1. What would life be like without memories?
Memory
What would life be like without memories?

2. Memory
“…you are what you remember. Without memory…there would be no savoring of past joys, no guilt or anger over painful recollections. You would instead live in an enduring present, each moment fresh. But each person a stranger, every language foreign, every task… a new challenge. You would even be a stranger to yourself.”

3. What is memory?
Memory: the input, storage, and retrieval of what has been learned or experienced

4. Memory Memory is personally constructed!
One important to thing to remember when discussing memory:
Memory is personally constructed!

5. What is Memory?
Processing Model of Memory- Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

6. Sensory Memory
A very brief memory storage immediately following initial stimulation of a receptor

7. Sensory Memory Cont. Types of Sensory Memory How long does it last?
Echoic (sound) or Iconic (visual) memory
How long does it last?
Iconic lasts up to 1 second
Echoic lasts up to 1 to 2 seconds
If it is not rehearsed or thought to be important than it is forgotten
Purpose:
Keeps you from being overwhelmed
Decision time
Allows stability & continuity

8. Short Term Memory (STM)
STM is memory that is limited in capacity to about seven-ten items and in duration by the subject’s active rehearsal
Lasts anywhere from 20 seconds to 1 minute
Maintenance Rehearsal- If information is not rehearsed then it will be forgotten
Working memory
Focusing on what is novel or important
When using information from Long Term Memory it is believed the information enters into STM so we can “work” from that information

9. How many circles are on the next slide?

10. Chunking

12. Chunking

14. The process of grouping items to make them easier to remember.
Chunking
The process of grouping items to make them easier to remember.
Roy G. Biv

15. You have 5 seconds to remember the following list…

16. Mrs. Sunda’s Grocery List
Milk
Cheese
Butter
Eggs
Flour
Cat food
Sugar
Apples
Grapes
Shampoo
Bread
Green beans
Jam

17. What does Mrs. Sunda need from the grocery?
List as many as you can remember!

18. Mrs. Sunda’s Grocery List
Milk
Cheese
Butter
Eggs
Flour
Cat food
Sugar
Apples
Grapes
Shampoo
Bread
Green beans
Jam
Primary Recency Effect- you are better able to recall info at the beginning and end of the list.

20. Long Term Memory (LTM)
Long Term Memory is the storage of information over extended periods of time
LTM does not work like a filing cabinet
Instead we reconstruct the information that we need at a given time
LTM is the result of the other two levels of memory

21. Types of LTM
Semantic- knowledge of language, including its rules, words and meanings
Episodic- chronological retention of the events of one’s life
Declarative- stored knowledge that can be called forth consciously as needed
Procedural- permanent storage of learned skills that does not require conscious recollection

22. LTM Continued

23. Miscellaneous Process of memory is limited and fallible
Primarily focus on important stimuli or novel stimuli
Information we do keep in STM rapidly decays unless rehearsed
Flashbulb Memory
A clear memory of an emotionally
significant moment or event

24. The Processes of Memory
There are 3 ways to process memory
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval

25. 1. Encoding The processing of information into the memory system
How We Do IT:
Two types of processing
Automatic
Effortful

26. Encoding Automatic Processing Occurs with little to no effort
Automatic processing is another example of parallel processing
Cannot switch off encoding

27. Encoding Effortful Processing
Information we remember only with effort and attention
Boost memory through rehearsal: conscious repetition of information either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it

28. Encoding Rehearsal was demonstrated by Hermann Ebbinghaus
Studied learning and forgetting

29. Encoding
JIH
BAZ
FUB
YOX
SUJ
XIR
DAX
IEQ
VUM
WAV
ZOF
GEK
HIW

30. Ebbinghaus discovered the simple principle of memory and learning
The amount remembered depends on the time spent learning
Even after we learn material additional rehearsal increases retention

31. Encoding Spacing Effect
We retain information better when rehearsal is distributed over time
Spacing effect= much better than cramming!!!!!!!!!!

32. Encoding Serial Position Effect (Primary Recency Effect)
Our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

33. Encoding What we encode: Encoding Verbal Information
When encoding verbal information we usually encode its meaning
We remember what is encoded
Encoding Verbal Information
Semantic encoding- encoding meaning
Acoustic encoding- encoding of sound
Visual encoding- encoding of picture images

34. Encoding Craik and Tulvig What does this mean?
Flashed words at people and then asked a question that required the people to process the words visually, acoustically or semantically
Found semantic encoding elicited much better memory
Ebbinghaus estimated that meaningful material required 1/10 of the effort when compared to learning nonsense material
What does this mean?
We recall information we can relate to ourselves
Self-reference effect
Find personal meaning in what you are studying!!!!!

35. Encoding Encoding imagery Imagery: mental images
Rosy retrospection: people tend to recall events more positively than they evaluated at the time

36. Encoding
Mnemonics: memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices
Developed by the ancient Greeks

37. Storage & Retrieval

38. Storage The process by which information is maintained over time.
How much information is stored depends on how much effort was put into encoding the information and it’s importance.
Info can be stored for a few
seconds or for much longer.
Think about playing an instrument:
What all goes into this?

39. MEMORY IS STORED THROUGHOUT THE BRAIN!
Storage
Karl Lashley (1950) found that memories do not reside in a particular spot of the brain
Train rats and cut out parts of the brain and can still run a maze
MEMORY IS STORED THROUGHOUT THE BRAIN!

40. Storage Synaptic Changes
Kandel and Swartz (1982) looked that the Aplysia
Found that during the learning process (classical conditioning) the slug released serotonin
Synapses then become more efficient at transmitting signals.
Long-term Potentiation (LTP)- increase in a synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation.
Believed to be the neural basis of memory

41. Storage Confirmation of Long-term Potentiation (LTP)-
Drugs that block LTP interfere with learning
Mutant mice engineered to lack enzyme needed for LTP can’t learn their way out of a maze (and vice-versa)
Injecting rats with a chemical that blocks the preservation of LTP erases recent learning

42. Storage
Pharmaceutical Companies are competing to develop new memory boosting drugs
Alzheimer’s
Mild cognitive impairments
Drug would boost the protein CREB- turns genes off or on
Repeated neural firing of genes produce synapse strengthening proteins allowing Long-term Potentiation .
CREB may help to reshape and consolidate STM into LTM
Developing drugs that boosts glutamate
Enhances synaptic communication

43. Storage Electroconvulsive therapy
Passing an electric current through the brain will not disrupt old memories but will wipe out recent memories

44. Storage Emotions/Stress and Memory
When stressed or excited hormones make more glucose energy
Amygdala boosts activity and available proteins in brain’s memory forming areas
“Stronger emotional experiences make for stronger, more reliable memories.” (and vice versa)
People given drugs that block stress hormones are more likely to forget details of stressful events

45. Storage
Implicit memory: retention independent of conscious recollection
Explicit memory: memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare

46. Storage
Hippocampus:
Explicit-facts and episodes are processed here and fed to other parts of the brain for storage
Works like a store room
Active during slow-wave sleep
Left damage- impacts verbal memory
Right damage- impacts visual memory and location memory

47. Storage
Cerebellum
Forming and storing implicit memories created by classical conditioning reflexes
Dual implicit and explicit memories explains infantile amnesia
Inability to recall information prior to three years of age
The implicit reactions and skills we learned during infancy reach far into our future, yet as adults we recall nothing (explicitly) of our first three years.
Hippocampus one of the last brain structures to mature.

48. Retrieval Occurs when information is brought to mind from storage.
The ease with which information can be retrieved depends of how efficiently it was encoded and stored.

49. Retrieval Remembering is more than storage and encoding
Memory is:
Recall- A measure of memory in which a person must retrieve information learned earlier, info not in our conscious awareness.
Recognition-A measure of memory in which a person need only identity items previously learned
Relearning-Measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time
Learning occurs faster the second time around

50. Retrieval Harry Bahrick
Studied high school graduates that were 25 years removed
Had these graduates look at pictures from their yearbook
Could not recall classmates out-right,
but 90% could recognize names and faces

51. Retrieval Retrieval cues
Retrieving is like a spider web
Associate bits of information and these bits serve as retrieval cues
Priming
The activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations
External contexts and internal emotion influence retrieval
Context leads to retrieval
Greater recall when learning and testing context was the same

52. Retrieval
Déjà vu:
Eerie sense that “I’ve experienced it before.” Cues from current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.

55. Storage
Loftus and Loftus (1980) analyzed vivid memories and found that flashbacks appeared to have been invented and not relived as previously thought

59. Forgetting
Forgetting is as important as recollecting… If we remembered everything, we should be as ill off as if we remembered nothing. It would take as long for us to recall a spaced of time as it took the original time to elapse, and we should never get ahead with our thinking.
~William James

60. Forgetting
Forgetting: refers to apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in an individual's long term memory

61. Forgetting Amnesia- Loss of Memory
H.M. lost part of his brain due to surgery.
He could not form new memories but his old memories were intact.
However he could still learn…
Able to grasp implicit but not explicit.

62. Forgetting
Jill Price-
Memory of every day since she was 14 years old

63. Forgetting 3 sins of forgetting 7 sins of memory (Daniel Schacter)
Absent mindedness
Transience- storage decay over time
Blocking- in accessibility of stored information
(encoding errors, storage errors, and retrieval errors)

64. Forgetting
Forgetting Curve

65. Forgetting 3 sins of distortion 1 sin of intrusion
Misattribution- confusing source of information
Suggestibility- lingering effects of misinformation
Bias- belief colored recollections
1 sin of intrusion
Persistence- unwanted memories

66. Forgetting Types of interference
Proactive: disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information
Retroactive: disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

67. Forgetting Motivated Forgetting People revise their own history
Repression: psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

68. Children’s Eyewitness Recall
Ceci and Bruck studied children and their memories
Using suggestive wording, researchers were able to make students have false memories
Pre-schoolers overheard remark of rabbit getting loose in the class (not true)
78% recalled seeing the rabbit

69. Children’s Eyewitness Recall
Can Children be eyewitnesses?
Yes
Other studies show that when given neutral words and questioning techniques most children can respond with more accurate recall

70. Repressed or constructed memories of abuse
Therapist estimate 11% of the population have repressed memories of sexual abuse
7 out of 10 report using hypnosis or drugs to help patient recall repressed memories
What might be wrong with this idea?

71. Repressed or constructed memories of abuse
Two sides
One side argues that repressed memories exist and should be recalled
Other side argues repressed memories can be false memories conjured up by thoughts the therapist places in their minds

72. Repressed or constructed memories of abuse
Both sides can agree on some things
Sexual abuse happens
Injustice happens
Forgetting happens
Recovered memories are common place
Memories prior to age three are unreliable
Memories recalled under the influence of drugs/hypnosis are even more unreliable
Memories, whether real or false, can be emotionally upsetting

73. Improving Memory How can we improve our memory: Study repeatedly
Make material meaningful
Activate retrieval cues
Use mnemonic devices
Minimize interference
Sleep more
Test your own knowledge

75. Amnesia Two types: Occurs due to head injury or disease
Retrograde: Forget past memories or cannot recall past memories
Anterograde: Cannot form new memories
Occurs due to head injury or disease

76. Children’s Eyewitness Recall
Another study children were asked to choose a card with a story on it
After 10 weeks of interviews 58% of the preschoolers produced false stories