1. Psychology 001 Introduction to Psychology Christopher Gade, PhD Office: 621 Heafey Office hours: F 3-6 and by apt. Email: gadecj@gmail.com Class WF 7:00-8:30 Heafey 650

2. In the last lecture we learned about… ► How memory was first studied. ► Memory testing techniques. ► Different types of memories  Temporal  Content specific

3. Today, we’re going to discuss how our memories can be erroneous at times. ► Problems with our memories  Interference  Serial order effects  Reconstruction effects ► How to improve our memories  Levels of processing  Encoding specificity  Learning intervals  Mnemonic devices

4. Let’s Test Our Memories ► We’ll be going over several lists of words. Please follow the instructions and try to the best you can in each activity.

5. Problems with our memories… ► Interference: a loss of memory accuracy that is due to an overlap of information when trying to recall specific details of lists/events/people.  Proactive interference: new material is lost (not easily stored) due to old material. ► Flowers ► New addresses (zip codes)  Retroactive interference: old material is lost (forgotten) due to new material. ► Fruits ► Specific details about ex’s

6. Problems with our memories (cont.) ► Serial order (position) effect: the better retention of information/items due to their position in a list of information/items.  Primacy effect: the ability to remember information at the beginning of a list more easily. ► Word lists 1 & 3 (primacy effect) ► Word list 2 (primacy effect removed)  Recency effect: the ability to remember information at the end of a list more easily. ► Word lists 1 & 2 (recency effect) ► Word list 3 (recency effect removed)

7. Problems with our memories (cont.) ► Reconstruction effect: our tendency to include inaccurate information into our memories in an attempt to “fill in the gaps”.  Reconstructing stories and adding details ► Subway video ► Word list 4 ► Note: This happens a lot more than we think it does!  Creating false memories versus uncovering of forgotten memories ► Freud’s work on repression ► Elizabeth Loftus research (in the text)  Hindsight bias ► “I remember thinking that today would not be my day.” ► “I never really liked him/her much anyway.” ► “I knew we shouldn’t have invested in that company.”

8. How do we improve our memories? ► Let’s try something out…

9. Task 1 ► In this task, you’ll see a list of words, remember how many of these words have at least three vowels in them.

10. Task 1 ► In this task, you’ll see a list of words, remember how many of these words rhyme with the word stack.

11. Task 1 ► In this task, you’ll see a list of words, remember how many of these words relate to something that you valued from your past.

12. MouseShore Flight ShackSheet Kayak HouseAttack Assure UnpackBlouse Smack

13. How to improve our memories (cont.) ► Levels of processing: The deeper you think about something, the more likely you are to remember the information.  More time spent on the information  More retrieval cues are available  More neural connections are formed

14. How to improve our memories (cont.) ► Encoding specificity: we’re more likely to remember information when we are in a condition that resembles the condition that we were in when we learned the information.  Mood dependency ► Recollection of traumatic events  Situation dependency ► Baddelley’s scuba diving experiment  State dependency ► When you’re using caffeine… ► When you’re using alcohol?

15. How to improve our memories (cont.) ► Increased learning intervals  Allows for deeper processing  Counteract proactive and retroactive interference  Allow for more encoding specificity opportunities ► Mnemonic devices  THE mnemonic device ► EGBDF ► OCEAN  Chunking ► Phone #’s ► List #1  Information pairings ► List #2  Method of loci ► Grocery Lists

16. So what have we learned? ► We learned about how our memories can go awry at times. ► We also learned about a few methods that we can use in order to improve our memories. ► We learned that studying memory can be fun!!!