memory ­ internal record/representation of some prior event/experience

  • Sensory memory­ short lived memory process
    • Almost a direct representation of the actual sensory attributes to the senses o Iconic memory – visual memory
      • Last about 200­300 milliseconds o Echoic memory­ auditory memory
      • Last about 1­2 seconds, may be up to 5 seconds
    • Short term memory (primary memory)­ temporary stores sensory information and decides whether to send it on to LTM o Contents of conscious mind o Limited capacity­ Miller’s Magic 7 +/­ 2
      • Limited duration­ lasts about 30 seconds, not rehearsed
      • Chunking­ relate pieces of information in meaningful way to increase short term capacity
      • Working Memory­ works with higher cognitive processes
        • Baddeley proposed 3 distinct subsystems

Phonological loop­ draws upon speech resources

  • Phonological store­ acts like butter to hold visual information
  • Articulatory control process­ active mechanism that keeps information alive in phonological state o Transforms written words into phonological information

Visuospatial Sketchpad­ stimulus that can not be verbalized

  • Spatial information

Central Executive­ attention control and cognitive processing

  • Decides what information will be attended to
  • Develops with age
  • Associated with frontal lobes
  • Long Term Memory­ store information fro long periods of time o Capacity virtually limitless and duration is relatively permanent o Know information but aren’t currently thinking about it
  • Affects our perceptions of the world and influences what information in the environment we attend to
  • Provides framework for which we attach new knowledge
    • Stored in large, inter­related networks of schema
    • Schemas­ mental models of knowledge

 Spread activation

 Teacher EX

  • Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval
    • Encoding­ translating information into neural codes our brain can use

Attention­ concentrating/focusing mental

  • Gets better with age

Rehearsal­ conscious repetition of information over time

  • Increase length of time that information stays in memory
  • Better for short term memory

Deep processing­ linking new information to previously stored material

  • The more personally relevant the better

Organization­ if we organize information into meaningful units as we encode it, we’ll remember it better

  • Storage­ retaining neurally coded information over time
  • Retrieval­ recovering information from memory storage o Types of LTM
  • Episodic Memories­ memories for events experiences in a specific time and place

 Remember doing that and can put a date to it­childhood birthday parties

  • Semantic memories­ facts and concepts not linked to a particular time

 Things you just know but cannot link to any specific time/place

 George Washington EX

  • Procedural memories­ motor skills and habits

 How to do things

 Precise sequence of coordinated movements that are difficult to verbalize

 Balance on a bike EX

  • Emotional memories­ learned emotional responses to various stimuli  Nazi flag EX
  • Explicit Memory (declarative)­ can declare what we know/put into words easy

 Episodic and Semantic

  • Implicit memory(nondeclarative)­ cannot easily put into words what you know

 Procedural and Emotional

  • Distinction between explicit and implicit memory

 Brenda Milner and the HM (hippocampus removed)

  • Traced star by looking in mirror
  • Performance increased but had no memory of it
  • Learned emotional responses­ pin in handshake
  • Could form new implicit memories but no explicit memories­ tells us brain treats explicit/implicit memories differently

 Memory Failures

  • Factors that contribute to Memory and Forgetting o Serial position effect­ U­shaped pattern of performance on a free recall task when recall is plotted as a function of word position
    • Better for first/last words
    • Free Recall Test­ participant given 20+ words in a row and asked to recall as many in order
  • Primacy effect­ relatively good recall of the first terms/primary items on a list
    • Good for LTM
  • Recency effect­ relatively good recall of the last item/most recent items on the list
    • Good for STM
  • Practice­ all types are not equal
    • Massed practice­ continuous, nonstop practice

 Cramming all night

  • Distributed practice­ spread over time with rest periods interspersed

 More effective due to reduction of fatigue

 Able to make more associations

  • Theories of Forgetting­ no external causes o Decay theory­ forgetting is caused by physical change in memory trace that weaken it or reduce the amount of information that is stored in it
    • Interference theory­ forgetting is caused by competition from other events that are encoded into memory, which in turn makes a given memory one is trying to retrieve more difficult to access
      • Proactive interference­ prior events make later memories more difficult to retrieve
      • Retroactive interference­ recent events make prior memories more difficult to retrieve

 New information “retreats” into the past

  • We forget more as time progresses o Similar memories cause more interferences
  • Motivated Forgetting Theory­ mental mechanisms that make us forget unpleasant/painful facts
    • Freud­ want to forget sources of trauma
    • Suppression­ person tries to forget painful memory but still aware that the event occurred

Rebound effect­ the more you try to not think about something, the more you think about it

 Pink elephant EX

  • Repression­ literally remove unpleasant memories from consciousness

 Person unaware that event ever occurred

  • Encoding Failure­ information is not successfully encoded by working memory for entry into LTM
    • Selected it but did not process into long term
    • Never formed memory to begin with o Retrieval Failure Theory­ correct retrieval cues are not produced to get a the contents of memory
    • Have memory but did not get enough cues to bring back
    • Owen Wilson EX
    • Tip of the tongue Phenomenon­ subjects know they know a word, can describe/see it, but cannot correctly produce it at the proper time Organic causes of memory loss
  • Traumatic brain injury­ occurs when the skull makes a sudden collision with another object
    • Closed head injury­ did not penetrate brain, skull remains intact

 Brain injured when impact causes delicate brain tissue to hit rough, jagged inner surface of skull

  • Penetrating Head Injury­ object penetrates skull/skull is fractured

 Bone fragments, foreign material, dirt can get into brain, damage brain tissue, cause infection

  • Amnesia­ loss of memory as a result of a brain injury/trauma
    • Anterograde amnesia­ forgetting events after incidence of trauma/onset of disease

 Amount of loss depends/varies on person/case

  • Retrograde amnesia­ forgetting events that occurred before incidence of trauma/onset of disease o Dementia­ group of symptoms that are caused by changes in brain functioning  Can occur in any part of lifespan  Symptoms include:

 Lost/disorientated

 Poor hygiene/nutrition

  • Alzheimer’s Disease­ most common form among older people
    • ~1/2 of population over 85 years old­ 4 million US
    • can only properly diagnose in autopsy
    • Amyloidal Plaques­ abnormal clumps
    • Neurofibrillary tangles­ tangled bundles of fibers  Multi­infarct dementia (vascular dementia)­ irreversible form  Reversible forms:

 Vitamin deficiency

 Dehydration

 High fever

 Medicine interference

 Depression

  • Other brain changes in people with AD:

 Loss of nerve cells in areas of brain vital to memory

 NT deficiencies

  • Constructive Processes in Memory Failures o Constructive Process­ organizing and shaping of information during encoding and retrieval that may cause memory errors and distortions

o Stored memories can change over time, some may not be remembered at all o When we are trying to remember an event, we are re­constructing it based on whatever fragments of our memory are left of that particular event

  • Beliefs and values help guide us in re­construction o Because we don’t record exact versions of what happened in LTM, we tend to make some common memory mistakes:
  • Source Amnesia (source confusion or misattribution)­ inability to recall source of information experienced, heard/read about, imagined
  • Sleeper effect­ tendency to initially discount information from an unreliable source

 Later­ we consider it more trustworthy because source is forgotten

 Star/Enquirer EX

 Eyewitness Testimony and Repressed Memories

  • Eyewitness testimony o When people who witness an event are later exposed to new and misleading information about it, their recollections often become distorted

 Stop/Yield Sign Study

 Participants viewed simulated wreck at intersection with a stop sign

 After viewed, ½ received the suggestion that the sign was a yield sign

 Those who had been given the suggestion tended to claim they saw a yield sign in the simulation

  • Repressed Memories­ removed event o Nadean Cool (1986)­ recovered memories of satanic abuse
    • Believed she had more than 120 personalities
    • Began to think she was abused as a child
    • Therapist performed exorcism
    • Sued therapist for $2.4 million o Beth Rutherford (1992)­ recovered memories of sexual abuse
    • Memories of forced abortions, and rape by parents
    • Clergyman father had to resign
    • Medical exam revealed she was a virgin
    • Sued therapist successfully
  • Without physical corroboration, it is difficult to sort true/false
  • False memories are fairly easy to instill­ especially in different states of consciousness
  • Most traumatized people have trouble forgetting experiences, not remembering them

 memory Tips:

  • Pay attention and reduce interference
  • Use rehearsal techniques­ link information to what you know
  • Improve your organization­ chunk information when possible
  • Counteract the serial position effect­ Re­study middle sections
  • Use Encoding Specificity principle­ closer we match between conditions at encoding and conditions at retrieval, the better our memory will be o Context dependent memory­ memory that can be helped/hindered by similarities/differences between the context in which it is learned and the context in which it is recalled­ physical environment
    • State dependent memory­ aided/impeded by a person’s internal state at encoding and retrieval
    • Mood congruence effects­ memory helped/hindered by the match between your mood at the time of encoding and retrieval
  • Employ self monitoring and over learning o Self­monitoring­ do something with information, don’t just look at it

Over­learning­ keep studying even after you feel you know it