1. Chapter 7
Human Memory

2. Figure 7.1 – Nickerson & Adams (1979) – Which is the correct penny?

3. Human Memory: Basic Questions
How does information get into memory?
How is information maintained in memory?
How is information pulled back out of memory?
Memory timeline

5. Encoding: Getting Information Into Memory
The role of attention
Focusing awareness
Selective attention = selection of input
Filtering: early or late?
Multitasking – issues of driving performance and cell phone use – study by Strayer and Johnson (2001)

6. Encoding is effective when…
You pay attention. “Selective attention” If you don’t pay attention, your sensory memory will hear blah, blah. You have to pay attention to get info into your working memory

7. Figure 7.4 Divided attention and driving performance – Strayer & Johnson (2001)

8. Levels of Processing: Craik and Lockhart (1972)
Incoming information processed at different levels
Deeper processing = longer lasting memory codes
Encoding levels:
Structural = shallow
Phonemic = intermediate
Semantic = deep

10. Figure 7.6 – Retention at three levels of processing – Craik & Tulving (1975)

11. Enriching Encoding: Improving Memory
Elaboration = linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding
Thinking of examples
Self-Referent Encoding
Visual Imagery = creation of visual images to represent words to be remembered
Easier for concrete objects
Figure 7.7

12. We remember what we are interested in…
Can you remember my phone number?

13. Storage: Maintaining Information in Memory
Analogy: information storage in computers ~ information storage in human memory
Information-processing theories – Atkinson & Shiffrin (1977)
Subdivide memory into 3 different stores
Sensory, Short-term, Long-term
xx 7.8

14. Sensory Memory
Brief preservation of information in original sensory form
Auditory/Visual – approximately ¼ second
George Sperling (1960)
Classic experiment on visual sensory store
Partial report procedure

15. xx 7.9

16. Short Term Memory (STM)
Limited capacity – magical number 7 plus or minus 2
Chunking – grouping familiar stimuli for storage as a single unit
Limited duration – about 20 seconds without rehearsal
Peterson and Peterson (1959)
Rehearsal – the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about the information

17. Short-Term Memory as “Working Memory”
STM not limited to phonemic encoding
Loss of information not only due to decay
Baddeley (2001) – 4 components of working memory
Phonological rehearsal loop
Visuospatial sketchpad
Executive control system
Episodic buffer

18. xxx 7.11

19. Long-Term Memory: Unlimited Capacity
Penfield’s neural stimulation
Permanent storage?
Flashbulb memories
Brown and Kulick (1977) – study of assassinations
Talarico & Rubin (2003)
Recall through hypnosis
Debate: are STM and LTM really different?
Phonemic vs. Semantic encoding
Decay vs. Interference based forgetting

20. How is Knowledge Represented and Organized in Memory?
Clustering and Conceptual Hierarchies
Schemas and Scripts – Shank & Abelson (1977)
Semantic Networks – Collins & Loftus (1975)
Connectionist Networks and PDP Models – McClelland and colleagues - pattern of activity – neuron based model

21. Figure 7.14 A semantic network..

22. Retrieval: Getting Information Out of Memory
The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon – a failure in retrieval
Retrieval cues
Recalling an event
Context cues
Reconstructing memories – Loftus studies
Loftus & Palmer (1974) – I: smashed (40.8); collided (39.3); bumped (38.1); hit (34.0); contacted (31.8) II: smashed (32%) hit (14%) control (12%) (broken glass?)
Misinformation effect
Source monitoring, reality monitoring
cryptomnesia

23. Seven Sins of Memory – Daniel L. Schacter
Misattribution – assigning a memory to the wrong source
Suggestibility – memories implanted as a result of leading questions, comments or suggestions when a person is trying to recall a past experience
Persistence – repeated recall of disturbing information or events that one may want to forget
Transience – loss of memory over time
Absent Mindedness – breakdown of interface between attention & memory
Blocking – thwarted search for information to retrieve
Bias – influence of current knowledge and belief on how we remember our past

24. Forgetting: When Memory Lapses
Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
Retention – the proportion of material retained
Recall
Recognition
Relearning
Hill of reminiscence – time frame of remembering

25. xxx 7.17

26. xxx 7.18

27. Why Do We Forget? Ineffective Encoding Decay theory Interference
Type of material
Proactive
Retroactive

28. Retrieval Failure Authenticity of repressed memories?
Encoding Specificity
Transfer-Appropriate Processing
Repression and the memory wards
Authenticity of repressed memories?
Memory illusions
Controversy
False memories
Loftus & Pickrell’s (1995) lost-in-the-mall study

29. xxx 7.22

30. The Physiology of Memory
Biochemistry
Alteration in synaptic transmission
Hormones modulating neurotransmitter systems
Protein synthesis
Neural circuitry
Localized neural circuits
Reusable pathways in the brain
Long-term potentiation – changes in postsynaptic neuron
Anatomy
Anterograde and Retrograde Amnesia
Clive Wearing
Figure Cerebral cortex, Prefrontal Cortex, Hippocampus,
Dentate gyrus, Amygdala, Cerebellum

31. xxx 7.23

32. xxx 7.24

33. Are There Multiple Memory Systems?
Implicit vs. Explicit
Declarative vs. Procedural
Semantic vs. Episodic
Prospective vs. Retrospective

34. xxx 7.25

35. Figure 7.26 – Retrospective versus prospective memory

36. Eyewitness Accounts
Use of Eyewitness in court cases – Cutler & Penrod (1995), Loftus (1993)
Post information distortion
Source confusion
Hindsight bias
Overconfidence