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Chapter 7
Human Memory
Human Memory: Basic Questions
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How does information get into memory?
How is information maintained in memory?
How is information pulled back out of memory?
Memory timeline
– Short term – recent?
– Long term – remote?
– Operational definitions
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Encoding: Getting Information Into
Memory
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The role of attention
Focusing awareness
Selective attention = selection of input
– Filtering: early or late? –
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Multitasking – issues of driving performance and cell
phone use – study by Strayer and Johnson (2001) –
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Divided attention and driving performance – Strayer & Johnson (2001)
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Levels of Processing: Craik and
Lockhart (1972)
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Incoming information processed at different levels: F
Deeper processing = longer lasting memory codes
Encoding levels:
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Structural = shallow
Phonemic = intermediate
Semantic = deep
Study results –
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Retention at three levels of processing – Craik &
Tulving (1975)
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Enriching Encoding: Improving
Memory
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Elaboration = linking a
stimulus to other information at
the time of encoding
– Thinking of examples
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Visual Imagery = creation of
visual images to represent
words to be remembered
– Easier for concrete objects: Dualcoding theory – Paivio et al.
(1968) >>>>>>>>>>>
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Self-Referent Encoding
– Making information personally
meaningful
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Storage: Maintaining Information in
Memory
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Analogy: information storage in computers ~
information storage in human memory
 Information-processing theories – Atkinson &
Shiffrin (1977)
– Subdivide memory into 3 different stores
• Sensory, Short-term, Long-term
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Sensory Memory
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Brief preservation of information in original sensory
form
Auditory/Visual – approximately ¼ second
– George Sperling (1960)
• Classic experiment on visual sensory store
• Partial report procedure –
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Short Term Memory (STM)
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Limited capacity – magical number 7 plus or minus
2
– Chunking – grouping familiar stimuli for storage as a single
unit
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Limited duration – about 20 seconds without
rehearsal
– Peterson and Peterson (1959) –
– Rehearsal – the process of repetitively verbalizing or
thinking about the information
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Short-Term Memory as “Working
Memory”
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STM not limited to phonemic encoding
Loss of information not only due to decay
Baddeley (2001) – 4 components of working memory
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Phonological rehearsal loop
Visuospatial sketchpad
Executive control system
Episodic buffer
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Long-Term Memory: Unlimited
Capacity
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Penfield’s neural
stimulation – p. 284 –
data was reinterpreted
Permanent storage?
– Flashbulb memories
– Brown and Kulick
(1977) – study of
assassinations
– Talarico & Rubin
(2003) –9-11 study
– Recall through
hypnosis
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Debate: are STM and
LTM really different?
– Phonemic vs.
Semantic encoding
– Decay vs.
Interference based
forgetting
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How is Knowledge Represented and
Organized in Memory?
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Clustering and Conceptual Hierarchies –
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Schemas and Scripts – Shank & Abelson (1977)
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Semantic Networks – Collins & Loftus (1975) –
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Connectionist Networks and PDP Models – McClelland and
colleagues - pattern of activity – neuron based model
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A semantic network..
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Retrieval: Getting Information Out of
Memory
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The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon – a failure in
retrieval
– Retrieval cues – Brown & McNeil (1966) study – resolve
block 57% of the time with first letter of failed to retrieve word
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Recalling an event
– Context cues – Godden & Baddeley (1975) – contextdependent memory study with scuba divers
– Bartlett memory research – War of the Ghosts –
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Reconstructing memories – Loftus studies
– Loftus & Palmer (1974) I: smashed (40.8);
hit (34.0); contacted (31.8)
glass?)
II:
collided (39.3); bumped (38.1);
smashed (32%) hit (14%) control (12%) (broken
– Misinformation effect
• Source monitoring, reality monitoring
• cryptomnesia
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Depiction of actual accident
Leading question:
“About how fast were the cars
going when they smashed into
each other?”
Memory
construction
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Seven Sins of Memory – Daniel L.
Schacter
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Transience – loss of
memory over time
Absent Mindedness –
breakdown of interface
between attention & memory
Blocking – thwarted search
for information to retrieve
Bias – influence of current
knowledge and belief on how
we remember our past
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Misattribution – assigning a
memory to the wrong source
Suggestibility – memories
implanted as a result of
leading questions,
comments or suggestions
when a person is trying to
recall a past experience
Persistence – repeated
recall of disturbing
information or events that
one may want to forget
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Forgetting: When Memory Lapses
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Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
Retention – the proportion of material retained –
– Recall
– Recognition
– Relearning
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Hill of reminiscence – time frame of remembering
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Why Do We Forget?
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Ineffective Encoding
Decay theory
Interference theory
– Type of material
– Proactive
– Retroactive
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Retrieval Failure
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Encoding Specificity
 Transfer-Appropriate Processing
 Repression and the memory wards – Authenticity of repressed memories?
– Memory illusions
– Controversy
 False memories – Roediger & McDermott (1995)
procedure –
 Loftus & Pickrell’s (1995) lost-in-the-mall study
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The Physiology of Memory
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Biochemistry
– Alteration in synaptic transmission
• Hormones modulating neurotransmitter systems
• Protein synthesis
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Neural circuitry
– Localized neural circuits
• Reusable pathways in the brain
• Long-term potentiation – changes in postsynaptic neuron
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Anatomy
– Anterograde and Retrograde Amnesia –
– case of H.M. – resection in 1953
• - Cerebral cortex, Prefrontal Cortex, Hippocampus,
• Dentate gyrus, Amygdala, Cerebellum
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Are There Multiple Memory Systems?
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Implicit vs. Explicit
Declarative vs. Procedural
Semantic vs. Episodic
Prospective vs. Retrospective –
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Retrospective versus prospective memory
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Improving Everyday Memory
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Engage in adequate rehearsal – overlearning
Testing effect –– Roediger & Karpick (2006)
Serial position effects –
Distribute practice and minimize interference Emphasize deep processing and transferappropriate processing
Organize information
Encoding specificity – vary location of studying
Use verbal mnemonics – narrative stories –
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Use visual mnemonics – method of Loci –
Akira Haraguchi, 60, needed more than
(10/3/2006) 16 hours to recite pi (π) to 100,000
decimal places, breaking his personal best of
83,431 digits set in 2005.
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Eyewitness Accounts
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Use of Eyewitness in court cases – Cutler & Penrod
(1995), Loftus (1993)
What did Jennifer See?
Post information distortion
Source confusion
Hindsight bias
Overconfidence
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