Transcript Memory

Memory
Geddes
2015
Without Memory
• Everyone would be a stranger, every language
would be foreign, every task would be new,
you wouldn’t even recognize yourself!
3 steps of memory
• Encoding—getting information in
• Storage—Keeping it there
• Retrieval—getting it back out
Hermann Ebbinghaus Experiment
• Rehearsal of nonsense syllables
• JIH, BAZ, FUB, YOX, SUJ, XIR, DAX, LEQ, VUM,
PID, KEL, WAV, TUV, ZOF, GEK, HIW
• The amount remembered depends on the
time spent rehearsing (duh).
The Forgetting Curve
• This represents how much we forget over time
if we make no attempt to retain (rehearse).
Concepts we should be familiar with
already!
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Memory
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
Short-term (Working) Memory
Long-term Memory
Automatic Processing
Effortful Processing
Rehearsal
Attention
Spacing Effect
• Distributing study time produces better recall!
• Cramming leads to quick forgetting
• Testing effect—testing is a great way to improve
memory, not just assess it.
• LESSON—space out your study time and test
yourself!
Serial Positioning Effect
• Primacy effects—things at the beginning of a
list are easier to remember
• Recency effects—things at the end of a list are
easier to remember
• Stuff in the middle gets all mixed up and lost!
• Visual encoding
• Acoustic encoding
• Semantic encoding
• Imagery + Semantic encoding is VERY powerful!
• We struggle to remember formulas, definitions, and dates,
but it’s really easy to remember where we were yesterday,
who was with us, where we sat, what we wore, etc…
• Lesson: If you can make a memory visual, you’ll remember
it better!
Guided tour method
• Honey, dog food, sugar, oranges, ice cream, peanut
butter, bread, pork chops, milk, and potato chips.
• We begin in the kitchen and see honey dripping down
into the toaster on the counter and a giant St. Bernard
eating his dog food on top of the kitchen table. We
proceed to the living room, where sugar is embedded
in the shag carpet, oranges are under the sofa pillows,
peanut butter is stuck between the piano keys, and ice
cream is in the roaring fireplace. We proceed up the
stairs, with a slice of bread on each step. Pork chops
are floating in the bathtub, milk is tipped over on the
dresser in the bedroom, and potato chips are stuck
between the bed sheets.
Mnemonic Devices
• Mnemonics are memory aids. They often
involve vivid imagery and organizational
devices
• Pegword system
• Keyword method
• Organization
– Chunking
– Hierarchies
• Method of Loci (the memory palace)
Chunking
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423-19
267-198
390-675-2
573-291-43
721-354-456
245-619-832-2
141-384-515-89
201-315-426-762
Stuff you should know by now!
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Memory
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
Sensory Memory
Short-term (Working)
Memory
Long-term Memory
Automatic Processing
Effortful Processing
Rehearsal
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Hermann Ebbinghaus
Spacing Effect
Testing Effect
Serial Positioning Effect
– Primacy Effect
– Recency Effect
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Meaning/Context Effects
Visual Encoding
Acoustic Encoding
Semantic Encoding
Mnemonics
Chunking
Sensory Memory
• Large capacity
• Contains info from the senses
• Brief retention
– Iconic Memory—Visual, lasts up to ½ second
– Echoic Memory—Auditory, lasts 3 to 4 seconds
Working/Short Term Memory
• The stuff we encode
from sensory goes to
STM.
• Events are encoded
visually, acoustically or
semantically.
• Holds about 7 (plus or
minus 2) items for
about 20 seconds.
• We recall digits
better than letters.
Long Term Memory
• Unlimited
storehouse of
information.
• Explicit (declarative)
memories
• Implicit (nondeclarative)
memories
Explicit Memories
• Episodic Memories
• Semantic Memories
Hippocampus and Cerebellum
• HIPPOCAMPUS
• You need it to form
explicit memories!
• CEREBELLUM
• Important in Implicit
memories!
Implicit Memories
• Procedural Memories
• Conditioned Memories
Storing Memories
Long Term-Potentiation
• long-lasting
enhancement in signal
transmission between
two neurons that
results from stimulating
them synchronously.
• In other words…they
learn to fire together
and get better at
it…creating a memory.
Photographic Memory?
• The ability to recall information as if you were
currently experiencing it
• There’s some controversy about this—some
think it’s a myth
• Mostly, it’s just a difference in how a person
processes memories
• Autistic Savants—rare, but some show some
extraordinary memory ability
The Context Matters!!!
• Flashbulb Memories
• Mood Congruent
Memory
• State Dependent
Memory
Constructive Memory
• Memories are not always what they
seem.
• Elizabeth Loftus
• A constructed memory is a created
memory.
• Misinformation effect
Forgetting
Getting a new bus
number and
forgetting old bus
number.
• Retroactive
Interference: new
information blocks
out old information.
• Proactive
Interference: old
information blocks
out new information.
Calling your new girlfriend by old
girlfriends name.
Repression
• Freud’s Idea (motivated forgetting)
• Evidence? Not much
• We can repress meaningless, neutral material,
but not if it’s something emotional (abuse,
trauma, etc…)
• Encoding failure/Retrieval failure
• Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon
Amnesia
• Amnesia means loss of memory
– Anterograde vs. Retrograde
• Source Amnesia—when you remember
something, but not where you were when you
experienced it (i.e. you saw it in a dream but
later thought you actually experienced it)
– At the heart of many false memories