Memory: long term memory Psychology ATAR Unit 3 Old text Chapter 11 pg. 260-264 Chapter 14 pg. 340-341 New text Chapter 13

Working memory: rehearsal There are 2 types of rehearsal: Maintenance rehearsal Elaborative rehearsal Remembering information for immediate use Repeating it aloud or in your head - does not transfer into LTM Example: telephone number

Working memory: rehearsal Elaborative rehearsal Actively processing and encoding information into LTM How? By focussing on the meaning of information and linking it to information already stored in LTM. Self-reference effect – more likely to remember it if we can relate new information to personal experiences Example: Associating the telephone number with another one you already know – finding patterns

LTM: multiple systems model Declarative (explicit) episodic semantic Procedural (implicit)

Procedural memory The ‘how to’ of memory Memory for learnt actions and skills, mainly motor skills Does not require conscious effort Examples: how to ride a bike, walk, talk, tie shoe laces Sometimes call implicit memory Most resistant to forgetting

Declarative memory The ‘what’ of memory Memory of facts, information & experiences Sometimes called explicit memory Requires conscious effort for retrieval There are 2 types of declarative memory Semantic memory Episodic memory

Declarative memory Semantic memory meaning impersonal facts Examples: capital of Australia 4 + 5 = 9 months of the year Episodic memory time and place personally significant events linked to feelings and sensations Examples: what you got for your 18th birthday who your best friend in primary school was

Comparing sensory, working and long term memory Memory type Capacity Duration Models/encoding Sensory Working (short term) Long term

Recall, recognition, relearning Measuring how much a person has remembered: Recall – asking to retrieve information without any prompts or cues (e.g. who won the women’s 400m race at the Sydney Olympics?) Recognition – identifying information from a list of alternatives (e.g. is the Head of Senior School Mrs Rehm, Mr Fallon or Mrs Mitchell?) Recognition is easier than recall: Multiple choice vs. essay questions Recognising person’s face vs. remembering their name Reading vs. spelling

Recall, recognition, relearning If we can learn something the second time more quickly than the first, some information must have been retained

Forgetting How and why do we forget? Retrieval failure Interference Motivated forgetting Decay

Forgetting Retrieval failure The inability to retrieve a certain piece of information Successful retrieval: Use of cues eg. mental images, sounds, prompts from others Interference Retrieval difficulty due to similar information being stored – info mix-ups Retroactive interference – the learning of new info interferes with old info Proactive interference – old info interferes with the learning of new info

Forgetting Motivated forgetting Inability to retrieve information because there is some advantage to not remembering it Self-protection mechanism Not deliberate Examples: Not remembering the detail of traumatic events Forgetting to clean the toilet

Forgetting Decay The fading away of memory over time Much more evident in sensory memory and WM than LTM

Enhancing retrieval Memory can be improved through: Organising the information Using the information Paying closer attention to the information to be remembered Rehearsal Mnemonics and other memory-aid tricks

Enhancing retrieval Organising information and linking it to other information assists storage and retrieval: Example: Bower and Clark (1969) found that students told to link words together by a story remembered more words than those not told to use a story (90% compared to 15%) What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word “red”?

Enhancing Retrieval Contextual cues helps to trigger memory Example: studying in quiet, exam like conditions can help you to recall information when the conditions are similar) Emotional state Material learned in one mood is better remembered in the same mood state

Semantic network theory Information in LTM is organised systematically in overlapping networks of concepts (nodes) Each node is linked with other nodes When we retrieve information the activation of one node causes other related nodes to be also activated The more nodes activated, the quicker information can be retrieved

Semantic network theory

Crash Course Memory (10 min) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSycdIx- C48&index=13&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOPRKzVLY0jJY-uHOH9KVU6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSycdIx-C48 Remembering and forgetting (10 min) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVWbrNls- Kw&index=14&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOPRKzVLY0jJY-uHOH9KVU6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVWbrNls-Kw