Interactive lecture VI Dr Jolanta Babiak Winter semester 2017/2018 MEMORY Interactive lecture VI Dr Jolanta Babiak Winter semester 2017/2018

THREE TYPES OF MEMORY Episodic memory Stores the specific events that are personally experienced – e.g. what you’ve had for breakfast today, whom you first met on the way to school, coffee you had with your friends – time and situation (context) forms the cues to retrieve this information Depending on how this information was encoded you may or may not be able to retrieve it from your memory In regards to episodic memory we rather say “I recall that….” Semantic memory relates to the meaning, understanding of the process, event, concept or information, e.g. the capital of France, names of Russian Tzars, author of Hamlet Information from semantic memory is “I know that….” Procedural memory Knowledge how things get done – process, e.g. riding a bike, swimming, typing, holding a pen It is very stable and functions for years even if not used

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THREE MEMORY PROCESSES Encoding: the first step in data processing – information about the environment reaches us in the form of stimulus (physical, chemical). When we encode we change this data into psychological form - a representation of visual, semantic, audio coding Storage: storing information over time Retrieval: enables to gain access to information stored earlier; some information gets retrieved in a split of a second, “automatically”; however complex information, large amount of data, information which is not well comprehended may not be so swiftly retrieved

DEFINITION OF MEMORY processes that enable an individual to encode, store and retrieve information type of information processing Ability to store and retrieve information

THREE STAGES OF MEMORY Sensory memory, e.g. iconic – the first stadium information goes through; memory trace of visual stimulus gets wiped out after a second Short-term memory – not a particular place information goes to, but a mechanism of focusing cognitive resources in a set of mental representations – e.g. trying to remember phone number; information lasts about one minute in this memory Primacy effect – better memory for items at the start of a list; we are used to pay special attention to elements that are located at the start of the information piece Recency effect - improved memory for items at the end of the list – it is the end of the piece of information Interference – makes information disappear from our STM Shallow and deep information processing – type of attention we pay to information at the time of encoding Long-term memory – our storehouse – our total knowledge of the world and of the self Some scientists propose that this LTM stores everything we experienced, but we might not be able to access this information because we either have no cues to retrieve it or we repressed it to subconscious

How is our long term memory organized Our brain tries to function in the most economical mode We categorize stimuli We store information in hierarchy Adequate organization of information helps in retrieving process “Tip of a tong” effect – most probably the process of encoding and storing was disturbed Context-based memory – retrieving vivid memories when put in the same context while experiencing specific events State based memory – physiological or psychological states – viscous circle effect

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Remembering and forgetting We don’t we remember – we reconstruct information: putting together information based on more general knowledge stored That’s why our memories might be distorted and not resemble the real experience or event that actually happened Eyewitness memory – vulnerable to distortions by post- event information: acquiring new information that can interact with the original memories

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