Learning and Remembering

Objectives Sensory, short-term, and long-term memory Two kinds of long-term memory Event-related activity in the brain Theories of forgetting

Basic Concepts and Definitions in Memory Attention, memory, and learning Early Studies of Exceptional Memories S who had an astounding memory Memory curves

Defining Memory Memory Remembering and Knowing Forgetting Availability of information Ability to retrieve previously acquired skills or information Remembering and Knowing The trees with their growth rings know things, but they remember nothing Storage and retrieval Forgetting The other side of learning Inability to retrieve or an actual change in the physiological effects of experience

Early Memory Research Retroactive interference Proactive interference

Three-Component Model of Memory Short-term memory Long-term memory Sensory memory

Sensory Memory Term for the immediate, unconscious effects of stimuli Cocktail party experiments

Short-Term (or Working) Memory A classical study of STM Function of rehearsal and time lapse Limited Capacity Working memory: concious at any given time Seven slots plus or minus two

Short-Term (or Working) Memory Chunking Short term memory slots don’t have to be unitary Baddeley’s model of working memory Central executive system Slave systems: phonological loop and visual-spatial sketch pad

Short-Term (or Working) Memory Decay theory Memory traces vanish quickly with the passage of time Displacement theory There are a limited number of slots and incoming information displaces old information Interference theory Previous learning (rather than subsequent information) might somehow interfere with short-term memory Levels of Processing Main difference between short- and long-term involves how input is processed

Long-Term Memory Long-term memory is highly stable Long-term memory is generative Schemata or scripts influence memories It makes people to remember things that have never happened (generation rather than reproduction)

Long-Term Memory Understanding influences long-term memory Some things are more easily remembered Flashbulb memories

Short-Term and Long-Term Memory Compared