Transcript Memory

Memory
Chapter 10
©2002 Prentice Hall
Memory







Reconstructing the past.
Memory and the power of suggestion.
In pursuit of memory.
The three-box model of memory.
How we remember.
Why we forget.
Autobiographical memories.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Reconstructing the Past



The Manufacture of Memory.
The Fading Flashbulb.
The Conditions of Confabulation.
©2002 Prentice Hall
The Manufacture of Memory

Memory



Memory is a reconstructive process.
Recovering a memory is not playing a videotape.



the capacity to retain and retrieve information
Memory involves inferences that fill in gaps in recall.
We are often unaware we have made such inferences.
Source Amnesia

The inability to distinguish what you originally
experienced from what you heard or were told later
about an event.
©2002 Prentice Hall
The Fading Flashbulb



Some unusual, shocking or tragic events
hold a special place in memory.
These memories were called Flashbulb
memories because the term captures the
surprise, illumination & photographic
detail that characterize them.
Even flashbulb memories have errors.
©2002 Prentice Hall
The Conditions of Confabulation

Confabulation


Confusion of an event that happened to
someone else with one that happened to you,
or a belief that you remember something
when it never actually happened.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Confabulation is most likely when:




You have thought about the event many
times.
The image of the event contains many
details.
The event is easy to imagine
You focus on emotional reactions to the
event rather than what actually happened.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Memory and the Power of Suggestion



The eyewitness on trial.
Children’s testimony.
Memory under hypnosis.
©2002 Prentice Hall
The Eyewitness on Trial


Eyewitnesses are not always reliable.
Factors which influence accuracy


Cross race identification.
Question wording.


Crashed versus hit.
Misleading information.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Children’s Testimony

Under what conditions are children
more suggestible?



Being very young.
When interviewers expectations are clear.
When other children’s memories for
events are accessible.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Children’s Testimony
Social Pressure, False Allegations

If asked if a visitor
committed acts that had not
occurred, few 4-6 year olds
said yes.


30% of 3-year olds said yes
When investigators used
techniques taken from real
child-abuse investigations,
most children said yes.
©2002 Prentice Hall
In Pursuit of Memory

Measuring memory.



Explicit memory.
Implicit memory.
Models of memory.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Explicit Memory

Conscious, intentional recollection of an
event or of an item of information. Assessed
through:

Recall


The ability to retrieve and reproduce from memory
previously learned material.
Recognition

The ability to identify previously encountered
material.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Implicit Memory

Unconscious retention in memory, as
evidenced by the effect of a previous
experience or previously encountered
information on current thoughts or actions.
Assessed through:

Priming


a person reads or listens to information and is later
tested to see whether the information affects
performance on another type of task.
Relearning

compares the time required to relearn material with
the time used in the initial learning of the material.
©2002 Prentice Hall
The Three-Box Model of Memory



Sensory memory: Fleeting impressions.
Short-term memory: Memory’s scratch pad.
Long-term memory: Final destination.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Three-Box Model of Memory
©2002 Prentice Hall
Sensory Memory: Fleeting Impressions


A memory system that momentarily preserves
extremely accurate images of sensory
information.
Pattern Recognition


The identification of a stimulus on the basis of
information already contained in long-term memory.
Information that is not quickly passed to short
term memory is gone forever.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Short-term :Memory’s Scratch Pad


In the three-box model of memory, a limited
capacity memory system involved in the retention
of information for brief periods; it is also used to
hold information retrieved from long-term memory
for temporary use.
Working memory


A memory system which includes STM and mental
processes that control retrieval of information from LT
memory and interpret that information appropriately
for a given task.
Chunk

Meaningful unit of information which may be
composed of smaller units.
©2002 Prentice Hall
The Value of Chunking


You have 5 seconds
to memorize as much
as you can
Then, draw an empty
chess board and
reproduce the
arrangement of pieces
©2002 Prentice Hall
Long-term memory: Final Destination


The memory system involved in the long
term storage of information
One way information is organized is in
semantic categories (i.e., animals).
©2002 Prentice Hall
Conceptual Grid
©2002 Prentice Hall
Contents of Long-Term Memory

Procedural memories



Memories for performance of actions or skills.
“Knowing how.”
Declarative memories


Memories of facts, rules, concepts, and events;
includes semantic and episodic memory.
“Knowing that.”

Examples include semantic and episodic memories.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Contents of Long-Term Memory

Semantic memories


General knowledge, including facts, rules,
concepts, and propositions.
Episodic memories

Personally experienced events and the
contexts in which they occurred.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Serial-Position Effect

The tendency for
recall of first and last
items on a list to
surpass recall of items
in the middle of the
list.
©2002 Prentice Hall
The Biology of Memory

Forming a memory involves chemical and
structural changes at the level of neurons.



In short-term memory, changes within neurons
temporarily alter the neuron’s ability to release
transmitters.
In long- term memory, long-term potentiation or a
long-lasting increase in the strength of synaptic
responsiveness occurs.
Most researchers believe this is the process
underlying learning and memory yet exact
biochemical and molecular changes still debated.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Consolidation

Process by which a long term memory
becomes stable.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Locating Memories

New brain imaging and testing shows us that:
 During short-term memory tasks, areas of the
frontal lobes show activity.
 Long- term memory tasks, the hippocampus.
 Encoding of pictures and words, prefrontal
cortex and areas adjacent to the hippocampus.
 Procedural memories, specific changes to
cerebellum.
 Formation of long-term memories, cerebral
cortex.
©2002 Prentice Hall
How We Remember



Effective Encoding.
Rehearsal.
Mnemonics.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Rehearsal

Maintenance Rehearsal


Rote repetition of material in order to
maintain its availability in memory.
Elaborative Rehearsal

Association of new information with already
stored knowledge and analysis of the new
information to make it memorable.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Deep Processing

In the encoding of information, the
processing of meaning rather than simply
the physical or sensory features of a
stimulus.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Comparing Encoding Strategies
©2002 Prentice Hall
Mnemonics

Strategies and tricks for improving
memory, such as the use of a verse or a
formula.

Examples include:
MDAS
 ROYGBIV
 Thirty days hath September…

©2002 Prentice Hall
Why We Forget





Decay
Replacement
Interference
Cue-dependent forgetting
Psychogenic amnesia
©2002 Prentice Hall
Decay

Decay Theory

The theory that information in memory
eventually disappears if it is not accessed; it
applies more to short-term than to long-term
memory.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Forgetting Curve


Herman Ebbinghaus
tested his own memory
for nonsense syllables.
Forgetting was rapid at
first and then tapered
off.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Replacement


The theory that new information entering
memory can wipe out old information.
In one study, researchers showed subjects slides
of a traffic accident.



The experimental group was mislead into thinking
there was a stop sign instead of a yield sign.
Even after being debriefed on the purpose of the
study, subjects insisted that they really saw the stop
sign (Loftus et al., 1978).
The new information which came from the
researchers replaced what the subjects saw.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Interference

Similar items interfere with
one another.


Retroactive Interference
 Forgetting that occurs when
recently learned material
interferes with the ability to
remember similar material
stored previously.
Proactive Interference
 Forgetting that occurs when
previously stored material
interferes with the ability to
remember similar, more
recently learned material.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Cue-dependent Forgetting


The inability to retrieve information stored in
memory because of insufficient cues for recall.
Physical state can be a memory cue.
 State-Dependent Memory


The tendency to remember something when the
rememberer is in the same physical or mental state
as during the original learning or experience.
Mood.
©2002 Prentice Hall
The Repression Controversy

Psychogenic Amnesia


The partial or complete loss of memory (due
to nonorganic causes) for threatening
information or traumatic experiences.
Repression

In psychoanalytic theory, the selective
involuntary pushing of threatening or
upsetting information into the unconscious.
©2002 Prentice Hall
When should we question recovered
memories?



If person says he or she has memories of
first year or two of life.
If over time the memories become more
and more implausible.
If therapist used hypnosis.
©2002 Prentice Hall
Autobiographical Memories

Childhood amnesia: The missing years
©2002 Prentice Hall
Childhood Amnesia: The Missing Years

Childhood Amnesia


The inability to remember events and
experiences that occurred during the first
two or three years of life.
Cognitive explanations




Lack of sense of self.
Impoverished encoding.
A focus on the routine.
Different ways of thinking about the world.
©2002 Prentice Hall