Memory

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Memory
Information Processing
Mods 21 and 22
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Three Stages Involved in the Memory Process
1. Encoding
3. Retrieval
2. S t o r a g e
Environmental Stimuli
Bring Memories back
Short- term Memory
Sensory Storage
Long- term Memory
Discard
Forget
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What do we Forget Most Often? (21-1)

• Names 83
• Where you put things (e.g. keys) 60
• Telephone numbers just checked 57
• Specific words 53
• Not recalling that you had already told something
  to someone 49
• Forgetting what people had told you 49
• Faces 42
• Directions 41
• Forgetting what you started to do 41
• Forgetting what you were saying 41
• Remembering what you have done (e.g., turning off
  the stove) 38
• Gordon, B. (1995). Memory Remembering and
  forgetting in everyday life. New York
  Mastermedia Limited. Reprinted by permission.

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Stages of Memory

• The environment is loaded with stimuli.
• Our senses are constantly bombarded with
  information.
• Short term memory lasts about 20 seconds
• Long term memory is all learned material, can
  last for lifetime.

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The Seven Dwarfs Exercise

• Exercise 21-1
• Take out a piece of paper and (without looking at
  anyone elses paper) name the seven dwarfs from
  Snow White.

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Was your memory fuzzy?
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The Seven Dwarfs

• How difficult or easy was the task?
• As you can see, memory is information processing.
• Did you experience the tip-or-the-tongue
  phenomenon?
• Would it help to ask you how many syllables it
  has? What letter does it begin with? What
  meaning does it have?
• Did your recall have a pattern?

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Short Term and Long Term Memory

• STM is transient memory seems to have a capacity
  of seven pieces of information, plus or minus
  twothe same as the number of dwarfs Through the
  use of chunking or other organizing schemata, the
  actual number of items recalled can be greater
  than five to nine
• LTM can hold information for a greater
  timehours, days, years.

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Dwarfs

• Copy this list
• Grouchy, Gabby, Fearful, Sleepy, Smiley,
  Jumpy, Hopeful, Shy, Droopy, Dopey, Sniffy,
  Wishful, Puffy, Dumpy, Sneezy, Lazy, Pop, Grumpy,
  Bashful, Cheerful, Teach, Shorty, Nifty, Happy,
  Doc, Wheezy, and Stubby.

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Dwarfs

• Circle the correct dwarf names, cross out the
  ones you know are incorrect, and leave the others
  alone.
• Is this easier?
• Why?
• What type of memory were you using this time?

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Short Term and Long Term Memory

• The original task was a test of recall from LTM.
• Now, if you have been following the discussion,
  the names should be in STM.
• Turn your sheet over and recall the names of the
  seven dwarfs.
• Theoretically, everyone should be able to name
  them all.

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Dwarf Memory - Mnemonics

• Keeping track of all seven dwarfs is actually
  quite simple once you have mastered this simple
  mnemonic device two Ss, two Ds, and three
  emotions.

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Dwarf Memory - Mnemonics

• Two Ss Sleepy and Sneezy two Ds Dopey and
  Doc and three emotions Happy, Bashful, and
  Grumpy.
• Why would this information help you?

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Information-Processing Model of Memory

• Forgetting can occur from any memory stage
• Retrieval puts information from LTM into STM
• Moving information from Sensory memory to STM
  requires attention
• Moving information from STM to LTM requires
  proper encoding

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Encoding

• Automatic Processing done with little effort,
  includes information about space, time, and
  frequency.
• Effortful Processing requires attention and
  conscious effort.
• Rehearsal conscious repetition of information
  to remember it for short or long term.

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Encoding

• What works?
• First we must get the information into our
  memory.
• Handout 18-2
• Follow the directions at the top of the page,
  and rate each of the sentences as I read them to
  you.

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Encoding Meaning and Memory

• Does knowing the context make remembering
  something easier?
• Therefore, if you understood something discussed
  in a class, are you more likely to recall it?
• Try this exercise, and well see for ourselves.
• Exercise 21 - A

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Sensory Memory

• Visual sensory memory (iconic)
• Fleeting photographic memory
• Lasts a few tenths of a second
• Auditory sensory memory (echoic)
• Auditory sensory images
• Lasts for 1-2 seconds
• Ex Repeating accurately after friend asks if you
  are listening, even if you really werent.
• Ex Seeing a number, letter, or sign and having
  recall for a few 10ths of a second.

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Short Term Memory (STM)

• Limited capacity -- 7 plus or minus 2 chunking
• Chunk a meaningful unit
• Examples
• A single letter (S)
• A group of letters (FBI)
• A group of words (Four score and seven years ago)
  
• Duration of 20-30 sec. due to limited capacity
  interference
• Also called working memory

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Short Term Memory (STM)

• STM is limited
• We can immediately recall roughly 7 items of
  information (Magic 7 plus or minus 2)
• Exercise 21 B
• Take out a clean sheet of paper.
• I will be reading a series of unrelated digits.
• After I complete each series, write down as many
  digits as you can recall in the correct order
• Each series will begin with the word ready and
  end with the word recall
• What have you learned?

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Chunking

• How many of these can you remember?
• IB MF BI US AC IA
• 816 44 93 62 51 69 41
• Why is this difficult?

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Chunking

• When regrouped into meaningful units, how many
  can you remember?
• IBM FBI USA CIA
• 9 x 9
• 8 x 8
• 7 x 7
• 6 x 6 etc.
• Why did this just get easier?

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Long Term Memory (LTM)

• Huge capacity
• Potentially long duration (decades)
• Organized by meaning
• Procedural Memory Memory for motor skills
  learned through practice
• Declarative Memory Memory for facts personal
  experiences

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The Nature of Memory

• Prior Knowledge - The ability to learn and
  remember new material is enhanced by what we
  already know.
• Attending - We must focus our attention on
  information we want to know.
• The relationship between learning and memory
  involves the passage of time.

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The Nature of Memory

• Influences - Prior and subsequent knowledge,
  stereotypes, emotions, and meaningfulness
  influence what we remember.
• Mnemonics - improve memory because they utilize
  attention, organization, meaningfulness, and
  chunking.

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Prior Knowledge

• The ability to acquire material is greatly
  influenced by what we already know.
• You can read familiar material much more quickly
  and easily than an unfamiliar topic.

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Factors Affecting Retrieval

• Serial Position
• Environmental Context
• State-Dependence
• Stress and Anxiety

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The Serial-Position Effect

• Subjects memorized lists of words
• Recall immediate (yellow line) or delayed (green
  line)
• Primacy Good recall of first items on list
• Recency Good recall for last items

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Interference and Forgetting
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Interference

• Proactive prior learning interferes with
  remembering new information
• Retroactive new learning interferes with
  remembering old information

If you study psychology and then go to sleep, you
will remember more of it than if you went on to
do some- thing else after studying.
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Stereotypes and Prejudice

• People may recall something that never occurred.
• Beliefs about what must have happened bias
  recalled events.
• Memory can be distorted by our stereotypes.

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Attention

• If you dont pay attention, you wont acquire
  information.
• We tend to pay attention when we are interested
  in the subject.
• The penny exercise is an example of how we
  learn only when we pay attention.

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Repression Motivated forgetting

• Highly emotional events can be withheld from our
  awareness (unconscious).
• Mood can serve as a retrieval cue (making the
  unconscious, conscious).

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Misinformation and Imagination Effects

• Our memories about an event fade.
• We become more open to misinformation.
• We undergo some reconstruction of the memory.
• We believe the new memory to be correct when it
  is not.
• Examples remembering the wrong name for
  someone you knew, the order of events during an
  accident, the way the policemen who gave you the
  ticket looks.

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Misinformation and Imagination Effects

• We can imagine things to be completely different
  from the reality, and then we honestly believe
  what we imagined.
• Examples Believe you failed a test (when you
  didnt) and never come back to the class.
  Believe you did or did not see someone steal
  something in a store. Believe you saw a gun in
  someones hand when it really was a cell phone.

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Source Amnesia

• When we encode memories, we do not generally
  encode the source.
• Therefore, we can confuse something we have read
  or seen with the real thing.
• Examples Sometimes we can read a story with
  such vivid descriptions of the scenery that we
  feel we were there.
• Our families can tell stories about us so many
  times that we believe we remember being there,
  even though we were very young.

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Source Amnesia

• When we encode memories, different aspects of
  them go to different parts of the brain
• We might see a familiar person but have no idea
  where we saw them before
• We might recall an event that was story in a book
  or on a television program and believe it
  happened to u

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Repressed or Constructed memories of Abuse

• is a cornerstone of Freuds theory
• is a source of heated debate in psychology
• can also be a source of obsessive thinking
• can be hidden from the survivor and brought out
  by therapy or a reminder experience

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Repressed or Constructed memories of Abuse

• Injustice, incest and sexual abuse happen.
• Forgetting happens.
• We often recover good and bad memories.
• Hypnosis and/or drugs do not produce reliable
  memories.
• Memories before age 3 are unreliable.

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Anxiety and Stress

• A moderate amount of anxiety may improve
  performance.
• Extreme anxiety adversely affects recall and
  clear thought.

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Stress and Memory
Performance
Low
Moderate
High
Stress
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Organization

• Material that is organized is easier to remember.

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Organizationa great strategy for remembering

• girl heart
• robin purple
• finger flute
• blue organ
• man hawk
• green eagle
• Piano child
• lung

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Organizationa great strategy for remembering

• green piano man
• purple flute girl
• blue organ child
• heart eagle
• lung hawk
• finger robin

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Elaborative Rehearsal

• Subjects were shown lists of words
• Asked to use one of three strategies
• Visual Is the word printed in capital letters?
• Acoustic Does the word rhyme with _____?
• Semantic Does the word fit the sentence
  _________?

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Retrieval Cues

• help us locate where we have stored a memory
• allow us to use what we know

18-5A and 18-5B
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Retrieval Cues Getting the Info Out

• Priming, having the right cues to help us
  retrieve a specific memory
• Example When you select a password on a computer
  site, they often will have you list a question
  that will prime your memory for the password.
  What was your first girlfriends name, your pet,
  etc.?

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Retrieval Cues - access stored knowledge

• How many of these words can you recall in order?
• winter lunch
• green Russia
• foot pencil collie
• sweater spaghetti
• juniper ebony
• Chicago violin
• bible French

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Retrieval Cues (continued)

• Now use the following retrieval cues to recall
• a part of the body a planet
• a writing instrument a language
• an article of clothing a meal
• a breed of dog a food
• a name of a city a magazine
• a type of book a country
• a musical instrument

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Retrieval

• Interference of competing bits of information can
  distort our memories.
• If you are trying to learn Spanish and French at
  the same time, you will have difficulty.

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Meaningfulness

• Information that is meaningful will be remembered
  best.
• Anything that improves comprehension, improves
  memory.
• So...relate new material to something you already
  know or understand.

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Watching a Peace March From the Fortieth Floor
What is really happening here?

• The view was breathtaking. From the window one
  could see the crowd below. Everything looked
  extremely small from such a distance, but the
  colorful costumes could still be seen. Everyone
  seemed to be moving in one direction in an
  orderly fashion, and there seemed to be little
  children as well as adults. The landing was
  gentle, and luckily the atmosphere was such that
  no special suits had to be worn. At first there
  was a great deal of activity. Later, when the
  speeches started, the crowd quieted down. The
  man with the television camera took many shots of
  the setting and the crowd. Everyone was friendly
  and seemed glad when the music started.

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Meaningfulness

• What did you remember from the previous passage?
• Meaningfulness can account for individual
  differences in memory.
• For example, good card players remember each hand
  because card are meaningful to them.

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Meaningfulness

• We now know that words with meaning are more
  easily remembered.
• What about pictures?
• Keep handout 18-4 face down for now.
• When told, turn it over and study the two figures
  for a few seconds.
• A is (I will give you a clue)
• Now hide this sheet, face down, so you cant see
  it.

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Meaningfulness

• What did exercise 18-4 tell you about
  meaningfulness?
• Why do you believe you had the results you had?

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First-Letter Mnemonics

• HOMES
• Washington And Jefferson Made Many A Joke
• Coolidge Hurried To Every Kitchen Door Nook
• FACE
• All Cows Eat Grass

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METAMEMORYan awareness of your own learning

• You need to actively deal with material if you
  want to remember it.
• Good students ask themselves questions, organize
  material, and know when they do or do not
  understand material.

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Environmental Context

• Becomes encoded along with the material being
  remembered
• Reinstating context often increases memory
• Exp taking test in classroom, revisiting your
  old school

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Context-Dependent Memory

• Scuba divers learned words either on land or
  underwater
• Tested for recall on land or underwater
• Recall was better in context where words had been
  learned

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State-Dependent Memory

• Internal body states are encoded with memories
• Memories easier to retrieve when these body
  states are entered again

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State-Dependent Memory

• Stress Hormones and Memory
• When humans and/or animals are excited, stress
  hormones are produced.
• They make more glucose energy available to the
  brain.
• The amygdala (part of the brain that processes
  emotion) boosts activity in the brains memory
  forming areas.
• The memory is seared into the brain.

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False Memories

• ½ of participants told to imagine themselves
  doing certain things
• All participants brought back later and asked if
  the remember doing those things

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Autobiographical Memory

• Flashbulb Memories
• Highly vivid and enduring memories, typically for
  events that are dramatic and emotional
• Our nervous system takes multimedia snapshots of
  the sounds, sights, smell, weather, or emotional
  climate we experience at certain moments.
• Write down a sentence or two of your most vivid
  memories
• Possibilities A car accident, high school
  graduation, injuries, romantic experience, first
  date, 9/11, ACT results, holiday dinner, first
  college class, birth of a child, home alone
• Do you recall the sights, sounds, smells, taste,
  feelings, etc.?
• The more detail you recall, the stronger your
  flashbulb memory.

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Autobiographical Memory

• Childhood Amnesia
• The inability of most people to recall events
  from before the age of three or four
• Hindsight Bias
• The tendency to think after an event that we knew
  in advance what was going to happen

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Ebbinghaus

• Studied learning
• Found that the more time we spend practicing, the
  more we remember
• Studied Forgetting
• Found that forgetting is at first quick and then
  levels off with time

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Forgetting

• Failure to Encode Failing to put material into
  LTM Common in "forgetting" people's names
• Decay Fading of memory through disuse
  Impossible to distinguish from permanent
  retrieval failure

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Forgetting

• Interference Confusion or entanglement of
  similar memories
• Motivated Forgetting Repression of memories,
  usually to avoid dealing with traumatic
  experiences
• Retrieval Failure Inability to find the
  necessary memory cue for retrieval Sometimes
  temporary

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Biology and Memory

• Hippocampus (a neural center located in limbic
  system
• Helps to form long-term explicit memories
• Lights up on a PET scan during recall
• One of the last brain structures to develop (may
  be another reason, in addition to the lack of
  language, why we dont have much explicit recall
  of our early life)

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Synaptic Changes

• Synapses the sites where nerve cells
  communicate
• Experience modifies the brains neural networks
• Long Term Potentiation prolonged strengthening
  of potential neural firing.
• When a change occurs, serotonin is released which
  makes that synapse more efficient.

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Implicit and Explicit memory

• Implicit (procedural) unconscious recollection
• You dont remember that you met this guy before,
  but something inside you tells you to stay from
  him.
• Includes motor and cognitive skills, unrecalled
  experiences

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Implicit and Explicit memory

• Explicit (declarative) conscious recollection
  of facts
• You remember the guys name, when and where you
  met him before and what he said to you that upset
  you.
• Includes facts, knowledge, recalled experiences

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Student Project

• Go to http//www.psy.jhu.edu/nightfly.
• Repeat the experiments you see on this site with
  yourself as the subject. Compare your results
  with those reported by the original researchers
  and write a report on them.
• Then go to http//www.exploratorium.edu/memory/ind
  ex.html
• Browse this site.
• Read at least one lecture and one article on
  memory.
• Write up your findings on your experiments and
  the information contained in the lecture and in
  the article you have read.
• Be prepared to show your findings and report on
  this information to the class.