1. Forgetting and Mnemonics

2. Assisting Memory? So Far:
Depth of Processing
Elaboration
Contexts

3. Forgetting

4. Why Does Forgetting Occur?
Encoding failure
Storage failure
Retrieval failure

5. Failure to Encode
Information not attended to
Arousal/stress factor

6. Storage Problems Consolidation failure
Decay – can occur in all memory systems
Interference
Proactive
Retroactive

7. Retrieval Failure Cannot locate cues to help retrieve, e.g., context
Motivated forgetting
Repression

8. Amnesia
Retrograde
Anterograde
Alzheimer’s
Korsakoff’s

9. False Memories A memory is retrieved, but it is faulty
Barlett (1932) “War of the Ghosts”
Memory construction processes
Loftus – misinformation effect

10. Recovered-Memory Perspective
People who have experienced child sexual abuse forget the memory, but it is triggered by a specific event or therapist intervention

11. Research on Producing False Memories
Roediger & McDermott (1995) - 55% false recall with word lists consisting of words that have other words commonly associated with them
Loftus and Pickrell (1995) "Lost in the Mall” study

12. False Memory Syndrome
Recovered Memory Therapy (RMT): False memories can be created through leading questions, hypnosis, guided imagery, group therapy
Sometimes rich details and emotions CAN accompany false memories

13. Mnemonics
Specific strategies to help memory

14. Case Study: Rajan Mahadevan
5 yrs old – memorized 40 license plates
1981 – recited 1st 31,811 digits of pi in 4 hrs

15. Visual Imagery Techniques
There is a saying about virtue:
She nestles in rough untrodden rocks and reigns a divine sacred land. Not all mortals can see her. Only those whose burning desire in their heart leads them to the greatest deeds.
- Simonides, 500 b.c.e.

16. Method of Loci (Roman Room Method)
Step 1: commit to memory a series of rooms in a house
Step 2: Create images of the items to be remembered and picture each of them in a room
Step 3: recall by walking through the rooms and recalling the items

17. Pegword Method Words serve as "pegs" on which words are to be hung
Bun, Shoe, Tree, Door, Hive, Bricks, Heaven, Gate, Line, Hen
Step 1: learn a pegword list, i.e. one is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree, etc.
Step 2: examine a word list and imagine each item interacting with the items in the pegword list

18. Organizational Techniques

19. Chunking
e.g., YMCAROFLFBINBCLSDTV
YMCA ROFL FBI NBC LSD TV

20. Hierarchies Divide items into classes under categories
e.g, biology and phyla, genus, species, etc.
e.g. minerals - metals vs. stones

21. Acronyms/Acrostics ROY G. BIV PASS
“Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain”
King Philip Can Only Find his Green Slippers
( Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species)
"On old Olympia's towering top a Finn and German viewed some hops“

22. I-Olfactory nerve
II-Optic nerve
III-Oculomotor nerve
IV-Trochlear nerve
V-Trigeminal nerve
VI-Abducens nerve
VII-Facial nerve
VIII-Auditory nerve
IX-Glossopharyngeal nerve
X-Vagus nerve
XI-Spinal accessory nerve
XII-Hypoglossal nerve

23. HOMES (Great Lakes)
eat all dead gophers before Easter (guitar strings)

24. Rhymes and Sayings "30 days hath September"
"i before e except after c"

25. Narrative Technique
Make up stories that incorporate words to be remembered

26. Front door: spilt coffee grains on the doormat
Rose bush in front garden: growing lettuce leaves and tomatoes around the roses
Car: with potatoes, onions and cauliflower on the driver's seat End of the road: an arch of French bread over the road
Past garage: with its sign wrapped in aluminum foil
Under railway bridge: from which haddock and cod are dangling by their tails
Traffic lights: chickens squawking and flapping on top of lights

27. External Memory Aid Techniques
Notes, shopping lists, asking someone to remind you, notes on hand, etc.
Diaries, alarm clocks, post-its, cell phone, calendars, leaving objects out in plain view

28. Practice and Memory Total Time Hypothesis Spacing Effect
Expanding Retrieval Practice

29. Multimodal Approach to Improving Memory
Douglas Hermann (1991) "Super Memory"
Memory self-efficacy
Rehearsal techniques
Attending to relevant details
Deep processing
Develop multiple techniques for different situations