1. Memory

2. Agree or Disagree?
“To constantly remember everything all the time, would probably be worse than remembering nothing at all.”
William James (c1890)

3. Do Now… Draw a penny in the top right-hand corner of your paper.
On the back of your paper, draw the home screen of your cell phone.
Do you think you will be able to remember this set of numbers by the end of class?

4. Which Penny is the Correct Penny?

5. A.

6. Memory
Cognition: all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering information
Memory: the capacity to register, store, and recover information over time, or more simply, the persistence of learning over time.

7. How Does My Memory Work? We use different “models” to explain memory.
Information Processing Model
Three Stage Model

8. Information Processing Model
Compares our mind to a computer
Memory a three-step process:
Encoding: processing of info into the memory system
Storage: retention of encoded material over time
Retrieval: process of getting info out of memory storage

9. 1.) Encoding Visual Encoding: encoding of pictures and images.
Acoustic Encoding: encoding of sound, especially sounds of words.
Semantic Encoding: encoding of meaning.

10. 1.) Encoding
The processing of information into the memory system (what you do to learn something).
Typing info into a computer.
Getting a girls name at a party.

11. 2.) Storage The retention of encoded material over time.
Pressing Ctrl+S to save the info.
Trying to remember her name when you leave the party.

12. 3.) Retrieval
The process of getting the information out of memory storage.
Seeing her the next day and calling her the wrong name (retrieval failure).
Finding your document and opening it up.

13. The Three Stage Model Characterized by time frames:
Stage 1: Sensory Memory
A brief representation of a stimulus while being processed in the sensory system
Stage 2: Short-Term Memory
(STM) is working memory
Limited capacity (~7 items)
Limited duration (~30 seconds)
Stage 3: Long-Term Memory
(LTM) has large capacity and long
duration

14. Stage 1: Sensory Memory Iconic Memory Echoic Memory
Momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli
Photograph-like quality lasting only about a second
Echoic Memory
Momentary memory for auditory stimuli
If you are not paying attention to someone, you can still recall the last few words said in the past four seconds.

15. Stage 2: Short-Term Memory
The stuff we encode from sensory memory goes to STM
Holds about 7 (+/- 2) items for about 20 seconds.
We recall digits better than letters.

16. Stage 2: Short-Term Memory
Chunking: Organizing items into familiar, manageable units.
Give students a list of numbers for them to write after you finish saying the number: 9754, 6419, 68259, 37148, , , , , , ,
Read numbers but not in chunking: then chunk the numbers together as years

17. Stage 2: Short-Term Memory
Try to remember the following letters:
FB-IAO-LM-TVI-BMB-MW
Now, recall all of the letters
Let’s try that again:
FBI-AOL-MTV-IBM-BMW
Now, recall all of the letters.
They were the same letters, just chunked differently!
Give students a list of numbers for them to write after you finish saying the number: 9754, 6419, 68259, 37148, , , , , , ,
Read numbers but not in chunking: then chunk the numbers together as years

18. Stage 2: Short-Term Memory
Maintenance Rehearsal: Repeating the information.
“ …”

19. Stage 3: Long-Term Memory
Unlimited storehouse of information.
Declarative Memories
“Knowing that…”
Facts & experiences we consciously know and can verbalize.
Procedural Memories
“Knowing how…”
Skills & procedures to do things by previous experience without that experience being consciously recalled.
Swimming

20. Stage 3: Long-Term Memory
Declarative
Episodic
Personal experiences
Semantic
General knowledge
Procedural

21. Biology of a Long-Term Memory
Retrieval: Process of getting information out of memory storage.
Recall vs. Recognition
You must retrieve the information from your memory
EX: Fill-in-the-blank or essay tests
Harder
You must identify the target from possible targets
EX: Multiple-choice tests
Easier

22. Biology of a Long-Term Memory
Clive Wearing: The man with no short-term memory

23. Forgetting

24. Theories of Forgetting
Retroactive Interference: new info blocks out recall of old info
EX: Getting a new lock and forgetting your old lock combo

25. Theories of Forgetting
Proactive Interference: Old info blocks out new info
EX: Calling your girlfriend by your ex-girlfriend’s name

26. Theories of Forgetting
Decay Theory: memory trace fades with time
Without rehearsal, we forget things over time.
Except this guy 
Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve

27. Theories of Forgetting
Decay Theory
Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
Memorized long list on nonsense syllabus
Bok, waf, ged, nuf
Forgetting occurs soon after initial learning, then levels off.
Explains why we forget FACTS, but not why we forget EXPERIENCES

28. Theories of Forgetting
Spacing Effect: We encode better when we study or practice over time (i.e. “space out” learning)
DO NOT CRAM!

29. Theories of Forgetting
Decay Theory
Marigold Linton tests how people forget real events
Wrote down two memorable events every day for 12 years.
Tested recall of these events each year
Expected rapid forgetting reported by Ebbinghaus
Instead, found long-term forgetting was slower and much more constant.

30. Theories of Forgetting
Motivated Forgetting: involves the loss of painful memories (protective memory loss)
We sometimes revise our own histories
One theory: Repression

31. Theories of Forgetting
Retrieval failure: info is still in LTM, but cannot be recalled because retrieval cue is absent.
Cue-dependent forgetting
State-dependent forgetting

32. False Memories

33. My Trip to the Cheesecake Factory
You go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. You are seated at a table with a white tablecloth. You study the menu. You tell the female server you want Avocado Egg Rolls, extra sauce, Roadslide Sliders, Thai Lettuce Wraps, and Chino-Latino Steak (medium). You also order a Cherry Coke from the beverage list. A few minutes later the server returns with your Avocado Egg Rolls. Later the rest of the meal arrives. You enjoy it all, except the Chino-Latino Steak is a bit overdone.

34. My Trip to the Cheesecake Factory
How did you order the steak?
Was the red tablecloth checkered?
What did you order to drink?
Did the male server give you a menu?
Which item came first?

35. Memory Construction
We sometimes alter memories as we encode or retrieve them.
Your expectations, schemas, & environment may alter your memories.

36. Memory Construction
A TWA Boeing 747 had just taken off from Miami International Airport for Los Angeles when a passenger near the rear of the aircraft announced that the plan was being taken over by the People’s Revolutionary Army for the Liberation of the Oppressed. The hijacker held a .357 magnum to the head of Jack Swanson, a flight attendant, and forced him to open the cockpit door. There, the hijacker confronted the pilot, Jane Randall, and order her to change course for Cuba. The pilot radioed the Miami air traffic control center to report the situation but then suddenly hurled the microphone at the hijacker. The hijacker fell backward through the open cockpit door and onto the floor, where angry passengers took over from there. The plan landed in Miami a few minutes later, and the hijacker was arrested.

37. Memory Construction
Depiction of Accident
Leading Question: “About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?”
When people who saw film of a car accident were asked a leading question, they recalled a more serious accident than they had witnessed.
Memory Construction

38. Special Topics in Memory
Autobiographical Memory
Recollection of events in our life
More recent events are easier to recall

39. Special Topics in Memory
Childhood Amnesia (Infantile Amnesia)
Generally poor memory for events prior to age 2-3
May occur because brain is not fully developed at birth
Hippocampus not fully formed until age 2
May be due to lack of a clear sense-of-self in young children
May be due to absence of language.

40. Special Topics in Memory
Extraordinary Memory
Eidetic Imagery (Photographic Memory)
Usually due to well-developed memory techniques
“The Woman Who Could Not Forget”

41. Special Topics in Memory
Eidetic Memory: Photographic memory

42. Special Topics in Memory
Flashbulb Memory: A clear moment of an emotionally significant moment or event.
Where were you when…
You heard about 9/11?
Osama bin Laden was killed?
During the OJ chase?

43. Special Topics in Memory
Eyewitness testimony
Shown to be unreliable
People’s recall for events may be influenced by what they heard or constructed after the incident
Memory is reconstructed
Memories are not stored like snapshots, but are instead like sketches that are altered and added to every time they are called up