1. Memory Chapter 7

2. Memory Studying Memory Building Memories
An Information-Processing Model
Two Memory Tracks
Building Memories
Encoding: Getting Information In
Storage: Retaining Information
Retrieval: Getting Information Out

3. Memory
Forgetting
Encoding Failure
Storage Decay
Retrieval Failure

4. Memory Memory Construction Improving Memory
Misinformation and Imagination Effects
Source Amnesia
Children’s Eyewitness Recall
Repressed or Constructed Memories of Abuse?
Improving Memory

5. Memory is the persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage and retrieval of information

6. Building a Memory To remember any information or experience requires:
Encoding: getting information into our brain
Storage: retaining the encoded information
Retrieval: getting the information back out of memory storage

7. An Information-Processing Model
A model of memory based on a computer (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968)
Experience is first recorded, for just a moment, as a sensory memory
Information is processed into short-term memory, encoded through rehearsal
Holds a few items briefly
Information moves to long-term memory for later retrieval

8. Updates to the I-P Model
Some memories are formed through unconscious processing, without our awareness
Working memory: a view of short-term memory that stresses conscious, active processes
Working memory is not just a storage shelf, but an active desktop for linking new and old information

9. Two-Track Processing: Automatic vs. Effortful
We automatically process vast amounts of everyday information
We remember new and important information through effortful processing

10. Automatic Processing We automatically process information about Space
“The definition was at the top of the right page”
Time
“I went to the store before lunch”
Frequency
“This is the third time I’ve seen her today!”

11. Effortful Processing Requires close attention and effort
Memory can be improved through rehearsal, the conscious repetition of information
Rehearsal was the subject of one of many studies of memory by Hermann Ebbinghaus

12. Ebbinghaus’s Experiment
Studied his own learning and forgetting
Used lists of nonsense syllables
JIH, BAZ, FUB, YOX, SUJ, DAX, VUM, etc.
Tested his memory for the list every day.
The more he practiced out loud on day 1, the less time needed to relearn it on day 2

13. Effortful Processing
Spacing effect: we remember better if study or practice is spread over time
Cramming is less effective!
Testing effect: repeated quizzing of previously studied material also helps

14. Serial Position
Serial position effect: We remember the first and last items in a list best

15. Facts vs. Skills
H.M. and others with certain traumatic brain injuries cannot form new explicit memories
Cannot learn new facts
However, they can learn new skills

16. Two-Track Memory
Implicit memory: retaining skills or conditioning, often without conscious awareness
Explicit memory: memories of facts and personal events that can be consciously retrieved

17. Two-Track Memory

18. Sleep and Memory Sleep supports memory consolidation
During sleep, the hippocampus and cortex display rhythmic patterns of activity, as if communicating with each other
The brain may be “replaying” the day’s experiences as it transfers them to the cortex for long-term storage

19. Building Memories Encoding: Getting Information In
Storage: Retaining Information
Retrieval: Getting Information Out

20. Encoding Meaning We may encode meaning rather than raw information
When asked to recall text, we often report the meaning, or gist, rather than the raw text
It can be difficult to remember things without a meaningful context

21. Encoding Images
We can more easily remember things we can process visually as well as meaningfully
Old Bailey (court in London)--Glen Bailey
Memorable sentences often evoke powerful imagery, or mental pictures
HOMES—the great lakes
On Old Olympus' Towering Top, A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops—the cranial nerves:
Olfactory, Optic, Oculomotor, Trochlear, Trigeminal, Abducens, Facial, Vestibulocochlear, Glossopharyngeal, Vagus, Spinal Accessory, Hypoglossal

22. Sensory Memory
Storage is extremely short, especially for visual sensory memory
Study: Sperling (1960) flashed nine letters for 1/20th of a second.
Sensory memory made the letters momentarily available for encoding.

23. Short-Term Memory: Duration
Study: Peterson (1959) presented 3-letter strings and prevented rehearsal
Result: letters 50% gone at 3 seconds, 90% gone at 12 seconds.
Conclusion—without rehearsal—doesn’t last long

24. Storage Capacities Short-term memory capacity is limited
The Magical Number Seven, plus or minus two (George Miller, 1956)
7 digits or 7 chunks of information
Long-term memory seems to have no limit and can endure for a lifetime

25. How Does the Brain Store Memory?
Memory is not stored like books in a library, in neat, precise locations.
Rather, different aspects of a memory are assigned to various groups of neurons.
Thus, to understand how memory works, we must study the brain

26. Synaptic Changes
Synapses are the sites where the signal from one neuron is received by another
Experience modifies the brain’s neural network: increased activity in a pathway strengthens connections between the neurons involved

27. Synaptic Changes
Kandel and Schwartz (1982) classically conditioned sea slugs to withdraw their tail when squirted with water (with electric shock).
As the slug learned, serotonin was released into certain synapses. These synapses then become more sensitive and able to transmit signals more effectively.

28. Synaptic Changes
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP): An increase in a synapse’s firing potential. A neural basis for learning and memory

29. Stress-Related Memories
Excitement of stress can enhance memories.
Stress  hormones  more available glucose to fuel brain activity  signals brain “something important has happened”
Do you suppose that is why the pilot at Nellis AFB had found it much easier to count air craft on the ground when he made high speed-low altitude runs over airfields
in hostile North Vietnam
than in peaceful England?

30. Flashbulb Memories
Emotion-triggered hormone changes help explain flashbulb memories, unusually clear memories of an emotionally significant moment or event
Do you remember exactly where they were on September 11, 2001?

31. Retrieval: Getting Information Out
Evidence that something has been remembered:
The item can be recalled, on an essay exam
The item can be recognized, as on a multiple-choice test
Recognition memory is quick and vast
Relearning the item may be easier than it was the first time

32. Retrieval Cues
Memories are linked together in the brain, in a storage web of associations.
These associations can serve as retrieval cues, any stimuli (events, feelings, places, etc.) linked to a specific memory
We haven’t been at the GOP (Garden of Paradise) but thinking back—Al was at the cash register on that occasion.
We’ve not been to Skewer’s for a couple years-but Hani showed us to our table.
The more retrieval cues you’ve encoded, the better chance of finding a path to retrieve the memory

33. Context Effects
Returning to the context where you experienced something can prime your memory of it
Godden and Baddeley (1975) had scuba divers learn lists of words on land or underwater, and then attempt to recall them in the same or different context

34. Context Effects
Sometimes being in a similar context to one previously experienced can trigger the eerie feeling of déjà vu (I’ve seen this before)
This can happen when the current situation is loaded with retrieval cues that remind us of earlier, similar experiences
Where was I went I originally learned this particular materials—in class or sitting at home

35. Moods and Memories
Mood-congruent memory: we more easily recall experiences that are consistent with the current (good or bad) mood
If we are in a good mood, we tend to remember good experiences
Teen ratings of their parents are tightly linked to the teen’s current mood
If your kid rates you as a parent after waking up grouchy, what kind of rating will he make?

36. Forgetting Jill Price is unable to forget anything.
Why might this be a problem?

37. Seven Sins of Memory (Daniel Schacter, 1999)
“Sins” of forgetting and retrieval, problems with the way memory works
Absent-mindedness – inattention to detail leads to encoding failure
Transience – memory loss as unused information fades
Blocking – inability to access stored information

38. Seven Sins of Memory (Daniel Schacter, 1999)
Sins of distortion
Misattribution – confusing the source of information
Suggestibility – e.g., asking a leading question influences answer and subsequent memory
Bias – belief-colored recollections. Current feelings may alter a memory.
Sin of intrusion
Persistence – unwanted memories (e.g., PTSD)

39. Encoding Failure
We cannot remember what we have not encoded

40. Storage Decay Forgetting is initially rapid, and then levels off
People who had studied Spanish in high school but not after were tested on vocabulary recall
One explanation may be a gradual fading of the memory trace, the physical changes in the brain as a memory forms

41. Retrieval Failure
We can sometimes fail to retrieve a memory because we don’t have enough information to access the pathway to it

42. Interference
Interference: the blocking of recall as old or new learning disrupts the recall of other memories
Learning new passwords may interfere with remembering older ones
Learning an hour before sleep can be good because of less interference (but still need rehearsal)

43. Forgetting
Forgetting, the loss of information in between sensation and retrieval, can occur at any stages
Sensory memory
Short term memory
Long term memory

44. Repressed Memories
Freud argued that we repress, painful or unacceptable memories to minimize anxiety
He argued that these repressed memories linger, and can be retrieved by some later cue or therapy
Today, many memory researchers think repression rarely, if ever, occurs

45. Memory Construction
Every time we “replay” a memory, we replace the original with a slightly modified version
What implications does this have for everyday life?
My wife and I can have very different memories of an event that we’ve both experience
And that divergence may grow over time

46. Misinformation
Misinformation effect: a memory that has been corrupted by misleading information
Loftus and Palmer (1974) has subjects watch a film of a traffic accident.
“How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” or
“How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”

47. Misinformation
People who were asked “smashed” version reported higher speeds
A week later, they were more likely to (falsely) recall seeing broken glass

48. False Memory and Eyewitness Testimony
Even hearing a vivid retelling of an event can implant false memories
Sample of 200 convicts later proven innocent by DNA testing
79% misjudged based on faulty eyewitness identification
Leading questions (“Did you hear loud noises”) can lead to false memories

49. Imagination and Memories
Even imagining fake actions and events can create false memories
College students were asked to imaging specific childhood events (like breaking a window with their hand). 25% later recalled the event as actually having happened.
Possible cause: visualizing something and actually perceiving it activate similar brain areas

50. Source Amnesia
Source amnesia: faulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned or imagined
Sometimes experienced by songwriters and authors, who may unintentionally plagiarize something

51. Children’s Eyewitness Recall
How can jurors decide cases in which children’s memories of sexual abuse are the only evidence?
When 3 year-olds were asked to show on a doll where a pediatrician had touched them, 55% pointed to the genitals or anus, even though the doctor had not touched them there
Use non-leading questions soon after the event, in language the child can understand

52. Repressed or Constructed Memories of Abuse
Two tragedies concerning adult recollections of childhood abuse:
When people don’t believe abuse survivors who share their secret
When truly innocent people are falsely accused
What about clinicians who help people “recover” memories of abuse?

53. Guidelines for Thinking about Recovered Memories of Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse happens
Injustice happens
Forgetting happens
Recovered memories are commonplace
Memories of things happening before age 3 are unreliable (Infantile amnesia)
Memories “recovered” under hypnosis of under the influence of drugs are especially unreliable
Memories, whether real or false, can be emotionally upsetting

54. Horror Carves a Memory
The most common response to a traumatic experience is not to banish the experience into the unconscious.
Rather, such experiences are typically etched on the mind as vivid, persistent, haunting memories.

55. Tips for Improving Memory
Study repeatedly
Space study sessions apart
Spend more time rehearsing or actively thinking about the material
Make the material personally meaningful
Activate retrieval cues
Minimize interference
Sleep more
Test your knowledge, both to rehearse it and to find out what you don’t know