1. Memory and Consciousness
Chapter 9

2. An Information-Processing Model of the Mind
MEMORY: the mind’s ability to retain information over time, and information retained in the mind over time
MODAL MODEL OF THE MIND: a depiction of the mind as a set of memory storage compartments and control processes for manipulating and moving information
Memory stores: sensory, short-term, long-term
Control processes: attention, rehearsal, encoding and retrieval

3. Modal Model of the mind

4. Types of Memory Stores Sensory Memory Working Memory Long-term Memory
The memory trace that preserves the original information in a sensory stimulus for a brief period following the termination of the stimulus
Working Memory
Memory store that is considered to be the main workplace of the mind; the seat of conscious thought
Long-term Memory
Information that is retained in the mind for long periods

5. Types of Control Processes
Attention
The process that controls the flow of information from the sensory store into the working memory
Encoding
The mental process by which long-term memories are formed
Retrieval
The mental processes by which long-term memories are brought into working memory, where they become part of the flow of thought

6. Selective Listening: The ability to focus attention and ignore the irrelevant.
PREATTENTIVE PROCESSING: the analysis, at an unconscious level, in which the mind determines which stimuli are worth passing into working memory
Also occurs with viewing
atch?v=vJG698U2Mvo

7. The Ability to Shift Attention to Significant Stimuli
ECHOIC MEMORY: sensory memory for the sense of hearing
ICONIC MEMORY: sensory memory for the sense of vision

8. Can you train attentional ability?
Video Games
This does not imply that all multi-tasking works!

9. Unconscious Priming of Mental Concepts
PRIMING: the implicit memory process by which a stimulus (the priming stimulus) activates (makes more retrievable) one or more memories that already exist in a person’s mind
watch?v=EUA4Q5aoG74

10. Brain Mechanisms of Preattentive Processing and Attention
Stimuli that are not attended to nevertheless activate sensory and perceptual areas
Attention magnifies the activity that task-relevant stimuli produce in sensory and perceptual areas of the brain, and it diminishes the activity that task-irrelevant stimuli produce
Areas in the frontal lobe and anterior portions of the temporal and parietal lobes become active during attentional shifts

11. Components of Working Memory
The Phonological Loop
The Visuospatial Sketchpad
SPAN OF SHORT-TERM MEMORY: the number of pronounceable items of information that a person can retain in short-term memory at any given time through rote rehearsal
Which is easier to keep in mind:
Disentangle, appropriation, gossamer, anti-intellectual, preventative, foreclosure, documentation
Responsible for holding visual and spatial information

12. Dual Task Performance
People are much better at doing two mental tasks at once if one task involves the phonological loop and the other involves the visuo-spatial sketchpad than they are if both tasks involve the same working-memory component
Don’t drive and talk on your cell phones!

13. Brain Areas Involved in Working Memory
Phonological loop = temporal lobe of the left hemisphere
Visuospatial sketchpad = visual areas of the cortex
The “what” pathway
The “where and how” pathway
The prefrontal cortex

14. Encoding Information Into Long-Term Memory
MAINTENANCE REHEARSAL: any active mental process by which a person strives to hold information in short-term memory for a brief period of time
Repetition
ENCODING REHEARSAL: any active mental process by which a person strives to encode information into long- term memory

15. Elaboration Promotes Encoding
ELABORATION: the process of thinking about an item of information in such a way as to tie the item mentally to other information in memory (helps to encode the item into long-term memory)
Don’t seek to memorize, but understand that which you seek to memorize
Using logic to encode memories:
A stalaCtite grows from the Ceiling
A stalaGmite grows from the Ground

16. Organization Promotes Encoding
CHUNKING: a strategy for improving the ability to remember a set of items by grouping them mentally to form fewer items
Which is easier to memorize and recall?
M D P H D R S V P C E O I H O P
MD PHD RSVP CEO IHOP
OCEAN
Openness to experience
Conscientiousness
Extroversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism

17. End Part I to be continued…

18. Distinctions Among Explicit and Implicit Memory Systems
EXPLICIT MEMORY: the class of memory that can be consciously recalled and used to answer explicit questions about what one knows and remembers
Declarative memory
IMPLICIT MEMORY: memory that influences one’s behavior or thought but does not itself enter consciousness
Nondeclarative memory

19. The Curious Case of H.M.
At age 27 (1953), underwent surgery for epilepsy. The surgery left him unable to encode new long-term memories
He could converse, read and solve problems as long as his attention remained focused on it
HM’s memory impairment made it impossible for him to live independently
Right now, I’m wondering, have I done or
said something amiss? You see, at this
moment everything looks clear to me, but
what happened just before?

20. Brain Mechanisms of Long-Term Memory Encoding
TEMPORAL LOBE AMNESIA: loss in memory abilities that occurs as a result of damage to structures in the limbic system that lie under the temporal lobe

21. Types of Amnesias
ANTEROGRADE AMNESIA: the loss of capacity to form long- term memories of events that occur after the injury
RETROGRADE AMNESIA: the loss of memories of events that occurred before the injury
Su Meck
Hollywood Amnesia
CONSOLIDATION: the process by which a new memory becomes solidified in the brain, such that it is not easily forgotten

22. Factors That Increase Memory Consolidation
Memories that are recalled and used repeatedly are the ones more likely to be consolidated in a stable way
Sleep, shortly after learning, helps to consolidate newly acquired memories

23. Mental Associations and Memory Retrieval Cues
A link between two memories or mental concepts, such that recall of one tends to promote recall of the other
RETRIEVAL CUE
A word, phrase, or other stimulus that helps one retrieve a specific item of information from long-term memory
ASSOCIATION BY CONTIGUITY
If two environmental events (stimuli) occur at the same time or one right after the other (contiguously),those events will be linked together in the mind
ASSOCIATION BY SIMILARITY
Objects, events or ideas that are similar to one another become linked (associated) in the person’s mind such that the thought of one tends to elicit the thought of the other

24. Network Models of Memory Organization

25. RIPE CITRUS VEGETABLE JUICE COCKTAIL ORANGE BASKET BANANA BOWL SALAD
False Memory Test
RIPE
CITRUS
VEGETABLE
JUICE
COCKTAIL
ORANGE
BASKET
BANANA
BOWL
SALAD
BERRY
PEAR
APPLE
CHERRY
KIWI

26. Memory Construction As A Source of Distortion
Memory construction is affected not just by preexisting schemas but also by events that occur after the even being remembered was encoded
37 vs 43mph

27. Effects of Preexisting Beliefs
SCHEMA
The mental representation of a concept; the information stored in long-term memory that allows a person to identify a group of different events or items as members of the same category
SCRIPT
A variety of schema that represents in memory the temporal organization of a category of event

28. Varieties of Explicit Memory
EPISODIC MEMORY
Explicit memory of past events (episodes) in one’s own life
Have personal qualities; the self as participant, witness or learner
SEMANTIC MEMORY
One’s storehouse of explicit general knowledge (knowledge that can be expressed in words and is not mentally tied to specific experiences in one’s own life
Analogous to an encyclopedia; related to the network model of knowledge

29. Varieties of Implicit Memory
Classical conditioning
Behavioral responses
You can’t really say how you do it, but you demonstrate it easily
Procedural Memory
The class of implicit memory that enables a person to perform specific learned skills or habitual responses
Priming
The activation, by sensory input, of information that is already stored in long-term memory

30. Types of Long-term Memory
Explicit Memory (conscious)
Episodic Memory (one’s own experiences)
Semantic Memory (words, facts, general knowledge)
Implicit Memory (unconscious)
Classical conditioning effects
Procedural memory (motor skills, habits)
Priming (implicit activation of concepts in long-term memory)