1. The Processes of encoding, storage & retrieval
What is Memory?
The Processes of encoding, storage & retrieval

2. The Processes of Memory
Encoding: getting information into the memory system
Storage: the retaining of encoded information over time
Retrieval: getting encoded information out of memory storage

3. Methods of Encoding Visual Encoding: Semantic Encoding:
Encoding information based on the images of the information
Semantic Encoding:
The encoding of meaning; Encoding information that is meaningful enhances recall
Acoustic Encoding:
Encoding information based on the sounds of the information

4. Types of Memory (LTM)
Episodic: Memory of a specific event that you were present for
Semantic: Generalized knowledge of the world
Procedural: How to do things/complicated sequence

5. Cerebellum Hippocampus Types of LTM Explicit W/ conscious recall
Implicit
No conscious recall
General Knowledge
(semantic memory)
Personal Events
(episodic memory)
Skills and
Procedures
(procedural memory)
Conditioning
(CC & OC)

6. Explicit vs. Implicit Memory
Explicit Memory
Implicit Memory
Used when you try to remember something and are consciously aware of doing so
Can be episodic, semantic, and procedural memories
Measure: Recognition Test
unintentional recollection from prior experiences
Usually procedural
Measure: Fragment Completion Task
Shown a list of word fragments and asked to complete the word
Explicit & Implicit Memory Work Independently

7. Models of Memory
Levels of Processing Model: what and how we remember are a function of how deeply information is processed or rehearsed and encoded when first experienced.
2 Types of Rehearsal:
Maintenance: repeating an item over and over again; effective for remembering information for a short period of time
Elaborative: thinking about how new material related to prior knowledge/ experience; effective and processed more deeply

8. Models of Memory
Transfer-Appropriate Processing: most important memory determinant is how well the encoding process matches what is ultimately retrieved.

9. Models of Memory
Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP): suggests that new facts change our knowledge base by altering interconnected networks, facts, and associations.
Neural Network: each unit of knowledge is ultimately connected to every other unit and the connections between units become stronger as they are experienced together more frequently

10. Models of Memory
Information Processing Model: in order for information to become firmly embedded in memory, it must pass through three stages of mental processing.
(1) Sensory Memory
(2) Short-term Memory
(3) Long-term Memory

11. Step 1: Sensory Memory
The brief, initial coding of sensory information in the memory system
Iconic store: visual information; ½ second
Echoic store: sound information; 2-3 seconds
Information held just long enough to make a decision on its importance

12. Step 2: Short-Term Memory (Working Memory)
Conscious, activated memory which holds information briefly before it is stored or forgotten
Brown-Peterson Procedure: research states unless rehearsed materials stays in STM approximately 18 seconds
Magic #7: Holds approximately seven, plus or minus two, chunks of information
Can retain the information as long as it is rehearsed
Visual codes tend to decay faster than acoustic

13. Step 3: Long-Term Memory
The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system
Holds memories without conscious effort
Dual Coding Theory: information is remembered better if both semantic and visual codes are used.

14. Figure 7A.2 A modified three-stage processing model of memory Atkinson and Shiffrin’s classic three-step model helps us to think about how memories are processed, but today’s researchers recognize other ways long-term memories form. For example, some information slips into long-term memory via a “back door,” without our consciously attending to it. And so much active processing occurs in the short-term memory stage that many now prefer the term working memory.
© 2011 by Worth Publishers

15. Experiments on Recall
Serial Position Effect: a tendency to remember both the first and last parts of list
Primacy Effect (LTM): first part of a list
Recency Effect (STM): last part of a list

16. Retrieving Memories
Retrieval Cues: stimuli that helps retrieve information from LTM
Allow people to recall things once forgotten and to recognize information stored in memory
Recognition tasks are easier than recall tasks because they contain more retrieval cues

17. Which retrieval cues work best? Encoding Specificity
– When conditions of retrieval are similar to conditions of encoding, retrieval is more likely to be successful
– You are more likely to remember things if the conditions under which you recall them are similar to the conditions under which you originally learned them
Transfer-appropriate Model

18. Retrieval Cues
Context Dependence: When people remember more material while in a physical location that is similar to the one the material was originally learned
State Dependence: People remember better when their psychological state is the same as it was when the information was encoded.
Mood Congruence Effects: Information processing is facilitated if a person’s emotional state is similar to the information being processed

19. Retrieval from Semantic Memory
Semantic Networks:
Concepts are represented in a sense network of associations
Information is retrieved from memory through spreading activation (neural energy)
Stronger associations are quickly retrieved
Example: Thinking about concept A spreads neural activity to all other features/concepts associated with concept A.
Help people:
Gain knowledge about the world quickly and effortlessly
Gain knowledge that allows them to infer or to compute other facts about the world

20. Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)
German philosopher who did early memory studies with nonsense syllables
Developed the forgetting curve, also called the “retention curve” or “Ebbinghaus curve”

21. Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve
Ebbinghaus found that the more times he practiced a list of nonsense syllables on day 1, the fewer repetitions he required to relearn it on day 2.
Said simply, the more time we spend learning new information, the more we retain.

22. Method of Savings Measures forgetting
Involves computing the difference between the number of repetitions needed to learn a list of items and the number of repetitions need to relearn it after some time has elapsed
Difference=Savings
Savings decline and forgetting increases as time passes

23. Decay Theories Memories fade away or decay gradually if unused
Time plays critical role
Ability to retrieve info declines with time after original encoding
Average
percentage of information
retained 20
mins 1 hr 8
hrs 24 2
days 6 31
Interval between original learning of nonsense syllables and memory test
100%
Hockenbury slides (Schulman)
key words: forgetting; retrieval; decay theories

24. Interference Theories
“Memories interfering with memories”
Forgetting NOT caused by mere passage of time
Caused by one memory competing with or replacing another memory
Two types of interference
key words: forgetting; retrieval; interference theories

25. Two Types of Interference
Retroactive
Interference
Proactive
Hockenbury slides (Schulman)
key words: forgetting; retrieval; interference theories;retroactive interference; proactive interference
When a NEW memory interferes with remembering OLD information
When an OLD memory interferes with remembering NEW information

26. Retroactive Interference
Example: Learning a new language interferes with ability to remember old language
Study French
papier
livre
plume
école
Study Spanish
papel
libro
pluma
escuela
French 101
Mid-term
exam F-
Hockenbury slides (Schulman)
key words: forgetting; retrieval; interference theories; retroactive interference
Notes:
This is similar to an upcoming slide for proactive interference. The foreign language example can be used to demonstrate both retroactive and proactive interference, depending upon how you present it. Thus, examples of both are included. However, I generally only present only one of the two examples to avoid confusion for the students. For instance, I'll use the foreign language example for retroactive interference and the parking lot example for proactive interference.
retroactive interference

27. Proactive Interference
Example: Previously learned language interferes with ability to remember newly learned language F-
key words: forgetting; retrieval; interference theories; proactive interference
Notes:
This is similar to the slide for retroactive interference. The foreign language example can be used to demonstrate both retroactive and proactive interference, depending upon how you present it. Thus, examples of both are included. However, I generally only present only one of the two examples to avoid confusion for the students. For instance, I'll use the foreign language example for retroactive interference and the parking lot example for proactive interference.

28. Constructing Memories
Relating Semantic & Episodic Memory: PDP model allows us to increase our general knowledge of the world by accessing a network of facts and associations; however, they can facilitate spontaneous generalizations of networks that are based on limited or biased info
Schemas – organized clusters of knowledge and info about particular topics.
What’s your schema for a dog?
Contribute to memory distortions when the info learned is inconsistent with previously learned schemas.

29. Elizabeth Loftus (1944- ) Does research in memory construction
Has found that subjects’ memories vary based on the wording of questions
Demonstrated the misinformation effect
Incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event
Affects eyewitness testimony

30. Repression Part of Freud’s psychoanalysis
Process of moving anxiety-producing memories to the unconscious
Supposed means of protecting oneself from painful memories
Not well-supported by research; stressful incidents are actually more likely to be encoded

32. Loftus Experiment Subjects shown video of an accident between two cars
Leading question:
“About how fast were the cars going
when they smashed into each other?”
Memory construction
Subjects shown video of an accident between two cars
Some subjects asked: How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?
Others asked: How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?
Hockenbury slides (Schulman)
Key words: eyewitness testimony; memory distortion; Loftus; misleading information

33. Loftus Results Word Used in Question Average Speed Estimate smashed
collided
bumped
hit
contacted
41 m.p.h.
39 m.p.h.
38 m.p.h.
34 m.p.h.
32 m.p.h.
Hockenbury slides (Schulman)

34. Eyewitness Testimony Recall not an exact replica of original events
What you recall is a construction built and rebuilt from various sources
Often fit memories into existing beliefs or schemas
Schema—mental representation of an object, scene or event
Example: schema of a countryside may include green grass, hills, farms, a barn, cows, etc.
Key words: eyewitness testimony; memory distortion; schemas; scripts