Transcript Slide 1

Chapter 7
4th Edition
Memory
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Initial Studies
• Hermann Ebbinghaus conducted the
pioneering research on memory in the late
1800s.
• Ebbinghaus devised nonsense syllables,
which he believed had no meaning
attached to them, to study how
associations between stimuli are formed.
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Initial Studies
• Ebbinghaus devised
nonsense syllables,
which he believed
had no meaning
attached to them, to
study how
associations between
stimuli are formed.
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Initial Studies
• Through the use of serial learning,
Ebbinghaus determined that much of what
we learn is forgotten very shortly after a
learning session.
• Other methods include paired-associate
learning and free recall.
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Initial Studies
• These basic methods were developed and
expanded by incorporating additional
tasks, such as the recognition test and the
relearning test
• The savings score is produced by the
relearning method.
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Traditional Models of Memory
• Some investigators have drawn a parallel
between the computer and human memory.
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Traditional Models of Memory
• Computers and human memory have (a)
an input or encoding stage, (b) a storage
process, and (c) a retrieval process.
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Traditional Models of Memory
• The stages-of-memory model of memory
proposes that memories can be processed in
different ways.
• There are three types of memory: sensory,
short-term, and long-term.
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Traditional Models of Memory
• Sensory memory is a very brief (lasting one-half
to 1 second) memory for a large array of stimuli.
• Short-term memory (STM) is more limited in
capacity than sensory memory but lasts longer
(10 to 20 seconds).
• Working memory is the second stage of shortterm memory, during which attention and
conscious effort are brought to bear on material.
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Traditional Models of Memory
• With practice or
rehearsal, memories
may persist even
longer and ultimately
be transferred to
more permanent
storage in long-term
memory (LTM).
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Traditional Models of Memory
• Memories may not be retrievable from
LTM because they have faded or because
of interference by other memories.
• Proactive Interference occurs when old
material interferes with the retrieval of
material learned more recently.
• Retroactive interference occurs when
recently learned material interferes with
the retrieval of material learned earlier.
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Traditional Models of Memory
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Other Approaches
• Craik and Lockhart proposed only one type of
memory.
• The level of processing may determine the
permanence of the storage of this memory.
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Other Approaches
• Other researchers have proposed that
there is more than one type of long-term
memory.
• Four types have been identified:
procedural, semantic, episodic, and
priming or implicit memory.
• Each serves to store a different kind of
information.
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Other Approaches
• The tip-of-the-tongue
(TOT) phenomenon
has been used to
study the network of
semantic memories
• The study of flashbulb
memories has
provided information
about episodic
memory.
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Other Approaches
• Research on the retrieval of memories has
shown that we scan both STM and LTM to
locate an item we wish to recall.
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Other Approaches
• Encoding specificity has a great deal to do
with the ease with which a memory is
retrieved.
• If the cues that were present when a
memory was encoded or stored are not
present during retrieval, it is difficult to
retrieve that memory.
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Other Approaches
• Encoding specificity appears to be at work
in state dependent learning, which states
that we recall information
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Other Approaches
• It has been suggested that memories of
childhood sexual abuse may be repressed
and recalled during adulthood.
• Many of these repressed memories
appear to have been induced during
therapy sessions by suggestions made by
the therapist.
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Other Approaches
• The number of sessions, distribution of
practice, meaningfulness of items,
similarity of items, and serial position of
items influence human learning.
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Other Approaches
• Our memory can be improved by using a
mnemonic device such as imagery.
• The method of loci and the peg-word
technique are two popular mnemonic
devices.
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Other Approaches
• Grouping and coding are two other
techniques that can be used as memory
aids.
• Acronyms, words formed by the first
letter(s) of the items to be remembered,
and acrostics, a verse or saying in which
the first letter(s) of each word stands for a
bit of information, are two popular forms of
coding.
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The Physiological Basis of
Learning and Memory
• Physical trauma may result in a loss of
memory known as amnesia.
• Anterograde amnesia occurs when new
information cannot be stored, although old
memories remain intact.
• Anterograde amnesia can result from
damage to the hippocampus.
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The Physiological Basis of
Learning and Memory
• Retrograde amnesia occurs when
memories for events that happened before
the traumatic event are lost.
• Retrograde amnesia may occur when
memories are not allowed to consolidate
or set.
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