Memory and Thought

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Memory and Thought

• Unit 6

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Exploring Psychology

• John Kingsley came to our attention in a shocking
  news story about an 83-year-old Alzheimers
  patient who was found unattended in his
  wheelchair at a dog race track outside of
  Spokane, Washington. Attached to his chair a
  note misidentifying him. John did not know who
  he was or how he got to the races. He could not
  help authorities find his family or his previous
  caregivers. John Kingsley, like many other
  patients during advanced stages of Alzheimers
  disease, is alive, but without life. Without a
  memory of his past, or the ability to remember
  anything new, Johns life is nothing but the
  existing moment.

-from Psychology Science, Behavior, and Life by
R.H. Ettinger, Robert L. Crooks, and Jean Stein,
1994.
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The

• Which would be more frightening to you not
  being able to remember the past or not being able
  to learn anything new? Why?

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Ever Had a Day Like This???

•  You get to school and realize you forgot your
  lunch at home. You take a test and you can't
  remember half the answers. You see the new kid
  who just joined your class, and you can't
  remember his name. Some days, it seems like your
  brain is taking a holiday--you can't remember
  anything!

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Memory

• The storage and retrieval of what has been
  learned or experienced.
• Who were your friends in eighth grade?
• Who sings your favorite song?

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The Process of Memory

• Encoding
• The transforming of information so the nervous
  system can process it.
• Acoustic
• Visual
• Semantic
• Storage
• The process by which information is maintained
  over a period of time.
• Retrieval
• The process of obtaining information that has
  been stored in memory.

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What do you see?
You will have twenty seconds to look at the
picture.
How many items can you name?
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What do you hear?
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Our Memory Is Like A Filing Cabinet
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Three Stages of Memory

• Sensory
• Very brief memory storage immediately following
  initial stimulation of a receptor.
• Short-term
• Memory that is limited in capacity to about seven
  items and in duration by the subjects active
  rehearsal.
• Long-term
• Memory that is stored over extended periods of
  time.

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Sensory Memory

• Sight and hearing.
• Iconic visual playback
• Echoic auditory playback
• Hold memory for fractions of a second.
• If it is not important it will be lost.
• Serves three functions
• Prevents you from being overwhelmed.
• Gives you some decision time.
• Allows for continuity and stability

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Short-Term Memory

• A few things (no more than seven) for a short
  period.
• Maintenance rehearsal
• Keeping information for a short period by
  repeating it to your self. (example phone
  number).
• Chunking
• The process of grouping items to make them easier
  to remember.
• Kept in short term memory for less than 20
  seconds. If it is important it will be
  transferred to long-term memory. If not, it will
  be lost.

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Find the Real Penny

 
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Chunking

• MTVCIACCCFBIMIALOLBRBONFRWLTBAFYINISNCISTCSUASSCCP
  WBHS

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milk
cheese
butter
eggs
flour
apples
grapes
shampoo
bread
ground beef
cereal
catsup
green beans
jelly
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(cont.)

• Primacy-recency
• Refers to the fact that we are better able to
  recall information presented at the beginning and
  end of a list
• Primacy the first few on the list because of
  rehearsal time
• Recency the last few on the list because they
  are still accessible for short-term memory.
• Working memory (aka short-term)
• Short-term memory information from long-term
  that has been recalled for current information.

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Long-Term Memory

• Types
• Semantic
• Knowledge of language, including its rules,
  words, and meaning.
• Recalling the first five presidents.
• Episodic
• Memory of ones life, including time of
  occurrence.
• Recalling where you went on your 13th birthday.
• Declarative
• Memory of knowledge that can be called forth
  consciously as needed.
• Suddenly thinking of a friends name without
  knowing why.
• Procedural
• Memory of learned skills that does not require
  conscious recollection (swimming, riding a bike,
  fear of bugs).

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Three Systems of Memory
Maintenance Rehearsal
Sensory Memory
STM (Working)
LTM
Sensory Input
Unattended information is quickly lost
Unrehearsed information is quickly lost
Some information may be lost over time
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Stages of Memory
Sensory Memory Short-term Memory Long-term Memory
Capacity Virtually everything you see or hear at one instant About 7 items in healthy adults Vast, uncountable
Duration Fraction of a second Less than 20 seconds if not rehearsed. Perhaps a lifetime.
Example You see something for an instant, and then someone asks you to recall one detail You look up a telephone number and remember it long enough to dial it You remember the house where you lived when you were 7 years old
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Retrieving Information
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Exploring Psychology

• What a Memory!
• Rajan Mahadevan stood before the packed house of
  the International Congress on Yoga and
  Meditation. He recieted, from memory, the first
  30,000 digits of pi, which is often rounded off
  to two decimal points, of 3.1Rajan Mahadevan
  stood before the packed house of the
  International Congress on Yoga and Meditation.
  He recieted, from memory, the first 30,000 digits
  of pi, which is often rounded off to two decimal
  points, of 3.14. He did not err until the
  31,812th digit. This feat took 3 hours and 44
  minutes and earned him a place in the Guinness
  Book of World Records
• Rajan can repeat a string of 60 numbers after a
  single hearing, while most of us can repeat and
  average of about seven random numbers. Rajan is
  one of only a half-dozen people in the world know
  to have such gargantuan memory powers.
• Despite Rajans unbelievable ability to
  memorize numbers, he seems to be worse than
  average at recalling faces, and he constantly
  forgets where he put his keys.

-adapted from Introduction to Psychology by Rod
Plotnki, 1996
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The Question

• What are your best functions of memory.
• How good are you at names?
• How good are you at faces?

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Ever Had Days Like This???
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The Key to Memory
Organization
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(No Transcript)
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Ways to Retrieve

• Recognition
• Can you name the names of all your teachers since
  first grade?
• You may not remember the names of your teachers
  but chances are you would remember it if you
  heard it.
• Memory retrieval in which a person identifies an
  object, idea, or situation as one he or she has
  or has not experienced before.

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George Clooney
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Nancy Pelosi
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Anna Nicole Smith
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James Spann
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Katie Couric
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Bugs Bunny
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Captain Kangaroo
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• Recall
• Memory retrieval in which a person reconstructs
  previously learned material.
• Remembering is an active process guided by our
  experience, knowledge, and cues we receive from
  the environment.

What was I wearing yesterday?
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Recite the Preamble to the Constitution

• We the People of the United States, in Order to
  form a more perfect Union, establish Justice,
  insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the
  common defence, promote the general Welfare, and
  secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and
  our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
  Constitution for the United States of America.

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Types of Recall

• Reconstructive Processes
• The alteration of a recalled memory that may be
  simplified, enriched, or distorted, depending on
  an individuals experiences, attitudes, or
  inferences.
• Confabulation
• The act of filling in memory gaps.
• Schemas
• Conceptual frameworks a person uses to make sense
  of the word.
• What does the word flipped mean to you?
• Eidetic Memory
• The ability to remember with great accuracy
  visual information on the basis of short-term
  exposure.
• Children tend to exhibit this recall more so than
  adults.

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• Both recognition and recall are declarative
  memory.
• Define it
• Memory of knowledge that can be called forth
  consciously as needed.

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I Cant Believe I Forgot!!!
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Forgetting is Normal

• Its called decay.
• Interference
• Blockage of a memory by previous or subsequent
  memories.
• Proactive
• An earlier memory blocks you from remembering
  related new information.
• Youve moved to a new home and have trouble
  remembering your new phone number and address
  because you know your other one.
• Retroactive
• A later memory or new information blocks you from
  remembering information learned earlier.
• Youve moved to a new home and have learned your
  new address and phone number. Now you have
  trouble recalling your old address and phone
  number.

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A Way to Remember

• Mnemonic devices
• Techniques for using associations to memorize and
  retrieve information.