Transcript Learning and Memory

Memory
Memory is the retention of
information over time.
ENCODING
STORAGE
RETRIEVAL
Getting
information
into memory
Retaining
information
over time
Taking
information
out of storage
The Basic Stages of Memory
The Modal Memory Model
Short-Term Memory
Components of Working Memory
Phonological loop
• Encodes information (from reading, speaking, or
repeating words to memorize them
Visuospatial sketchpad
• Processes information (e.g., the location and features
of objects)
Central executive
• Controls the interactions between the subsystems and
long-term memory
storage
• Sensory store
storage
• Sensory store  working STM
storage
• Sensory store  working STM  LTM
storage
• Sensory store  working STM  LTM
• Strategies for actively using WSTM
– Rehearsal
– Chunking
.
HOW DID THEY DO IT?
• Input: ….4 2 0 7 9 9 8 1 0 6 9 3 8….
• 420. “I said a flat mile, a good high school
mile”
• 799 “I said 79 was an age, almost 80”
• 810 “And 8:10 was a 2-mile, and I said it
was a really fast two mile”
• 6938 “Then this was a 10-mile, it was up
there, a really slow 10-mile”.
Types of memory
The “seven sins” of memory
• Transience
• Weakening or loss
• Absent-mindedness
• Breakdown of attention
• Blocking
• Thwarted memory search
• Misattribution
• Assigning to wrong source
• Suggestibility
• Implanted by a leading question
• Bias
• Editing and rewriting
• Persistence
• Repeated recall of disturbing
information
After Schacter (2001)
“Seven Sins of Memory”
• First 3: sins of omission
• Next 3: memory is present, but wrong
• Final sin: unwanted memories
1st Sin
Transcience
• Memories become decreasingly
accessible over time
• Interference
– Retroactive interference
– Proactive interference
• e.g. No longer remembering 3rd grade
teachers name at age 50
2nd Sin
Absentmindedness
• Lapses of attention that result in memory
failure.
3rd Sin
Blocking
• Information that has not
faded out of memory but
is temporarily
inaccessible
3rd Sin
Blocking
• Information that has not
faded out of memory
but is temporarily
inaccessible
• Ex. That word on the tip
of your tongue you just
can not remember to
save your life
4th Sin
Misattribution
 Assigning
memory/idea to the
wrong source
– Source memory
• Late to develop
– False recognition
• Associative
connections
– Historical overlap
– Serious implications:
eyewitness testimony
5th Sin
Suggestibility
• Implanted memories that
are produced by leading
questions or suggestions
• e.g. “Didn’t Joe break up
with you with a post-it
note?”
• Rare cases people will
recall traumatic events that
never happened to them
6th Sin
Bias
 Distorting influences of
present information to
memory recollection.
– Consistency bias
– Change bias
– Egocentric bias
• Current knowledge and
beliefs can skew our
memories
• “I DID NOT vote Bush
for President!”
7th Sin
Persistence
Unwanted memories of
difficult or traumatic
experiences that can
not be forgotten
In extreme cases it
changes the
perception of their
world- i.e. war veterans
Memory
ENCODING
REHEARSAL
DEEP PROCESSING
Consistent repetition of
information over time
Deeper processing,
better memory
ATTENTON
Concentrate and Focus
CONSTRUCTING
IMAGES
ORGANIZATION
ELABORATION
Adds to distinctiveness
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Memory
“Getting People to Pay
Attention”
Use cues and gestures
for important material
Encourage attention and
minimize distraction
Be interesting
Focus on active learning and
be aware of individual differences
Use media and technology to make learning enjoyable
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Memory
Memory’s Time Frames
Sensory Memory
Retains
information for an instant
Short-Term Memory Limited
capacity; retain for 30 seconds
without rehearsal
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Memory
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Theory
Memory
Representing Information in Memory
Network Theories
-Nodes stand for
labels and
concepts
-Network is
irregular and
distorted
Schema Theories
-Long-term searches
are not exact
-Retrieved information
is fit into an existing
formation (schema)
-Schemas: Concepts, knowledge, or
information about events that
already exist in the mind and
influence the way we encode
Memory
Retrieval and Forgetting
Primacy effect: items at the
beginning remembered best
Retrieval
Serial position: recall better
at the beginning and end of list
Specificity: associations
form cues
Recall: previously learned info.,
as in fill-in-the-blank
Recognition: identify learned
information, as in multiple choice
Memory
Retrieval and Forgetting
Cue Dependent Forgetting
• Caused by a lack of
retrieval cues
Interference Theory
• Other information
(new
or old) gets in the way
of what we are trying
to remember
• Passage of time
allows “memory trace”
to disintegrate
Decay Theory
The Information-Processing Approach
Expertise
Expertise and
Teaching
Expertise and
Learning
Acquiring
Expertise
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Expertise and Learning
Experts . . .
1. Have superior recall, use “chunking” of information
2. Organize around important ideas and concepts
3. Demonstrate effortless retrieval by taking the time
to formulate a plan
4. Are flexible rather than having a rigid, fixed routine
5. Though talented, develop learning and study
strategies
- Spread out learning
• Practice
• Practice
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Principles for Remembering
• It is very important that you have an interest in
what you learn.
• Pay attention or you won’t learn anything!
• Organize the information.
• Practice what you have learned & organized.
Memory Aids/Methods
There are many types of memory aids/
methods that help you remember things, e.g.:
1. Diary
2. Memos
3. Turning numbers into letters
4. Making notes
5. Rote rehearsal.
However, some are effective and some are
not so effective.
Effective
Less Effective
• Extensive recoding
• Simple rehearsal
• Link-word method
• Rote method
• Inductive, concept
attainment method
• Tutoring & lecturing
• Method of Loci
Mnemonics
The following slides introduces some
mnemonics for enhancing remembering.
Mnemonics are:
• Techniques for helping us to remember.
• It is the connecting of two ideas, with the second
one triggering yet another one, and so on.
• It is based on the idea of making information
meaningful by relating it to what you know.
Keyword Method
Select one word to represent a longer
thought or several subordinate thoughts.
1. Generate your own keywords.
2. Construct an image between the keyword &
the word to learn.
3. Keyword
word to learn.
image
4. Keywords should be visualizable.
5. Keywords should be interacting.
Keyword Method (example)
Word to learn: persuade
Keyword:
purse
Picture:
A woman is being persuaded to buy a purse.
to learn
keyword
Keyword Method (example)
This example relies both on
rhyme or sound & imagery
Spanish word to learn:
lapiz
trapeze
(keyword)
pencil (meaning of lapiz)
Keyword Method (example)
Spanish word patio (pronounced pot-o)
meaning duck
patio
pot
duck
Keyword Method (example)
• French word pere sounds pear,
& it means father.
• Generate images of
father by using the
pear
keyword
Pegword Method
1. First memorize a set of objects rhyming with
integer names.
2. Then generate an
learned.
image of each item to be
3. Link the image of the item to learn
to the corresponding
of the
image
object.
4. Give it a meaning (use picture).
Pegword Method (examples)
Integers-Objects
One-bun
Two-shoe
Three-tree
Four-door
Five-hive
Six-sticks
Seven-heaven
Eight-gate
Nine-wine
Ten-hen
Image
To Learn
waitress
coat
Image
Method of Loci (Places)
Good for remembering events in a particular
order.
1. Construct a sentimental map of your home/
surrounding area.
3. Place the things in these loci.
4. Walk down the street to pick up the things.
5. No more than one item in one place.
6. Places should not be too much alike.
Method of Loci (example step 1)
MacDonald
HK Bank
Barber Shop
China Bank
Fruit Vendor
Florist
Drug Store
Bakery
Pet Shop
Home
Park
Method of Loci (example step 2)
public recognition
see parents
privileges
see principal
extra marks
detention
extrinsic reward
copy work
praise
+
Reinforcement
reprimand
Acronym
• Remember words by forming one word to
represent all of the words.
• Word formed on the basis of the first letters.
POLKA
P – pegword
O – organizational scheme
L – loci
K – keyword
A – acronym
Acrostics
• Construct a sentence to remember a sequence
of objects.
• First letter of each word represents the first letter
of the object.
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine
Pizzas
=
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune, Pluto
Acrostics (example)
Biological groupings used in taxonomy
King
Phillip called out
fifty good soldiers.
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Acrostics (examples)
Physics
Sober Physicists Don't Find Giraffes In
Kitchens.
~The orbital names for electrons (SPDFGIK).
Computer Science
All People in Saskatchewan Turned NDP.
~ The OSI model: Application, Presentation,
Session, Transport, Network, Data Link,
Physical
Rhymes
Make a rhyme to remember
information. E.g.
• Black & Yellow, Kill a Fellow
• Black & Red, Venom Lack
Ridiculous Association/
Image Bizarreness
• This method is to remember things by associating
objects with bizarre or ridiculous images.
• Association is enhanced if the image is vivid,
ridiculous, impossible, or illogical.
• Make the associations interactive, such as
rule of substitution
out-of-proportion rule
rule of exaggeration
• e.g. The dog rode the bicycle down the street.
Imagery Representation
• Good readers respond to text by constructing
images of the meanings conveyed by the text.
• This method requires making mental pictures
of material.
• No intentional transformation of content is
applied here.
e.g. “The king led the elves through the driving
rain storm.” – form in your mind the actions
and the scene of the sentence.
Memory Strategies
Other than mnemonics, there are memory
strategies that are useful for remembering.
The slides below differentiate the strategies
into 2 categories:
Elaboration
&
Organization
Memory Strategies
Elaboration
• Note taking
~ construct meaningful paraphrases of
important ideas
~ integrate new & old information in
personally meaningful way
• Story Grammar
Who is the main character?
Where and when did the story take place?
What did the main characters do?
How did the story end?
How did the main character feel?
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
PQ4R
Preview.
Question.
Read.
Reflect.
know.
5. Recite.
the text.
6. Review.
Survey headings.
Ask yourself as you read.
Read the material.
Make connections to prior
Test your memory of
Reread portions you don’t
understand or remember.
• Self-questioning
“How does this information relate to what the
author discusses in the preceding section?”
~(synthesis)
“How can this be applied in a scholarly
setting?”
~(application)
Organizing
• Classifying /Grouping
girl heart robin purple finger flute blue
organ man hawk green lung eagle child
piano

green man piano heart eagle
blue
girl
flute
lung hawk
purple child organ finger robin
• Concept Mapping
~ Diagram
concepts
relationships
~ Identify important concepts & specify their
interrelationship
Major Contrast of Strategies
Less Effective Techniques are those that rely
on
simple rehearsal of material.
More Effective Techniques are those that
require:
~ extensive recoding, and
~ relating of new content to other knowledge.
Strategies for Improving Memory
•
•
•
•
•
•
Pay attention
Make sure you understand
(Extensive) encoding
Make associations (old & new)
Impose organizations
Involve all senses
Strategies for Improving Memory
• Practice and distribute learning (spread
out practicing over days)
•
•
•
•
•
Over-learn (episodic-semantic)
Get some sleep (no alcohol or caffeine after 7pm)
Use verbal Mnemonics
Use visual imagery
Diet
Strategies for Improving Memory
• Avoid stress
• Exercise
(increases the formation of new neurons in the hippocampus and better
memory)
•
•
•
•
Fasting (ghrelin)
Routine
Mental focus (remove distractions)
Drugs
Ghrelin
Hormone released by fasted stomach
and travels in the blood stream to the
brain
Acts distantly in hippocampus on specific
receptors
promotes long-term potentiation
higher synaptic density in the CA1 region
ghrelin improved memory performance in a dose-dependent manner.
Performance was improved 20–30% at the highest dose, effectively turning
C-grade mice into straight-A students
Aged SAMP8 mice—a model for Alzheimer's disease—also showed
improved memory performance with ghrelin dosing, and the authors
propose ghrelin analogues as potential treatments for memory loss. Of
course, over-eating and weight gain would be potential side effects.
Mnemonic Devices
• Mnemonic (from the Greek for
“memory”)—memory-improvement
technique based on encoding items in a
special way
– Method of loci—imagining the different pieces
of information as rooms within a house
– Peg-word—rhyming words with position on a
list (one in a bun, etc.)
– Substitute word—i.e., occipital—ox sip it all
– Word associations—i.e., Roy G. Biv, etc.
retrieval cues
•
•
•
•
•
•
Hints
Semantic association
Historic association
Emotional state association
Smells and sounds
Psychological/physical
state association
– Encoding specificity principle
– State-dependent learning
memory enhancing drugs
• Companies compete to find ways to improve
memory
–
–
–
–
–
increase NMDA/AMPA for LTP
Ghrelin
Amphetamines, (ADHD)
Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors
Chocolate (dopamine)
• If they discover them, should they be made
available to the general public?
• Question: Is taking drugs to improve academic
performance (through enhanced memory) any
different than taking drugs to improve athletic
performance?
Adult Neurogenesis
• Exercise
• Antidepressants
Liquorice
• Carbenoxolone tid
• Increased verbal memories of 55-75 year
old men within weeks
• Blocks stress hormone (cortisol)
• BUT high BP side effect and
• Needs to be altered to enter cells.
BDNF or gene
• Injected directly into brain
• AD mice, elderly rats, monkeys (degenrate)
• Lesioned: rats and monkeys
• Improved learning and memory
• Reduced rate of brain cell death
• Increased neuron connections
Ambidextrous
• Close left handed relative…
• RHs better at remembering events
• Impaired facial recognition
Musician
• Speech, language. Memory, attention, IQ
and empathy
• After 15m of piano lessons- young children
had more highly developed auditory and
motor areas.
• Professional musicians have inceased
grey matter volume. Routing info around
the brain (motor, audition & visuo-spatial)
• Start <7yrs… thicker corpus callosum, the
bundle of nerve fibres that shunts info
between the brain halves.
• Musicians… better auditory memory and
attention, children have larger vocab and
higher reading ability.
• Increased IQ (early training)
• Better spatial acuity
• Increased plasticity
• Better at language learning
• More empathic… fine tune ability to
recognize emotional nuance in speech
tDCS, transcranial direct current stimulation
•
•
•
•
1-2 mAmps
Increases neuron excitability
Enhanced cognition (attention and vision)
Math-right parietal lobe
– TMS= math disrupted
– tDCS= mathenhanced
• Improvements lasted at least 6months!!
• Portable implanted gadgets?
Bright Lights
• Light improves cognition and attention
• Bright light during the day
– Visual searches
– Math
– Logical reasoning
– Reaction time
• Melanopsin
– Alertness hormone
Calm Energy Focus Normal
• BLUE light most potent
– Mimics daylight best
• “School Vision”
– reading speed +35%
– Error frequency -45%
• Calm
– Fidgeting -78% in School vision, -10% control
• Blue light also amplifies emotions
• 'normal' setting is for day-to-day classroom
activities,
• 'energy' gives an intense blue tint to the
light to invigorate pupils when they need to
be more active.
• 'Focus', which is an intense whiter light, is
designed to help children concentrate
during challenging tasks while
• ‘Calm', a warmer red tinted color, makes
the room more relaxed and is designed to
settle a class towards the end of the day,
when disruptive behavior is most frequent
Brain Food
• Omega-3 fatty acids
– Oily fish, walnuts, green veg.
– Little or no effect on memory
• Flavonoids
– Blueberries, blackcurrants, cocoa, green tea,
red wine.
– Improved attention
– Protect against neurodegeneration
• Raise levels of BDNF, stimulates axon
development
– Lower BP
– Increases blood vessel elasticity
– Increase brain blood flow
• Good for mental performance
• Possibly via hippocampal neurogenesis
• Magnesium-L-threonate
– Increased Mg in brain
– Increased spatial and associative memory in
young and old rats
– Increases plasticity and neurogenesis
Exercise
• Regular exercise increases brain blood
flow… in rats at least
• Monkey…improved memory (hidden food)
– Runners had greater blood vessel volume
• Humans… ?
– Moderate exercise slows age-related decline
– Daily walking improved executive functions
(planning/abstract thought) in younger adults.
• Exercise=neurogenesis, ↑BDNF and
VEGF
• Excessive Exercise= decreased BDNF!
Meditation
• No difference in visual memory
• Immediately after meditation though
– Unbelievable performance
• 20mins yoga improved visual memory and
spatial skills, temporarily.
• 10hrs a day for 3months
– Enhances attention and executive function
• Four 20min sessions
– Improved visuo-spatial processing, working
memory and executive function in novices
Brain Training Software
• Does not work!!
• You only get better at playing games
• 11,000 volunteers in the largest study
showed no differences between brain
trained vs control subjects.
Substance Use and the Brain
Substance Use and the Brain
1. How is the brain affected long-term?
• Alcohol
• Marijuana
• Stimulants
2. What can we do about this?
Substance Use and the Brain
 How is the brain affected long-term?
• Alcohol
• Marijuana
• Stimulants
Drinking & Thinking
• ~50% alcoholic adults show some problems:
– Spatial skills
– Planning
– Learning and memory
• IQ and language OK
• Recovery
– Much in 1st month
– More in 1st year if sober
Alcohol and Sleep
• Problems when using and when sober
– Falling asleep
– Total sleep
– Sleep quality
• Affects memory and thinking
• Feeling unrested increases relapse risk
Brain Structure
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
– Safe
– No injections
– Shows small brain
parts
Shrinkage: Ventricles
Non-alcoholic
Alcoholic
Shrinkage: Cerebellum
Healthy Control
Alcoholic
Volume Recovery
During Treatment
2 Years Later
Substance Use and the Brain
How is the brain affected long-term?
• Alcohol
• Marijuana
• Stimulants
Marijuana & Thinking
• Modest problems in very heavy users
– Learning and memory
– Sustained attention
– Impulsivity
• Most recover after 1 month abstinent
Marijuana & Brain
• No evidence of brain shrinkage
• Altered brain waves related to attention
•  brain blood flow
•  brain response while learning
Substance Use and the Brain
How is the brain affected long-term?
• Alcohol
• Marijuana
• Stimulants
Stimulants &Thinking
• Motor skills
• Planning
• Switching tasks
• Decision making
• Working memory
• Impulsivity
• Learning and memory
Stimulants & Brain Structure
• Volume reductions:
– Cingulate
– Hippocampus
– No overall gray matter
changes
• Volume increase:
– Subcortical areas
Stimulants & Blood Flow
High
blood
flow
Healthy Control
Gottschalk, 2001, Am J Psychiatry
Cocaine-dependent
Low
blood
flow
Blood Flow Recovery
High
blood
flow
Non users
Cocaine users, 10 days sober
Cocaine Users, 100 days sober
Low
blood
flow
Substance Use and Brain
Summary:
• Thinking problems
• Tissue loss
• Decreased blood flow
• Altered brain response to task
• Much recovery with abstinence
Part F: Dolphin Test for Stress in
Medical Staff
• Two seconds exposure time. You see two
dolphins, jumping together.
• Unstressed people often report they see
the dolphins as identical.
• The more differences you pick up, the
more stressed you are.
• FOCUS NOW