Memory

Definition Process by which we recollect prior experiences & skills learned in the past.

Different kinds of memory Episodic: memory of a specific event Ex. What you had for breakfast Flashbulb: a special kind of episodic memory in which we recall events in great detail Ex. Where were you when the World Trade Center was attacked? Generic: General knowledge that people remember Ex. Trivial Pursuit. Procedural: Skills or procedures you have learned Ex. Shooting a basketball, riding a bike, swimming Skills learned usually stay w/ you a long time “just like riding a bike”

Forgetting Failures of memory; the flip side of remembering Forgetting Curve: There is a sharp decline in memory within the first hour More gradual decline after the first hour

Reasons for forgetting Decay Memories decay over time and eventually disappear Reminiscence You may not be able to remember something, but later the information pops back into your memory. This suggests that forgotten info. has not decayed & is not gone. It is temporarily lost.

Reasons for forgetting cont. Interference

3 Processes of Memory 1. Encoding: the translation of information into a form which can be stored (next slide) Visual Codes: attempt to remember something by a mental picture Acoustic Codes: records the memory as a sequence of sounds Semantic Codes: this represents information in terms of its meaning (making sense of it) Ex. Solar System; making sentence out of the letters

OTTFFSSENT

3 Processes of Memory cont. 2. Storage: the maintenance of encoded information – over a period of time (strategies of storing information) Maintenance Rehearsal: repeating information over & over again to keep from forgetting it (actors & their lines) Elaborative Rehearsal: make the information meaningful – remembering new info. by relating it to info. already well known. (turning a string of digits into a phone # to give it more meaning)

3 Processes of Memory cont. 2. Storage cont. Organizational Systems: organize new information learned into files that relate to one another & the files into files. (how history is learned and remembered – presidents) Filing Errors: errors in our memory

3 Processes of Memory cont. 3. Retrieval: locating stored information & returning it to conscious thought Context Dependent Memories: memories that are dependent on the place where they were encoded and stored. State Dependent Memory: memories that are retrieved because the mood in which they were originally encoded is recreated (feelings of happiness/sadness) Tip of the tongue phenomenon: feeling of knowing experience.

Three Stages of Memory 1. Sensory Memory: 1 st stage of memory The immediate, initial recording of information that enters through our senses. Iconic Memory: pictures formed from visual stimuli are icons. Extremely brief, like snapshots Eidetic imagery: photographic memory Remembering visual stimuli over long periods of time Names, #’s, faces Echoic Memory: Memory of sounds (last longer than Iconic)

Three Stages of Memory cont. 2. Short Term Memory: working memory (looking up a phone #) Information you can hold onto for a short period of time -- until you can put it into a permanent spot (write down) This information will fade rapidly – to remember it longer, one must keep rehearsing it over & over.

2. Short Term Memory cont. Primary Effect: we tend to remember the initial items in a series of items. Recency effect: tendency to recall the last items in a series. Chunking: the organization of items into familiar or manageable units. (how you remembered OTTFFSSENT) Interference: when new information appears in short term memory & takes the place of what is already there (p. 163)

Three Stages of Memory cont. 3. Long Term Memory 3 rd and final stage of memory Remembering something for more than just a brief amount of time. Psychologists have yet to discover a limit to how much can be stored in long term memory