Module 12

Remembering & Forgetting

Basics to Understand !

• We remember mostly through (2) abilities:

1.Recall> retrieving prior learned knowledge without the use of aids or cues (hints).

2. Recognition> identifying previously learned information with the use of external cues.

- Recognition is much easier; this is why it is easier is answer a multiple choice question rather than a fill-in-the-blank question with no word bank!

HOW WE ORGANIZE MEMORIES

1. Network theory of memory organization– theory says that we store related ideas in

separate categories, or files, called nodes

• We Make Associations– linking of nodes or categories of ideas together by

making associations or mental roads between new information and old information that was previously stored

• Which Creates A Network– thousands of interconnected nodes, which form

an enormous cognitive network for arranging and storing files

An example of how we make memory

associations

Basics of the Network Theory

• Organization of network hierarchy theory– refers to the arrangement of nodes or memory

files in a certain order or hierarchy (Your memory of what a car is includes such things as: tires, seats steering wheel etc.)

– bottom of the hierarchy are nodes with very concrete information, which are connected to nodes with somewhat more specific information, which in turn are connected to nodes with general or abstract information

Example of Network Theory

1. Abstract: Motor Vehicle (any machine that uses an engine to transport people)

2. More Specific: (SUV> Sport Utility Vehicle> a vehicle that can seat a number of people and looks similar to a truck)

3. Concrete: )Ford Explorer> You can describe what this vehicle looks like and how it differs from other similar SUV's)

REASONS FOR FORGETTING

• Overview: Forgetting– refers to the inability to retrieve, recall, or

recognize information that was stored or is still stored in long-term memory

1. Repression– according to Freud, repression is a mental

process that automatically hides emotionally threatening or anxiety-producing information in the unconscious, from which repressed memories cannot be recalled voluntarily, but something may cause them to enter consciousness at a later time.

Forgetting

Decay

Theory_______________

Interference

Theory______________

Retrieval

Failure______________

Motivated

Forgetting______________

Decay Theory

• Application of memory being lost simply to the passage of time and disuse.

STM: As we know lasts merely 20-30 seconds after this time if we haven’t tried to remember it, well it’s lost!

LTM: How much long term

storage is lost is still not known

Interference Theory

• Theoretical approach, that your memories simply interfere with one another.

1. Proactive interference: occurs when old information (learned earlier) blocks or disrupts the remembering of related new information (learned later)

2. Retroactive interference: occurs when new information (learned later) blocks or disrupts the retrieval of related old information (learned earlier)

Retrieval Failure

• The inability to remember a memory partially or completely.

Memories with little meaning or organization are often effected, but illness, and other physical factors can have an effect.

Retrieval Cues: Often times the mental reminders (cues) that help us remember items are off and allow us to recall the wrong information.

Retrieval Failure

• An example of how interference or retrieval cues can effect us is the:

- Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

– refers to having a strong feeling that a particular word can be recalled, but despite making a great effort, we are temporarily unable to recall this particular information

Motivated Forgetting

• Repression: pushing out memories that are very disturbing to us.

• Amnesia: is severe memory loss caused by brain injury, shock, fatigue, repression.

The many cases of sexual abuse that exist today would be a form of repressed amnesia called Dissociative Amnesia: in which through therapy a child would be able to recall traumatic experiences

• Cue-Dependent Learning

1. Context Dependent: associations you formed between situational cues and learned information. If you study while listening to your favorite CD, you will remember better if you played that CD.

2. State-Dependent: You will remember info better if you are in the same emotional state of mind when you learned it. Ex: You read a book angry> you will remember it better if your angry.

• If a college student studies when drunk, theoretically they should take their exam drunk.

Other Reasons For Forgetting

• The power of situational cues may be the cause of:

• Déjà vu (French for “already seen”)> you feel you recognize someone or some place with no basis for the memory (ex: you walk into a house feeling like you have already been there).

- A cue about the house (an odor, design of a room), triggers a partial memory of something else.

ThusA cue falsely recognizes this house and confuses

you!

Cues?

BIOLOGICAL BASES OF MEMORY• Location of memories in the brain

1. cortex• Short term memories

– ability to hold words, facts, and events in short-term memory depends on activity in the cortex

• Long term memory– ability to remember or recall songs, words, facts,

and events for days, months, or years depends on areas widely spread throughout the cortex

p268 AREAS BRAIN INVOLVED MEMORY

BIOLOGICAL BASES OF MEMORY• Location of memories in the brain

2.Amygdala: emotional memories

2. Amygdala, located in the tip of the temporal lobe receives input from all the senses and is associated with emotional memory

3. Hippocampus: transferring memories• transfers words, facts, and personal events from

short-term memory into permanent long-term memory

BIOLOGICAL BASES OF MEMORY

• How do we make a long-term memories?

– Long-term potentiation (LTP)• refers to change in the structure and function

of neurons after they have been repeatedly stimulated

• neuroscientists believe that the LTP process, which changes the structure and function of neurons, is the most likely basis for learning and memory in animals and humans

How do we make a long-term memories?

•Learning something new like a phone number creates a link between a number of neurons, therefore whenever you try to remember the number> instantly these neurons work together to recall the number.

MNEMONICS & MEMORIZATION METHODS

• Improving your memory– Mnemonic methods

• ways to improve encoding and create better retrieval cues by forming vivid associations or images, which improve recall.

– Method of loci• encoding technique that creates visual associations

between already memorized places and new items to be memorized

– Peg method• encoding technique that creates associations between

number-word rhymes and items to be memorized

MNEMONICSA med student has to remember the brachia plexus nerves for an

exam. So they…

http://www.valuemd.com/anatomy2.php

Method of loci

http://www.mind-expanding-techniques.com/method-of-loci.html

Peg method diagram to explain example, and to use for test!

Eyewitness Testimony

• Def: refers to recalling or recognizing a suspect observed during a potentially disrupting and distracting emotional situation that may have interfered with accurate remembering:

Reasons for being unreliable:

1. Own-race bias

2. Source misattribution

3. False suggestions

4. Misleading Questions

5. Misinformation