Memory

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Chapter 9

• Memory

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Memory Some Key Terms

• Memory Active system that stores, organizes,
  alters, and recovers (retrieves) information
• Encoding Converting information into a useable
  form
• Storage Holding this information in memory
• Retrieval Taking memories out of storage

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Fig. 9.1 In some ways, a computer acts like a
mechanical memory system. Both systems process
information, and both allow encoding, storage,
and retrieval of data.
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Sensory Memory

• Storing an exact copy of incoming information for
  a few seconds (either what is seen or heard) the
  first stage of memory
• Icon A fleeting mental image or visual
  representation
• Echo After a sound is heard, a brief
  continuation of the activity in the auditory
  system

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Short-Term Memory (STM)

• Storing small amounts of information briefly
• Working Memory Part of STM like a mental
  scratchpad
• Selective Attention Focusing (voluntarily) on a
  selected portion of sensory input (e.g.,
  selective hearing)
• Phonetically Storing information by sound how
  most things are stored in STM
• Very sensitive to interruption or interference

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Long-Term Memory (LTM)

• Storing information relatively permanently
• Stored on basis of meaning and importance

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Fig. 9.2 Remembering is thought to involve at
least three steps. Incoming information is first
held for a second or two by sensory memory.
Information selected by attention is then
transferred to temporary storage in short-term
memory. If new information is not rapidly
encoded, or rehearsed, it is forgotten. If it is
transferred to long-term memory, it becomes
relatively permanent, although retrieving it may
be a problem. The preceding is a useful model of
memory it may not be literally true of what
happens in the brain (Eysenck Keane, 1995).
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Short-Term Memory Concepts

• Digit Span Test of attention and short-term
  memory string of numbers is recalled forward or
  backward
• Typically part of intelligence tests
• Magic Number 7 (Plus or Minus 2) STM is limited
  to holding seven (plus or minus two) information
  bits at once
• Information Bit Meaningful single piece of
  information

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More Short-Term Memory Concepts

• Recoding Reorganizing or modifying information
  in STM
• Information Chunks Bits of information that are
  grouped into larger chunks
• Maintenance Rehearsal Repeating information
  silently to prolong its presence in STM
• Elaborative Rehearsal Links new information with
  existing memories and knowledge in LTM
• Good way to transfer STM information into LTM

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Long-Term Memory Concepts

• Constructive Processing Updating long-term
  memories on basis of logic, guessing, or new
  information
• Pseudo-Memories False memories that a person
  believes are true or accurate
• Memory Structure Pattern of associations among
  bits of information in LTM
• Redintegrative Memory Memories that are
  reconstructed or expanded by starting with one
  memory and then following chains of association
  to related memories

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Types of Long-Term Memories

• Procedural Long-term memories of conditioned
  responses and learned skills, e.g., driving
• Declarative LTM factual information
• Semantic Memory Impersonal facts and everyday
  knowledge
• Subset of declarative memory
• Episodic Personal experiences linked with
  specific times and places
• Subset of declarative memory

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CNN Alzheimers Babies
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Fig. 9.3 Exposed cerebral cortex of a patient
undergoing brain surgery. Numbers represent
points that reportedly produced memories when
electrically stimulated. A critical evaluation of
such reports suggests that they are more like
dreams than memories. His fact raises questions
about claims that long-term memories are
permanent (From Wilder Penfield, The Excitable
Cortex in Conscious Man, 1958. Courtesy of the
author and Charles C. Thomas, Publisher,
Springfield, Illinois.)
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Fig. 9.6 The tower puzzle. In this puzzle, all
the colored disks must be moved to another post,
without ever placing a larger disk on a smaller
one. Only one disk may be moved at a time, and a
disk must always be moved from one post to
another (it cannot be held aside). An amnesic
patient learned to solve the puzzle in 31 moves,
the minimum possible. Even so, each time he
began, he protested that he did not remember ever
solving the puzzle before and that he did not
know how to begin. Evidence like this suggests
that skill memory is distinct from memories for
facts.
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Fig. 9.7 In the model shown here, long-term
memory is divided into procedural memory (learned
actions and skills) and declarative memory
(stored facts). Declarative memories can be
either semantic (impersonal knowledge) or
episodic (personal experiences associated with
specific times and places).
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Measuring Memory

• Tip-of-the Tongue (TOT) Feeling that a memory is
  available but not quite retrievable
• Recall Direct retrieval of facts or information
• Hardest to recall items in the middle of a list
  known as Serial Position Effect
• Easiest to remember last items in a list because
  they are still in STM

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Fig. 9.8 The serial position effect. The graph
shows the percentage of subjects correctly
recalling each item in a 15-item list. Recall is
best for the first and last items. (Data from
Craik, 1970.)
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Measuring Memory (cont.)

• Recognition Memory Previously learned material
  is correctly identified
• Usually superior to recall
• Distractors False items included with a correct
  item
• Wrong choices on multiple-choice tests
• False Positive False sense of recognition
• Relearning Learning again something that was
  previously learned
• Used to measure memory of prior learning

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Measuring Memory (cont.)

• Savings Score Amount of time saved when
  relearning information
• Explicit Memory Past experiences that are
  consciously brought to mind
• Implicit Memory A memory not known to exist
  memory that is unconsciously retrieved
• Priming When cues are used to activate hidden
  memories
• Internal Images Mental pictures

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Eidetic Imagery (Somewhat Like Photographic
Memory)

• Occurs when a person (usually a child) has visual
  images clear enough to be scanned or retained for
  at least 30 seconds
• Usually projected onto a plain surface, like a
  blank piece of paper
• Usually disappears during adolescence and is rare
  by adulthood

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Fig. 9.10 Test picture like that used to identify
children with eidetic imagery. To test your
eidetic imagery, look at the picture for 30
seconds. Then look at a blank surface and try to
project the picture on it. If you have good
eidetic imagery, you will be able to see the
picture in detail. Return now to the text and try
to answer the questions there. (Redrawn from an
illustration in Lewis Carrolls Alices
Adventures in Wonderland.)
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Forgetting

• Nonsense Syllables Meaningless three-letter
  words (fej, quf) that test learning and
  forgetting
• Encoding Failure When a memory was never formed
  in the first place
• Memory Traces Physical changes in nerve cells or
  brain activity that occur when memories are
  stored
• Memory Decay When memory traces become weaker
  fading or weakening of memories
• Disuse Theory that memory traces weaken when
  memories are not used or retrieved

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Fig. 9.11 The curve of forgetting. This graph
shows the amount remembered (measured by
relearning) after varying lengths of time. The
material learned was nonsense syllables.
Forgetting curves for meaningful information also
show early losses followed by a long, gradual
decline, but overall, forgetting occurs much more
slowly. (After Ebbinghaus, 1885.)
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Fig. 9.13 Some of the distracter items used in a
study of recognition memory and encoding failure.
Penny A is correct but was seldom recognized.
Pennies G and J were popular wrong answers.
(Adapted from Nickerson Adams, 1979.)
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Fig.9.12 Pick a card from the six shown. Look at
it closely and be sure you can remember which
card is yours. Now, tap all four corners of this
page with your fingertip. When youre done, look
at Fig.9.14
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Some More Theories of Forgetting

• Memory Cue Any stimulus associated with a
  memory usually enhances retrieval of a memory
• A person will forget if cues are missing at
  retrieval time
• State-Dependent Learning When memory retrieval
  is influenced by body state if your body state
  is the same at the time of learning AND the time
  of retrieval, retrievals will be improved
• If Robert is drunk and forgets where his car is
  parked, it will be easier to recall the location
  if he gets drunk again!

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Fig.9.14 Poof! The card you chose in Fig. 9.12 is
gone. Obviously, you could have selected any one
of the six cards in Fig.9.12. How did I know
which one to remove? This trick is based entirely
on an illusion of memory. Recall that you were
asked to concentrate on one card in Fig.9.12.
That prevented you from paying attention to the
other cards, so they werent stored in your
memory. The five cards you see here are all new
(none were shown in Fig.9.12). Because you
couldnt find your card in the remaining five,
it looked like your card had disappeared.
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Fig. 9.15 The effect of mood on memory. Subjects
best remembered a list of words when their mood
during testing was the same as their mood was
when they learned the list. (Adapted from Bower,
1981.)
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Even More (!) Theories of Forgetting

• Interference Tendency for new memories to impair
  retrieval of older memories, and vice versa
• Retroactive Interference Tendency for new
  learning to interfere with retrieval of old
  learning
• Proactive Interference Prior learning inhibits
  (interferes with) recall of later learning

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Fig. 9.17 Effects of interference on memory. A
graph of the approximate relationship between
percentage recalled and number of different word
lists memorized. (Adapted from Underwood, 1957.)
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Fig. 9.18 Retroactive and proactive interference.
The order of learning and testing shows whether
interference is retroactive (backward) or
proactive (forward).
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More on Forgetting

• Positive Transfer Mastery of one task aids
  learning or performing another
• Negative Transfer Mastery of one task conflicts
  with learning or performing another

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CNN Memory Drugs
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Repression and Suppression

• Repression Unconsciously pushing painful,
  embarrassing, or threatening memories out of
  awareness/consciousness
• Motivated forgetting, according to some theories
• Suppression Consciously putting something
  painful or threatening out of mind or trying to
  keep it from entering awareness

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Flashbulb Memories

• Memories created during times of personal
  tragedy, accident, or other emotionally
  significant events
• Where were you when you heard that terrorists had
  attacked the USA on September 11th, 2001?
• Includes both positive and negative events
• Not always accurate
• Great confidence is placed in them even though
  they may be inaccurate

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Memory Formation

• Retrograde Amnesia Forgetting events that
  occurred before an injury or trauma
• Anterograde Amnesia Forgetting events that
  follow an injury or trauma
• Consolidation Forming a long-term memory
• Electroconvulsive Shock (ECS) Mild electrical
  shock passed through the brain, destroying any
  memory that is being formed one way to prevent
  consolidation

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Memory Structures

• Hippocampus Brain structure associated with
  information passing from short-term memory into
  long-term memory
• If damaged, person can no longer create
  long-term memories and thus will always live in
  the present
• Memories prior to damage will remain intact
• Engram Memory trace in the brain

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Ways to Improve Memory

• Knowledge of Results Feedback allowing you to
  check your progress
• Recitation Summarizing aloud while you are
  learning
• Rehearsal Reviewing information mentally
  (silently)
• Selection Selecting most important concepts to
  memorize
• Organization Organizing difficult items into
  chunks a type of reordering

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Ways to Improve Memory (cont.)

• Whole Learning Studying an entire package of
  information at once, like a poem
• Part Learning Studying subparts of a larger body
  of information (like text chapters)
• Progressive Part Learning Breaking learning task
  into a series of short sections
• Serial Position Effect Making most errors while
  remembering the middle of the list
• Overlearning Studying is continued beyond bare
  mastery

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Ways to Improve Memory (cont.)

• Spaced Practice Alternating short study sessions
  with brief rest periods
• Massed Practice Studying for long periods
  without rest periods
• Lack of sleep decreases retention sleep aids
  consolidation
• Hunger decreases retention
• Cognitive Interview Technique used to improve
  memories of eyewitnesses

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Mnemonics Memory Tricks

• Any kind of memory system or aid
• Using mental pictures
• Making things meaningful
• Making information familiar
• Forming bizarre, unusual, or exaggerated mental
  associations

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Using Mnemonics to Remember Things in Order

• Form a Chain Remember lists in order, forming an
  exaggerated association connecting item one to
  two, and so on
• Take a Mental Walk Mentally walk along a
  familiar path, placing objects or ideas along the
  path
• Use a system

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Seven Sins of Memory (Schacter, 2001)

• Transience Stored information tends to fade with
  passage of time
• Absent-Mindedness Weak, poorly encoded memories
  tend to cause absent-mindedness
• Blocking Not being able to recall a word or a
  name that you know well
• Misattribution Linking a memory with the wrong
  source, time, or place

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Seven Sins of Memory (cont.)

• Suggestibility Suggestions and misleading
  questions can implant information that leads us
  to alter or revise our memories
• Bias Memories are often distorted to match our
  beliefs and expectations
• Persistence Memories of traumatic events may
  persist for many years
• Conclude Memory limitations that appear to be
  flaws are actually adaptive features in some
  situations

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