1. Memory

2. What is memory?
The persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.
“Memory…is the diary that we all carry about with us.” Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest
“It isn’t so astonishing the number of things I can remember, as the number of things I can remember that aren’t so.” Mark Twain

3. How does memory work? External Events Sensory Memory Short-term Memory
Long-term Memory
Sensory Input
Encoding
Retrieval

4. Three Stages of Memory Encoding -Putting information in Storage
-where information is kept in the brain
Retrieval
-getting information back out

5. Memory is like a computer…
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
Installing software
or creating files
Hardware
File Search

6. List the names of the 7 Dwarfs

7. Dopey
Grumpy
Bashful
Sleepy
Sneezy
Doc
Happy

8. Information Processing
Automatic- occurs without thinking
Effortful- occurs when one purposely tries to think about something

9. Effortful Processing Rehearsal- conscious repetition
Next-in-line effect- when you are next in line, your memory is poorest for the information preceding you
Spacing effect- studying over time produces the best memory results
Serial position effect- in a list, one tends to remember the first and last items best

10. Encoding

11. Things that help us encode
Meaning- we need to know the context
Imagery- mental pictures
Mnemonic devices- memory aids
Organization

12. Mnemonic Devices- Memory Aids
Method of loci
>Associate a memory with a place
Keyword method
>Associate a word with something that needs to be remembered
Peg-word method
>One is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree…
Acronyms
>ROY G. BIV
Hierarchies
>Split items into topics
Chunking
>Put into smaller units
becomes
(801)

13. Storage

14. How does memory work? Retrieval External Events Sensory Memory
Short-term Memory
Long-term Memory
Sensory Input
Encoding
Encoding

15. How much can be remembered?
Sensory Memory
Short-term Memory
Long-term Memory
Almost nothing, unless it catches your attention
7 items, plus or minus 2
Almost everything, but only if you can get it out

16. How long? Sensory Memory Short-term Memory Long-term Memory
Images- tenths of a second
Sounds- 3-4 seconds
As long as you are consciously thinking about it
Virtually forever

17. Neuroscience

18. Remember the brain cell?
Nucleus
Cell Body
Myelin Sheath
Dendrites
Axon
Terminal Branches

19. So, what does that have to do with memories?
Experience neurons fire.
If they fire enough, a new synapse forms making the connection even stronger

20. Long-term Potentiation (LTP)
Increase in a synapse’s firing potential
More synapses firing= stronger pathway= better memory

21. Implicit (Procedural) Explicit (Declarative)
Types of Memories
Implicit (Procedural)
Explicit (Declarative)
Memories stored without conscious knowledge (i.e. classical conditioning)
Memories stored with conscious knowledge (i.e. what you remember from class)

22. Where are memories processed in the short term?
Implicit – processed in the cerebellum
Explicit- processed in the hippocampus

23. Where are memories stored in the long term?
Could be anywhere in the cerebral cortex or even several places.

24. Retrieval

25. Types of Retrieval Recall- information is recovered from the brain
>Fill-in-the blank
Recognition- identifying information when choices are given
>Multiple choice
Relearning- how easily information can be stored again
>Studying for a comprehensive exam

26. What affects retrieval?
Priming- activating prior knowledge or associations
>picture of a rabbit primes the response “hare”
Context effect
>scuba divers remembered better in the context they learned the information
Mood-congruent memory
>if you are happy now, your memories seem happier

27. Forgetting

28. Seven Sins of Memory Absent-mindedness- failure to encode
Transience- storage decay over time
Blocking- failure to retrieve
Misattribution- confusing the source of information
Suggestibility- false memories can be created
Bias- belief-colored memories
Persistence- unwanted memories

29. Interference- memories get in the way of each other
Proactive
Retroactive
Past memories get in the way of new memories
Ex. You remember an old locker combination instead of the new one
New memories affect the recall of old memories
Ex. You move to a new neighborhood. When you go back to the old one to visit your friends, you have forgotten some of the streets.

30. Memory Construction
Repression- the Freudian concept that painful memories are kept out of consciousness
Misinformation effect- putting misleading information into one’s memory of an event
Source amnesia- attributing information to the wrong source