1. The Psychological Process of Memory, Language, and Thinking
Making Memories
The Psychological Process of Memory, Language, and Thinking

2. Cognition (8-10%)
In this unit students learn how humans convert sensory input into kinds of information. They examine how humans learn, remember, and retrieve information. This part of the course also addresses problem solving, language, and creativity. AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:
Compare and contrast various cognitive processes:
effortful versus automatic processing / deep versus shallow processing / focused versus divided attention.
Describe and differentiate psychological and physiological systems of memory (e.g., short-term memory, procedural memory).
Outline the principles that underlie effective encoding, storage, and construction of memories.
Describe strategies for memory improvement.
Synthesize how biological, cognitive, and cultural factors converge to facilitate acquisition, development, and use of language.
Identify problem-solving strategies as well as factors that influence their effectiveness.
List the characteristics of creative thought and creative thinkers.
Identify key contributors in cognitive psychology (e.g., Noam Chomsky, Hermann Ebbinghaus, Wolfgang Köhler, Elizabeth Loftus, George A. Miller).

3. Cognition (aka memory): the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information

4. Getting info into the brain
Memory – the basics
The Brain and LTP
Hippocampus: aids in long-term, believed to be responsible for declarative memory as well as spatial navigation, Alzheimer's patients show damage to this first
Amygdala: responsible for perception of emotions & connection of emotion to long-term memory, aids in self-preservation as emotional attachment to an event helps us react to future events
LTP
Best way to transfer items to Long-Term is to study then get the proper amount of sleep
Once LTP has been achieved even passing an electric current through the brain will not erase the memory
Does wipe out newly acquired memories
Brain Trauma like concussions will also remove short-term memories while long-term stays
Getting info into the brain
Encoding
Retaining the info
Storage
Getting info back out
Retrieval
Memory serves as the basic system for encoding, storing, and retrieving information
A true understanding of which part of the brain control this process from storage to retrieval is still incomplete
For a memory to stick around it must be transferred to long term memory
Long-Term Potential (LTP): the more a memory is utilized the more potential strength that neuron has
Parts of the brain responsible for memory
Hippocampus and amygdala
Getting something to long-term requires processing an infinite number of stimuli into a recognizable or meaningful pattern called the Information Processing Model
Hippocampus: Historically, the link between the hippocampus and long-term memory formation was first described by William Scoville and Brenda Milner who reported what happened to an epileptic individual who underwent surgery on the organ that was intended to relieve his seizures. The patient had severe amnesia after the procedure as well as an inability to form new memories of events such as when or where a situation occurred (termed episodic memory). The only memories he did retain were those from many years earlier, as far back as childhood.
Amygdala: The amygdala is responsible for the perception of emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness, as well as the controlling of aggression. The amygdala helps to store memories of events and emotions so that an individual may be able to recognize similar events in the future. For example, if you have ever suffered a dog bite, then the amygdalae may help in processing that event and, therefore, increase your fear or alertness around dogs. The size of the amygdala is positively correlated with increased aggression and physical behavior.

5. Phonological Loop Memory – Encoding
Represents the brief store of mostly acoustic (but also visual) information when paired with a rehearsal mechanism
Occurs in two phases:
Phonological store:
Info enters brain acoustically for maybe 1-2 seconds
Held in speech-based form
Articulatory control:
Linked to speech production
We retain through rehearsal (repeating or saying it out loud/in our head multiple times)
Encoding is the first of the three basic parts of memory processing, it is responsible for experiencing and processing stimuli
Two basic types of encoding:
Effortful Processing: done actively “with effort” or on purpose
E.G.: studying for a test
Automatic Processing: done passively “without effort” or by accident
E.G.: remembering your breakfast or the score of last night’s game
The ways we encode:
Visual: processing visual stimuli into a mental image for storage
Acoustic: processing auditory stimuli, phonological loop is crucial
Semantic: processing the meaning of stimuli & placing it into context
Memory of facts, ideas, rules, words, & general concepts
When stimuli fail to encode it is known as an encoding failure – in other words you did not forget but never actually remembered

6. Memory – Storage and Retrieval
Sensory: ¼ - ½ sec. duration, all sensory experience (high capacity), different stores for each sense
STM: 0-30 sec. duration, capacity 7(+/-2), mainly acoustic encoding
LTM: unlimited duration & capacity, encoding mainly semantic w/focus on acoustic & visual
Storage is the second of the three basic parts of memory processing, it is responsible for where information is stored, how long the memory is lasts (duration), how much can be stored (capacity), and what kind of information is held
In terms of storage there are three stages of memory as proposed in the Atkinson & Shiffrin’s Multi- Store Model of working Memory:
Sensory Memory / Working (Short-Term) Memory / Long-Term Memory
Most adults hold 7 (+/-2) items in STM for 0-30 seconds according to George Miller (what things are represented in 7s?)
Can be misleading because of “chunking” information
Retrieval deals with locating & retrieving information from LTM
Do we forget or is the memory impeded?
STM & LTM store information differently for later retrieval impacting our ability to retrieve information in any given situation
STM – Sequentially
LTM – Association
Multi-Store Model: Information is detected by the sense organs and enters the sensory memory. If attended to this information enters the short term memory. Information from the STM is transferred to the long-term memory only if that information is rehearsed. Rehearsal was initially described by Atkinson and Shiffrin as maintenance rehearsal, but Shiffrin later suggested that rehearsal could be elaborative (Raaijmakers, & Shiffrin, 2003). If rehearsal does not occur, then information is forgotten, lost from short term memory through the processes of displacement or decay.
Retrieval: when we are asked to retrieve something from memory, the differences between STM and LTM become very clear. STM is stored and retrieved sequentially.  For example, if a group of participants are given a list of words to remember, and then asked to recall the fourth word on the list, participants go through the list in the order they heard it in order to retrieve the information. LTM is stored and retrieved by association.  This is why you can remember what you went upstairs for if you go back to the room where you first thought about it. Organizing information can help aid retrieval.  You can organize information in sequences (such as alphabetically, by size or by time).  Imagine a patient being discharged from hospital whose treatment involved taking various pills at various times, changing their dressing and doing exercises.  If the doctor gives these instructions in the order which they must be carried out throughout the day (i.e. in sequence of time), this will help the patient remember them.

7. Memory – More Specifics
Coping Strategies
Chunking: grouping individual pieces of info into units
This allows for STM that moves beyond the 7(+/-2)
Remember as many of the following numbers as you can
Remember as many of the following letters as you can
Mnemonics: creating a pattern or association
Rehearsal: repeating out-loud w/cadence
Types of LTM
Semantic: language, facts, general knowledge
Episodic: events of one’s life
Procedural: learned skills not requiring conscious thought
Memory – More Specifics
Working Memory
Iconic (Visual) Stimuli
Echoic (Acoustic) Stimuli
Tactile (Touch) Stimuli
Olfactory (Smell) Stimuli
Gustatory (Taste) Stimuli
Long Term Memory
Do you really remember?
Photographic memory is believed to be mostly a myth
Eidetic memory is the medical term for hyper accurate memory
No actual way to test / confirm the truth of Eidetic memory
Most common in children & fades in adulthood
While “Eidetikers” display exceptional skills, they also recreate memory
Most "eidetic" feats are the result of hard-work
LTM: Implicit vs. Explicit
Implicit Memory: unintentional recognition & influence of prior experience
Explicit Memory: when a subject intentionally tries to remember something & in consciously aware of doing so
In the Sensory Stage Echoic and Iconic memory stages together allowing us to experience the world as a continuous stream
Iconic memory (visual) lasts about 1/3 of a second before decay
Echoic memory (acoustic) lasts about 3 seconds before decay
Sensory memory has no meaning attached until it enters working memory
Working Memory (STM) Stage:
Anything that has your attention in your conscious state
Subject to two limitations: limited capacity and short durations
Coping mechanisms to handle limitations
Long Term Memory has no limit to duration or capacity
Engram (aka Memory Trace): the physical changes that occur in the brain associated with a memory
Three types of LTM
General rule: A memory is implicit if it can affect behavior or mental processes without becoming fully conscious while explicit memories always involve consciousness
XIBMSATMTVPHDX
XIBMSATMTVPHDX
General rule: A memory is implicit if it can affect behavior or mental processes without becoming fully conscious. Explicit memories always involve consciousness

8. Memory – Studies and Psychologists
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Founder of memory research
Conducted all experiments on himself
Most famous discoveries:
The Forgetting Curve: ability of the brain to retain info diminishes with time
Biggest loss in first few days
The Learning Curve: rate at which you learn new information
Plateau isn’t a place of no new learning but harder to make significant progress
Spatial Effect: information over spaced intervals is learned & retained easier
George Sperling: demonstrated the impermanence of sensory encoding by flashing a grid of 9 letters for 1/20th of a second
Most remember only half
Improved retention rate when told them to focus on specific row combined with specific tone (Signal to Noise Theory)
George Miller: STM capacity of 7(+/-2) seconds, chunking theory
Alan Baddeley: proposed a more complex, modular model of STM that characterized it as “Working Memory”
Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart: proposed incoming information can be processed at different levels (Deep vs Shallow)
AKA: Levels of Processing Theory
Elizabeth Loftus: research on misinformation effect showing reconstructive distortions show up often in eyewitness testimonies
Hermann Ebbinghaus: first to conduct scientific studies of forgetting, developed the Forgetting Curve & spacing effect
Alan Baddeley’s System: Central Core (drives the whole system (e.g. the boss of working memory) and allocates data to the subsystems (VSS & PL) coordinating memory for a specific task), Visuo-spatial sketchpad (stores and processes information in a visual or spatial form, the VSS is used for navigation), and the Phonological loop (stores and utilizes semantic information, the part of working memory that deals with spoken and written material; it consists of two parts: Phonological Store (inner ear) – Linked to speech perception Holds information in speech-based form (i.e. spoken words) for 1-2 seconds and Articulatory control process (inner voice) – Linked to speech production. Used to rehearse and store verbal information from the phonological store)

9. Recency Effect: likely to recall items at the end of a list
Memory – Retrieval
Serial Positioning
Primacy Effect: more likely to recall items at the beginning of the list
Recency Effect: likely to recall items at the end of a list
Flashbulb Memory: clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event
Retrieval: process by which stored information is recovered from memory
Retrieval clues are important for activating memory
The more specific you are the better your ability to recall
There are multiple ways we retrieve memory
Context-Dependent Memory: tendency for information to be better recalled in the same context in which it was originally learned
Can also be Mood Dependent
State-Dependent Memory: tendency for information to be better recalled in the same “state” (psychologically or physiologically) as when it was learned
Serial Positioning Effects: the tendency of recall to be affected by the order of the encoding
We tend to recall material at the start or end with greater accuracy
Let’s test it!
Let’s Test it: name the Presidents – What number President are we on? How many Presidents have we had?
1. Washington 2. John Adams 3. Jefferson 4. Madison 5. Monroe 6. Quincy Adams 7. Andrew Jackson 8. Martin Van Buren 9. William Henry Harrison 10. John Tyler 11. Polk 12. Zachary Taylor 13. Fillmore 14. Pierce 15. Buchanan 16. Lincoln 17. Johnson 18. Grant 19. Rutherford 20. Garfield 21. Arthur 22. Cleveland 23. Benjamin Harrison 24. Cleveland 25. McKinley 26. TR 27. Taft 28. Wilson 29. Harding 30. Coolidge 31. Hoover 32. FDR 33. Truman 34. Eisenhower 35. JFK 36. LBJ 37. Nixon 38. Ford 39. Carter 40. Reagan 41. GHW Bush 42. Clinton 43. GW Bush 44. Obama 45. Clinton

10. Memory – Retrieval
The Spacing Effect: tendency for distributed or “spaced out” or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or “cramming”
In other words – cramming is minimally effective at best
Other Factors Impacting Retrieval:
Encoding Specificity Principle - more closely the retrieval clues match the way the information was encoded the better the recall
Mood-Congruent Memory – theory that states we selectively remember memories that match our current mood
Depression leads to negative memories and vice versa
Memories are cued in two primary ways:
Recall: a retrieval method in which one must reproduce previously presented material
Ex: essay test / short answer / police sketch
Recognition: a retrieval method in which one must identify information that is provided, which has previously been presented
Ex: Multiple Choice / Police Line-up

11. Memory – Retrieval Failure or Forgetting (encoding failure)
Types of Amnesia
Retrograde Amnesia: unable to recall events that happened before amnesia set in
Anterograde Amnesia: inability to create new memories since amnesia set in
Memory “sins” five through seven
Suggestibility: process of memory distortion as the result of a suggestion (either deliberate or inadvertent)
Bias: influence of personal beliefs, attitudes, & experiences on memory
Persistence: a memory problem where unwanted memories cannot be put out of mind
We often use the phrase ”I forgot” – but did we really forget?
Possible reasons for Retrieval Failure:
Retroactive Interference: new information blocks out old information
Ex: getting a new bus number & “forgetting” the old one
Proactive Interference: old information blocks out new information
Ex: calling your new girlfriend by your old girlfriend’s name
Amnesia can also impact the ability to recall or create memories
Two types
NOTE: As memories form, neurotransmitters collect at the synapses, (before absolute threshold is crossed) called memory traces which a sharp blow to the head or electric shock can prevent from consolidating, making it hard to recall that information
Psychologist Daniel Schacter has created a list of seven “sins” or reasons memories will not stick around
These sins are not necessarily bad as each tends to serve a function within the normal part of human memory
Crash Course: Remembering and Forgetting
Memory “sins” one through four
Transience: memories decay or fade in strength over time
Absent-Mindedness: forgetting due to lapse in attention
Blocking: when a memory cannot be retrieved due to interference
Misattribution: retrieved memory associated with wrong time, place, or person
Purpose of the Memory “sins”
Transience-prevents memory overload
Blocking-focus on task at hand
Absent-mindedness-ability to shift attention
Misattribution/bias/suggestibility-to focus on meaning and not detail
Persistence-to remember especially emotional memories
Two Types of Bias: Self-Consistency Bias (A commonly held idea that we are more consistent in our attitudes and beliefs, over time, than we actually are) and Expectancy Bias (A memory tendency to distort recalled events to fit one’s expectations)

12. Memory – the Process of Forgetting
Encoding is

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