Unit 6: Memory

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Unit 6 Memory

• Long-Term Memory

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Objectives

• Participate in memory illustration activities
• Define long-term memory
• Describe how information is encoded and stored in
  long-term memory
• Describe the three ways we process information to
  store in LTM

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Memory Activity

• On a blank piece of paper, and write down all
  responses in the order in which they come to
  mind.
• Incorrect responses will be just as important as
  correct responses.
• Do NOT say out loud or share with others.
• Task name all seven dwarfs

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Discussion

• Difficulty of the task
• To name all dwarfs, we must get the information
  into our brain (encoding), retain it over time
  (storage), and get it back out again (retrieval)

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Discussion

• Did you feel like the name was on the tip of your
  tongue but you just couldnt get it out?
• Tip of the Tongue phenomenon
• The retrieval process does not produce a complete
  response but produces parts that must be
  constructed to make a whole

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Discussion

• What order did you recall the names?
• Sound
• Letter
• Meaning
• Runs occur when one correct name triggers recall
  of names that are similar

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Discussion

• Recall vs. recognition Can you pick out the
  names from the 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, Stubby
• Can you remember more correct names? Why or why
  not?

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Long-Term Memory

• Long-Term Memory is the portion of memory that is
  more or less permanent, corresponding to
  everything we know
• Words to a song
• Results of the election
• Meaning of words
• Riding a bike
• Enjoyment of activities
• Disgust at certain foods
• Schedule of activities

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Limitations of LTM

• Memories can last several years
• Graduates from high school 40 years later could
  recognize the names of 75 of their classmates
• Remember high school Spanish without practice
  after 50 years

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LTM Encoding

• Can you picture the shape of Illinois?
• Do you know what a trumpet sounds like?
• Can you imagine the smell of a rose or the taste
  of coffee?
• When answering the phone, can you identify the
  caller just from the sound of the voice?

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LTM Encoding

• Some memories are coded in terms of nonverbal
  images
• Shapes
• Sounds
• Smells
• Tastes
• Many memories are coded by meaning
• Verbatim vs. main points

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Activity

• Take a few minutes and without talking out loud
  write down as many U.S. presidents that you can
  remember.
• How many did you get right and in what order?

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Presidents

• Washington
• J. Adams
• Jefferson
• Madison
• Monroe
• J.Q. Adams
• Jackson
• Van Buren
• Harrison
• Tyler
• Polk
• Taylor
• Fillmore
• Pierce
• Buchanan
• Lincoln

• A. Johnson
• Grant
• Hayes
• Garfield
• Arthur
• Cleveland
• Harrison
• Cleveland
• McKinley
• T. Roosevelt
• Taft
• Wilson
• Harding
• Coolidge
• Hoover
• F.D. Roosevelt

• Truman
• Eisenhower
• Kennedy
• L. Johnson
• Nixon
• Ford
• Carter
• Reagan
• Bush
• Clinton
• G.W. Bush

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Serial Position Effect

• Serial Position Effect shows us that when asked
  to recall a list of unrelated items, performance
  is better for the items at the beginning and end
  of the list.
• Primacy Effect recalling the first items of the
  list
• Recency Effect recalling the last items of the
  list
• This occurs because you rehearse the first few
  and commit to LTM and the last items are stored
  in STM

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Objectives

• Identify a personal schemata
• Explain the types of LTM
• Note the difference between explicit and implicit
  memories
• Explain the process of forgetting
• HOMEWORK pp. 204-210

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Three Process to Hold Info

• Rote Rehearsal is the repetition of information
  to commit it to memory
• Multiplication tables, phone numbers, SSN,
  counting, ABCs

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Three Process to Hold Info

• Elaborate Rehearsal is the linking of new
  information in STM to familiar material in LTM
• Knowledge of anatomy in psych class
• Mnemonics are techniques to help you tie new
  material to existing in LTM
• Rhymes and jingles
• 588-2300 Empire
• Acronyms
• ROY G. BIV
• Replace letters with numbers and vice versa

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Three Processes to Hold Info

• Schemata is a set of beliefs or expectations
  about something that is based on past experiences
• Mental representation of an event, an object, a
  situation, a person, a process, or a relationship
  that is stored in memory and leads you to expect
  your experience to be organized in certain ways
  (making of a stereotype)
• Going to the mall
• Eating in a restaurant
• Driving a car
• Attending class

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Journal 2

• Think of one of your schemata and describe it.
• For laterread this list (dont write it down,
  dont worry about remembering it)
• Boat, ride, well, face, tour, gate, page

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Types of LTM

• Episodic memories personal memories for events
  that occur during a specific time or place
• What you ate for dinner last night
• Presents you received your last birthday
• How you learned to ride a bike
• Semantic memories stores general facts and
  information serves as a dictionary/ encyclopedia
• Quadratic equation
• State capitals
• Vocab definitions

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Types of LTM

• Procedural memories motor skills and habits the
  knowing of how to do things. Repetition is
  required to learn but memory is there forever
• How to ride a bike, swim, play musical instrument
• How to comb your hair
• How to slam on your car brakes
• Emotional memories responses to stimuli loves,
  hates, fears, disgust, anxiety
• Ashamed of something youve done
• Afraid of insects
• Bad break-up with significant other

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Explicit vs. Implicit Memories

• Explicit memory memory for information we can
  readily express in words and are aware of having
  intentionally retrieved
• Implicit memory memory for information that we
  cannot readily express in words and may not be
  aware of having not intentionally retrieved
• What two types of memory are explicit and what
  two are implicit?
• Episodic, semantic, procedural, emotional?

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Priming

• Priming being exposed to something impacts later
  memory retrieval
• Example
• Fill in the blanks to form one word _OU_
• What did you answer?

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Forget About It

• Decay theory argues that the passage of time
  causes forgetting
• Experiments teach you something such as a
  sequence of letters (ex. PSQ)
• Distract you by having you do a counting exercise
  for 18 seconds (count backwards by 3s from 167)
• Asked to recall lettersmany could not as the
  letters had faded from STM

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Memory Loss

• Retrograde amnesia head injury causes people to
  forget what happened to them shortly before the
  injury. Storage of these memories was
  interrupted.
• If your computer loses power before you save
  something, it is lost
• Memory is negatively affected by accidents,
  surgery, poor diet, and disease
• Hippocampus is important to memory
• Degeneration of this area in elderly is linked to
  memory loss
• Alzheimers show damage in this area

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Environmental Factors Forgetting

• Inadequate learning
• Absentmindedness lack of attention to critical
  cues (where did I park my car?)
• Use elaborate rehearsal
• I parked in G-47
• My uncle George is 47
• Interference
• Situational Factors
• Reconstructive Process

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Interference

• Interference learning one thing interferes with
  another
• Info gets mixed up with or pushed aside by other
  information
• Retroactive interference new material interferes
  with info in LTM
• Learning a new phone number can make you forget
  one youve known for years
• Proactive interference old material interferes
  with new material being learned
• Park in the same spot everyday but today you had
  to park somewhere else and now you cant find
  your car
• The more similar the information, the more likely
  it will get mixed up with something you already
  know

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Situational Factors

• Situational Factors when we memorize something,
  we also take in cues from the context in which we
  learned it
• Remembering is harder if you are in a different
  context
• Take witnesses back to the scene of a crime
• State-Dependent Memory remember better in the
  same state
• Consumed a lot of caffeine to study, you might do
  better to be under the influence of caffeine for
  your test

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Reconstructive Process

• Reconstructive Process we reconstruct our
  memories using schemata
• What actually happened vs. what you
  heard/imagined
• Combine real and imaginary elements to memories
• Rewrite past events to fit current image of self
  or past decisions

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Improving Your Memory

• Develop motivation (alert and stimulated)
• Practice memory skills (games)
• Gain confidence (relax)
• Minimize distractions
• Stay focused (attention)
• Connect new with old
• Use mental imagery
• Use retrieval cues (attach meaning)
• Rely on more than memory (list)
• Schemata can distort things (real vs. fake)

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Special Topics

• Autobiographical Memory recollection of events
  that happened in our life and when these events
  took place part of episodic memory
• Store information around major landmarks in our
  lives and in event clusters

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Special Topics

• What is your earliest memory?
• Childhood amnesia rarely recall events from
  before you were 2 years old
• Brain developing still so info is not stored
• Prefrontal cortex still developing
• Hippocampus not developed until age 2
• Organizing info is difficult without a sense of
  self thus no autobiographical memory
• Language not yet developed
• Or is it that we as adults cannot remember early
  experiences?

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Special Topics

• Photographic memory see images in memory in
  minute detail (eidetic imagery)
• Flashbulb memories experience of remembering a
  vivid event and events surrounding it for a long
  time
• 9-11, Challenger explosion, JFK assassination
• Eyewitness testimony unable to tell the
  difference between something they saw and
  something they heard or imagined
• How fast were the cars going when they ___ each
  other?
• Recovered memories something so repressed it is
  forgotten and recalled later
• Child abuse
• Sexual abuse
• 25 of participants remembered knocking over a
  punch bowl on the bride at a wedding reception
  based on 2-3 different interviews about it but
  the event was entirely fictitious