Transcript Memory - Cloudfront.net

Chapter 9
Memory
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Memory: Some Key Terms
Memory: Active system that stores,
organizes, alters, and recovers (retrieves)
information
Encoding: Converting information into a
useable form
Storage: Holding this information in memory
Retrieval: Taking memories out of storage
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Fig. 9.1 In some ways, a computer acts like a mechanical memory system. Both systems
process information, and both allow encoding, storage, and retrieval of data.
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Sensory Memory
Storing an exact copy of incoming
information for a few seconds (either
what is seen or heard); the first stage of
memory
Icon: A fleeting mental image or visual
representation
 Echo: After a sound is heard, a brief
continuation of the activity in the auditory
system

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Short-Term Memory (STM)
Storing small amounts of information briefly



Working Memory: Part of STM; like a mental
“scratchpad”
Selective Attention: Focusing (voluntarily) on a
selected portion of sensory input (e.g., selective
hearing)
Phonetically: Storing information by sound; how
most things are stored in STM
Very sensitive to interruption or interference
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Long-Term Memory (LTM)
Storing information relatively
permanently
Stored on basis of meaning and
importance
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Fig. 9.2 Remembering is thought to involve at least three steps. Incoming information is first held for a
second or two by sensory memory. Information selected by attention is then transferred to temporary
storage in short-term memory. If new information is not rapidly encoded, or rehearsed, it is forgotten. If it
is transferred to long-term memory, it becomes relatively permanent, although retrieving it may be a
problem. The preceding is a useful model of memory; it may not be literally true of what happens in the
brain (Eysenck & Keane, 1995).
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Short-Term Memory Concepts
Digit Span: Test of attention and short-term
memory; string of numbers is recalled forward
or backward

Typically part of intelligence tests
Magic Number 7 (Plus or Minus 2): STM is
limited to holding seven (plus or minus two)
information bits at once

Information Bit: Meaningful single piece of
information
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More Short-Term Memory
Concepts
Recoding: Reorganizing or modifying information in
STM

Information Chunks: Bits of information that are grouped into
larger chunks
Maintenance Rehearsal: Repeating information
silently to prolong its presence in STM
Elaborative Rehearsal: Links new information with
existing memories and knowledge in LTM

Good way to transfer STM information into LTM
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Long-Term Memory Concepts
Constructive Processing: Updating long-term
memories on basis of logic, guessing, or new
information
Pseudo-Memories: False memories that a
person believes are true or accurate
Memory Structure: Pattern of associations
among bits of information in LTM
Redintegrative Memory: Memories that are
reconstructed or expanded by starting with
one memory and then following chains of
association to related memories
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Types of Long-Term Memories
Procedural: Long-term memories of
conditioned responses and learned skills,
e.g., driving
Declarative: LTM factual information
Semantic Memory: Impersonal facts and
everyday knowledge

Subset of declarative memory
Episodic: Personal experiences linked with
specific times and places

Subset of declarative memory
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CNN – Alzheimer’s Babies
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Fig. 9.3 Exposed cerebral cortex of a patient undergoing brain surgery. Numbers represent points that
reportedly produced “memories” when electrically stimulated. A critical evaluation of such reports suggests
that they are more like dreams than memories. His fact raises questions about claims that long-term
memories are permanent (From Wilder Penfield, The Excitable Cortex in Conscious Man, 1958. Courtesy
of the author and Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, Springfield, Illinois.)
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Fig. 9.6 The tower puzzle. In this puzzle, all the colored disks must be moved to another post, without
ever placing a larger disk on a smaller one. Only one disk may be moved at a time, and a disk must
always be moved from one post to another (it cannot be held aside). An amnesic patient learned to solve
the puzzle in 31 moves, the minimum possible. Even so, each time he began, he protested that he did not
remember ever solving the puzzle before and that he did not know how to begin. Evidence like this
suggests that skill memory is distinct from memories for facts.
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Fig. 9.7 In the model shown here, long-term memory is divided into procedural memory (learned actions
and skills) and declarative memory (stored facts). Declarative memories can be either semantic
(impersonal knowledge) or episodic (personal experiences associated with specific times and places).
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Measuring Memory
Tip-of-the Tongue (TOT): Feeling that a
memory is available but not quite
retrievable
Recall: Direct retrieval of facts or
information
Hardest to recall items in the middle of a
list; known as Serial Position Effect
 Easiest to remember last items in a list
because they are still in STM

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Fig. 9.8 The serial position effect. The graph shows the percentage of subjects correctly recalling each
item in a 15-item list. Recall is best for the first and last items. (Data from Craik, 1970.)
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Measuring Memory (cont.)
Recognition Memory: Previously learned
material is correctly identified

Usually superior to recall
Distractors: False items included with a
correct item

Wrong choices on multiple-choice tests
False Positive: False sense of recognition
Relearning: Learning again something that
was previously learned
Used to measure memory of prior learning
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Measuring Memory (cont.)
Savings Score: Amount of time saved when
relearning information
Explicit Memory: Past experiences that are
consciously brought to mind
Implicit Memory: A memory not known to
exist; memory that is unconsciously retrieved
Priming: When cues are used to activate
hidden memories
Internal Images: Mental pictures
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Eidetic Imagery (Somewhat Like
Photographic Memory)
Occurs when a person (usually a child)
has visual images clear enough to be
scanned or retained for at least 30
seconds
Usually projected onto a “plain” surface,
like a blank piece of paper
Usually disappears during adolescence
and is rare by adulthood
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Fig. 9.10 Test picture like that used to
identify children with eidetic imagery. To test
your eidetic imagery, look at the picture for
30 seconds. Then look at a blank surface
and try to “project” the picture on it. If you
have good eidetic imagery, you will be able
to see the picture in detail. Return now to the
text and try to answer the questions there.
(Redrawn from an illustration in Lewis
Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.)
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Forgetting
Nonsense Syllables: Meaningless three-letter words
(fej, quf) that test learning and forgetting
Encoding Failure: When a memory was never formed
in the first place
Memory Traces: Physical changes in nerve cells or
brain activity that occur when memories are stored
Memory Decay: When memory traces become
weaker; fading or weakening of memories
Disuse: Theory that memory traces weaken when
memories are not used or retrieved
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Fig. 9.11 The curve of forgetting. This graph shows the amount remembered (measured by relearning)
after varying lengths of time. The material learned was nonsense syllables. Forgetting curves for
meaningful information also show early losses followed by a long, gradual decline, but overall, forgetting
occurs much more slowly. (After Ebbinghaus, 1885.)
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Fig. 9.13 Some of the distracter items used in a study of recognition memory and encoding failure. Penny
A is correct but was seldom recognized. Pennies G and J were popular wrong answers. (Adapted from
Nickerson & Adams, 1979.)
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Fig.9.12 Pick a card from the six shown. Look at it closely and be sure you can remember which card is yours. Now,
tap all four corners of this page with your fingertip. When you’re done, look at Fig.9.14
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Some More Theories of
Forgetting
Memory Cue: Any stimulus associated with a memory;
usually enhances retrieval of a memory

A person will forget if cues are missing at retrieval time
State-Dependent Learning: When memory retrieval is
influenced by body state; if your body state is the same
at the time of learning AND the time of retrieval,
retrievals will be improved

If Robert is drunk and forgets where his car is parked, it will be
easier to recall the location if he gets drunk again!
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Fig.9.14 Poof! The card you chose in Fig. 9.12 is gone. Obviously, you could have selected any one of the six cards
in Fig.9.12. How did I know which one to remove? This trick is based entirely on an illusion of memory. Recall that
you were asked to concentrate on one card in Fig.9.12. That prevented you from paying attention to the other cards,
so they weren’t stored in your memory. The five cards you see here are all new (none were shown in Fig.9.12).
Because you couldn’t find your card in the “remaining five,” it looked like your card had disappeared.
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Fig. 9.15 The effect of mood on memory. Subjects best remembered a list of words when their mood
during testing was the same as their mood was when they learned the list. (Adapted from Bower, 1981.)
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Even More (!) Theories of
Forgetting
Interference: Tendency for new memories to
impair retrieval of older memories, and vice
versa
Retroactive Interference: Tendency for new
learning to interfere with retrieval of old
learning
Proactive Interference: Prior learning inhibits
(interferes with) recall of later learning
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Fig. 9.17 Effects of interference on memory. A graph of the approximate relationship between percentage
recalled and number of different word lists memorized. (Adapted from Underwood, 1957.)
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Fig. 9.18 Retroactive and proactive interference. The order of learning and testing shows whether
interference is retroactive (backward) or proactive (forward).
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More on Forgetting
Positive Transfer: Mastery of one task
aids learning or performing another
Negative Transfer: Mastery of one task
conflicts with learning or performing
another
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CNN – Memory Drugs
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Repression and Suppression
Repression: Unconsciously pushing painful,
embarrassing, or threatening memories out of
awareness/consciousness

Motivated forgetting, according to some theories
Suppression: Consciously putting something
painful or threatening out of mind or trying to
keep it from entering awareness
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Flashbulb Memories
Memories created during times of personal
tragedy, accident, or other emotionally
significant events

Where were you when you heard that terrorists
had attacked the USA on September 11th, 2001?
Includes both positive and negative events
Not always accurate
Great confidence is placed in them even
though they may be inaccurate
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Memory Formation
Retrograde Amnesia: Forgetting events that
occurred before an injury or trauma
Anterograde Amnesia: Forgetting events that
follow an injury or trauma
Consolidation: Forming a long-term memory
Electroconvulsive Shock (ECS): Mild
electrical shock passed through the brain,
destroying any memory that is being formed;
one way to prevent consolidation
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Memory Structures
Hippocampus: Brain structure associated with
information passing from short-term memory
into long-term memory


If damaged, person can no longer “create” longterm memories and thus will always live in the
present
Memories prior to damage will remain intact
Engram: Memory trace in the brain
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Ways to Improve Memory
Knowledge of Results: Feedback allowing
you to check your progress
Recitation: Summarizing aloud while you are
learning
Rehearsal: Reviewing information mentally
(silently)
Selection: Selecting most important concepts
to memorize
Organization: Organizing difficult items into
chunks; a type of reordering
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Ways to Improve Memory (cont.)
Whole Learning: Studying an entire package
of information at once, like a poem
Part Learning: Studying subparts of a larger
body of information (like text chapters)
Progressive Part Learning: Breaking learning
task into a series of short sections
Serial Position Effect: Making most errors
while remembering the middle of the list
Overlearning: Studying is continued beyond
bare mastery
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Ways to Improve Memory (cont.)
Spaced Practice: Alternating short study
sessions with brief rest periods
Massed Practice: Studying for long periods
without rest periods
Lack of sleep decreases retention; sleep aids
consolidation
Hunger decreases retention
Cognitive Interview: Technique used to
improve memories of eyewitnesses
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Mnemonics: Memory “Tricks”
Any kind of memory system or aid
Using mental pictures
 Making things meaningful
 Making information familiar
 Forming bizarre, unusual, or exaggerated
mental associations

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Using Mnemonics to Remember
Things in Order
Form a Chain: Remember lists in order,
forming an exaggerated association
connecting item one to two, and so on
Take a Mental Walk: Mentally walk
along a familiar path, placing objects or
ideas along the path
Use a system
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Seven Sins of Memory
(Schacter, 2001)
Transience: Stored information tends to fade
with passage of time
Absent-Mindedness: Weak, poorly encoded
memories tend to cause absent-mindedness
Blocking: Not being able to recall a word or a
name that you know well
Misattribution: Linking a memory with the
wrong source, time, or place
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Seven Sins of Memory (cont.)
Suggestibility: Suggestions and misleading
questions can implant information that leads
us to alter or revise our memories
Bias: Memories are often distorted to match
our beliefs and expectations
Persistence: Memories of traumatic events
may persist for many years
Conclude: Memory limitations that appear to
be flaws are actually adaptive features in
some situations
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