Human Memory

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Human Memory

• It is good to have an end to journey towards but
  it is the journey that matters, in the end.
• Ursula K. Le Gui

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Memory

• Process by which information is
• Input information received through 5 senses
• Encoding
• Central Processing Info stored in the brain
• Storage
• OutPut Ideas or actions resulting from memory
• Retrieval
• Eventually (possibly) forgotten

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Information-Processing Model of Memory

• Computer as a model for our memory
• Three types of memory
• Sensory memory
• Short-term memory (STM)
• Long-term memory (LTM)
• Can hold vast quantities of information for many
  years

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Encoding

• Selective Attention focus on information found
  most interesting, (friends convo during this
  power point party phenom)
• Feature Extraction Focus on the most outstanding
  or crucial information (ID a car in an accident,
  only look for make, model, not color of interior)
• Both an evaluation process

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Information-Processing Model of Memory
Retrieval
Short-term memory
Stimulus
Sensory memory
Long-term memory
Attention
Encoding
Forgetting
Forgetting
Forgetting
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Sensory Memory

• Stores all the stimuli that register on the
  senses
• Lasts up to three seconds
• Two types
• Iconic memory
• Visual
• Usually lasts about 0.3 seconds
• Sperlings tests (1960s)
• Echoic memory (well come back to this)

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Sperlings Experiment

• Presented matrix of letters for 1/20 seconds
• Report as many letters as possible
• Subjects recalled only half of the letters
• Was this because subjects didnt have enough
  time to view entire matrix?
• No
• How did Sperling know this?

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Sperlings Iconic Memory Experiment
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Sperlings Iconic Memory Experiment
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Sperlings Iconic Memory Experiment
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Sperlings Iconic Memory Experiment
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Sperlings Experiment

• Sounded low, medium or high tone immediately
  after matrix disappeared
• Tone signaled 1 row to report
• Recall was almost perfect
• Memory for images fades after 1/3 seconds or so,
  making report of entire display hard to do

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Sensory Memory

• Echoic memory
• Sensory memory for auditory input that lasts only
  2 to 3 seconds
• Why do we need sensory memory?

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Short-term Memory

• Function
• Conscious processing of information
• Attention is the key
• Limits what info comes under the spotlight of
  short-term memory at any given time
• AKA working memory

Working or Short-term Memory
Sensory Memory
Attention
Sensory Input
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• Memorize the following list of numbers
• 1 8 1 2 1 9 4 1 1 7 7 6 1 4 9 2 2 0 0 1

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• Write down the numbers in order.

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• Now, try again
• 1812 1941 1776 1492 2001

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Short-term Memory

• Limited capacity
• Can hold 7 2 items for about 20 seconds
• Maintenance rehearsal
• The use of repetition to keep info in short-term
  memory
• CHUNK
• Meaningful unit of information
• Without rehearsal, we remember 4 2 chunks
• With rehearsal, we remember 7 2 chunks
• Ericsson Chase (1982)
• 8931944349250215784166850612094888856877273141861
  0546297480129497496592280

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Long-term Memory

• Once information passes from sensory to
  short-term memory, it can be encoded into
  long-term memory

Retrieval
Encoding
Working or Short-term Memory
Sensory Memory
Attention
Long-term memory
Sensory Input
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Long-term memory - Encoding

• Elaborative rehearsal
• A technique for transferring information into
  long-term memory by thinking about it in a deeper
  way
• Levels of processing
• Semantic is more effective than visual or
  acoustic processing
• Craik Tulving (1975)
• Self-referent effect
• By viewing new info as relevant to the self, we
  consider that info more fully and are better able
  to recall it

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Long-term memory

• Procedural (Implicit)
• Memories of behaviors, skills, etc.
• Demonstrated through behavior
• Declarative (Explicit)
• Memories of facts
• Episodic personal experiences tied to places
  time
• Semantic general knowledge
• Semantic network

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Semantic Networks
Bus
Truck
Ambulance
House
Fire Engine
Orange
Fire
Red
Yellow
Green
Apples
Cherry
Sunrise
Roses
Daisies
Clouds
Sunsets
Flowers
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Retrieval

• Retrieval
• Process that controls flow of information from
  long-term to working memory store
• Explicit memory
• The types of memory elicited through the
  conscious retrieval of recollections in response
  to direct questions
• Implicit memory
• A nonconscious recollection of a prior experience
  that is revealed indirectly, by its effects on
  performance

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Retrieval Explicit Memory

• Free-recall test
• A type of explicit memory task in which a person
  must reproduce information without the benefit of
  external cues
• Recognition task
• A form of explicit memory retrieval in which
  items are presented to a person who must
  determine if they were previously encountered
• Retrieval failure
• Tip-of-the-tongue (Brown McNeill)

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Retrieval Explicit Memory

• Context-Dependent Memory
• We are more successful at retrieving memories if
  we are in the same environment in which we stored
  them
• State-Dependent Memory
• We are more successful at retrieving memories if
  we are in the same mood as when we stored them

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Retrieval Implicit Memory

• Showing knowledge of something without
  recognizing that we know it
• Research with amnesics
• Déjà vu
• The illusion that a new situation is familiar
• Eyewitness testimony
• Eyewitness transference
• Unintentional plagiarism

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2 Things

• Selective Attention Concentrating on one
  sensation among many outputs while not completely
  blocking the others
• Feature Extraction focusing on the significant
  characteristics of the information selected for
  attention

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3 Rs of Remembering

• Retrieval How you get information stored in your
  brain, out. Requires complex organization
• Recognition retrieval in which items are
  presented to a person who must determine if they
  were previously encountered (is it familiar?)
• Recall active reconstruction of information,
  reconstruct memory and use specific facts

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Look at the List of Words

• WRITE DOWN THE NUMBER OF MISPELLED WORDS
• 1. ACOMPLISHMENT
• 2. ACHEIVEMENT
• 3. CONSOLIDATE
• 4. CONSISTANT
• 5. RECOMMEND
• 6. MAINTAINANCE

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QUESTION

• How Many of you feel these notes are familiar?
• What is the definition of the retrieval method of
  Recognition?

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Memory failure

• Confabulation filling in the gaps in memory,
  sometimes remembering information that was never
  there
• Relearning having to rehearse already learned
  information, (implicit memory)
• Amnesia inability to recall information often
  from brain trama
• Déjà vu illusion that a new situation is
  familiar. In a way, déjà vu is the opposite of
  amnesia. Whereas amnesics have memories without
  awareness or familiarity, the person with déjà vu
  has a sense of familiarity but no real memory.
  Estimates vary, but between 30 and 96 of people
  report having had such an episode.

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Forgetting

• If we remembered everything, we should on most
  occasions be as ill off as if we remembered
  nothing.
• William James
• Lack of encoding
• Often, we dont even encode the features
  necessary to remember an object/event
• Decay
• Memory traces erode with the passage of time
• No longer a valid theory of forgetting
• Jenkins Dallenbach (1924)

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Interference theory

• Forgetting is a result of some memories
  interfering with others
• Proactive interference
• Old memories interfere with ability to remember
  new memories
• Retroactive interference
• New memories interfere with ability to remember
  old memories
• Interference is stronger when material is similar

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Forgetting

• Repression
• There are times when we are unable to remember
  painful past events
• While there is no laboratory evidence for this,
  case studies suggest that memories
• can be repressed for a
• number of years and
• recovered in therapy

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Memory Construction

• Schema theory
• Preconceptions about persons, objects, or events
  that bias the way new information is interpreted
  and recalled
• Misinformation effect
• The tendency to incorporate false postevent
  information into ones memory of the event itself
• Illusory memories
• People sometimes create memories that are
  completely false

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Improving Memory

• Practice time
• Distribute your studying over time
• Depth of processing
• Spend quality time studying
• Verbal mnemonics
• Use rhyming or acronyms to reduce the amount of
  info to be stored

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Improving Memory

• Method of loci
• Items to be recalled are mentally placed in
  familiar locations
• Interference
• Study right before sleeping review all the
  material right before the exam
• Allocate an uninterrupted chunk of time to one
  course
• Context reinstatement
• Try to study in the same environment mood in
  which you will be taking the exam

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Thinking

• The central processing information stored in
  memory-its recognition-to create ne information

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Thinking

• Directed Thinking
• Logical and goal oriented
• You are given a specific topic /problem to solve,
  you are guided through the process
• Non-Directed thinking
• Free flow of thoughts
• Day-Dreaming, No guidance, no structure

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Association Theory

• Hit or miss
• Behavior I learned to successful/ unsucessful
  past attempt
• Stimulus, response, reinforcement

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Cognitive Theory

• Mental reorganization of the problem until a
  solution dawn and eliminates the need for trial
  and error
• Trial and error
• People learn through attempts and actions to
  solve the problem and from past experience