Memory

Memory The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information –Your memory is your mind’s storehouse, the reservoir of your accumulated learning

Memory processing is similar to computer processing Encoding – the processing of information into the memory system Storage – the retention of encoded information over time Retrieval – the process of getting information out of memory storage

Encoding the first step of building a memory is sensory input the first step of building a memory is sensory input In other words, putting information into your brain (sensation) is like typing on your computer keyboard

Once encoded, memories are stored somewhere in your brain Once encoded, memories are stored somewhere (usually more than one place) in your brainStorage When you hit the save button on the keyboard, your work is saved on the hard drive

Retrieval Stored memories can be retrieved (with varying degrees of difficulty) Stored memories can be retrieved (with varying degrees of difficulty) You can “Open” saved files to work with them again…

Memory Formation But how are memories created and what determines how long we keep them? But how are memories created and what determines how long we keep them?

Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Three- Stage Model of Memory Sensory Memory the immediate, initial recording of sensory information Sensory memory retention is only fleeting and momentary Stage 1

Sensory Memory G ZEP R KOD B TXF How many letters can you recall? Most people can recall four or five letters in that short of a time span, but know that there were more. Sensory memory retention allows us to remember small, quick bits of information for a very short period of time Sensory memory retention allows us to remember small, quick bits of information for a very short period of time Lets try! Lets try! Make sure you are paying attention! Make sure you are paying attention! Get Ready! Get Ready! Go! Go!

G ZEP R KOD B TXF

Was she attractive? What was he/she wearing? What color was it? What color was his/her hair? How long was it? Anything in it? Was she mean or nice? What was his/her facial expression? What color were his/her eyes? What was he/she carrying? Sensory Memory allows us to make snap interpretations of what we see

Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Three- Stage Model of Memory Sensory Memory A few items A few seconds the immediate, initial recording of sensory information If you pay attention, the memory will enter your short- term memory Stage 1 Stage 2 holds a few items briefly, and then the information is either stored, or forgotten Short-Term / Working Memory 5 – 9 Items 20 to 30 seconds

Short-Term Memory or Working Memory The ability to hold and manipulate information over a brief period of time. Forgetting can occur rapidly, especially if distracted

Working Memory Short-term memory has two important characteristics. –First, short-term memory can contain at any one time seven, plus or minus two, "chunks" of information. –Second, items remain in short-term memory around twenty to thirty seconds.

Short-Term Memory This type of memory increases as children get older… …but decreases in old age

Short-Term Memory Look at the pictures on the next slide

Write down all the objects you can remember How many objects did you remember?

Short-Term Memory We can only consciously process a very limited amount of information in our short-term memory. Overload your short-term memory? You might forget what you read, ask yourself where you put your briefcase, and ask your phone partner the same thing twice.

Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Three- Stage Model of Memory Sensory Memory A few items A few seconds the immediate, initial recording of sensory information Repetition and spacing can send these items to long-term storage! Stage 1 Stage 2 Short-Term / Working Memory 5 – 9 Items 20 to 30 seconds holds a few items briefly, and then the information is either stored, or forgotten the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of memories Long -Term Memory No limits! Can be retrieved and “worked” with Stage 3

Where do all the memories go? ….it depends. There is no single storage place for memories in the brain.

Important Brain Storage Areas Remember the Hippocampus? The hippocampus is your short-term or “working” memory. It processes the memory and either sends it to long-term storage or disposes of it

Important Brain Storage Areas The amygdala is responsible for emotional content of your memories Helps store emotional memories

Storing Memories in the Brain Karl Lashley – trained rats to solve a maze, then cut out pieces of the rat’s cortexes and retested their memory of the maze. No matter what small cortex section he removed, the rats retained at least a partial memory of how to solve the maze Complex memories do not reside in single specific spots

Think about the parts of a memory! Your 10 th birthday party! –Sights – your grandparents, your new pony! –Sounds – singing happy birthday! –Emotions – the joy of people paying attention to only you for a change! All of these memory pieces are stored in different places and connected back together in the process of “remembering”

Storing Memories in the Brain BUT….. Richard Thompson resumed Lashley’s search Using classical conditioning to train rabbits to blink when a tone was sounded, he found that simple, reflex memories were localized in the cerebellum! The Verdict – Complex memories are distributed while many simple, reflex memories are localized

Storing Memories in the Brain Ralph Gerard – trained hamsters to turn right or left to get food, and then lowered their body temps until the brain’s electrical activity ceased. He revived them, re-tested them, and they remembered which way to turn. Are memories stored as electrical currents in the brain, or are they somehow physically changing your brain? Conclusion : Memories seem to be electrical and physical.

What TYPES of memory are there? There are many different types of memory but two main categories Explicit Memories – those memories we try to remember And Implicit Memories – those memories we form without any effort

Explicit Memory Dates, names, presidents, parts of the brain, etc. We use explicit memory throughout the day, such as remembering the time of an appointment or recollecting an event from years ago.

Implicit Memory an automatic or an unconscious form of memory Includes Episodic Memories (events of your life, like an “episode” of a tv show) Implicit memory is special because most amnesiacs still have implicit memory skills even if they don't realize it. Motor or muscle memory is implicit

Remembering!

Encoding – Effortful Processing Two effortful practices that may help to gather (encode) sensory information include rehearsal and spacing Rehearsal – the conscious repetition of information Spacing – rehearsing information repeatedly, over time. (study, take a break; study, take a break; etc…)

Encoding – Effortful Processing Semantic Encoding – its easier to remember things that have meaning Acoustic Encoding – its easier to remember things with sound/rhyme Visual Encoding – its easier to remember things we visualize

Encoding – Effortful Processing Semantic Encoding Flashbulb Memories – a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event –Where were you when 9/11 occurred –Your 16 th Birthday, your first kiss, the first day of high school, a funeral, etc…..even though the memory old, you have a clear recollection the event because it has more meaning to you personally

Visual Encoding –Drumstick –Handshake –Soccer ball –Puppy –Chalkboard –Letter C –Football –Apple –Keflavik –Hotdog –Number 7 –Eggs –Pitcher –Balloons –Bell –Musical notes –Surtsey –Hamburger –Present –Glasses –Bicycle –Cake –Lunch Box –Cup of Coffee –Cat –Hofn –Truck –Stork Study this list for 20 seconds

write down as many as you can remember! Did any of you write Hofn, Surtsey or Keflavik? …probably not, that’s because words that have no “meaning” (Semantics) to you are harder to remember… By the way, they are all towns in Iceland….

Now study these images for 20 seconds

write down as many as you can remember! Did you remember more from the first list (words) or from the second list (images)? Usually, people remember more from the second list because visual encoding is very powerful!

Encoding – A uditory Encoding Songs! The Alphabet Song and School House Rock! Rhymes! In fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue. "i" before "e," except after "c," or in sounding like "ay" as in "neighbor" or "weigh."

Encoding – Mnemonics - Strategies or Shortcuts that help us remember (Mnemonics) Mnemonics Acronyms – Organizing items by creating words or sentences from the first letters of the words or information to be remembered

Fed Ex Mnemonics

Encoding –Chunking 1,8,1,2,1,7,7,6,1,9,4,1,1,4,9,2

What numbers do you remember?

Encoding –Chunking Would those have been easier to remember if I had chunked them like this?: 1812, 1776, 1941, 1492 Chunking – Organizing items into familiar, manageable units

Encoding –Acronyms Need to learn the names of North America’s five “Great Lakes”? –HOMES – Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior

Encoding – Effortful Processing Acronyms National Basketball Association – NBA Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus – SCUBA

Retrieval Recall – memory is the ability to retrieve exact information learned at an earlier time –IE. Fill in the blank test. –IE. Columbus sailed in the year ________. 6 x 6 = _____. Define retrieval ______. My Social Security number is _______.

Retrieval Recognition – a measure of memory in which a person only needs to recognize items previously learned –IE. A multiple-choice test.

Retrieval Relearning –if you’ve learned something and forgot it, you probably will learn the material more easily the second time –IE. Learned to play the guitar and played for five years. Haven’t played in 10 years, but you pick up a guitar and play a few tunes, and with a few lessons you play as well as you did before.

Retrieval Retrieval Cues – clues that provide reminders of information that otherwise would be more difficult to remember i.e. – a certain song was playing when you had your first kiss years ago, today you hear that song and the memory of that first kiss pops into your head

Retrieval Cues Priming – the activation of particular associations in memory i.e. - a person who sees the word "yellow" will be slightly faster to recognize the word "banana." This happens because yellow and banana are closely associated in memory. –IE. A “Missing Child” poster makes you think about your own abduction as a child –IE. The color red prompts memories of days on your grandfathers farm, with its big red barn –IE. The first letter of each vocabulary word is provided on your test.

Retrieval Cues Context Effects – we remember information better and more accurately when in a physical setting that is similar to the one that you learned the information in the first place Where should we take the AP test?

Retrieval Cues Mood-Congruent –our moods bias our memories – what we learned in one mood, we remember better when in the same mood –IE. You go to a funeral and are sad, all day long you keep remembering other sad things that you hadn’t thought of in a long time…

Retrieval Cues State-Dependent Theory – what we learn in one physical state – such as drunk or sober – is sometimes more easily recalled when we are again in that same state. i.e. – where did put those car keys last night…?

Retrieval Cues déjà vu – “Already Seen” (French) –The eerie sense that “I’ve been in this exact situation before” –Memory Explanation – If a situation is loaded with clues that are similar to ones already in memory, your brain makes similar associations between them

Forgetting!

Forgetting Absent-Mindedness – failure to “pay attention” leads to poor encoding

Forgetting Decay Theory – forgetting is due to normal metabolic processes that occur in the brain over time; if memories are unused over a long period of time, they begin to naturally fade away …use ‘em or lose ‘em!

Forgetting IE. Within 3 years of graduation you will probably forget more that half of what you learned. But, after three years your forgetfulness will level off and you will retain some of that Spanish for 25 years or more, without having used it or relearned it. Hermann Ebbinghaus

P.O.R.N.

Retrieval Failures P ro-active Interference – occurs when something you learned earlier (an o ld memory) disrupts your ability to create a new memory –IE. You buy a new car and want to switch on the headlights, but instead you keep turning on the windshield wipers.

Retrieval Failures R etro-active Interference – occurs when N ew information makers it harder to recall something you learned earlier –IE. Your new phone number interferes with remembering your old phone number.

P.O.R.N. P = Proactive O = Remember the old, forget the new R = retroactive N = remember the new, can’t remember the old

Retrieval Failures Repression - a basic “defense mechanism” that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories …keeping bad memories “bottled-up”

Retrieval Failures Tip-Of-The- Tongue Experience – the inability to get a bit of information that you’re absolutely certain is stored in your memory – the information is very close, but just out of reach Tip-Of-The- Tongue Experience – the inability to get a bit of information that you’re absolutely certain is stored in your memory – the information is very close, but just out of reach

Medical Memory Loss Amnesia – severe memory loss –Retrograde – forget things from the past –Anterograde – inability to form new memories but remember the past Alzheimers – as plaques build in the brain and interfere with neural transmissions, memories cannot be formed or retrieved

False Memories Source Confusion –the true source of a memory is forgotten, so you create details to fill in the gaps Source Confusion –the true source of a memory is forgotten, so you create details to fill in the gaps –You actually saw that on tv… Misinformation EffectMisinformation Effect – existing memories can be altered if the person is exposed to misleading information –Eyewitness Testimony…How reliable is it? Elizabeth Loftus

How To Make Memories Last? A Few Suggestions Focus your attention Organize the information Commit the necessary time Elaborate on the material Space your study sessions

How To Make Memories Last? A Few Suggestions Use visual imagery and other mnemonics Explain it to a friend Reduce Interferences Since we usually remember the early part and the last part, spend extra time on the middle Look for clues (or cues) to jog memory

…can’t remember!

…can’t forget!