Transcript Memory - mskamburov

Memory
HOW DO WE RETAIN INFORMATION?
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HOW DO WE RECALL INFORMATION?
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WHAT IS SHORT TERM AND LONG TERM MEMORY?
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WHY DO WE FORGET?
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HOW CAN WE LEARN AND REMEMBER BETTER?
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HOW RELIABLE IS EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY?
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3 Steps
Encode
Store
Retrieve
Information Processing Model
 Compares our mind to a computer
 Information is encoded when sensory receptors send
impulses to neurons in the brain
 We store (retain) information for a period of time


How long do we store information and what kind of information is stored?
Retrieve information on demand
Levels of Information Processing
 How long and how well do we remember information?

Shallow processing: no associations are made, we remember
physical characteristics such as lines and curves



Traffic passes by. Do you remember the specific cars?
Semantic encoding: emphasizes meaning of verbal input (words,
speech)
Deep processing: attach meaning to information

Create associations between new memories and existing memories
(elaboration)

Example of deep processing – I drive by in a black Chevy Camaro
(your favorite car) with bright blue LED lights (your favorite color)
which was just advertised on TV (which you watch all the time) & I
have a Gators license plate (your favorite college)
3 Stage Model – 3 Different Memory Systems
1. Sensory memory: events from our senses are held
just long enough for perception to occur
2. Short-term memory (STM): holds a limited amount
of information for about 30 seconds
Capacity of STM is about 7 (plus or minus 2) items
1.
3. Long-term memory (LTM): permanent and
unlimited capacity
Explicit memory: facts and experiences
1.
1.
2.
Semantic memory – general knowledge
Episodic memory – personally relevant events
Implicit memory: skills and procedures (procedural memory)
2.
1.
“You never forget how to ride a bike”
How Can We Get Around STM Limitations?
 Well, we could put information into LTM
instead, but do we really need to remember
everything forever?
 Rehearsal – consciously repeating the information

More rehearsal increases retention
 Chunking – grouping info into meaningful units
(e.g. a word rather than letters, date rather than #s)
Selective Attention & Processing
 Selective attention:
focusing of awareness on
a specific stimulus in
sensory memory (e.g.
watching your favorite
TV show while someone
is talking to you)
 Automatic
processing:
unconscious encoding
 Effortful processing:
encoding that requires
attention and conscious
effort
LTM Organization
 Hierarchies: concepts arranged from general to
specific
 Concepts: mental representations of related things

Prototypes – most typical examples of the concept (What does
a bird look like?)
 Semantic networks: systems of concepts with
links to each other (e.g. concept map)
 Schemas: mental frameworks

Scripts – schemas for specific events

When you walk into a classroom and the bell rings, what do you
do?
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
 Learning involves the strengthening of
neural connections at the synapses
 Increase in efficiency & speed with which
signals are sent across synapses

Flashbulb memory: vivid memory of an emotionally
arousing event

Where were you when the Twin Towers went down on 9/11?
Amnesia
Anterograde Amnesia
 Inability to form new
semantic (general
knowledge) & explicit
memories
Retrograde Amnesia
 Inability to recall past
memories
What helps us remember?
 Retrieval cues – reminders associated with
information we are trying to recall (e.g. words or
phrases)
 Priming – activating specific associations

Retrieval cues PRIME our memory
 Distributed practice vs. cramming
 Mnemonic devices
 Method of loci – visualization of places to help
remember words on a list
 Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
Memory Interference
Proactive Interference
 When something we
learned EARLIER
disrupts recall of
something we learn
LATER
Retroactive Interference
 New learning disrupts
OLD recall
Freudian Theory & Source Amnesia
 Repression: unconscious forgetting of painful
memories as a defense mechanism to minimize
anxiety
 Misattribution error (source amnesia)
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How reliable is eye-witness testimony?