1. Memory Chapter 10 Memory 4/20/2017
Prepared by Krista D. Forrest, Ph.D., and Michael Lee
These slides © 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc., Toronto, Ontario.
Chapter 10
©2002 Prentice Hall

2. Memory Reconstructing the past Memory and the power of suggestion
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Memory
Reconstructing the past
Memory and the power of suggestion
In pursuit of memory
The three-box model of memory
The biology of memory
How we remember
Why we forget
Autobiographical memories
©2002 Prentice Hall

3. Reconstructing the Past
Memory
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Reconstructing the Past
The Manufacture of Memory
The Fading Flashbulb
The Conditions of Confabulation
©2002 Prentice Hall

4. The Manufacture of Memory
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The Manufacture of Memory
Memory
The capacity to retain and retrieve information.
Memory is a reconstructive process.
Recovering a memory is not playing a videotape.
Memory involves inferences that fill in gaps in recall.
We are often unaware we have made such inferences.
Source Amnesia
The inability to distinguish what you originally experienced from what you heard or were told later about an event.
©2002 Prentice Hall

5. Memory
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The Fading Flashbulb
Some unusual, shocking or tragic events hold a special place in memory.
These memories were called Flashbulb memories because the term captures the surprise, illumination & photographic detail that characterize them.
Even flashbulb memories have errors.
©2002 Prentice Hall

6. The Conditions of Confabulation
Memory
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The Conditions of Confabulation
Confabulation
Confusion of an event that happened to someone else with one that happened to you,
or a belief that you remember something when it never actually happened.
©2002 Prentice Hall

7. Confabulation is most likely when:
Memory
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Confabulation is most likely when:
You have thought about the event many times.
The image of the event contains many details.
The event is easy to imagine.
You focus on emotional reactions to the event rather than what actually happened.
©2002 Prentice Hall

8. Memory and the Power of Suggestion
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Memory and the Power of Suggestion
The eyewitness on trial
Children’s testimony
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9. The Eyewitness on Trial
Memory
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The Eyewitness on Trial
Eyewitnesses are not always reliable.
Factors which influence accuracy
Cross race identification
Question wording
Crashed versus hit
Misleading information
©2002 Prentice Hall

10. Memory
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Children’s Testimony
Under what conditions are children more suggestible?
Being very young
When interviewers expectations are clear
When other children’s memories for events are accessible
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11. Memory
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Children’s Testimony
Social Pressure, False Allegations
If asked if a visitor committed acts that had not occurred, few 4-6 year olds said yes.
30% of 3-year olds said yes
When investigators used techniques taken from real child-abuse investigations, most children said yes.
Figure 7.02 from
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
©2002 Prentice Hall

12. In Pursuit of Memory Measuring memory Models of memory Explicit memory
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In Pursuit of Memory
Measuring memory
Explicit memory
Implicit memory
Models of memory
©2002 Prentice Hall

13. Memory
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Explicit Memory
Conscious, intentional recollection of an event or of an item of information. Assessed through:
Recall
The ability to retrieve and reproduce from memory previously learned material.
Recognition
The ability to identify previously encountered material.
©2002 Prentice Hall

14. Memory
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Implicit Memory
Unconscious retention in memory, as evidenced by the effect of a previous experience or previously encountered information on current thoughts or actions. Assessed through:
Priming
a person reads or listens to information and is later tested to see whether the information affects performance on another type of task.
Relearning
compares the time required to relearn material with the time used in the initial learning of the material.
©2002 Prentice Hall

15. The Three-Box Model of Memory
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The Three-Box Model of Memory
Sensory memory: Fleeting impressions
Short-term memory: Memory’s scratch pad
Long-term memory: Final destination
Parallel distributed processing (PDP) model: an alternative model of memory in which knowledge is represented as connections among thousands of interacting processing units, distributed in a vast network, and all operating in parallel.
©2002 Prentice Hall

16. Three-Box Model of Memory
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Three-Box Model of Memory
Figure 7.03 from
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
©2002 Prentice Hall

17. Sensory Memory: Fleeting Impressions
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Sensory Memory: Fleeting Impressions
A memory system that momentarily preserves extremely accurate images of sensory information.
Pattern Recognition
The identification of a stimulus on the basis of information already contained in long-term memory.
Information that is not quickly passed to short term memory is gone forever.
©2002 Prentice Hall

18. Short-term: Memory’s Scratch Pad
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Short-term: Memory’s Scratch Pad
In the three-box model of memory, a limited capacity memory system involved in the retention of information for brief periods; it is also used to hold information retrieved from long-term memory for temporary use.
Working memory
A memory system which includes STM and mental processes that control retrieval of information from LT memory and interpret that information appropriately for a given task.
Chunk
Meaningful unit of information which may be composed of smaller units.
©2002 Prentice Hall

19. Memory
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The Value of Chunking
You have 5 seconds to memorize as much as you can.
Then, draw an empty chess board and reproduce the arrangement of pieces.
Figure 6.6 from:
Kassin, S. (2001). Psychology, third edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
©2002 Prentice Hall

20. Long-term memory: Final Destination
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Long-term memory: Final Destination
The memory system involved in the long term storage of information
One way information is organized is in semantic categories (i.e., animals).
©2002 Prentice Hall

21. Conceptual Grid Memory 4/20/2017 Figure 7.04 from
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Conceptual Grid
©2002 Prentice Hall

22. Contents of Long-Term Memory
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Contents of Long-Term Memory
Procedural memories
Memories for performance of actions or skills.
“Knowing how.”
Declarative memories
Memories of facts, rules, concepts, and events; includes semantic and episodic memory.
“Knowing that”
Examples include semantic and episodic memories.
©2002 Prentice Hall

23. Contents of Long-Term Memory
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Contents of Long-Term Memory
Semantic memories
General knowledge, including facts, rules, concepts, and propositions.
Episodic memories
Personally experienced events and the contexts in which they occurred.
©2002 Prentice Hall

24. Serial-Position Effect
Memory
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Serial-Position Effect
The tendency for recall of first and last items on a list and to surpass recall of items in the middle of the list.
Figure 7.06 from
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
©2002 Prentice Hall

25. Memory
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The Biology of Memory
Forming a memory involves chemical and structural changes at the level of neurons.
In short-term memory, changes within neurons temporarily alter the neuron’s ability to release transmitters.
In long- term memory, long-term potentiation or a long-lasting increase in the strength of synaptic responsiveness occurs.
Most researchers believe this is the process underlying learning and memory yet exact biochemical and molecular changes still debated.
©2002 Prentice Hall

26. Memory
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Consolidation
Process by which a long-term memory becomes durable and stable.
©2002 Prentice Hall

27. Locating Memories New brain imaging and testing shows us that:
Memory
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Locating Memories
New brain imaging and testing shows us that:
During short-term memory tasks, areas of the frontal lobes show activity.
Long- term memory tasks, the hippocampus.
Encoding of pictures and words, prefrontal cortex and areas adjacent to the hippocampus.
Procedural memories, specific changes to cerebellum.
Formation of long-term memories, cerebral cortex.
©2002 Prentice Hall

28. Memory
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Hormones and Memory
Hormones released by the adrenal glands during stress and emotional arousal enhance memory.
Moderate levels are optimal: memory can suffer if animals are given very high doses of adrenal hormones.
These may affect memory by stimulating an increase in the level of glucose in the bloodstream.
©2002 Prentice Hall

29. How We Remember Effective Encoding Rehearsal Mnemonics Memory
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How We Remember
Effective Encoding
Rehearsal
Mnemonics
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30. Rehearsal Maintenance Rehearsal Elaborative Rehearsal
Memory
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Rehearsal
Maintenance Rehearsal
Rote repetition of material in order to maintain its availability in memory.
Elaborative Rehearsal
Association of new information with already stored knowledge and analysis of the new information to make it memorable.
©2002 Prentice Hall

31. Memory
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Deep Processing
In the encoding of information, the processing of meaning rather than simply the physical or sensory features of a stimulus.
©2002 Prentice Hall

32. Comparing Encoding Strategies
Memory
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Comparing Encoding Strategies
Figure 7.07 from
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
©2002 Prentice Hall

33. Memory
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Mnemonics
Strategies and tricks for improving memory, such as the use of a verse or a formula.
Examples include:
MDAS
ROYGBIV
Thirty days hath September…
©2002 Prentice Hall

34. Why We Forget Decay Replacement Interference Cue-dependent forgetting
Memory
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Why We Forget
Decay
Replacement
Interference
Cue-dependent forgetting
Psychogenic amnesia
©2002 Prentice Hall

35. Memory
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Decay
Decay Theory
The theory that information in memory eventually disappears if it is not accessed; it applies more to short-term than to long-term memory.
©2002 Prentice Hall

36. Memory
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Forgetting Curve
Herman Ebbinghaus tested his own memory for nonsense syllables.
Forgetting was rapid at first and then tapered off.
Figure 7.08a from
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
©2002 Prentice Hall

37. Memory
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Replacement
The theory that new information entering memory can wipe out old information.
In one study, researchers showed subjects slides of a traffic accident.
The experimental group was mislead into thinking there was a stop sign instead of a yield sign.
Even after being debriefed on the purpose of the study, subjects insisted that they really saw the stop sign (Loftus et al., 1978).
The new information which came from the researchers replaced what the subjects saw.
©2002 Prentice Hall

38. Interference Similar items interfere with one another.
Memory
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Interference
Similar items interfere with one another.
Retroactive Interference
Forgetting that occurs when recently learned material interferes with the ability to remember similar material stored previously.
Proactive Interference
Forgetting that occurs when previously stored material interferes with the ability to remember similar, more recently learned material.
Figures from page 251
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
©2002 Prentice Hall

39. Cue-dependent Forgetting
Memory
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Cue-dependent Forgetting
The inability to retrieve information stored in memory because of insufficient cues for recall.
Physical state can be a memory cue.
State-Dependent Memory
The tendency to remember something when the rememberer is in the same physical or mental state as during the original learning or experience.
Mood
©2002 Prentice Hall

40. The Repression Controversy
Memory
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The Repression Controversy
Psychogenic Amnesia
The partial or complete loss of memory (due to nonorganic causes) for threatening information or traumatic experiences.
Repression
In psychoanalytic theory, the selective involuntary pushing of threatening or upsetting information into the unconscious.
©2002 Prentice Hall

41. When should we question recovered memories?
Memory
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When should we question recovered memories?
If person says he or she has memories of first year or two of life.
If over time the memories become more and more implausible.
If therapist used hypnosis.
©2002 Prentice Hall

42. Autobiographical Memories
Memory
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Autobiographical Memories
Childhood amnesia: The missing years
©2002 Prentice Hall

43. Childhood Amnesia: The Missing Years
Memory
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Childhood Amnesia: The Missing Years
Childhood Amnesia
The inability to remember events and experiences that occurred during the first two or three years of life.
Cognitive explanations
Lack of sense of self
Impoverished encoding
A focus on the routine
Different ways of thinking about the world
©2002 Prentice Hall