8 - 1 © 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Introduction to Learning & Memory

8 - 2 © 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory 1.Biological Basis of Memory 2.Overview and Sensory Memory 3.Short-Term or Working Memory 4.Learning and Encoding in Long-Term Memory 5.The Organization of Long-Term Memory 6.Remembering

8 - 3 © 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Biological Basis of Memory  Recall that synaptic transmission is the mode of information passing which occurs in the brain between neurons So is there a synaptic mechanism that correlates to memory? YES it is called long term (synaptic) potentiation

8 - 4 © 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Biological Basis of Memory Excitatory Synaspes Recording Electrode Glutamate Receptors Response to Input A or B Stimulus After stimulating A + B for one hour response to original stimulus at A or B becomes larger msec

8 - 5 © 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Biological Basis of Memory Potentiation of this response can also be created by briefly giving a high frequency stimulation for just a short time (1s) This brief stimulation can last for hours (or days) Control response to one stimulation Response to one stimulation after high frequency stimulation

8 - 6 © 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Biological Basis of Memory  LTP is the increased synaptic response to excitatory neurotransmitter (glutamate)  It causes a neurone or a group of neurones to be more efficiently stimulated by (an)other excitatory neurone(s)  Drugs that block glutamate response stop memories from being formed  This first occurs in the hippocampus A brain area in the limbic system of the brain, located deep in the temporal lobe, it plays an important role in memory. ALSO LTP also involves structural changes in formed synapses as well as the formation of new synapses

8 - 7 © 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Flow information from input through to memory

8 - 8 © 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Overview and Sensory Memory  Iconic Memory: a form of sensory memory that holds a brief visual memory of something that has just been received

8 - 9 © 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Echoic Memory  Echoic memory is a form of sensory memory for sounds that have just been perceived. MAL LET MAL CONTENT

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Short-Term or Working Memory  Encoding of Information: Interaction with Long-Term Memory  Primacy and Recency Effects  Loss of Information from Short-Term Memory

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory The Limits of Working Memory Is defined as the immediate memory for stimuli that have just been perceived. It is limited in terms of both capacity (7 ± 2 chunks of information) and duration (less than 20 seconds).  But chunking of information can help: a phone number Or better still : CBCCSISFBI becomes: CBC CSIS FBI

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Encoding of Information: Interaction with Long-Term Memory F 8.3 Encoding of short term memory usually requires an interaction with long term memory Your ability to memorize the following requires a familiarity with symbols or thing to be remembered.

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Encoding of Information: Interaction with Long-Term Memory Short term memory becomes very difficult if there is no point of reference Try memorizing the following: 

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Primacy and Recency Effects Read this list of words:  Dog  Cat  Fish  Leg  Hat  Pen  Top  Pat  Gut  Mat

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Primacy and Recency Effects  Primacy effect is the tendency to remember initial information because we can rehearse it.  dog, cat vs. top or pen Recency effect is the tendency to recall later information because it has been committed to short term memory  gut, mat vs. fish or leg

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Varieties of Working Memory: Phonological F 8.5

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Aphasia: A Disruption of the Phonological System F 8.6

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Learning and Encoding in Long-Term Memory  The Consolidation Hypothesis  The Levels of Processing Hypothesis  Improving Long-Term Memory

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory The Consolidation Hypothesis  Consolidation is the process by which information in short-term memory is transferred to long-term memory.  This is very effective and involves primarily rehearsal of the facts. Brain injury can and does effect our ability to retrieve facts this is called retrograde amnesia but short term memory may be uneffected Thus long term and short term memory seems to be stored separately implying that there is a “movement” of information from one brain process to the next. Maintenance rehearsal is the main strategy here: i.e. rote repetition Shallow Processing: the analysis of the superficial characteristics of stimulus such as size or shape recognising a word such as “fish”

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory The Levels of Processing Hypothesis  The strategy here is:  Elaborative Rehearsal: processing of information in such a way as an association or meaning is attached. Thus you may more readily recall something if another complexity or contextual reference added to the information. Deep processing: refers to the analysis of the complex characteristics such as its meaning or impact “Fish” becomes big and small, slimy, lives in water, sometimes good to eat.

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Read This and try to memorise it!  With Hocked gems financing him our hero bravely defied all scornful laughter that tried to prevent his scheme. “Your eyes deceive”he had said” An egg not a table correctly typifies this unexplored planet Now three sturdy sisters sought proof. Forging along sometimes through calm vastness yet more often over trubulent peaks and valleys days became weeks as many doubters spread fearful rumours about the edge.

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory The Voyage of Cristopher Columbus  With Hocked gems financing him our hero bravely defied all scornful laughter that tried to prevent his scheme. “Your eyes deceive”he had said” AM egg not a table correctly typifies this unexplored planet Now three sturdy sisters sought proof. Forging along sometimes through calm vastness yet more often over trubulent peaks and valleys days became weeks as many doubters spread fearful rumours about the edge. Familiarity helps encode memory

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory The Levels of Processing Hypothesis  Effortful Processing: practising information rehearsal, typically studying consciously focusing our attention on something  Automatic Processing: formation of memories requires no little or no attention,  It nevertheless involves the repetition of fact or situation but we involuntarily remember

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory The Organization of Long-Term Memory  Episodic and Semantic Memory episodic memory A type of long-term memory that serves as a record of our life’s experiences. semantic memory A type of long-term memory that contains data, facts, and other information, including vocabulary.

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Explicit and Implicit Memory  Explicit memory is memories that can be described verbally, and thus, we are consciously aware of.  facts, knowledge  e.g., names of the provinces in Canada  Implicit memory is memories that cannot be described verbally, and thus, are not available to consciousness.  skills, habits  e.g., riding a bicycle

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory The Biological Basis of Long-Term Memory Anterograde  Amnesia (After the event) Traumatic Event  Retrograde Amnesia (before the event)

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Remembering  Remembering and Recollecting  How Long Does Long-Term Memory Last?  Remembering and Interference

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Improving Long-Term Memory Through Mnemonics  Mnemonics are a system of conscious strategies designed to improve memory.  Lines of the music staff are the notes E,G,B,D,F 4 4 # e g b f d food deserves boy good every

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Method of Loci F 8.11 method of loci A mnemonic system in which items to be remembered are mentally associated with specific physical locations or landmarks.

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Peg-words F 8.12 peg-word method A mnemonic system in which items to be remembered are associated with a set of mental pegs that one already has in memory, such as key words of a rhyme.

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Remembering and Recollecting F 8.15 Its automatic and difficult to control

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Retroactive and Proactive Interference F 8.20

© 2000 Pearson Education Canada Inc.,Toronto, Ontario Memory Retroactive and Proactive Interference  proactive interference Interference in recall that occurs when previously learned information disrupts our ability to remember newer information.  retroactive interference Interference in recall that occurs when recently learned information disrupts our ability to remember older information.