Transcript Memory - Cobb Learning

Memory
super memorist: 20
The persistence of learning over time through
the storage and retrieval of information.
Memory in the Brain
• The Physical Basis of Memory
– No one area houses memories
– Ongoing Electrical Activity
– Synaptic Changes
• Long-term Potentiation (LTP)
– increase in a synapse’s firing
potential after stimulation
(engram)
• program 17
Procedural vs. Declarative
Memories
• Procedural Memory: (implicit memory)
houses memory for actions, skills,
conditioned responses and emotion
responses.
– Procedural memories stored in the cerebellum.
Procedural vs. Declarative
Memories
• Declarative Memory: (explicit memory)
handles factual information; recollections of
words, definitions, names, dates, faces, etc.
– Declarative memories stored in the hippocampus.
Two Types of Declarative
Memories
• There are two distinct types of declarative
(explicit) memories
• Episodic memories – made up of
chronological, recollections of personal
experiences
• A record of things one has done, seen and
heard.
• Semantic memories – knowledge that is not
tied to the time when the information was
learned.
• Ex. Christmas is December 25th, dogs have
four legs and Phoenix is in Arizona
Three Stage Theory of Memory
Memory
Sensory
Iconic
Echoic
Short-Term
(Working Memory)
Declarative
Episodic
LongTerm
Procedural
Semantic
Sensory Memory
• Sensory Memory: it’s the initial recording information
from the senses
• Two types of sensory memory:
• Iconic: momentary sensory memory of VISUAL stimuli
• Lasts no more than a second
• Echoic: momentary sensory memory of ACOUSTIC
stimuli
• Can last 3-4 seconds
Short Term Memory
• The stuff we encode from
the sensory goes to STM.
• Events are encoded visually
(images), acoustically
(sounds) or semantically
(meanings).
• George Miller discovered
STM holds about 7 (plus or
minus 2) items for about 20
seconds.
• We recall digits better
than letters.
The Memory Process
crash course
Three step process….
1. Encoding: The processing of
information into the memory
system.
2. Storage: The retention of
encoded material over time.
3. Retrieval: The process of
getting the information out
of memory storage.
Encoding: The Role of Attention
• Attention: focusing awareness on a narrowed
range of stimuli or events
• Two types of attention involved in memory:
• Focused: Giving “full” attention to a stimuli
– Information likely to progress to long-term memory
• Divided: splitting attention between two or
more stimuli
– Information less likely to progress to long-term
memory
– Multi-tasking is not performing two tasks at once,
but rather switching attention back and forth
Encoding: Two Types of
Processing
• Automatic processing: unconscious encoding
of information such as space, time and
frequency of events (familiar objects,
concepts or behaviors)
– Done by “accident” Ex: Who was the first person
you spoke to today?
• Effortful processing: encoding that requires
attention and conscious effort (new objects,
concepts or behaviors)
– Done purposefully Ex: Last unit you hopefully used
effortful processing to remember which part of
the brain moves memories from short term to
long term.
Effortful Processing: A Closer
Look
• Hermann Ebbinghaus: German
philosopher who pioneered studies in
memory (“nonsense syllables”)
• Rehearsal: conscious repetition;
practice
• Two types of rehearsal:
• 1. maintenance rehearsal: repeating
an item to maintain in STM and
subsequently forget
• 2. elaborative rehearsal: relating new
items to memories already in LTM or
applying meaning to items to enhance
future recall
Transferring from STM to LTM
• Chunking - organizing items into familiar,
manageable units
• Mnemonic Devices
1-4-9-2-1-7-7-6-1-8-1-2-1-9-4-1
"Mary Very Easily Makes Jam Saturday Unless
No Plums."
• Rehearsal – repetition, repetition, repetition
Encoding: Levels of Processing
• Shallow Processing:
– Structural encoding: (visual); emphasizes the
physical structure of a stimulus
– i.e. what the words physically look like
– Phonemic encoding: (acoustic) emphasizes what a
word sounds like
• Deep Processing:
– Semantic encoding: emphasizes the meaning of
verbal input or creating associations between new
memories and existing memories (elaborative
rehearsal)
– Self-reference encoding: relating new
information to ourselves or our own experiences
Encoding Processes
• Visual Encoding: the encoding
of images example
• Acoustic Encoding: the
encoding of sound
• Semantic Encoding: the
encoding of meaning
 the most effective
 encoding with multiple process
types is even more effective
Memory Strategies
start @ 7:04
• Mnemonic devices are strategies to improve
memory by organizing information
– Method of Loci: ideas are associated with a place
or part of a building example
– Peg-Word system: peg words are associated with
ideas (e.g. “one is a bun”)
– Word Associations: verbal associations are
created for items to be learned
Chunking
Chunking & other methods
• Organizing items
into familiar,
manageable units.
• Often it will occur
automatically.
#
1-4-9-2-1-7-7-6-1-8-1-2-1-9-4-1
Do these numbers mean anything to you? Chunk- from Goonies
1492, 1776, 1812, 1941 how about now?
Chunking
Write down as many of the
states of the US as you
can remember!
Take out a piece of paper and name all the
Presidents
Encoding Information
• Serial Positioning Effects –
the tendency for recall to
be affected by the order of
encoding
– Primacy Effect –more likely
to recall items at the
beginning of a list
– Recency Effect – likely to
recall items at the end of a
list
– What else influenced your
ability to recall?
Serial Positioning Effect
• Our tendency to recall best the
last and first items in a list.
Presidents
Recalled
If we graph an average person remembers presidential listit would probably look something like this.
Encoding – The Spacing Effect
• distributed study or practice yields better
long term retention
• cramming is minimally effective
 What, then, would be good strategies for
preparing for AP Psych tests?
 For the AP Exam in the spring?
Storage: Long-Term Memory
• Long-term memory:
relatively permanent and
limitless storehouse of
memory
• Severe stress is thought
to increase memory of a
particularly stressful
event.
– Role of hormones and
the amygdala
• Flash-bulb memories:
unusually vivid and detailed
recollections of
emotionally significant
events
The Context Matters!!!
crash course
• Mood Congruent Memory
– the tendency to recall
experiences that are
consistent with your
current mood
• State Dependent Memory
– memory that is recalled
under the consciousness
conditions it was
formed
Prospective v. Retrospective Memory
• Prospective Memory:
remembering to
perform actions in the
future
• Retrospective Memory:
remembering events
from the past or
previously learned
information
Retrieval- Getting Memories
Out of Storage
Was it easy or hard?
• It depends on several
things….
• If you like Disney
movies?
• When was the last
time you have seen
the movie?
• Are people around you
being loud so you
cannot concentrate?
Take out a piece of paper…..
• Name the seven
dwarves…..
Now name them…..
Recall vs. Recognition
Recall
• you must retrieve the
information from your
memory
• fill-in-the blank or essay
tests
Recognition
• you must identify the
target from possible
targets
• multiple-choice tests
Retrieving Stored
Memories
• Retrieval Cues – anchor points
used to access specific
needed information
• Tip-of-the-Tongue
phenomenon: temporary
inability to remember
something you know,
accompanied by a feeling that
it’s just out of reach
• TOT can be “cured” with
retrieval cues
Retrieving Stored Memories
• Priming: retrieval cue that activates associations
in memory.
Memory Construction
• Memories are not always what they
seem.
• Misinformation Effect –
incorporating misleading information
into one’s memory of an event
• Elizabeth Loftus- leading
researcher in misinformation
effect, false memories and the
reliability of eyewitness testimony
• Can involve confabulation (filling in
memory gaps by substituting
memories from unrelated events)
Misinformation Effect
Depiction of Accident
Leading Question: About how fast were
the cars going when they hit each other?
Misinformation Effect
Leading Question: About how fast were the cars
going when they smashed into each other?
Forgetting – Encoding Failure
Which is the Right Penny?
AUTOMATIC ENCODING
(From Nickerson & Adams, 1979)
Forgetting – Retrieval Failure
• Retroactive
Interference: recent
information blocks out
old information.
• Proactive
Interference:
previous information
blocks out new
information.
Getting a new bus
number and
forgetting old bus
number.
Calling your
new girlfriend
by old
girlfriend’s
name.
• Repression – Freud’s concept of the basic
defense mechanism that banishes from
consciousness anxiety arousing thoughts,
feelings, and memories
Forgetting - Storage Decay
• Even after encoding something well,
we sometimes forget it.
• Herman Ebbinghaus’ experiments
with non-sense syllables
– Showed the memory fades quickly,
but then the speed at which it fades
levels out.
Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
Types of Amnesia
Clive Wearing
•
•
Causes: Brain Damage, Shock,
Repression, Stress and Illness
Amnesia is forgetting produced by
brain injury or trauma
– Retrograde amnesia refers to
problems with recall of information
prior to a trauma
– Anterograde amnesia refers to
problems with recall of information
after a trauma
–
50 1st dates trailer
– Infantile Amnesia: Before 3 years old
– Source amnesia-where did I hear or
read that??