Working memory capacity varies, depending on age and other

factors• Young adults have more working memory capacity than older

adults or children• their ability to multitask is relatively greater because they can

use their mental workspace more efficiently• No matter your age, you do better and more efficient work

when focused, without distractions, and on one task at a time *

Building memories

• There are several effortful processing strategies that can boost our ability to form new memories

• Chunking- organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

• Try remembering 43 individual numbers and letters

• Is this difficult? See if this helps to accomplish this *

Building memories

• Chunking usually occurs so naturally that we take it for granted

• We can remember information best when we can organize it into personally meaningful arrangements *

Building memories

• Mnemonics- memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

• Vivid imagery is used because we are good at remembering mental pictures

• We more easily remember concrete, visualizable words than we do abstract words

• Chunking and mnemonics combined can be great memory aids for unfamiliar material *

Building memories

• In order to remember the colors of the rainbow in order of wavelength?

• Remember ROY G. BIV• We often chunk information into a more

familiar form by creating a word from the first letters of the to-be-remembered items– called an acronym *

Building memories

• When people develop expertise in an area, they process information in hierarchies

• Hierarchies are composed of a few broad concepts divided and subdivided into narrower concepts and facts

• For example, this section of the chapter tries to help you organize some of the memory concepts we have been discussing *

Building memories

• Organizing information into hierarchies helps us retrieve information efficiently

• Taking class and text notes in outline format may be helpful- this is a form of hierarchical organization *

Building memories

• We retain information better when our encoding is distributed over time

• Spacing effect- the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice

• Massed practice or cramming can produce speedy short term learning and a feeling of confidence

• Herman Ebbinghaus once said that those that learn quickly also forget quickly *

Building memories

• Testing effect- enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information– Also called retrieval practice effect or test-

enhanced learning• Spaced study and self-assessment beat

cramming and rereading *

Building memories

• Memory researchers have discovered that we process verbal information at different levels, and that depth of processing affects our long term retention

• Shallow processing- encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words– May focus on the word’s letters or a word’s sound

*

Building memories

• Deep processing- encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words– Tends to yield the best retention– The deeper the processing, the better our

retention• Example on pg. 325 *

Building memories

• If new information is not meaningful or related to our experience, we have trouble processing it

• Example on pg. 325• Asked how well certain adjectives describe

someone else, we often forget them; asked how well the adjectives describe us, we remember the words well

• This is called the self-reference effect *

Memory Storage

• Memory requires brain networks• The network that processes and stores your explicit

memories for facts and episodes includes your frontal lobes and hippocampus

• The left and right frontal lobes process different types of memories

• Recalling a password and holding it in working memory activates the left frontal lobe

• Calling up a visual party scene would more likely activate the right frontal lobe *

Memory Storage

• Hippocampus- a neural center located in the limbic system

• It helps process explicit memories for storage• Damage to this region disrupts recall of explicit

memories• With left-hippocampus damage, people have

trouble remembering verbal information but they have no trouble recalling visual designs and locations *

Memory Storage

• Subregions of the hippocampus serve different functions

• One region is active as people learn to associate names with faces

• Another part is active as memory champions engage in spatial mnemonics

• Memories are not permanently stored in the hippocampus *

Memory Storage

• The hippocampus seems to serve as a loading dock where the brain registers and temporarily holds the elements of a remembered episode

• Then after a time, the memories are sent somewhere else for storage

• Sleep supports memory consolidation• During deep sleep the hippocampus processes

memories for later retrieval *

Memory Storage

• Even if you lose the ability to lay down explicit memories, you can still develop implicit memories for skills and conditioned associations

• Example on pg. 331• The cerebellum plays a key role in forming and

storing implicit memories created by classical conditioning

• With a damaged cerebellum, a person may not be able to learn certain conditioned reflexes _

Memory Storage

• The basal ganglia are deep brain structures involved in motor movement

• They facilitate formation of our procedural memories for skills

• Our implicit memory system helps explain why the reactions and skills we learned during infancy reach far into our future

• The conscious memory for your first three years of your life are blank though

• This is called infantile amnesia *

Memory Storage

• There are two possible reasons for infantile amnesia– We index much of our explicit memory suing

words that nonspeaking children have not learned– The hippocampus is one of the last brain

structures to mature *

Memory Storage

• Our emotions trigger stress hormones that influence memory formation

• Stress hormones provoke the amygdala to initiate a memory trace in the frontal lobes and basal ganglia and to boost activity in the brain’s memory forming areas

• Emotional arousal can sear certain events into the brain, while disrupting memory for neural events around the same time *

Memory Storage

• Significantly stressful events can form almost unforgettable memories

• This may be because memory serves to predict the future and to alert us to potential dangers

• We often times remember exciting or shocking events

• Flashbulb memories- a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event *

Memory Storage

• Our flashbulb memories vivid and we are usually confident in our recollections of them

• As we relive, rehearse, and discuss the memories over time, we may often combine misinformation with accurate information to the memory *

Memory Storage

• Does the formation of memories impact neural connections?

• It has been seen in experiments that rapidly stimulating certain memory circuit connections has increased a person’s sensitivity for hours or even weeks to come

• The sending neuron now needs less prompting to release its neurotransmitter, and more connections exist between neurons *

Memory Storage

• Long-term potentiation- an increase in a cell’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation– Believed to be a basis for learning and memory

• After long term potentiation has occurred, passing an electric current through the brain wont disrupt old memories

• The current will wipe out very recent memories• A blow to the head can do the same thing• Football players or boxers usually have no memory of

events immediately before getting knocked out from a blow to the head *

Memory Storage

• The reason the new memories are lost is that the working memory did not have time to consolidate the information into long term memory *

Retrieval

• There are three measures of retention• Recall- a measure of memory in which the person

must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill in the blank test

• Recognition- a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple choice test

• Relearning- a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again *

Retrieval

• Long after you cannot recall most of the people in your high school graduating class, you may still be able to recognize their yearbook pictures from a photographic lineup and pick their names from a list of names

• Our recognition memory is quick and vast• Our speed at relearning reveals memory *

Retrieval

• Ebbinghaus studied relearning in his learning experiments

• His studies showed that the more frequently he repeated a list of syllables on day 1, the fewer repetitions he required to relearn the list on day 2

• Additional rehearsal of verbal information increases retention, especially when practice was distributed over time

• His studies emphasized the point that we remember more than we recall *

Retrieval

• Memories are held in storage by a web of associations, each piece of information interconnected with others

• When you encode the name of the person sitting next to you in class, you associate with it other bits of information about your surroundings, mood, seating position, and so on

• These bits are called retrieval cues and they help us to retrieve information later on

• The more retrieval cues you have the easier it is to bring a memory out of storage *

Retrieval

• The best retrieval cues come from associations we form at the time we encode a memory- smells, tastes, and sights that can evoke our memory of the associated person or event

• To call up visual cues when trying to recall something, we may mentally place ourselves in the original context *

Retrieval

• Our associations are often activated without our awareness

• Priming- the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

• If, walking down a hallway, you see a poster of a missing child, you may then unconsciously be primed to interpret an ambiguous adult-child interaction as a possible kidnapping

• Putting yourself back in the context where you experienced something can prime memory retrieval *

Retrieval

• What we learn in one psychological state may be more easily recalled when we are again in that state

• What people learn when sad they don’t recall well in any state but instead they recall it slightly better when sad again

• Emotions that accompany good or bad events become retrieval cues *

Retrieval

• mood congruent- the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current good or bad mood

• If you’ve had a bad night your gloomy mood may bring back other bad times

• This retrieval effect helps explain why our moods persist

• When happy, we recall happy events and therefore see the world as a happy place, which helps prolong our good mood *

Retrieval

• Serial position effect- our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list– The last refers to the recency effect– The first refers to the primacy effect

• Why do you remember the first so well? • Why do you remember the last so well?• Which one are we more likely to remember

even after a delay? *

Forgetting

• For some memory loss is severe and permanent

• Anterograde amnesia- an inability to form new memories– Can recall your past, but you cannot from new

memories• Retrograde amnesia- an inability to retrieve

information from one’s past *

Forgetting

• Much of what we sense we never notice, and what we fail to encode we will never remember

• Age can effect encoding efficiency• The brain areas that jump into action when

young adults encode new information are less responsive in older adults

• This slower encoding helps explain age related memory decline *

Forgetting

• Even after encoding something well, we sometimes later forget it

• Ebbinghaus developed a forgetting curve• His curve describes how the course of

forgetting is initially rapid, then levels off with time

• One explanation for these forgetting curves is a gradual fading of the physical memory trace *

Forgetting

• Sometimes forgetting is not memories faded but memories unretrieved

• We store into long term memory whats important to us or what we’ve rehearsed

• Sometimes important events defy our attempts to access them

• Retrieval problems contribute to the occasional memory failures of older adults, who more frequently are frustrated by tip of the tongue forgetting *

Forgetting

• As you collect more and more information, your long term memory does not get full but it does get cluttered

• The clutter can interfere with remembering new or old information

• Proactive interference- the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information– Your well rehearsed facebook password may interfere

with your retrieval of your newly learned twitter password *

Forgetting

• Retroactive interference- the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information– If someone sings new lyrics to the tune of an old

song, you may have trouble remembering the original words

• Information presented in the hour before sleep is protected from retroactive interference because the opportunity for interfering events is minimized *

Forgetting

• The hour before sleep is a good time to commit information to memory

• The information presented in the seconds just before sleep is seldom remembered

• Sometimes previously learned information(Latin) facilitates our learning of new information(French)– Called positive transfer *

Forgetting

• Memories often fail us because they are merely unreliable, self-serving historians

• Sigmund Freud argues that our memory system self-censors information

• Repress- the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

• He believed the repressed thoughts could later be retrieved through therapy

• Researchers today think repression rarely occurs• People can forget unwanted neutral information, but we have a

hard time forgetting emotional events *

Memory construction errors

• Memory is not precise• We infer our past from stored information plus

what we later imagined, expected, saw and heard• We don’t just retrieve memories, we reweave them• The way someone words a question about an event

can impact your memory• When asked about a car accident you witnessed,

people tended to say the car was going faster when asked how fast it was going when it crashed into the other car instead of it bumping into the other car *

Memory construction errors

• Misinformation effect- incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event

• So powerful is the misinformation effect that it can influence later attitudes and behaviors

• Just hearing a vivid retelling of an event can implant false memories

• Repeatedly imagining nonexistent actions and events can create false memories *

Memory construction errors

• Among the frailest parts of memory is its source• We may recognize someone but have no idea

where we have seen the person• We may dream an event and later be unsure

whether it really happened• Source amnesia- attributing to the wrong source

an event we have experienced, hear about, read about, or imagined– Also called source misattribution *

Memory construction errors

• Misattribution is at the heart of most false memories

• It can happen when you hear someone tell you a story about you and you put that story into your own memory as if you remember it happening it yourself

• Source amnesia helps explain déjà vu– That eerie sense that “I’ve experienced this before”– Cues from the current situation may unconsciously

trigger retrieval of an earlier experience *

Memory construction errors

• The key to déjà vu is familiarity with a stimulus without a clear idea of where we encountered it before

• We experience a feeling of familiarity before we consciously remember details

• When these functions are out of sync, we may experience a feeling of familiarity without conscious recall *

Extra ideas to know

• Elaborative rehearsal- a memory technique that involves thinking about the meaning of the term to be remembered, as opposed to simply repeating the word to yourself over and over.

• Maintenance rehearsal- the process of repeatedly verbalizing or thinking about a piece of information. Your short term memory is able to hold information about about 20 seconds. However, this time can be increased to about 30 seconds by using Maintenance Rehearsal.

• Semantic memory- a more structured record of facts, meanings, conceptsand knowledge about the external world that we have acquired. It refers to general factual knowledge, shared with others and independent of personal experience and of thespatial/temporal context in which it was acquired.

Memory construction errors

• Episodic memory- represents our memory of experiences and specific events in time in a serial form, from which we can reconstruct the actual events that took place at any given point in our lives. It is the memory of autobiographical events (times, places, associated emotions and other contextual knowledge) that can be explicitly stated.

• Procedural memory- a type of long-term memory of how to perform different actions and skills. Essentially, it is the memory of how to do certain things. Riding a bike, tying your shoes and cooking an omelet are all examples of procedural memories.

Memory construction errors

• Decay- refers to the loss of memory over time• Eidetic memory- also known as photographic

memory, is the ability to recall with vivid accuracy things that have been heard, seen or read. This appears more frequently in children than in adults, and usually involves visual images such as artistic illustrations.

• A higher level of ACTH is found to be linked with flashbulb memories