1. Memory/Cognition Memory Encoding - Getting information in
Storage - Retaining
Sensory
Short-term
Long-term
Retrieval – Getting information out
Forgetting
Construction
Improving

2. Objectives
Describe memory in terms of information processing and distinguish among sensory, short-term, and long-term memory
Distinguish between automatic and effortful processing, and discuss the importance of rehearsal
Explain the importance of meaning, imagery, and organization in the encoding process
Describe the limited nature of sensory and short-term memory
Describe the capacity and duration of long-term memory and discuss the biological changes that may underlie memory formation and storage

3. Distinguish between implicit and explicit memory and identify the different brain structures associated with each
Contrast recall, recognition, and relearning measures of memory
Describe the importance of retrieval cues and the impact of environmental contexts and internal emotional state on retrieval
Explain why the capacity to forget can be beneficial and discuss the role of encoding failure and storage decay in the process of forgetting
Explain what is meant by retrieval failure and discuss the effects of interference and motivated forgetting on retrieval

4. Describe the evidence for the constructive nature of memory and the impact of imagination and leading questions on eyewitness recall
Describe the difficulties in discerning true memories from false ones and the reliability of children’s eyewitness recall
Discuss the controversy over reports of repressed and recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse
Explain how an understanding of memory can contribute to effective study techniques

5. Overview
What causes us to remember what we remember and to forget what we forget?
Any indication that learning has persisted over time.
Many questions about memory…
What would it be like without memory? Never forgetting? We take it all for granted.

6. Memory Encoding, storage, retrieval
Model (information-processing / three box)
Sensory
Short-term / working
Long-term

7. Encoding Automatic vs. effortful processing Rehearsal
Spacing effect (over time)
Serial position effect (1st & last)
Encoding meaning (semantic), visualizing, mentally organizing
Mnemonic devices to aid
Chunking
Hierarchies

8. Storage Retaining information Sensory Iconic (photographic)
Echoic (auditory)
Short-term
7 items
Long-term
Limitless
Episodic, semantic, procedural

9. Synaptic Changes (neurons) Stress Hormones boost memory & retention
Continued…
Synaptic Changes (neurons)
Stress Hormones boost memory & retention
Implicit (procedural – how to)
without conscious recall
skills
classical and operant conditioning
Explicit (declarative)
conscious recall
facts
experienced events
Brain
Hippocampus, limbic system, cerebellum

10. Retrieval & Forgetting
Getting information out
Recall, recognition, relearning
Cues
Context
Moods
7 ways to forget (p.339)
Absent-mindedness, transience, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, persistence
Interference
Retroactive
Proactive
Motivated

11. Construction Misinformation and Imagination misremembering Amnesia
source
retrograde
anterograde
childhood
Discerning true and false memories
Children’s eyewitness recall / eyewitness recall
True photographic memory (eidetic) is very rare

12. Improving Memory Study repeatedly Actively think and rehearse
Make material personally meaningful
Use mnemonic devices
Retrieval cues
Recall events while fresh – to minimize misinformation
Minimize interference
Test your own knowledge