1. Chapter 7 Memory

2. Memory: Some Key Terms
Memory: Active system that receives, stores, organizes, alters, and recovers (retrieves) information
Encoding: Converting information into a useable form
Storage: Holding this information in memory for later use
Retrieval: Taking memories out of storage

4. Figure 7.2
FIGURE 7.2 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

5. Sensory Memory
Storing an exact copy of incoming information for a few seconds; the first stage of memory
Icon: A fleeting mental image or visual representation
Echo: After a sound is heard, a brief continuation of the sound in the auditory system

6. Partial Report Technique
The Sensory Store
Although it is probably more accurately described as a combination of memory and perception, the sensory store is considered to be the first stage of memory processing.
It is a very brief (less than a second) stage that registers everything that is perceived in the moment that we call “now.”
Figure 7.7
George Sperling (1960) flashed arrays like this on a screen for 50 milliseconds. After the display went off, a signal told the viewer which row to recite.

7. Short-Term Memory (STM)
Holds small amounts of information briefly
Working Memory: Another name for 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 by sound (phonetically)
Very sensitive to interruption or interference

8. Long-Term Memory (LTM)
Storing information relatively permanently
Stored on basis of meaning and importance

9. 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 Bits: Meaningful units of information

10. More Short-Term Memory Concepts
Recoding: Reorganizing or modifying information in STM
Information Bits: Meaningful units of information, like numbers, letters, or words
Information Chunks: Information bits 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

12. Story Telling
Is memory reproductive (like a tape-recorder) or reconstructive (an active compiling of details into a coherent memory)?

13. Examine the reproduced stories to answer two questions:
1. What was recalled accurately?
Beginning and ending information (order effects)
Distinctive information
2. What was not recalled accurately (i.e., forgotten)?
Substituting common words/ides for uncommon words/ideas
Transforming sentence structures into less formal structure
Omitting words and ideas not central to the story

14. Read these words Clock Bed Rest Dream Slumber Blanket Nod Doze Sheet
Pillow
Nap
Snore
Mattress
Alarm
Clock
Rest
Slumber
Nod
Sheet
Bunk
Cot
Cradle
Groggy

15. Were these words on the list?
Write yes or no
Sofa
Sleep
Lamp
Kitchen

16. Long-Term Memory Concepts
Constructive Processing: Re-organizing or updating long-term memories on basis of logic, reasoning, or adding new information
Pseudo-Memory: False memories that a person believes are true or accurate
Network Model: Memory model that views the structure of long-term memory as an organizational system of linked information
Redintegration: One memory can serve as a cue to trigger another memory

17. Figure 7.4
FIGURE 7.4 A hypothetical network of facts about animals shows what is meant by the structure of memory. Small networks of ideas such as this are probably organized into larger and larger units and higher levels of meaning.

18. Types of Long-Term Memories
Procedural: Long-term memories of conditioned responses and learned skills (not always aware)
Declarative: LTM section that contains factual information
Semantic Memory: Impersonal facts and everyday knowledge
Subset of declarative memory
Episodic: Personal experiences linked with specific times and places

19. Figure 7.6
FIGURE 7.6 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).

20. Figure 7.5
FIGURE 7.5 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 fact memory. LINK

21. Measuring Memory
Tip-of-the Tongue (TOT): Feeling that a memory is available but not quite retrievable
Feeling of Knowing: Feeling that allows people to predict beforehand if they will be able to remember something (typically seen on game shows like Jeopardy)
Recall: Supply or reproduce facts or information with some external cues; 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

22. Figure 7.7
FIGURE 7.7 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.

23. Measuring Memory (cont'd)
Recognition Memory: Identifies correctly previously learned material
Usually superior to recall
Distractors: False items included with a correct item
Wrong choices on multiple-choice tests
False Positive: False sense of recognition

24. Relearning Learning again something that was previously learned
Used to measure memory of prior learning
Savings Score: Amount of time saved when relearning information

25. Additional Memory Concepts
Explicit Memory: Past experiences that are consciously brought to mind
Implicit Memory: A memory not known to exist; memory that is unconsciously retrieved

26. Figure 7.8
FIGURE 7.8 (a) “Treasure map” similar to the one used by Kosslyn, Ball, and Reiser (1978) to study images in memory. (b) This graph shows how long it took subjects to move a visualized spot various distances on their mental images of the map.

27. 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

28. Figure 7.9
FIGURE 7.9 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.)

29. Forgetting
Nonsense Syllables: Meaningless three-letter words (FEI, QUF) that test learning and forgetting
Herman Ebbinghaus
Curve of Forgetting: Graph that shows the amount of memorized information remembered after varying lengths of time
After 2 days, only 30% information remembered
Meaningful information is not lost as quickly

30. Figure 7.10
FIGURE 7.10 The curve of forgetting. This graph shows the amount remembered (measured by relearning) after varying lengths of time. Notice how rapidly forgetting occurs. 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.

31. Figure 7.11
FIGURE 7.11 Some of the distractor items used in a study of recognition memory and encoding failure.

32. 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; happens frequently for sensory memories and short-term memories
Disuse: Theory that long-term memory traces weaken when memories are not used or retrieved often

33. Additional Theories of Forgetting
Memory Cues: Any stimulus associated with a memory; usually enhance retrieval of a memory
A person will forget if cues are missing at retrieval time

34. Retrieval Cues
Retrieval cues are bits of associated information that help you to regain complex memories for later use. Many factors associated with learning can act as retrieval cues.
The encoding specificity principle states that the associations formed at the time of learning are typically the most effective retrieval cues.
State-dependent memory is our tendency to remember something better if your physical condition is the same at the time of recall as it was at the time of learning.
Encoding specificity--the way we code a word during original learning determines which cues will remind us of that word later. For example, when you hear the word queen, you may think of that word in any of several ways. If you think of queen bee, then the cue playing card will not remind you of it later. If you think of the queen of England, then chess piece will not be a good reminder.

35. 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

36. Figure 7.12
FIGURE 7.12 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.

37. Even More (!) Theories of Forgetting
Interference: Tendency for new memories to impair retrieval of older memories, and vice versa
Retroactive Interference: Tendency for new memories to interfere with retrieval of old memories
Proactive Interference: Prior learning inhibits (interferes) with recall of later learning

38. Role of Interference
When retaining old material makes it hard to retain new material, this is called proactive interference.
When learning new material makes it hard to retain old material, this is called retroactive interference.
The problem for Ebbinghaus was that he had memorized so many lists of nonsense syllabus that he experienced a strong effect from proactive interference.

39. Figure 7.14
FIGURE 7.14 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.)

40. Figure 7.15
FIGURE 7.15 Retroactive and proactive interference. The order of learning and testing shows whether interference is retroactive (backward) or proactive (forward).

41. Figure 7.13
FIGURE 7.13 The amount of forgetting after a period of sleep or of being awake. Notice that sleep causes less memory loss than activity that occurs while one is awake.

42. More on Forgetting
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

43. Flashbulb Memories
Memories created during times of personal tragedy, accident, or other emotionally significant events that are especially vivid
Where were you when you heard that the USA was attacked 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

44. 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, causing a convulsion; one way to prevent consolidation

45. Memory Structures
Hippocampus: Brain structure associated with information passing from short-term memory into long-term memory; also associated with emotion
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

46. Ways to Improve Memory
Knowledge of Results: Feedback allowing you to check your progress
Recitation: Summarizing aloud while you are rehearsing material
Rehearsal: Reviewing information mentally (silently)
Elaborative Rehearsal: Look for connections to existing knowledge
Selection: Selecting most important concepts to memorize
Organization: Organizing difficult items into chunks; a type of reordering

47. Ways to Improve Memory (cont'd)
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

48. Ways to Improve Memory Concluded
Spaced Practice: Alternating 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

49. Mnemonics: Memory “Tricks”
Any kind of memory system or aid
Use mental pictures
Make things meaningful
Make information familiar
Form bizarre, unusual or exaggerated mental associations
Keyword Method: Memory aid; using a familiar word or image to link two items

50. 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.