Transcript Memory - psychfiles.net

Memory and Consciousness
Chapter 9
An Information-Processing Model
of the Mind
MEMORY: the mind’s ability to
retain information over time,
and information retained in the
mind over time
MODAL MODEL OF THE MIND: a
depiction of the mind as a set of
memory storage compartments
and control processes for
manipulating and moving
information
Memory stores: sensory, short-term,
long-term
Control processes: attention,
rehearsal, encoding and retrieval
Modal Model of the mind
Types of Memory Stores
• The memory trace that preserves the original information in a
sensory stimulus for a brief period following the termination of
the stimulus
• Memory store that is considered to be the main workplace of
the mind; the seat of conscious thought
• Information that is retained in the mind for long periods
Types of Control Processes
• The process that controls the flow of information from the
sensory store into the working memory
• The mental process by which long-term memories are formed
• The mental processes by which long-term memories are
brought into working memory, where they become part of the
flow of thought
Selective Listening: The ability to focus
attention and ignore the irrelevant.
 PREATTENTIVE PROCESSING:
the analysis, at an
unconscious level, in which
the mind determines which
stimuli are worth passing
into working memory
 Also occurs with viewing
https://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
The Ability to Shift Attention to
Significant Stimuli
 ECHOIC MEMORY: sensory
memory for the sense of
hearing
 ICONIC MEMORY: sensory
memory for the sense of
vision
Can you train attentional ability?
Video Games
This does not
imply that all
multi-tasking
works!
Unconscious Priming of Mental
Concepts
 PRIMING: the implicit
memory process by which
a stimulus (the priming
stimulus) activates (makes
more retrievable) one or
more memories that
already exist in a person’s
mind
 https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=EUA4Q5aoG74
Brain Mechanisms of Preattentive
Processing and Attention
Components of Working Memory
The Phonological Loop
 SPAN OF SHORT-TERM MEMORY:
the number of pronounceable
items of information that a
person can retain in short-term
memory at any given time
through rote rehearsal
 Which is easier to keep in mind:
 380497
 Disentangle, appropriation,
gossamer, anti-intellectual,
preventative, foreclosure,
documentation
The Visuospatial
Sketchpad
 Responsible for holding
visual and spatial
information
Dual Task Performance
 People are much better at
doing two mental tasks at
once if one task involves the
phonological loop and the
other involves the visuo-spatial
sketchpad than they are if
both tasks involve the same
working-memory component
 Don’t drive and talk on your
cell phones!
Brain Areas Involved in Working
Memory
Phonological loop =
temporal lobe of the left
hemisphere
Visuospatial sketchpad =
visual areas of the cortex
 The “what” pathway
 The “where and how”
pathway
The prefrontal cortex
Encoding Information Into LongTerm Memory
 MAINTENANCE REHEARSAL: any active mental process by
which a person strives to hold information in short-term
memory for a brief period of time
 Repetition
 ENCODING REHEARSAL: any active mental process by
which a person strives to encode information into longterm memory
Elaboration Promotes Encoding
 ELABORATION: the process
of thinking about an item of
information in such a way
as to tie the item mentally
to other information in
memory (helps to encode
the item into long-term
memory)
 Don’t seek to memorize,
but understand that which
you seek to memorize
 Using logic to encode
memories:
 A stalaCtite grows from the
Ceiling
 A stalaGmite grows from
the Ground
Organization Promotes Encoding
 CHUNKING: a strategy for improving the ability to remember a
set of items by grouping them mentally to form fewer items
 Which is easier to memorize and recall?
 MDPHDRSVPCEOIHOP
 MD PHD RSVP CEO IHOP
 OCEAN
 Openness to experience
 Conscientiousness
 Extroversion
 Agreeableness
 Neuroticism
End Part I
to be continued…
Distinctions Among Explicit and
Implicit Memory Systems
 EXPLICIT MEMORY: the
class of memory that can
be consciously recalled
and used to answer explicit
questions about what one
knows and remembers
 Declarative memory
 IMPLICIT MEMORY: memory
that influences one’s
behavior or thought but
does not itself enter
consciousness
 Nondeclarative
memory
The Curious Case of H.M.
 At age 27 (1953),
underwent surgery for
epilepsy. The surgery left
him unable to encode new
long-term memories
 He could converse, read
and solve problems as long
as his attention remained
focused on it
 HM’s memory impairment
made it impossible for him
to live independently
Right now, I’m wondering, have I done or
said something amiss? You see, at this
moment everything looks clear to me, but
what happened just before?
Brain Mechanisms of Long-Term
Memory Encoding
 TEMPORAL LOBE AMNESIA:
loss in memory abilities that
occurs as a result of
damage to structures in
the limbic system that lie
under the temporal lobe
Types of Amnesias
 RETROGRADE AMNESIA:
 ANTEROGRADE
the loss of memories of
AMNESIA: the loss of
events that occurred
capacity to form longbefore the injury
term memories of events
that occur after the
 Su Meck
injury
 Hollywood Amnesia
 CONSOLIDATION: the
process by which a new
memory becomes
solidified in the brain,
such that it is not easily
forgotten
Factors That Increase Memory
Consolidation
 Memories that are recalled and used repeatedly
are the ones more likely to be consolidated in a
stable way
 Sleep, shortly after learning, helps to consolidate
newly acquired memories
Mental Associations and Memory
Retrieval Cues
ASSOCIATIONS
• A link between two memories or mental concepts, such that recall
of one tends to promote recall of the other
RETRIEVAL CUE
• A word, phrase, or other stimulus that helps one retrieve a specific
item of information from long-term memory
ASSOCIATION BY CONTIGUITY
• If two environmental events (stimuli) occur at the same time or one
right after the other (contiguously),those events will be linked
together in the mind
ASSOCIATION BY SIMILARITY
• Objects, events or ideas that are similar to one another become
linked (associated) in the person’s mind such that the thought of
one tends to elicit the thought of the other
Network Models of Memory
Organization
False Memory Test
RIPE
CITRUS
VEGETABLE
JUICE
COCKTAIL
ORANGE
BASKET
BANANA
BOWL
SALAD
BERRY
PEAR
APPLE
CHERRY
KIWI
Memory Construction As A Source of
Distortion
 Memory construction is affected not just by
preexisting schemas but also by events that occur
after the even being remembered was encoded
37 vs 43mph
Effects of Preexisting Beliefs
SCHEMA
• The mental representation of a concept; the
information stored in long-term memory that allows
a person to identify a group of different events or
items as members of the same category
SCRIPT
• A variety of schema that represents in memory the
temporal organization of a category of event
Varieties of Explicit Memory
EPISODIC MEMORY
•Explicit memory of past events (episodes) in one’s own life
•Have personal qualities; the self as participant, witness or learner
SEMANTIC MEMORY
•One’s storehouse of explicit general knowledge (knowledge that
can be expressed in words and is not mentally tied to specific
experiences in one’s own life
•Analogous to an encyclopedia; related to the network model of
knowledge
Varieties of Implicit Memory
Classical conditioning
•Behavioral responses
•You can’t really say how you do it, but you demonstrate it easily
Procedural Memory
•The class of implicit memory that enables a person to perform
specific learned skills or habitual responses
Priming
•The activation, by sensory input, of information that is already
stored in long-term memory
Types of Long-term Memory
Memory
Explicit
Memory
(conscious)
Episodic
Memory (one’s
own
experiences)
Semantic
Memory
(words, facts,
general
knowledge)
Implicit
Memory
(unconscious)
Classical
conditioning
effects
Procedural
memory
(motor skills,
habits)
Priming
(implicit
activation of
concepts in
long-term
memory)