Biology of Memory Ways to Improve Memory AP Psychology Credit Todd Daniel of Great Ideas in Psychology Podcast (available on Itunes U) for the idea of starting a Psychology class like this. Biology of Memory Ways to Improve Memory

The Biology of Memory: Two Questions For Today Where are memories stored? How are memories formed? Changes in synaptic connections among neural cells Called long-term potentiation

Storing Memories in the Brain Using rats, Lashley (1950) suggested that even after removing parts of the brain, the animals retain partial memory of the maze. Concluded that there was no memory localization (The Brain Module 16) Through electrical stimulation of the brain, Wilder Penfield (1967) Concluded that old memories were etched into the brain’s temporal lobe Loftus and Loftus (1980) reviewed Penfield's data and showed that only a handful of brain stimulated patients reported flashbacks. Memories are stored where they are processed!

Where Are Memories Stored?

How are the Memories Stored? Synaptic Changes Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) A long-lasting change in the structure of a synapse that increase the efficiency of neural transmission. Both Photos: From N. Toni et al., Nature, 402, Nov. 25 1999. Courtesy of Dominique Muller

Stress Hormones & Memory Heightened emotions make for stronger memories. Hormones such as Epinephrine act on brain centers in the brain Extreme stress undermines learning and later recall How does this apply to an exam? OBJECTIVE 12| Discuss some ways stress hormones can affect memory.

Tips to Improve memory

Spacing Effect Distributing rehearsal (spacing effect) is better than practicing all at once. Dylan Thomas’ poem could be memorized with fair ease if spread over time.

Mnemonics A trigger to aid memory, involving prompts such as visual imagery or sounds. Since iimagery is at the heart of memory. Mnemonic techniques use vivid imagery in aiding memory. Method of Loci Link Method

Method of Loci Think of a familiar building, such as your house. Take a moment to conduct a mental walk through the rooms in your house. Make sure you can move easily from one room to another. Along your route create a list of "loci" :i.e. well defined parts of the room that you can use later to memorize things. A locus can be a door, a bed, a oven, etc. Be sure that you can easily go from locus to locus as you visit the house. Now, when you are faced with a list of words or ideas to be memorized, you must form visual images for each of the words and place them, in order, on the loci in your route. To recall the words or ideas, you take a mental walk throughout your house, asking yourself , "What is on the living-room floor? What's on the sleeping room bed. What's in the oven?" And so on.

Link Method List of Items Newspaper Shaving cream Pen Umbrella . Lamp Involves forming a mental image of items to be remembered in a way that links them together.

Organizing Information for Encoding Break down complex information into broad concepts and further subdivide them into categories and subcategories. Chunking Hierarchy OBJECTIVE 7| Discuss the use of chunking and hierarchies in effortful processing.

Chunking Organizing items into a familiar, manageable unit. Try to remember the numbers below. 1-7-7-6-1-4-9-2-1-8-1-2-1-9-4-1 If you are well versed with American history, chunk the numbers together and see if you can recall them better. 1776 1492 1812 1941.

Acronyms are another way of chunking information to remember it. HOMES = Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior PEMDAS = Parentheses, Exponent, Multiply, Divide, Add, Subtract ROY G. BIV = Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet

Hierarchy Complex information broken down into broad concepts and further subdivided into categories and subcategories.

Encoding Summarized in a Hierarchy

Retrieval Cues Memories are held in storage by a web of associations. These associations are like anchors that help retrieve memory. water smell hose Fire Truck fire OBJECTIVE 15| Explain how retrieval cues help us access stored memories, and describe the process of priming. smoke truck heat red

Priming To retrieve a specific memory from the web of associations, you must first activate one of the strands that leads to it. This process is called priming.

Information Processing The Atkinson-Schiffrin (1968) three-stage model of memory includes a) sensory register, b) short-term memory, and c) long-term memory. OBJECTIVE 2| Describe Atkinson-Schiffrin’s classic three-stage model of memory and explain how contemporary model of working memory differs. Keyboard (Encoding) Disk (Storage) Monitor (Retrieval) Sequential Process