1. Chapter 6: Memory

2. Memory
The mental processes that enable you to retain and retrieve information over time.
Encoding: The process of transforming information into a form that can be entered into and retained by the memory system.
Storage: The process of retaining information in memory so that it can be used at a later time.
Retrieval: Process of recovering information stored in memory so that we are consciously aware of it.

3. Stage Model of Memory
Memory consists of three distinct stages

4. Sensory Memory
Function- holds information long enough to be processed for basic physical characteristics.
Capacity- large
Can hold many items at once
Duration- very brief retention (especially images)
.3 seconds visual info
2 seconds auditory info
Divided into two types:
Iconic memory: visual information
Echoic memory: auditory information

5. Short-Term Memory (working memory)
Function: conscious processing of information
Where information is actively worked on
Capacity: limited (holds 7 +/- 2 items)
Duration: brief storage (about 30 minutes)
Used when problem solving, reasoning, comprehending language and mental comparisons.

6. Maintenance Rehearsal
Mental or verbal repetition of information allows information to remain in working memory longer than the usual 30 seconds.
Working or
Short-term
Memory
Sensory
Input
Attention
Maintenance Rehearsal

7. Chunking (Short-Term Memory
Grouping small bits of information into larger units of information expands working memory load
Which is easier to remember?

8. Long-term Memory
Once information passes from sensory to working memory, it can be encoded into long-term memory.
Long-term
Memory
Working or
Short-term
Sensory
Input
Attention
Encoding
Retrieval
Maintenance Rehearsal

9. Working Memory
Temporary storage and active, conscious manipulation of information needed for complex cognitive tasks.
Reasoning, learning, problem solving

10. Long-term Memory Function- organizes and stores information.
Unlimited capacity
Duration- thought by some to be permanent.
Elaborative Rehearsal: focusing on the meaning of information to help encode and transfer it to long-term memory.
Procedural Memory: Category of long-term memory that includes memories of different skills, operations and actions.

11. Automatic VS Effortful Encoding
Automatic: unconscious encoding of information.
What did you eat for lunch today?
You know the meaning of these very words you are reading. Are you trying to think of the definitions?
Effortful: requires attention and conscious effort.
Memorizing your notes for a test.
Repeating a phone number in your head until you can write it down.

12. *Explicit Memory: memory with awareness; information can be consciously recollected (declarative memory) *Implicit memory: memory without awareness; memory that affects behavior but cannot be consciously recalled (nondeclarative memory)

13. Explicit Memory
Episodic information- information about events or “episodes”
Tied to your own personal experiences
What month is your birthday?
Do you like caramel apples?
Semantic information- information about facts, general knowledge, school work.
Not tied to personal events- general facts
How many tires are on a car?
What is a cloud?

14. Implicit Memory
Information or knowledge that affects behavior or task performance but cannot be consciously recollected
Nondeclarative memory
Clustering: organizing items into related groups during recall from long-term memory.

15. Study the words on this list for one minute
Study the words on this list for one minute. Then count backward by threes from 100 to 0. When you have completed the task, write down as many of the words from the list as you can remember.

16. Semantic Network Model
Mental links between concepts
Common properties provide basis for mental link
Shorter path between two concepts = stronger association in memory.

17. Semantic Network Model
Red
Fire
House
Cherry
Apple
Rose
Pear
Ambulance
Engine
Truck
Bus
Car
Flower
Violet
Hot
Pot
Stove
Pan
Pie

18. Retrieval Retrieval- the process of accessing stored information
Retrieval Cue- clue, prompt, or hint that helps trigger recall of a given piece of information stored in long-term memory.
Retrieval Cue Failure- the inability to recall long-term memories because of inadequate or missing retrieval cues.
Tip-of-the-tongue-experience—involves the sensation of knowing that specific information is stored in long-term memory but being unable to retrieve it

19. Measures of Retrieval
Recall- test of LTM that involves retrieving memories without cues
Cued recall- test of LTM that involves remembering an item of information in response to a retrieval cue
Recognition- test of LTM that involves identifying correct information form a series of possible choices
Serial position effect- tendency to remember items at the beginning and end of a list better than items in the middle

20. 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 learned them.

21. Encoding Specificity Context effects- environmental cues to recall
Mood congruence- when a given mood tends to evoke memories that are consistent with that mood
Flashbulb Memory- very specific images or details surrounding a vivid, rare, or significant personal event; details may or may not be accurate.

22. Forgetting
The inability to recall information that was previously available.

23. Which is the Real Penny?

25. Forgetting as Encoding Failure
Information never encoded into LTM
Encoding X
Long-term
memory
Encoding failure
leads to forgetting
Short-term

26. Forgetting as Retrieval Failure
Sometimes info is encoded into LTM but we can’t retrieve it
Retrieval failure
leads to forgetting
Retrieval X
Encoding
Short-term
memory
Long-term

27. 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 d 6 31
Interval between original learning of nonsense syllables and memory test
100%

28. Interference Theories
Memories interfering with memories
Forgetting NOT caused by time
Caused by one memory competing with or replacing another memory

29. Interference
Retroactive: when a NEW memory interferes with remembering OLD information
When new phone number interferes with the ability to remember old phone number
Proactive: when OLD memory interferes with remembering NEW information
Memories of where you parked your car on campus the past week interferes with ability to find your car today

30. Motivated Forgetting Undesired memory is held back from awareness
Suppression- conscious forgetting
Repression- unconscious forgetting (Freudian)

31. Memory Distortion
Misinformation effect: Incorporating outside information into one’s own memory of an event
Different words elicit different responses
Smashes, hit, collided, bumped
Process of retrieval makes memories subject to distortion. During analysis, assumptions can be added, left our or rearranged

32. Source Confusion
Memory distortion that occurs when the true source of the memory is forgotten.
False Memory- a distorted or fabricated recollection of something that did not actually occur.

33. Schemas and Scripts
Schemas- an organized cluster of information about a particular topic.
Can be anything
Use them to help create new memories
Script- schema for the typical sequence of an everyday event.
Taking a plane trip

34. Memory Trace Karl Lashley
Memory Trace (engram)- brain changes that were presumed to occur in forming a long-term memory.
Found that memories are stored throughout the brain.

35. Biological Basis of Memory
Amnesia—severe memory loss
Retrograde amnesia—inability to remember past episodic information; common after head injury
Memory Consolidation: gradual process of converting long-term memories into lasting stable memories.
If interrupted by injury the process doesn’t complete.
Anterograde amnesia—inability to form new memories; related to hippocampus damage (demonstrated with much research on patient H.M.)

37. Losing Memory
Dementia: Progressive deterioration and impairment of memory, reasoning, and other cognitive functions occurring as the result of a disease or a condition
Alzheimer’s disease (AD): A progressive disease that destroys the brain’s neurons, gradually impairing memory, thinking, language, and other cognitive functions, resulting in the complete inability to care for oneself; the most common form of dementia