Human Memory

1
Human Memory

• It is good to have an end to journey towards but
  it is the journey that matters, in the end.
• Ursula K. Le Gui

2
MEMORY System that allows for retention of what
is Learned
3
Ten Principles of Memory

• Recite often !

• Reinforce what youve learned through repetition

• If there is a basis for doing so, divide and
  group

• Organize the material so that it can be stored

• Associate new material with related facts you
  know

• Involve your ego, if possible

• Try to see the significance of what youre
  learning

• Be sure you fully understand

• Get the info right the 1st time

• Pay attention

4
Three Kinds of Memory
1.Episodic memories of personal experience
2.Semantic general knowledge or memory for facts
3. Procedural or Implicit memory for skills
Episodic Do you remember your first interaction
with a personal computer?
Semantic Do you know the meaning of personal
computer?
Procedural or Implicit Are you fluent in the use
of a personal computer?
5
Mnemonic Device
System for remembering in which items are related
to easily recalled sets of symbols, such as
acronyms, phrases, or jingles
EXAMPLES
i before e except after c
Be, all that you can be!
Every Good Boy Does Fine!
Like a Rock
6
Episodic - Semantic - Procedural
Which is
involved? 1.First Kiss
10.Use a computer 2.Riding a bike
11.Spell
C-A-T 3.Walking through a maze
12.Driving a car 4.List the 50 states
13.H²0 5.Define Memory
14.Describe a fight to
someone 6.Cut and Paste an art project
15.First day in high school 7.Writing notes off
an overhead 8.Formula for classical
conditioning 9.Witness a car accident
7
Three Processes of Memory
1.ENCODING - modifying information so that it can
be placed in memory
a. visual code
b. acoustic code
c. semantic code
2.STORING - maintenance of information over time

1. maintenance rehearsal (157)
2. elaborative rehearsal
3. organizational systems (superordinate
   subordinate)

3.RETRIEVING - location of stored information and
its return to consciousness

1. proper cues
2. context-dependent memory
3. state-dependent memory

8
You have to go up...

• Stores all the stimuli that register on the senses

RETRIEVING
STORING
ENCODING
before you come down!
9
Information-Processing Model of Memory

• Computer as a model for our memory
• Three types of memory
• Sensory memory
• Short-term memory (STM)
• Long-term memory (LTM)
• Can hold vast quantities of information for many
  years

10
Three Stages of Memory
1. Sensory Memory - the type or stage of memory
first encountered by a stimulus. Sensory memory
holds impressions briefly, but long enough so
that series of perceptions are psychologically
continuous.

• Saccadic Eye Movement

• Memory trace

• Sensory Register

• Iconic memory

• Echoic memory

That analogy makes a lot of "cents"!
11
Sensory Memory

• Lasts up to three seconds
• Two types
• Iconic memory
• Visual
• Usually lasts about 0.3 seconds
• Sperlings tests (1960s)
• Echoic memory (well come back to this)

12
2. Short Term Memory (STM)
7/-2 - about 1 min.
SERIAL POSITION EFFECT the tendency to recall
more accurately the first and last items in a
series.

• PRIMACY EFFECT the tendency to recall the
  initial items in a series of items.

• RECENCY EFFECT the tendency to recall the last
  items in a series of items.

13
Short Term Memory (STM)
Pages 162-163
OTHER KEY TERMS
Chunk a mental process for organizing
information into meaningful units, or chunks,
(162)
Interference the process that occurs when new
information appears in short-term memory and
replaces what was already there
14
Memory

• Process by which information is
• Acquired
• Encoding
• Stored in the brain
• Storage
• Later retrieved
• Retrieval
• Eventually (possibly) forgotten

15
Information-Processing Model of Memory
Retrieval
Short-term memory
Stimulus
Sensory memory
Long-term memory
Attention
Encoding
Forgetting
Forgetting
Forgetting
16
3 Stages of Memory
17
Sperlings Experiment

• Presented matrix of letters for 1/20 seconds
• Report as many letters as possible
• Subjects recalled only half of the letters
• Was this because subjects didnt have enough
  time to view entire matrix?
• No
• How did Sperling know this?

18
Sperlings Iconic Memory Experiment
19
Sperlings Iconic Memory Experiment
20
Sperlings Iconic Memory Experiment
21
Sperlings Iconic Memory Experiment
22
Sperlings Experiment

• Sounded low, medium or high tone immediately
  after matrix disappeared
• Tone signaled 1 row to report
• Recall was almost perfect
• Memory for images fades after 1/3 seconds or so,
  making report of entire display hard to do

23
Sensory Memory

• Echoic memory
• Sensory memory for auditory input that lasts only
  2 to 3 seconds
• Why do we need sensory memory?

24
Short-term Memory

• Function
• Conscious processing of information
• Attention is the key
• AKA working memory

Working or Short-term Memory
Sensory Memory
Attention
Sensory Input
25

• Memorize the following list of numbers
• 1 8 1 2 1 9 4 1 1 7 7 6 1 4 9 2 2 0 0 1

26

• Write down the numbers in order.

27

• Now, try again
• 1812 1941 1776 1492 2001

28
Short-term Memory

• Limited capacity
• Can hold 7 2 items for about 20 seconds
• Maintenance rehearsal
• The use of repetition to keep info in short-term
  memory
• CHUNK
• Meaningful unit of information
• Without rehearsal, we remember 4 2 chunks
• With rehearsal, we remember 7 2 chunks
• Ericsson Chase (1982)
• 8931944349250215784166850612094888856877273141861
  0546297480129497496592280

29
Long-term Memory

• Once information passes from sensory to
  short-term memory, it can be encoded into
  long-term memory

Retrieval
Encoding
Working or Short-term Memory
Sensory Memory
Attention
Long-term memory
Sensory Input
30
Long-term memory - Encoding

• Elaborative rehearsal
• A technique for transferring information into
  long-term memory by thinking about it in a deeper
  way
• Levels of processing
• Semantic is more effective than visual or
  acoustic processing
• Craik Tulving (1975)
• Self-referent effect
• By viewing new info as relevant to the self, we
  consider that info more fully and are better able
  to recall it

31
Long-term memory

• Procedural (Implicit)
• Memories of behaviors, skills, etc.
• Demonstrated through behavior
• Declarative (Explicit)
• Memories of facts
• Episodic personal experiences tied to places
  time
• Semantic general knowledge
• Semantic network

32
Semantic Networks
Bus
Truck
Ambulance
House
Fire Engine
Orange
Fire
Red
Yellow
Green
Apples
Cherry
Sunrise
Roses
Daisies
Clouds
Sunsets
Flowers
33
Retrieval

• Retrieval
• Process that controls flow of information from
  long-term to working memory store
• Explicit memory
• The types of memory elicited through the
  conscious retrieval of recollections in response
  to direct questions
• Implicit memory
• A nonconscious recollection of a prior experience
  that is revealed indirectly, by its effects on
  performance

34
Retrieval Explicit Memory

• Free-recall test
• A type of explicit memory task in which a person
  must reproduce information without the benefit of
  external cues
• Recognition task
• A form of explicit memory retrieval in which
  items are presented to a person who must
  determine if they were previously encountered
• Retrieval failure
• Tip-of-the-tongue (Brown McNeill)

35
Retrieval Explicit Memory

• Context-Dependent Memory
• We are more successful at retrieving memories if
  we are in the same environment in which we stored
  them
• State-Dependent Memory
• We are more successful at retrieving memories if
  we are in the same mood as when we stored them

36
Retrieval Implicit Memory

• Showing knowledge of something without
  recognizing that we know it
• Research with amnesics
• Déjà vu
• The illusion that a new situation is familiar
• Eyewitness testimony
• Eyewitness transference
• Unintentional plagiarism

37
Forgetting

• If we remembered everything, we should on most
  occasions be as ill off as if we remembered
  nothing.
• William James
• Lack of encoding
• Often, we dont even encode the features
  necessary to remember an object/event
• Decay
• Memory traces erode with the passage of time
• No longer a valid theory of forgetting
• Jenkins Dallenbach (1924)

38
(No Transcript)
39
Interference theory

• Forgetting is a result of some memories
  interfering with others
• Proactive interference
• Old memories interfere with ability to remember
  new memories
• Retroactive interference
• New memories interfere with ability to remember
  old memories
• Interference is stronger when material is similar

40
Forgetting

• Repression
• There are times when we are unable to remember
  painful past events
• While there is no laboratory evidence for this,
  case studies suggest that memories
• can be repressed for a
• number of years and
• recovered in therapy

41
Memory Construction

• Schema theory
• Preconceptions about persons, objects, or events
  that bias the way new information is interpreted
  and recalled
• Misinformation effect
• The tendency to incorporate false postevent
  information into ones memory of the event itself
• Illusory memories
• People sometimes create memories that are
  completely false

42
Improving Memory

• Practice time
• Distribute your studying over time
• Depth of processing
• Spend quality time studying
• Verbal mnemonics
• Use rhyming or acronyms to reduce the amount of
  info to be stored

43
Improving Memory

• Method of loci
• Items to be recalled are mentally placed in
  familiar locations
• Interference
• Study right before sleeping review all the
  material right before the exam
• Allocate an uninterrupted chunk of time to one
  course
• Context reinstatement
• Try to study in the same environment mood in
  which you will be taking the exam