Unit 7A, Memory Notes

(2011 update; goes with Chapter 9 of 2007 book)

I. The phenomenon of memory 255-297

Memory: the persistence of learning over time

II. Encoding: getting information in 257

How do psychologists describe the human memory system?

Encoding, storage and retrieval

Atkinson-Shiffrin processing model

Three stage process

Sensory memory information registers with your senses

Short term memory pay attention to certain stimuli in order to process it for long term storage; working memory

Long term memory permanent; unlimited

Working memory: focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory; varies from person to person

What we encode. 258

What information do we encode automatically? What information do we encode effortfully, and how does the distribution of practice influence retention?

Parallel processing: many aspects are processed simultaneously; in contrast, computers do things one at a time; space, time, frequency and well learned info are automatically processed by your brain

Visual encoding picture and images

Acoustic encoding sounds of words

Semantic encoding encoding the meaning of words

Craik and Tulvig’s research showed that encoding the meaning of words was best

Self reference effect better recall if something can be related to ourselves

Effortful processing produces durable memories

Spacing effect distribute your study time to ensure long term memory of info

Automatic processing unconscious encoding of incidental information

Effortful processing requires attention and conscious effort

Rehearsal conscious petition of information

Herman Ebbinghaus found that the amount remembered depends on the time spent learning.

Henry L. Roediger (2006) identified the testing effect: you improve recall by studying information and then quizzing yourself about the material.

Serial position effect recalling the first and last items in a list

Primacy effect: remembering the first several items in a list

Recency effect: last items in a list are more easily recalled due to working memory

What we encode, 261

What effortful processing methods aid in forming memories?

Levels of processing

Visual encoding: picture images

Acoustic encoding: encoding the sounds of words

Semantic encoding: encoding the meaning of words

Craig and Tulvig (1975) found that deeper, semantic processing yielded much better memory (p. 262)

To remember something well you have to spend time with it and you must make it meaningful to you.

Self –reference effect: if we can relate something to ourselves it has more meaning.

Visual encoding, 263

Imagery mental pictures

Mnemonic memory aid using mental picture or organizational device

Rosy introspection: negative emotions from bad events fade more quickly than happy ones.

Organizing information for encoding, 264

Chunking putting items into manageable bits (ex: ROY G. BIV, HOMES)

Hierarchies subdividing concepts and facts by putting them into categories

Gordon Bower (1969) showed that when information was grouped into categories it was much more likely to be remembered than just memorized at random.

III. Storage: Retaining information 265

Sensory memory

What is sensory memory?

Iconic Sperling’s experiment showed that we have a fleeting photographic memory <1 sec.

Echoic fleeting memory for auditory stimuli <3-4 sec.

Working/Short-Term Memory, 266

What are the duration and capacity of short-term and of long-term memory?

Short term memory

George Miller (1956): 5-9 items in storage

Long term memory Unlimited capacity

Rajan Mahadevan: can pull any group of 10 digits from a string of thousands of numbers in pi

Storing Memories in the Brain, 268

How does the brain store our memories?

Karl Lashley (1950) memories do not reside in specific spots

Loftus: memories are not stored in complete detail

Synaptic changes

Gary Lynch: Long term potentiation increase in a synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; the neural basis for learning and memory at the synaptic level

Memory trace: synaptic meeting places where neurons communicate via neurotransmitter messengers.

Kandel and Schwartz observed that serotonin is released at certain synapses in the brain when a memory is formed

Long term potentiation: the strengthening of potential neural firing.

The neurotransmitter, glutamate enhances this potential.

Hormones boost learning and retention

Emotions can strengthen memories

Prospective memory: remember to type of events are easier to remember when triggered by some activity; but habitual tasks are easily forgotten (see page 463 discussion about aging)

Not in book: Retrospective memory refers to remembering information from the past. It is the complement to prospective memory (which refers to remembering to do something in the future). All types of memory other than prospective memory may be deemed to be "retrospective" memory.

Stress hormones and memory, 270

Due to glucose and amygdala activity stress can sear a memory into our brain

Flashbulb memory memory of an exceptionally vivid event

Storing explicit and implicit memories, 271

Amnesia loss of memory

Retrograde amnesia loss of memory for events that occurred, or information that was learned, before an injury or the onset of a disease.

Anterograde amnesia loss of ability to create new memories after an event

Famous patient H.M. (photo page 271) could not form memories

Implicit memory (procedural)

Explicit memory (declarative) memory of facts you know and can declare

Hippocampus explicit memories for facts and episodes are processed here, in the center of the brain, and then sent elsewhere

Hippocampus activity during sleep improves memory

Cerebellum forms and stores implicit memories created by classical conditioning; Thompson showed its importance in experiments

Infantile amnesia: we have no memories of skills we performed at an early age; the cerebellum is more advanced allowing us to do the skill, but our hippocampus, where we retain words that would explain and name the skill is not yet advanced enough to commit what we did to memory (p. 274)

IV. Retrieval: Getting information out 274

How do we get information out of memory?

Recall retrieving information learned earlier

Recognize identifying items previously learned

Relearning measures the amount of time saved when learning something a second time

Retrieval cues, 275

Mnemonic devices provide cues

Priming activating strands that leads to a web of associations; effortless memory; invisible without explicit remembering

Context effects, 276

How do external contexts and internal emotions influence memory retrieval?

Godden and Baddeley (1975) scuba diver experiment; they remembered more words when retested in the same place

Déjà vu the sense of having experienced something before

Moods and Memories, 277

Gordon Bower: emotions help us remember

State dependent memory: return to the state you were in to help you remember

Mood congruent if you are happy you recall the world in a joyous way; thus, recall is consistent with one’s current mood

V. Forgetting: 278

Why do we forget?

Jill Price is a supermemorist: she remembers everything she does.

Sins of forgetting

a. Absent mindedness inattention to details

b. Transience storage decay over time

c. Blocking tip of the tongue phenomenon; unable to access stored information

Sins of distortion

a. Misattribution confusing the source

b. Suggestibility leading questions lead to misinformation

c. Bias your beliefs alter your memory

One sin of intrusion

Persistence an unwanted memory sustains

Encoding failure, 280

Much of what we sense we never notice: change blindness, page 239

Forgetting is encoding failure

Example: which is the real penny?

Storage decay, 280

Ebbinghaus and the forgetting curve, Figure 9.20, page 377

The course of forgetting is initially rapid, then tapers off

Much of what we learn we forget since it has no meaning to us

Retrieval failure, 282

Sometimes stored information cannot be retrieved

Interference, 282

Proactive: forward acting: something you learned earlier interferes with recall of something that happens later

Retroactive

Back ward acting: new information makes it harder to recall something you learned earlier

Jenkins and Dallenbach: sleep or go for a walk after you learn something; otherwise intereference of other things you learn affects recall\

Positive transfer: when old information leads to easier recall of new; ex: knowing Latin helps you learn French

Motivated forgetting, 283

Due to the various stages of processing (sensory, working, long term, retrieval) forgetting does occur

Repression, said Freud, leads us to self-censor painful information; most researchers disagree

VI. Memory Construction 285

How do misinformation, imagination, and source amnesia influence our memory construction? How real-seeming are false memories?

Memory is the result of cognitive, biological and social-cultural phenomenon

Leveling (the shortening of a story), sharpening (highlighting or over emphasizing), and assimilation (fitting material into your background) all play a role in Bartlett’s constructive memory process.

Misinformation and imagination effects, 285

Palmer and Loftus showed with the traffic accident experiment that people gave higher estimates of speed depending on how the questions are asked. Memory is reconstructed and is influenced by various factors.

Misinformation effect: after exposure to subtle misinformation, people misremember.

Imagination inflation: repeatedly imagining nonexistent actions can lead to false memories.

Source amnesia, 287

Source misattribution: attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined.

Poole and Lindsay showed this among preschoolers.

Discerning true and false memories, 287

The most confident witnesses are often not the most accurate

Hypnotically recovered memories have errors to suggestions from the hypnotist

Lovers overestimate their first impressions; those who broke up underestimate their first meeting

Brainerd and Reyna: memories we derive from experiences have more detail than memories we derive from imagination.

Imagined memories contain more gist or feeling but less actual detail

Imagined memories can be more durable than real memories

False and true memories can appear to be just as convincing; confident witnesses are necessarily more accurate.

Police are being trained to ask less suggestive questions using a cognitive interview technique.

Children’s eyewitness recall, 289

Stephen Ceci and Maggie Bruck: preschoolers often produce false stories (1994)

Preschoolers appear to be more suggestible; susceptible to the misinformation effect

Children can accurately recall what happened if questioned neutrally

With young children, even psychologists who interview them cannot separate real from imagined events

Repressed or constructed memories of abuse? 290

What is the controversy related to claims of repressed and recovered memories?

False memory syndrome: credible authority, suggestion and imagination are involved

Roseanne Barr claimed to have recovered memories of sexual abuse

Professional groups agree:

a. Injustice happens

b. Incest happens

c. Forgetting happens

d. Recovered memories are common place

e. Memories recovered under hypnosis or drugs are unreliable

f. Memories of things before age 3 are unreliable due to infantile amnesia

g. Memories can be emotionally unsettling even if unreal

False memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus (p. 292) experienced false memory when she was told she discovered a dead relative at age 14 and began to believe it. She was molested at 6, and has not forgotten that.

Most traumatic experiences are remembered; unlikely to be repressed and then retrieved through therapy

VII. Improving Memory 293

How can understanding of memory contribute to more effective study techniques?

a. Use overlearning

b. Use rehearsal

c. Make the material personally meaningful

d. Use mnemonic devices for the unfamiliar: associate them with peg words (words you already know)

e. Recall events when they are fresh

f. Minimize interference

g. Test your own knowledge, to determine what you don’t know

h. sleep more

Terms to remember: page 296 (see study guide)

AP Practice Test Questions: pages 296-297