Transcript Memory & Information Processing

Seven Dwarfs
• Can you name the seven
dwarfs?
• Do you remember from
last week!?
Seven Dwarfs
• From the following list, pick out the names of the
seven dwarfs:
Grouchy
Gabby
Fearful
Sleepy
Smiley
Jumpy
Hopeful
Shy
Droopy
Sniffy
Puffy
Sneezy
Pop
Bashful
Teach
Dopey
Wishful
Dumpy
Lazy
Grumpy
Cheerful
Shorty
Nifty
Happy
Doc
Wheezy
Stubby
Seven Dwarfs
• Here is the correct list: Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy, Sneezy,
Happy, Doc, & Bashful
• How did you do? Why did you get a 100%? Why NOT?
Forgetting
•
•
•
•
How difficult was this task? Why?
Have you ever seen the movie?
– Encoding Failure = we failed to get the
information into our memory – cannot attend to
more than a few things at a time.
How long has it been since you seen the movie?
– Decay Theory = gradual fading of the physical
memory trace (when new memory forms, there
is a change in brain structure or chemistry. If
unused, normal brain metabolic processes erode
memory trace.
Did you have the feeling that you knew the name
but could not retrieve it?
– Retrieval Failure = forgetting often results
from an inability to get the memory out 
TOT (tip of the tongue) - Subjective sense of
being on the verge of remembering a piece of
information but retrieval process does not
produce a complete response
• Forgetting can occur at
any memory stage
Forgetting: Encoding Failure
• Encoding Failure = we failed to encode the
information – cannot attend to more than a few
things at a time.
Short-term
memory
X
Encoding
Encoding failure
leads to forgetting
Long-term
memory
Forgetting: Encoding Failure
• Examples of encoding failure…
– Selective Attention (Everyday Questions pg. 489 in course packet)
– Next-in-line Effect
• Ways to promote encoding…
– Spacing Effect
– Overlearning
• Ebbinghaus’ list of nonsense syllables and forgetting curve
– Organization of information
• Chunking
• Hierarchies
– Self-reference Effect
– Mnemonic Devices
• Loci Method
• Peg Word Method
Which is the real penny?
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
(g)
(h)
(i)
(j)
(k)
(l)
(m)
(n)
(o)
• Even though you’ve seen thousands of pennies, you’ve probably
never looked at one closely to encode specific features
Rehearsal
In relearning, the individual shows how much
time (or effort) is saved when learning material
for the second time.
List
List
Jet
Dagger
Tree
Kite
Silk
Frog
Ring
Jet
Dagger
Tree
Kite
Silk
Frog
Ring
It took 10 trials
to learn this list
1 day later
Saving
It took 5 trials
to learn the list
Relearning
Trials
X 100
Relearning
Trials
Original
Trials
10
5
10
X 100
50%
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Forgetting: Decay Theory
• Decay Theory = gradual fading of the physical memory trace
(when new memory forms, there is a change in brain structure or
chemistry). If unused, normal brain metabolic processes erode
memory trace.
– Long-term potentiation – increase in a synapse’s firing
potential after brief, rapid stimulation, such as a result of
learning or retrieving memories.
• The sending neuron now needs less prompting to release its
neurotransmitter, and receptor sites may increase.
• If memory trace is not activated there will be a decrease in
LTP and an eventual eroding of actual memory trace
Alzheimer’s Disease
• One of the most devastating forms of • Alzheimer's destroys brain
memory loss is Alzheimer's disease, an
cells. Two abnormal structures
irreversible and progressive brain
called plaques and tangles are prime
disorder that slowly destroys memory
suspects in damaging and killing
and thinking skills.
nerve cells.
• Today, Alzheimer's is the second most– Plaques build up between nerve
feared illness in America, following
cells. They contain deposits of a
cancer, and may affect as many as five
protein fragment called betamillion Americans. It is the seventhamyloid (BAY-tuh AM-uhleading cause of death in the United
loyd).
States.
– Tangles are twisted fibers of
• Has no current cure.
another protein called tau
(rhymes with “wow”) and form
inside dying cells.
Inside the Brain (Great video SIMPLE Look!)
http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_4719.asp
• Most experts believe they
http://www.alzheimers.org/rmedia/adanimation.htm
somehow block
communication among nerve
cells and disrupt activities
that cells need to survive.
Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s Disease
Forgetting: Retrieval Failure
• Retrieval Failure = the inability to access stored information in LTM
• If you experienced retrieval failure, what were you focusing on to try to retrieve the
info?
– The syllables? (6 of the 7 dwarfs have 2 syllables); What letter it started with?
(s and d occur most frequently); The meaning or connotation the name had?
(most names are vivid adjectives)
• TOT (tip of the tongue) - Subjective sense of being on the verge of
remembering a piece of information but retrieval process does not produce a
complete response
Short-term
memory
Encoding
X
Retrieval
Long-term
memory
Retrieval failure
leads to forgetting
Seven Dwarfs
• Did you have a run or pattern based off the organizational cues? For
example: Did you recall words similar in meaning to the actual dwarfs?
(Lazy, Clumsy, Droopy, or Grouchy?)
– Spreading Activation Model - memories stored as a web of
associations. To retrieve a specific memory, you first need to identify
one of the strands that leads to it. Often our associations are activated or
primed without our awareness.
Web of Associations
Priming
Unconscious
activation of a
connected associations
Sleepy
Weary
Tired
Dozy
Drowsy
Conceptual Priming
• Look at the picture. Then
when the instructor says a
word, write it down.
Perceptual priming
• Can you identify the fragmented
stimulus below?
Perceptual priming
• What if you were
shown the
following slide
earlier in the
lecture?
Forgetting: Retrieval Failure
• Were you better at Recall or Recognition?
Recognition
Identification of items
previously learned
VS.
Recall
Retrieval of information
previously learned w/out
assistance
Retrieval Cues – a clue, prompt or hint that
can help us to remember
• Ways to promote retrieval…
– Encoding Specificity Principle – cues used during initial learning are more
effective during later retrieval than novel cues  based on spreading activation
model + priming
• Internal Cues
– State Dependent Memory
– Mood Congruence Memory
• External Cues
– Context Effects
  Déjà vu (pg297 of packet)
Retrieval Cues
• Internal, physiological factors
(mood, emotions, stress, etc)
• If happy when learned info
 recall info more easily
when happy; alert and hyper
when learned info  recall
info more easily when alert
and hyper, etc
• Memories are moodcongruent = remembering
experiences that are
consistent with one’s current
good or bad mood. EX:
depressed people more likely
to recall parents as rejecting
and punitive.
State-Dependent
Memory increases if
mood at recall is the
same as retrieval
Retrieval Cues
Context Effect
Memory increases if
recall occurs in the same
context as encoding.
• External, environmental factors
(same room, same time of day,
listening to music, eating, etc
• Better recall if tested in
classroom where you initially
learned info than if moved to
a new classroom
• If learning room smells of
chocolate or mothballs, people
will recall more info if tested
in room with the same smell
compared to different smell or
no smell at all
• Learn at 3pm  perform
better at 3 pm than 9 pm
Interference
Interference - learning some items may interfere with learning other items. One
memory competing with or replacing another memory
Proactive Interference = Something learned earlier disrupts
something learned later.
Past
Present
EX: Memories of where you parked your car on campus the past week interferes with
ability find car today
Retroactive Interference = Something learned later
disrupts something learned earlier.
Past
Present
EX: When new phone number interferes with ability to remember old phone number
Previously learned language
interferes with ability to
remember newly learned
language
Learning a new language
interferes with ability to
remember old language
Retroactive Interference
Sleep prevents retroactive interference. Therefore, it
leads to better recall.
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Serial Position Effect
• Serial Position
Effect
– Primacy Effect =
enhanced ability to
recall items from
the beginning of
the list
– Recency Effect =
enhanced ability to
recall items from
the end of the list
•
•
•
•
Reconstructing What We’ve Forgotten;
Loftus Research
Accident
Recall not an exact replica of original events; recall
is a construction built and rebuilt from various
sources
Misinformation Effect – distortion of memory by
incorporating misleading information into one’s
memory of an event: photos – media coverage, our
schemas, retellings, questioning – interrogation
– As a memory fades with time following an
Leading question:
event, the injection of misinformation becomes
“About how fast were the cars going
easier
When they smashed into each other?”
Memory construction
– Loftus’ Experiments: two cars hit or smashed
each other  type of questioning influences
whether witnesses believe they saw broken
glass or not
Imagination Inflation – repeatedly imagining
nonexistent actions and events can create false
memories
Source Amnesia – attributing an event to the wrong
A week later they were asked: Was there any
source an event that we have experienced, heard
broken glass? Group B (smashed into)
about, read about, or imagined. EX: Have a dream
reported more broken glass than Group A
and think it really happened to us.
(hit).
Reconstructing What We’ve Forgotten
• Ways to Prevent Misinformation
– Ask less suggestive questions. Ask open-ended
questions in which the other person has to provide
the DETAILS.
– Involved adults should not discuss the issue with
the other person prior to questioning
– Memories before the age of 3 (infantile amnesia)
or recovered under hypnosis (most do not believe
in repression) = UNRELIABLE
Motivated Forgetting
• Motivated Forgetting: People
unknowingly revise their memories.
• Are memories of abuse repressed or
constructed?
– Many psychotherapists believe
that early childhood sexual abuse
results in repressed memories.
• Repression: A defense
mechanism that banishes
anxiety-arousing thoughts,
feelings, and memories from
consciousness.
– However, other psychologists
question such beliefs and think
that such memories may be
constructed.
Sigmund Freud
Improving Memory
1. Study repeatedly to boost long-term recall.
2. Spend more time rehearsing or actively
thinking about the material.
3. Make material personally meaningful.
4. Use mnemonic devices:



associate with peg words — something already
stored
make up a story
chunk — acronyms
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Improving Memory
5. Activate retrieval cues — mentally recreate
the situation and mood.
6. Recall events while they are fresh — before
you encounter misinformation.
7. Minimize interference:
1.
2.
Test your own knowledge.
Rehearse and then determine what you do not
yet know.
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