Transcript Module_12vs9_Final

Module 12
Remembering & Forgetting
INTRODUCTION
• Recall
– Retrieving previously learned information without the
aid of, or with very few, external cues
• Recognition
– Identifying previously learned information with the
help of more external cues
ORGANIZATION OF MEMORIES
• Network theory of memory organization
– We store related ideas in separate categories, or files,
called nodes and create links among them
– A gigantic interconnected network of files for storing
and retrieving information
• Associations
– Linking of nodes or categories together by making
associations between new and old, previously stored
information
• Network
– Thousands of interconnected nodes form a huge
cognitive network for arranging and storing files
ORGANIZATION OF MEMORIES (CONT’D)
ORGANIZATION OF MEMORIES (CONT’D)
• Organization of network hierarchy
– Nodes
• memory files that contain related information
organized around a specific topic or category
– Network hierarchy refers to the arrangement of nodes
or memory files in a certain order
– Bottom of hierarchy made up of nodes with very
concrete information connected to nodes with
somewhat more specific information, which in turn are
connected to nodes with general or abstract
information
ORGANIZATION OF MEMORIES (CONT’D)
FORGETTING CURVES
• Early memories
– Earliest that people in different cultures can recall
personal memories averages 3.5 years old
• Unfamiliar and uninteresting
– Forgetting curve measures the amount of previously
learned information that subjects can recall or
recognize
• Familiar and interesting
– Remembering is partly related to how familiar or
interesting the information is
REASONS FOR FORGETTING
• Overview: forgetting
– Inability to retrieve, recall, or recognize information
that was stored or is still stored in long-term memory
– Repression
• according to Sigmund Freud, repression is a
mental process that automatically hides
emotionally threatening or anxiety-producing
information in the unconscious (from which
repressed memories can’t be recalled voluntarily,
but something may cause them to enter
consciousness at a later time)
REASONS FOR FORGETTING (CONT’D)
– Poor retrieval cues/poor encoding
– Retrieval cues
• mental reminders that we create by forming vivid
mental images or associations between new
information and information we already know
REASONS FOR FORGETTING (CONT’D)
– Interference
• common reason for forgetting
• recall of some particular memory is blocked or
prevented by other related memories
• proactive interference
– occurs when old information (learned earlier) blocks
or disrupts the remembering of related new
information (learned later)
• retroactive interference
– occurs when new information (learned later) blocks
or disrupts the retrieval of related old information
(learned earlier)
REASONS FOR FORGETTING (CONT’D)
– Amnesia
• may be temporary or permanent loss of memory
that may occur after a blow or damage to the brain
or after disease, general anesthesia, certain drugs,
or severe psychological trauma
– Distortion
• misremembering something due to memory
distortions caused by bias or suggestibility
REASONS FOR FORGETTING (CONT’D)
• Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
– Having a strong feeling that a particular word can be
recalled, but despite making a great effort, being
temporarily unable to recall it
• State-dependent learning
– Finding it easier to recall information when in the
same emotional state as when originally encoding it
BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF MEMORY
• Location of memories in the brain
– Cortex
• short-term memories
– ability to hold words, facts, and events in shortterm memory depends on activity in the cortex
• long-term memory
– ability to remember or recall songs, words,
facts, and events for days, months, or years
depends on areas widely spread throughout the
cortex
BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF MEMORY (CONT’D)
BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF MEMORY (CONT’D)
• Location of memories in the brain
– Amygdala: emotional memories
• the amygdala, located in the tip of the temporal
lobe, receives input from all the senses and is
associated with emotional memory
– Hippocampus: transferring memories
• transfers words, facts, and personal events from
short-term memory into permanent long-term
memory
BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF MEMORY (CONT’D)
• Making a short-term memory
– Neural assemblies
• groups of interconnected neurons whose activation
allows information or stimuli to be recognized and
held briefly and temporarily in short-term memory
BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF MEMORY (CONT’D)
BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF MEMORY (CONT’D)
• Making a long-term memory
– Long-term potentiation (LTP)
• refers to change in the structure and function of
neurons after they’ve been repeatedly stimulated
• neuroscientists believe that the LTP process,
which changes the structure and function of
neurons, is the most likely basis for learning and
memory in animals and humans
MNEMONICS: MEMORIZATION METHODS
• Improving your memory
– Mnemonic methods
• improve encoding and create better retrieval cues
by forming vivid associations/images to improve
recall
– Method of loci
• create visual associations between already
memorized places and new items to be memorized
– Peg method
• create associations between number-word rhymes
and items to be memorized
APPLICATIONS
• Eyewitness testimony
– Refers to recalling or recognizing a suspect observed
during a potentially very disruptive and distracting
emotional situation that may have interfered with
accurate remembering
APPLICATIONS