Transcript Memory PP

Memory
Main question of memory
research:
What causes us to remember
what we remember and forget
what we forget?
• Memory: persistence of learning over time through
storage and retrieval of information.
• Secondary Questions of Memory Research:
– What are the processes that determine which
events stick in our memories?
– Why and how do we lose information from our
memories?
– How accurate are our memories?
Information Processing Model
of Memory
Nickname - 3 Box Model
3 Box Model – 3 steps/processes (not locations in the brain)
Sensory Memory
• Split second holding
tank for incoming
• Highly accurate but
highly fragile
• George Sperling
– Iconic (vision) and
echoic (auditory)
memory
Computer analogy: data
entry
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Short term Memory –
“working memory”
• Memories we are currently working on and are aware of
in our consciousness
• STM capacity:
– Time 10-30 seconds
– 7 +/- 2 (5-9 items)
Ways to overcome limitations: these tricks can keep info
in STM longer or possibly transfer to LTM
1.) chunking
2.) rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal
3.) mnemonic devices
Computer analogy – STM = computer screen
Long Term Memory
• Permanent Memory Storage (decay but
not forgetting)
• Unlimited storage
• Types of LTM
– Episodic – stories of our lives - ex: I
remember my 1st day of kindergarten
– Semantic – general knowledge, trivia, facts –
ex: when and where did the Civil War start?
– Procedural – how to ex: I remember how to
change a tire
• LTM can be implicit or explicit.
– Explicit (declarative) = conscious memories of facts
or events we actively try to remember (episodic and
semantic) - scans show explicit mem is laid down in
the hippocampus . . . We don’t remember explicit
mems before age 3 b/c hippocampus is one of the
last brain structures to develop
– Anterograde Amnesia – inability to create new
memories (often caused by damage to
hippocampus)
– Implicit (non declarative) = unintentional memories
that we might not even realize we have
• Often procedural
• Eidetic / photographic memory:
true photographic memory occurs
VERY rarely.
• Alexander Luria worked with a
patient who could repeat a list of
70 digits
–He could repeat it forward,
backward and 15 years later.
Levels of processing Model:
• Explains why we remember
what we do by examining how
deeply the memory was
thought about or processed.
• Memories are neither short nor
long term . . . they are deeply
or shallowly processed. We
remember things we spend
more cognitive time and
energy processing . . .
Studying/Rehearsing
• Like the layers of an onion!!
Additional Memory Terms and
Concepts
Encoding
• Getting information in.
• Once sensory info is registered, how do we get it into the
memory system?
• REHEARSAL, REHEARSAL, REHEARSAL
• The more time we spend with material and the more actively
we engage with it (reading, writing, applying, creating
examples, etc.) the more likely it will be encoded into STM
for longer than 10-30 seconds or transferred to LTM
Ebbinghaus Curve
• w/out active rehearsal we
lose most of our recall
ability; for some reason
we may permanently
remember a small part of
it, but a significant
amount will be lost if not
rehearsed
Retrieval
• Last step in any memory model is retrieval = getting info out of
memory; two kinds:
– Recognition: with a prompt - (ex. multiple choice, word bank)
– Recall: without a prompt (ex. short answer)
Hint – Recognition is easier than recall, SO always study to
recall level. If you study to recall level, you will do well on
any type of test question
Important factors in retrieval:
1.) Serial Positioning Effect
• Primacy effect: we’re more likely to
recall items presented at the
beginning of a list
• Recency effect: more likely to recall
items at the end of a list
• Items in the middle are often
forgotten
Important Factors in Retrieval
2.) Context
– Semantic network theory: Brains forms
new memories by connecting their
meaning and context with meaning
already in memory
• Web of interconnected memories
• i.e. make new info meaningful to YOU
if you truly want to remember it
Important Factors in Retrieval
(2. Context – cont’d.)
–Flashbulb memories: Where
were you when you heard
about 9/11?
•We encode context
surrounding a meaningful
event . . .
Can be inaccurate.
Important Factors in Retrieval
3.) Mood Congruent Memory
greater likelihood of recalling an item
when we are in the same mood we
were in when we created the
memory in the first place (i.e. we
recall happy events when we’re
happy; sad events when we’re sad . .
.dangerous cycle for depression?
Important Factors in Retrieval
4.) State Dependent Memory
• recalling events encoded
while in a particular state of
consciousness
–If something happens when
sleepy or drunk, you’ll recall it
again when sleepy or drunk
Forgetting
Forgetting
• 1.) Decay – info in LTM will lose some accuracy
if we don’t use the info regularly. Decayed
memories do not disappear completely and
relearning happens much more quickly
• 2.) Repression – FREUD – we push
harmful/threatening memories into our
unconscious so we don’t have to deal with them
• 3.) Dementia – old age – Alzheimer’s
• 4.) Amnesia – usually result of brain injury
Forgetting
• 5.) Interference
– Retroactive: new info
interferes with recall of
old
– Proactive: old info
interferes with recall of
new
Constructive Memory
Elizabeth Loftus
Individuals claim to suddenly remember events they had
repressed – may be false memory
A. CM can report false details of a real event or may be
a recollections of an event that never occurred
• B. Leading and insistent questions can influence
– Ex: sniper in white van . . . How fast were the cars
going when they hit/crashed?.... Oprah Show
• C. CM feel accurate to the person recalling them –
they are not lying
Constructive memories cont . . .
• D. Elizabeth Loftus: when there is missing info in a story,
people fill in those gaps with what they think fits . . . They
may really believe it
– Misinformation Effect – if we are exposed to new and misleading
info we work it into our memory. Good police work –
immediately separate eye witnesses
– Imagination Inflation - when we repeatedly, vividly imagine an
event, we may come to believe it actually happened
– We are bad eye witnesses – especially with people not of our
same race
– Vulnerable subjects are especially at risk for falsely constructed
memories – kids, emotionally unstable, etc.
Loftus
• http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=UtwWM8
Or1wo
• http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=eZlPzSeU
DDw
V. Physical Storage of memories
• How are memories physically
stored in the brain?
• We know some brain
structures involved
(hippocampus and
cerebellum), but there are still
others unknown.
• B. Long-term pontentiation:
–An increase in synapse’s firing
potential after stimulation –
believed to be a neural bases for
learning and memories.
Study Tips from the Memory Unit
•
1.) Spacing Effect – cramming doesn’t work
•
2.) Rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal – re-write your notes, make flash cards, explain it
to someone else, do practice questions, create your own examples, etc. etc.
•
3.) Study to recall, not recognition – can you flat out recall the term, concept,
definition, example, etc. all on your own
•
4.) Put the content in your own words, take notes in your own words, and make it
personally meaningful to you (semantic network)
•
5.) Use mnemonic devices, imagery, etc.
•
6.) Chunk – organize your info into meaningful units
•
7.) Minimize retroactive interference – review relevant material immediately prior to a
test