Memory

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Memory

• Chapter 7

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Learning Objectives

• Explain the modal model of memory.
• Describe the sensory, short-term, working, and
  long term memory.
• Explain the two different memory systems.
• Describe the ways information is organized in
  long-term memory.
• Discuss the brain processes involved in memory.
• Describe the neurotransmitters involved in the
  memory.
• Discus different types of forgetfulness and
  distortion of memory.

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Sensory Memory

• Input Sensory information (e.g., lights, smells,
  voices) ?
• Nervous system briefly (i.e. an instant)
• Vanishes
• Auditory sensory memory
• Visual sensory memory

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Sperlings Study of Iconic Memory
L H V R F Z D T C
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Sensory Memory

• Iconic echoic memory systems Creating a
  continuous picture of the world
• Sensory memory sends the ________ information to
  the sensory memory

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The Basic Stages of Memory The Modal Memory Model
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Short-Term Memory

• Receives the information attended by the sensory
  memory
• Is called immediate memory
• Holds information for a limited period of time

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Short-Term Memory

• Has a limited capacity
• ________ increases memory span by organizing
• Bits into meaningful items/units
• Big items/units (which are a composite of several
  single units)

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Short-Term Memory

• Deals with multiple types of sensory information,
  e.g., sounds images
• Isnt a single storage system
• Equivalent to working memory
• An active processing system that keeps
  information available for cognitive processes
  (see fig 7.4)

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Short-Term MemoryComponents 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

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Long-Term Memory

• Is relatively permanent
• Holds huge amount of information
• Remembers old past and more recent events

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Long-Term Memory

• What kind of information get into Long-Term
  Memory?
• Rehearsed Over-learned information
• Distributed practice
• Useful (adaptive) meaningful information

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Differences Between LTM STM

• The capacity and duration
• The serial position effect

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Strategies for Improving Memory

• Practice
• Overlearn
• Get some sleep
• Use verbal Mnemonics
• Use visual imagery

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Two Types of Memory Systems

• Explicit Memory
• Implicit Memory

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Explicit Memory

• Involves conscious effort to remember specific
  information, called ________
• i.e., knowledge that can be remembered and
  declared
• Involves words or concepts, visual images, or
  both
• Two types
• Episodic memory
• Semantic memory

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Explicit Memory

• Retrospective memory
• Prospective Memory

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Implicit Memory

• Occurs without deliberate effort
• Does not require attention
• Occurs without awareness that something is
  remembered

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Organization of Informationin Long-Term Memory
The Temporal Sequence of Long-Term Memory
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Organization of Information in Long-Term Memory

• Memories are stored by meaning
• The levels of processing model
• Two types of rehearsal ? two types of encoding
  (next slide)

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Organization of Information in Long-Term Memory

• Maintenance rehearsal
• Simply repeating the item over and over again
• Elaborative rehearsal
• Meaningful encoding

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Organization of Information in Long-Term Memory

• Schemas
• Hypothetical Cognitive structures that help us
  perceive, process, organize, and use information
• Past memories about the world that shape incoming
  information ?
• Influence the storage of new information in the
  mind

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Organization of Information in Long-Term Memory

• Networks models of memory
• Items are organized from general to specific
  classes
• Emphasize the links between semantically related
  items in memory
• Unit of information
• Activating one node increases the probability
  that other related nodes will also become
  activated

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Semantic Networks
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Organization of Information in Long-Term Memory

• Retrieval cues Any thing that help accessing
  information from ling-term memory

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Organization of Information in Long-Term Memory

• Tulvings encoding specificity principle
• Any stimulus encoded with an experience can
  trigger memories of the experience

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Organization of Information in Long-Term Memory

• Context-dependent memory
• Memory improvement, when the recall situation is
  similar to the encoding situation
• State-dependent memory
• Memory improvement, when there is a match between
  internal states during encoding and recall

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The Physical Location of Memory

• Memories are stored in multiple regions of the
  brain
• Medial temporal lobes
• Cerebellum

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The Physical Location of Memory

• Basal ganglia
• Amygdala
• Cortical circuits involve in perceptions of each
  sense

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The Physical Location of Memory

• The hippocampus surrounding regions involve in
• Declarative memory
• Spatial memory

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The Physical Location of Memory

• Frontal lobes
• Crucial for encoding
• Deeper encoding tasks produce more frontal
  activation

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Neurochemistry of Memory

• Neurotransmitters that weaken or enhance memory
  (e.g., norepinephrine)
• Important events ? neurochemical changes ?
  emotional experiences
• ? These events more likely will be stored in
  memory
• The adaptive/evolutionary value of this

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Neurochemistry of Memory

• Emotional experiences (arousal) ?? Epinephrine
• Epinephrine
• Causes a release of glucose
• Effects norepinephrine activity in the amygdala

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Neurochemistry of Memory

• Gender differences
• Emotional memory activates the
• __________
• __________
• _______ have better memory than _______ for
  emotional events
• Why?

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Forgetfulness

• Forgetting
• The inability to retrieve memory from long-term
  storage
• The function of normal forgetting

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Forgetfulness

• Ebbinghaus
• First person to conduct scientific research on
  forgetting
• Forgetting occurs rapidly over the __________ and
  days
• Schacter
• Seven sins of memory are

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ForgetfulnessTransience

• Definition The pattern of forgetting over time
• Result from (two types of) interference
• Proactive interference
• Retroactive interference
• Why do interferences happen?

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ForgetfulnessBlocking

• Definition A persons temporary inability to
  remember something that is known
• Is a result of interference of words similar in
  sound or meaning

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ForgetfulnessAbsentmindedness

• Inattentiveness to details ?
• Shallow encoding ? Absentmindedness
• Amnesia
• Korsakoffs syndrome
• Concussions

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Distorted MemoriesFlashbulb Memories

• Definition Memory about important or surprising
  events
• Are not perfectly accurate
• Is more accurate among those who found the news
  surprising and felt that the event was important

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University Students Flashbulb Memories
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Distorted Memories Source Misattribution

• Definition Misremembering the time, place,
  person, or circumstances involved with a memory
• False fame effect
• People mistakenly believe that someone is famous
  simply because theyve previously encountered the
  persons name

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Distorted Memories Source Misattribution

• Sleeper effect
• Strong arguments that are initially not very
  persuasive because they come from questionable
  sources become more persuasive over time
• Cryptomnesia
• When people think theyve come up with a new
  idea, when really they have retrieved an old idea
  from memory but have failed to attribute the idea
  to its proper source

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Distorted Memories Eyewitness Testimony

• Eyewitness misidentification a common cause of
  false conviction
• Cross-ethnic identification tasks show memory
  superiority for same-race facial processing
• Suggestibility
• People can develop biased memories when provided
  with misleading information
• People often show great confidence regarding
  false memory judgments
• Eyewitness confidence is unrelated to accuracy

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Distorted Memories Eyewitness Testimony

• Eyewitness earwitness memories
• Constructions that do not always match what
  really happened
• Accuracy decreases when
• Longer retention interval
• Asked misleading questions
• Identifying members of other ethnic groups

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Distorted MemoriesFalse Memory

• Source amnesia
• Childhood amnesia
• Confabulation as an honest lying

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Distorted Memories Repressed Memory

• The most common repressed memories
• Schacter Hypnosis, age regression, and guided
  recall produce false memories of repressed sexual
  abuse?
• Therapists may inadvertently implant false
  memories if they believe patient suffered sexual
  abuse as child
• Need to look for corroborative evidence

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Distorted Memories Repressed Memory

• American Psychological Association (1994)
  investigated abuse memories, and concluded
• False memory controversy should not obscure
  complexity severity of abuse
• Most abused remember everything
• Some may spontaneously recall events
• False memories are possible

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Distorted MemoriesReconstructing Events

• Getting what you want by revising what you had
• Revising memory when your attitudes change
• The problem of false confessions

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Memory Study Strategies

• Encoding Strategies
• Storage Strategies
• Retrieval Strategies