1. What is Memory

2. Attention to important
Memory
An active system of the brain that processes, stores organizes, alters, and recovers incoming information.
The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information
The ability to store and retrieve information over time
Attention to important
or novel information
Sensory input
rehearsal
Encoding
External
Events
Sensory
Memory
Short-term
Memory
Long-term
Memory
Encoding
Retrieving
Decay
Decay
Information Lost
Information Lost ?

3. Memory as a three stage model
Sensory Memory
immediate initial recording of sensory information
lasts only seconds
responsible for conceptualization of world as smooth and continuous
iconic sensory memory
holds an exact copy of visual information for a split second
echoic sensory memory
holds an exact copy of auditory information for a split second

4. Short Term and Working Memory
briefly stored information
remains active if “worked on” or rehearsed
limited by time (about 15 to 20 seconds) and space (about 7 items)
Working Memory
active maintenance of information in short term storage
malleable
in operation as long as you are using it
can be likened to computer RAM
e.g. looking at your cards and the cards on the table while playing poker; remembering the bets and how it relates to your hold.

5. OK – let’s try a little test:
Long Term Memory
relatively permanent, seemingly limitless information system
may lasts hours, days, years
becomes “week” overtime
subject to loss (forgetting)
OK – let’s try a little test:

6. PLANETS
MOUNTAIN
ANIMALS
APOLOGY
BEDROOM
INTERNET
CASTLES
GRAMMAR
EYEBROW
ANTIQUE
BURGERS
PRINTER
MOSQUITO
WINDMILL
VOLUME
COWBOYS
JOURNAL

7. The Serial Position Effect
probability of accurate recall is a function of the item’s position in a list
term coined by Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850 – 1870)
German philosopher
first researcher to sytematically study memory
created nonsense syllables
e.g. TOV, ZOF, ZEC, WOG
memorized lists of syllables over days and analyzed the pattern of forgetting
made up of the primacy and recency effect

8. primacy effect recency effect
items at beginning of list in long term store
recency effect
items at end of list in working memory
items in middle of list pushed out of working memory but have not had sufficient rehearsal to be in long term memory

9. Processing of Memory Encoding Automatic Encoding
transforming sensory information into memory
the processing of sensory information into memory
extracting meaning from sensory input
may be automatic or effortful
Automatic Encoding
unaware of incidental information
e.g. space, time, unimportant information about surroundings
learning outside the target
e.g. learning to shoot skeet also teaching you about parabolic flight

10. Example of Automatic Encoding Experiment
Subjects told to press buzzer when light flashes
became faster and faster without realizing what they were learning
lights were flashing in a pattern
sujects became so fast they anticipated the light

11. How long does it take to find the blue square?

12. Did you get faster at spotting the blue square?
What pattern did you learn?
Did you set out to learn a pattern?

13. Effortful Encoding requires conscious effort and sustained attention
Rehearsal (memorizing)
conscious repetition of information
maintains info in working memory for continued encoding
Elaborative Encoding
actively relating new information to knowledge base
e.g. 2a + 1b = c is more likely to “stay with you” if you equate it with 2 nickels + 1 dime = c

14. Visual Imagery Encoding
Semantic Encoding
considering the meaning of words as apposed to just the structure of the words
e.g. cow, hay, milk
Acoustic Encoding
considering the sound of words (rhyming or lyrical)
e.g. cow (wow), hay (day), milk (????)
Visual Imagery Encoding
creating a mental “picture story” of information
especially effective if combined with semantic processing
try to create visual and semantic encoding for the following information:
damage to the hippocampus may cause anterograde amnesia

15. Organizational Encoding
processing the relationship among a series of items
aids in memory because you are essentially “chunking” info

16. Chunking (7 +/- 1) Mnemonics organizing items into manageable units
7 digits in telephone numbers
horizontal organization
Mnemonics
any device or method used to aid memory
Stephanie’s poems
“This guy is Mike and bourbon he like”
“This girl is skinny and her gin is minney”
“Baldy will fall if he has another high ball”

17. Long Term Memory Explicit (declarative) “knowing that”
Implicit (non-declarative)
“knowing how”
Episodic
(biographical events)
Semantic
(words, ideas, concepts)
Procedural
(Skills)
Conditioned
Responses

18. Amnesias Infantile or Childhood Amnesia Hysterical or Fugue Amnesia
loss of memory
may be temporary or permanent
can be caused by trauma, brain injury, disease, toxins
Infantile or Childhood Amnesia
inability to recall events prior to about 2.5 years of age
likely due to immature brain structures and lack of sophisticated language
Hysterical or Fugue Amnesia
follows a traumatic event in the persons life
inability to recall events immediately prior to and during the event

19. Transient global amnesia
Korsakoff’s Syndrome
caused by alcohol abuse
progressive, irreversible neurological damage
Traumatic amnesia
neural damage caused by blow to the head
often transient
duration related to degree of injury
Transient global amnesia
temporary loss of all
extremely rare
most common among older persons with vascular disease

20. Retrograde Amnesia Anterograde Amnesia associated with brain damage
inability to retrieve memories from the past
Anterograde Amnesia
inability to remember new information

21. Henry Gustav Molaison Patient H.M.
underwent surgery in 1953 to correct profound intractable seizure disorder
suffered anterograde amnesia
implicit memory spared
explicit memory for past events spared
explicit memory for new events lossed

26. Additional facts about HM
short term memory was normal
can repeat a list of seven digits without error
had an above normal IQ
didn’t know his age or the year or that his parents died
had some retrograde amnesia for the 10 years just prior to the operation
had profound anterograde amnesia

27. fencing foil entered through his nostril and damaged
Patient NA
fencing foil entered through his nostril and damaged
left dorsal thalamus
mammillary bodies
resulted in retrograde amnesia
some anterograde amnesia as well
-successive MRI scans of NA
facing patient
-lesion indicated by dark arrows
missing mammillary bodies indicated
by lighter arrow in A, B, and C

28. Korsakoff’s Syndrome alcoholism is major cause
loss of vitamin B1 (thiamine)
first described by Russian neurologist SS Korsakoff in 1887
patients suffer retrograde amnesia first
forget many items or events of the past
if item or event happens to be recalled correctly, pt. has no feeling of familiarity with it
behavior marked by confabulation
as disease progresses there is anterograde amnesia as well
caused by damage to the thalamus and mammillary bodies

29. Patient K.C. suffered hematoma following motorcycle accident
resulted in neurological damage
Figure 1. Magnetic resonance imaging slices showing K.C.'s pathology. (a) Axial view showing severely atrophic right and left hippocampus (arrows). (b) Axial view showing controls' intact right and left hippocampus (arrows). (c) Coronal view showing severe atrophy of the right and left hippocampus (arrows) and atrophy of the right and left parahippocampal gyri (arrowheads). (d) Coronal view showing controls' intact right and left hippocampus (arrows) and right and left parahippocampal gyri (arrowheads). (e) Midsagittal view showing relatively preserved posterior cingulate (arrows). (f) Axial view showing left medial occipital infarction (arrow).

30. exemplifies semantic vs. episodic memory
KC is unable to retrieve any personal memory of his past
general knowledge of the past is intact
plays chess well but cannot remember when he learned or from whom
Can acquire new semantic knowledge but cannot acquire new episodic knowledge
all personal reference is gone

31. Clive Waring suffered viral encephalitis
resulted in high temperature and neural damage
both anterograde and retrograde episodic amnesia
sparing of implicit memory and some semantic memory