1. Chapter 9
Memory
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2. Memory: Some Key Terms
Memory: Active system that stores, organizes, alters, and recovers (retrieves) information
Encoding: Converting information into a useable form
Storage: Holding this information in memory
Retrieval: Taking memories out of storage
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3. Fig. 9.1 In some ways, a computer acts like a mechanical memory system. Both systems process information, and both allow encoding, storage, and retrieval of data.
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4. Sensory Memory
Storing an exact copy of incoming information for a few seconds (either what is seen or heard); the first stage of memory
Icon: A fleeting mental image or visual representation
Echo: After a sound is heard, a brief continuation of the activity in the auditory system
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5. Short-Term Memory (STM)
Storing small amounts of information briefly
Working Memory: Part of STM; like a mental “scratchpad”
Selective Attention: Focusing (voluntarily) on a selected portion of sensory input (e.g., selective hearing)
Phonetically: Storing information by sound; how most things are stored in STM
Very sensitive to interruption or interference
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6. Long-Term Memory (LTM)
Storing information relatively permanently
Stored on basis of meaning and importance
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7. Fig. 9. 2 Remembering is thought to involve at least three steps
Fig. 9.2 Remembering is thought to involve at least three steps. Incoming information is first held for a second or two by sensory memory. Information selected by attention is then transferred to temporary storage in short-term memory. If new information is not rapidly encoded, or rehearsed, it is forgotten. If it is transferred to long-term memory, it becomes relatively permanent, although retrieving it may be a problem. The preceding is a useful model of memory; it may not be literally true of what happens in the brain (Eysenck & Keane, 1995).
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8. Short-Term Memory Concepts
Digit Span: Test of attention and short-term memory; string of numbers is recalled forward or backward
Typically part of intelligence tests
Magic Number 7 (Plus or Minus 2): STM is limited to holding seven (plus or minus two) information bits at once
Information Bit: Meaningful single piece of information
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9. More Short-Term Memory Concepts
Recoding: Reorganizing or modifying information in STM
Information Chunks: Bits of information that are grouped into larger chunks
Maintenance Rehearsal: Repeating information silently to prolong its presence in STM
Elaborative Rehearsal: Links new information with existing memories and knowledge in LTM
Good way to transfer STM information into LTM
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10. Long-Term Memory Concepts
Constructive Processing: Updating long-term memories on basis of logic, guessing, or new information
Pseudo-Memories: False memories that a person believes are true or accurate
Memory Structure: Pattern of associations among bits of information in LTM
Redintegrative Memory: Memories that are reconstructed or expanded by starting with one memory and then following chains of association to related memories
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11. Types of Long-Term Memories
Procedural: Long-term memories of conditioned responses and learned skills, e.g., driving
Declarative: LTM factual information
Semantic Memory: Impersonal facts and everyday knowledge
Subset of declarative memory
Episodic: Personal experiences linked with specific times and places
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12. CNN – Alzheimer’s Babies
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13. Fig. 9.3 Exposed cerebral cortex of a patient undergoing brain surgery. Numbers represent points that reportedly produced “memories” when electrically stimulated. A critical evaluation of such reports suggests that they are more like dreams than memories. His fact raises questions about claims that long-term memories are permanent (From Wilder Penfield, The Excitable Cortex in Conscious Man, Courtesy of the author and Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, Springfield, Illinois.)
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14. Fig. 9.6 The tower puzzle. In this puzzle, all the colored disks must be moved to another post, without ever placing a larger disk on a smaller one. Only one disk may be moved at a time, and a disk must always be moved from one post to another (it cannot be held aside). An amnesic patient learned to solve the puzzle in 31 moves, the minimum possible. Even so, each time he began, he protested that he did not remember ever solving the puzzle before and that he did not know how to begin. Evidence like this suggests that skill memory is distinct from memories for facts.
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15. Fig. 9.7 In the model shown here, long-term memory is divided into procedural memory (learned actions and skills) and declarative memory (stored facts). Declarative memories can be either semantic (impersonal knowledge) or episodic (personal experiences associated with specific times and places).
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16. Measuring Memory
Tip-of-the Tongue (TOT): Feeling that a memory is available but not quite retrievable
Recall: Direct retrieval of facts or information
Hardest to recall items in the middle of a list; known as Serial Position Effect
Easiest to remember last items in a list because they are still in STM
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17. Fig. 9. 8 The serial position effect
Fig. 9.8 The serial position effect. The graph shows the percentage of subjects correctly recalling each item in a 15-item list. Recall is best for the first and last items. (Data from Craik, 1970.)
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18. Measuring Memory (cont.)
Recognition Memory: Previously learned material is correctly identified
Usually superior to recall
Distractors: False items included with a correct item
Wrong choices on multiple-choice tests
False Positive: False sense of recognition
Relearning: Learning again something that was previously learned
Used to measure memory of prior learning
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19. Measuring Memory (cont.)
Savings Score: Amount of time saved when relearning information
Explicit Memory: Past experiences that are consciously brought to mind
Implicit Memory: A memory not known to exist; memory that is unconsciously retrieved
Priming: When cues are used to activate hidden memories
Internal Images: Mental pictures
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20. Eidetic Imagery (Somewhat Like Photographic Memory)
Occurs when a person (usually a child) has visual images clear enough to be scanned or retained for at least 30 seconds
Usually projected onto a “plain” surface, like a blank piece of paper
Usually disappears during adolescence and is rare by adulthood
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21. Fig Test picture like that used to identify children with eidetic imagery. To test your eidetic imagery, look at the picture for 30 seconds. Then look at a blank surface and try to “project” the picture on it. If you have good eidetic imagery, you will be able to see the picture in detail. Return now to the text and try to answer the questions there. (Redrawn from an illustration in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.)
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22. Forgetting
Nonsense Syllables: Meaningless three-letter words (fej, quf) that test learning and forgetting
Encoding Failure: When a memory was never formed in the first place
Memory Traces: Physical changes in nerve cells or brain activity that occur when memories are stored
Memory Decay: When memory traces become weaker; fading or weakening of memories
Disuse: Theory that memory traces weaken when memories are not used or retrieved
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23. Fig. 9. 11 The curve of forgetting
Fig The curve of forgetting. This graph shows the amount remembered (measured by relearning) after varying lengths of time. The material learned was nonsense syllables. Forgetting curves for meaningful information also show early losses followed by a long, gradual decline, but overall, forgetting occurs much more slowly. (After Ebbinghaus, 1885.)
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24. Fig Some of the distracter items used in a study of recognition memory and encoding failure. Penny A is correct but was seldom recognized. Pennies G and J were popular wrong answers. (Adapted from Nickerson & Adams, 1979.)
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25. Fig. 9. 12 Pick a card from the six shown
Fig.9.12 Pick a card from the six shown. Look at it closely and be sure you can remember which card is yours. Now, tap all four corners of this page with your fingertip. When you’re done, look at Fig.9.14
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26. Some More Theories of Forgetting
Memory Cue: Any stimulus associated with a memory; usually enhances retrieval of a memory
A person will forget if cues are missing at retrieval time
State-Dependent Learning: When memory retrieval is influenced by body state; if your body state is the same at the time of learning AND the time of retrieval, retrievals will be improved
If Robert is drunk and forgets where his car is parked, it will be easier to recall the location if he gets drunk again!
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27. Fig. 9. 14 Poof. The card you chose in Fig. 9. 12 is gone
Fig.9.14 Poof! The card you chose in Fig is gone. Obviously, you could have selected any one of the six cards in Fig How did I know which one to remove? This trick is based entirely on an illusion of memory. Recall that you were asked to concentrate on one card in Fig That prevented you from paying attention to the other cards, so they weren’t stored in your memory. The five cards you see here are all new (none were shown in Fig.9.12). Because you couldn’t find your card in the “remaining five,” it looked like your card had disappeared.
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28. Fig. 9. 15 The effect of mood on memory
Fig The effect of mood on memory. Subjects best remembered a list of words when their mood during testing was the same as their mood was when they learned the list. (Adapted from Bower, 1981.)
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29. Even More (!) Theories of Forgetting
Interference: Tendency for new memories to impair retrieval of older memories, and vice versa
Retroactive Interference: Tendency for new learning to interfere with retrieval of old learning
Proactive Interference: Prior learning inhibits (interferes with) recall of later learning
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30. Fig. 9. 17 Effects of interference on memory
Fig Effects of interference on memory. A graph of the approximate relationship between percentage recalled and number of different word lists memorized. (Adapted from Underwood, 1957.)
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31. Fig. 9. 18 Retroactive and proactive interference
Fig Retroactive and proactive interference. The order of learning and testing shows whether interference is retroactive (backward) or proactive (forward).
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32. More on Forgetting
Positive Transfer: Mastery of one task aids learning or performing another
Negative Transfer: Mastery of one task conflicts with learning or performing another
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33. CNN – Memory Drugs
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34. Repression and Suppression
Repression: Unconsciously pushing painful, embarrassing, or threatening memories out of awareness/consciousness
Motivated forgetting, according to some theories
Suppression: Consciously putting something painful or threatening out of mind or trying to keep it from entering awareness
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35. Flashbulb Memories
Memories created during times of personal tragedy, accident, or other emotionally significant events
Where were you when you heard that terrorists had attacked the USA on September 11th, 2001?
Includes both positive and negative events
Not always accurate
Great confidence is placed in them even though they may be inaccurate
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36. Memory Formation
Retrograde Amnesia: Forgetting events that occurred before an injury or trauma
Anterograde Amnesia: Forgetting events that follow an injury or trauma
Consolidation: Forming a long-term memory
Electroconvulsive Shock (ECS): Mild electrical shock passed through the brain, destroying any memory that is being formed; one way to prevent consolidation
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37. Memory Structures
Hippocampus: Brain structure associated with information passing from short-term memory into long-term memory
If damaged, person can no longer “create” long-term memories and thus will always live in the present
Memories prior to damage will remain intact
Engram: Memory trace in the brain
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38. Ways to Improve Memory
Knowledge of Results: Feedback allowing you to check your progress
Recitation: Summarizing aloud while you are learning
Rehearsal: Reviewing information mentally (silently)
Selection: Selecting most important concepts to memorize
Organization: Organizing difficult items into chunks; a type of reordering
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39. Ways to Improve Memory (cont.)
Whole Learning: Studying an entire package of information at once, like a poem
Part Learning: Studying subparts of a larger body of information (like text chapters)
Progressive Part Learning: Breaking learning task into a series of short sections
Serial Position Effect: Making most errors while remembering the middle of the list
Overlearning: Studying is continued beyond bare mastery
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40. Ways to Improve Memory (cont.)
Spaced Practice: Alternating short study sessions with brief rest periods
Massed Practice: Studying for long periods without rest periods
Lack of sleep decreases retention; sleep aids consolidation
Hunger decreases retention
Cognitive Interview: Technique used to improve memories of eyewitnesses
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41. Mnemonics: Memory “Tricks”
Any kind of memory system or aid
Using mental pictures
Making things meaningful
Making information familiar
Forming bizarre, unusual, or exaggerated mental associations
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42. Using Mnemonics to Remember Things in Order
Form a Chain: Remember lists in order, forming an exaggerated association connecting item one to two, and so on
Take a Mental Walk: Mentally walk along a familiar path, placing objects or ideas along the path
Use a system
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43. Seven Sins of Memory (Schacter, 2001)
Transience: Stored information tends to fade with passage of time
Absent-Mindedness: Weak, poorly encoded memories tend to cause absent-mindedness
Blocking: Not being able to recall a word or a name that you know well
Misattribution: Linking a memory with the wrong source, time, or place
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44. Seven Sins of Memory (cont.)
Suggestibility: Suggestions and misleading questions can implant information that leads us to alter or revise our memories
Bias: Memories are often distorted to match our beliefs and expectations
Persistence: Memories of traumatic events may persist for many years
Conclude: Memory limitations that appear to be flaws are actually adaptive features in some situations
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