Transcript Memory - Dpatterson

Chapter 9: Memory

 Memory:
Memory
persistence of
learning over time
via the storage and
retrieval of
information.
 Gives us our sense
of self and connects
us to past
experiences.
The Unusual Case of
Clive Wearing
What are your three most vivid
memories?
Vivid Memories
 Flashbulb
Memories: clear
memory of an
emotionally significant
event or moment.
 Usually personally
meaningful or
historically significant.
Types of Memories
 Episodic
Memory:
refers to your specific
memory of events that
occur in your life.
Types of Memories
Semantic Memory:
General knowledge –
facts you learn at school.
Types of Memories
Implicit Memory:
The skills you have learned
Memory as Information
Processing


1.
2.
3.
Memory is similar to a computer (write
to file, save to disk, read from disk).
3 Basic Steps to Memory:
Encoding: getting information into the
memory system.
Storage: the retention of the encoded
information over time.
Retrieval: process of getting
information out of the memory system.
Three Stage Processing for Encoding
Stage One: The initial recording of sensory
information in the memory system is referred
to as sensory memory.
 Stage Two: sensory memories are processed
into short term memory your activated
memory which can only hold a minimal amount
of information.
 Stage Three: short term memories are
encoded into long-term memory, the
relatively permanent and limitless storehouse
from which we retrieve.

Concept of Short-Term Memory
 Short-Term
Memory is limited in capacity
and duration.
 You can only hold so much information in
your working memory at one given time.
 Magic Number tends to be 7 +/- 2.
12 Days of Christmas
List as many of the gifts mentioned in the
song as you can.
12 Days of Christmas
Answers:
1. Partridge
2. Turtle
Doves
3. French Hens
4. Calling Birds
5. Golden Rings
6. Geese A-laying
Swans A-swimming
8. Maids A-milking
9. Ladies Dancing
10.Lords A-leaping
11.Pipers Piping
12.Drummers Drumming
7.
Types of Rehearsal
Encoding and storage can be aided by
maintenance rehearsal: simple rote
repetition of information in consciousness or;
 even more successfully by elaborate
rehearsal: processing of information by
relating it to something you already know well.

The Presidents
On a sheet of paper, list the Presidents of the
United States in order. Do your best.
King of Memory Experiments is
Hermann Ebbinghaus
 Wanted
to research
capacity of verbal
memory.
 Looked to study to see
capacity of peoples’
memories to study
strings of non-sense
syllables.
 Ex: JIH, FUB, YOX, XIR,
Findings of Ebbinghaus
 1.
Practice makes perfect. The more
rehearsal he did on day 1, the less
rehearsal it took to learn the syllables
again on day 2. Over learning increased
retention.
 2. The Spacing Effect: the tendency
for studying over a long period of time
produces better long term retention than
is achieved through massed study or
practice. SPACED STUDYING BEATS
Findings of Ebbinghaus

3. Serial Position Effect: our tendency to
recall best the last and first items in a list. Ex:
Presidents
Explaining the Serial Position Effect
 Primacy
Effect: explains how we
remember concepts at the beginning of a
list since these are often the terms we
have seen the most when reviewing.
 Recency Effect: explains how we
remember concepts at the end of the list
a since these are the terms we have seen
most RECENTLY.
 MIDDLE IS FORGOTTEN MOST OFTEN.
Encoding Activity
(Myers 9-3)
Follow the instructions on the handout as I
read the 20 sentences. It is important that
you do not talk or communicate with anyone
else during this activity.
Types of Encoding
 Semantic
Encoding: encoding of
meaning, including the meaning of
words….yields best memory.
 Acoustic Encoding: the encoding
of sound, especially the sound of
words….usually the least effective.
 Visual Encoding: the encoding of
picture images.
Encoding Imagery
 Imagery:
creating mental pictures,
helps effortful processing especially when
combined with semantic encoding.
 Recall of events is often colored by
highest joys and lowest lows of
events…usually remember events
differently than you evaluated them at
the time.
 Mneumonics: memory aids, often use
vivid imagery and organizational devices.
MNEMONICS
ROY G BIV
 Every Good Boy Does Fine
 HOMES
 Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

Some Examples of Mneumonics
 1.
Method of Loci: memory device used
by linking items in a list with physical
locations in a place you are familiar with.
Ex: Link parts of brain with places in your
house; Hypothalamus and refrigerator.
 2. Peg Word System: works by
prememorizing a list of words with
numbers and associating new list with the
scheme. Ex: 1 is a gun, 2 is a zoo, 3 is a
tree, 4 is a door, 5 is a hive.
Try to remember these numbers:
1492177618
6119141271
94119632001
How confident are you
that you correctly memorized all
31 numbers?
Now, try to remember these numbers:
1492
1776
1861
1914
12-7-1941
1963
2001
Which was easier?
WHY?
CHUNKING
group like things together
How do you remember a phone #?
9528295379
You CHUNK it!
952- 829- 5379
Organizing Information for
Encoding
 Chunking
 organizing
items into familiar,
manageable units
like horizontal organization1776149218121941
 often occurs automatically
make it
I want you to remember:
VISUAL
So when you see the word “humanism”
I tell you to think about:
HUMANISM –
a psychological
approach that
focuses on
free will
Free Willy!
METHOD OF LOCI

Imagine the route from your room to
the front door of your house

Place people / events along the way
George Washington is in my bedroom
John Adams is right outside my bedroom door
Thomas Jefferson is in the bathroom
James Madison is at the top of the stairs
make it MEANINGFUL

Whose phone numbers do you
remember? Why?

Make all kinds of material meaningful.
Experiment - making meaning
make it
RHYTHMIC
“Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue in
1492”
 The helping verbs
 “The THALAMUS is a grand station, it
sends and receives information.”

FALSE MEMORIES

Are you a reliable eyewitness?
FALSE MEMORIES

Are you a reliable eyewitness?
Recall vs. Recognition Activity
Retrieval: Getting Information Out

Recall: a measure of
memory in which the
person must retrieve
information learned
earlier.
 Ex:

Fill in the Blank.
The hardest of the
memory tasks
Retrieval: Getting Information Out

Recognition: a
measure of memory
in which the person
need only identify
items previously
learned.
 Ex:

Multiple Choice
The easiest of the
three memory tasks
Retrieval: Getting Information Out

Relearning:
learning something
for the second (or
third or fourth or …)
time.

Relearning an idea or
concept happens
more quickly than
learning something
the first time.
Retrieval Cues
 Priming:
activation, often
unconsciously, of
particular
associations of
memory.
Retrieval Cues

Context Effects Memory Retrieval: able to
retrieve information better when you are in the
same context you learned it in.


Ex. Studying for a test in the same room you are going
to take the test in.
Emotional/Mood Impact of Memory:

State-Dependent Memory: information is most easily
recalled when in same “state” of consciousness or mood
it was learned in.


Ex. Under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Feelings of happiness tend to bring back memories of another
happy time.
Retrieval Cues

Schemas: mental representations that we form
of the world by organizing bits of information

Ex. Listen to the following story and than answer the
questions that follow.
Ex. Car Crash Study by Elizabeth Loftus
(p. 382 of AP Book)

Schemas
Depiction of actual accident
Memory
construction
 Loftus
had
individuals
watch car
accidents and
then recorded
results based
on questioning
procedures.
Loftus’s Research
Subjects were asked to reveal how fast they
thought the cars were going.
 Question consisted of “How fast were the cars
going when they _______________ each
other.
 Loftus filled in the blanks with different words
including: bumped, collided, contacted, hit, or
smash.
 Speed was elevated to great degree when
“smashed” was used as key verb and subjects
were likely to remember broken glass when
there was none.
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