Review of Long-term Memory Organizes and stores info Capacity unlimited Thought by some to be permanent Encoding transfers info from STM to LTM Long-term memory Working or Short-term Memory Sensory Input Attention Encoding Retrieval Maintenance Rehearsal

Automatic vs. Effortful Encoding Automatic processing Unconscious encoding of information Examples: What did you eat for lunch today? Was the last time you studied during the day or night? You know the meanings of these very words you are reading. Are you actively trying to process the definition of the words?

Automatic vs. Effortful Encoding Effortful processing Requires attention and conscious effort Examples: Memorizing your notes for your upcoming Introduction to Psychology exams Repeating a phone number in your head until you can write it down Different levels of effortful processing

Levels of Processing Experiment Instructions: A word will appear once a second Follow the instructions on your sheet Simply check yes or no in the appropriate column There will be 42 words total Beach Waist Child Trunk Teacher General Turkey Book Image Ink Pheasant Patient Ankle Bass House Barn Boat Leaf Indian Radio Blue Mother Carriage Earlobe Dog Cousin Grill Carrot Red Rabbit Picnic Aunt Uncle Elephant Trout Brain Memory Knee Duck Cabbage Gold Horse

Shallow processing Processing only superficial characteristics of a piece of information Examples: visual encoding: encoding of images Does a word contain the letter “e”? Does a word contain all capital letters? Was the word in italics? acoustic encoding: sound-based encoding Does a word rhyme with gum? Maintenance rehearsal: simple repetition

Deep levels of processing Elaboration: focus on meaning of info to encode info into LTM don’t simply repeat items over and over tie item to other info in memory also called elaborative rehearsal

Ways to use deep processing Actively question new info Think about its implications Relate info to things you already know Generate own examples of concepts Don’t highlight passage as you read focus on the ideas in the text

Which level is more effective? Percent of words recalled Type of Processing Shallow - Visual Visual (written in capitals?) Acoustic (rhymes with...) Semantic (type of…) Shallow - Acoustic Deep Deep processing leads to better recall than shallow processing

More evidence for deep processing Positive correlation between grades and use of elaboration in 5th-grade students In an experiment, college students assigned to use elaboration received higher grades than students not taught elaboration key words: levels of processing; elaboration; deep processing; encoding; long-term memory Notes: - The first item (with 5th-grade students) refers to a study by Bransford (1982). - The second item (with college students) refers to a study by Heiman (1987). - Both studies are referred to more in depth on Page 326 in Peter Gray's Psychology text (3rd edition).

Enhancing encoding Dual coding theory Mnemonics visualization key word method method of loci peg word method

Method of Loci Imagine moving through a familiar series of locations the campus, your house, etc. Associate each place/room with a visual representation of the objects to be remembered

Method of Loci For example, imagine this visual scenario

Ebbinghaus experiment Can boost memory through repetition The more time spent learning information, the more you retain Experiment Day 1 - memorized lists of nonsense syllables: BAF, HAB, JUV, VEZ, etc… varied number of repetitions Day 2 - examined how long it took to relearn the list studied on Day one

Ebbinghaus results Time in minutes taken to relearn list on day 2 Number of repetitions of list on day 1 As rehearsal increases, relearning time decreases