Memory Storage & Information Processing

1. Memory Storage & Information Processing Topic 9

2. How the MIND works • Have you ever wondered • how you manage to remember information for a test? • How you are able to create new memories, store them for periods of time, and recall them when they are needed. • This is due to our MEMORY. • But what exactly is memory? And How are memories formed?

3. Our Mind is like the Computer Retrieve Input Store the information Save it

4. We are walking computers

5. What is memory? • Memory refers to the processes that are used to acquire, store, retain and later retrieve information. • There are three major processes involved in memory: • encoding, • storage and • retrieval.

6. What is memory? • Encoding or registration (receiving, processing and combining of received information) • Storage (creation of a permanent record of the encoded information) • Retrieval, recall or recollection (calling back the stored information in response to some cue for use in a process or activity) • In order to form new memories, information must be changed into a usable form, which occurs through the process known as encoding. • Once information has been successfully encoded, it must be stored in memory for later use. • Most of the stored memory lies outside of our awareness most of the time, except when we actually need to use it. • The retrieval process allows us to bring stored memories into conscious awareness.

7. What is Memory? • Memory is the core to most of our cognitive process. Because…. • Memory is the storing of learned information, and the ability to recall that which has been stored. • The mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experience. • Research indicates that the ability to retain information is fairly uniform among normal individuals what differs is the degree to which persons learn or take account of something to begin with and the kind and amount of detail that is retained.

8. How does Memory relate to learning? • Memory and learning are the basis of all our knowledge and abilities. • Learning – is the process of acquiring new knowledge, while…. • Memory – helps retain the learned knowledge. • Thus, memory is the brain’s ability to acquire, store, retain and retrieve information.

9. Types of memory • Memory can be classified into 2 primary types: • Explicit memory - Declarative memory (conscious memory) • Implicit memory – procedural memory (automatic & unconscious)

10. Explicit Memory & Implicit Memory • Explicit Memory (can be divided into STM & LTM) • It allows a person to recall consciously & describe verbally information, e.g. facts, people etc • Types of memory that contains info regarding specific events that happen at a specific time & place. • Forming & storing memory are associated with past experience/knowledge. • Implicit Memory (repetition priming, conditioning & motor skills) • Previous experience assist a person to perform task without any conscious awareness of the past experience. • Through repetition priming & skill learning – a person would become better on task performance

11. How our MIND works Short Term Memory Long Term Memory SENSORY MEMORY *fleeting *less than one second * working memory * less than 20 seconds *unlimited *stable

12. Information Processing Model: The Stage Theory (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968)

13. Sensory register/sensory memory Part of memory that receives all the information a person senses from the environment and stores it fleetingly. Short term memory A part where new information is stored temporarily, until it is either lost or placed into long term memory Also known as working memory, where a decision must be made to discard information or to transfer it to permanent storage, in long-term memory. Long Term memory Part of memory which has unlimited capacity & can hold information indefinitely. the encyclopedic mental processing unit in which information may be stored permanently and from which it may be later retrieved. Types of Memory

14. Sensory memory holds a visual image, like a lightening bold, for a fraction of a second – just long enough for you to perceive a flow of movement. Sensory memory

15. Short term memory • A temporary storage area that is used for unprocessed visual or auditory information that last up to 30 sec. • STM -limited capacity - up to 7 pieces of independent information. • Memory loss is due to decaying of information. • 3 basic operations in STM: • Iconic memory –ability to hold visual image • Acoustic memory – the ability to hold sounds • Working memory –process that temporarily store & manipulate information for immediate use

16. Long Term memory • Part of memory which has unlimited capacity & can hold information indefinitely. • LTM can be divide into : • Episodic memory – memory of specific events or episodes that an individual experienced • Semantic memory – memory that includes knowledge of words meaning and is an essential element of language.

17. So how do we retain information in our Long-Term Memory ? 1. Organise the information properly 2. Rehearsal (i.e repetition) 3. Elaboration

18. How Is Information Organized In Memory? • The ability to access and retrieve information from long-term memory allows us to actually use these memories to • make decisions, • interact with others, • solve problems, etc • Exactly how are information organized in memory is unclear, but researchers do know that these memories are arranged in groups.

19. Desk, apple, bookshelf, red, plum, table, green, pineapple, purple, chair, peach, yellow

20. How Is Information Organized In Memory? • Clustering is used to organize related information into groups. • Information that is categorized becomes easier to remember and recall. • For example, consider the following group of words: Desk, apple, bookshelf, red, plum, table, green, pineapple, purple, chair, peach, yellow • Spend a few seconds reading them, then look away and try to recall and list these words. • How did you group the words when you listed them? • Most people will list using three different categories: color, furniture and fruit.

21. How Is Information Organized In Memory? • One way of thinking about memory organization is known as the semantic network model. • This model suggests that certain triggers activate associated memories  i.e. a memory of a specific place might activate memories about related things that have occurred in that place. • For example, thinking about a certain campus building might trigger memories of attending classes, studying and socializing with peers.

22. Memory Retrieval • Memory retrieval is important for our daily life, e.g. from remembering where you parked your car to learning new skills. • Once information has been encoded and stored in memory, it must be retrieved in order to be used. • There are many factors that can influence how memories are retrieved from long-term memory. • In order to fully understand this process, it is important to understand exactly what retrieval is and what are the factors that can impact how memories are retrieved. • Memory Retrieval is a process of accessing stored memories. • Retrieval cues can be use  can have an impact on how information is retrieved. • A retrieval cue - a clue/prompt used to trigger the retrieval of longterm memory.

23. What Is Memory Retrieval? • Four basic ways in which information can be pulled from long-term memory. • Recall: Type of memory retrieval involves being able to access the information without being cued. For example, answering a question on a fill-in-the-blank test is a good example of recall. • Recollection: Type of memory retrieval involves reconstructing memory, often utilizing logical structures, partial memories, narratives or clues. For example, writing an answer on an essay exam often involves remembering bits on information, and then restructuring the remaining information based on these partial memories. • Recognition: This type of memory retrieval involves identifying information after experiencing it again. For example, taking a multiple choice quiz requires that you recognize the correct answer out of a group of available answers. • Relearning: This type of memory retrieval involves relearning information that has been previously learned. This often makes it easier to remember and retrieve information in the future and can improve the strength of memories.

24. Problems with Retrieval • Not every retrieval process works perfectly. • Have you ever felt like you knew the answer to a question, but couldn't quite remember the information? • This phenomenon is known as a 'tip of the tongue' experience. You might feel certain that this information is stored somewhere in your memory, but you are unable to access and retrieve it. • Schacter (2001) said that these experiences are extremely common, typically occurring at least once each week for most younger individuals and two to four times per week for elderly adults.

25. Top 10 Memory Improvement Tips 1. Focus your attention on the materials you are studying. 2. Avoid cramming by establishing regular study sessions. 3. Structure and organize the information you are studying. 4. Utilize mnemonic devices to remember information. 5. Elaborate and rehearse the information you are studying. 6. Relate new information to things you already know. 7. Visualize concepts to improve memory and recall. 8. Teach new concepts to another person. 9. Pay extra attention to difficult information. 10. Vary your study routine.

26. Top 10 Memory Improvement Tips • Focus your attention on the materials you are studying. Attention is a major components of memory. For information to move from short-term memory into long-term memory need to actively attend to this information. Try to study in a place free of distractions such as television, music and other diversions. 2. Avoid cramming by establishing regular study sessions. According to Bjork (2001), studying materials over a number of session's gives you the time you need to adequately process the information. Those who study regularly remember the material far better than those who did all of their studying in one marathon session. 3. Structure and organize the information you are studying. Researchers have found that information is organized in memory in related clusters. S0, structure & organize the materials you are studying. Try grouping similar concepts and terms together, or make an outline of your notes/textbook readings to help group related concepts.

27. Top 10 Memory Improvement Tips 4. Utilize mnemonic devices to remember information. • A mnemonic is simply a way to remember informatio a technique used to aid in recall. For example, you might associate a term you need to remember with a common item that you are very familiar with (rhyme). Use a rhyme, song/joke to help remember. 5. Elaborate & rehearse the information you are studying. • In order to recall information, you need to encode what you are studying into long-term memory  use elaborative rehearsal. An example of this technique would be to read the definition of a key term, study the definition of that term and then read a more detailed description of what that term means. After repeating this process a few times, your recall of the information will be far better.

28. Top 10 Memory Improvement Tips 6. Relate new information to things you already know. • Establishing relationships between new ideas and previously existing memories, When you are studying unfamiliar material, take the time to think about how this information relates to things that you already know. 7. Visualize concepts to improve memory and recall. • Many benefit from visualizing the information they study  focus on the photos, charts, graphics etc. If you do not have visual cues to help, try creating your own. Draw charts or figures in the margins of your notes/use highlighter/pens in different colours to group related ideas in your notes. 8. Teach new concepts to another person. • Research suggests that reading out loud can improves memory of the material or teaching new concepts to others enhances understanding and recall. You can use this approach in your own studies by teaching new concepts and information to a friend or study partner

29. Top 10 Memory Improvement Tips 9. Pay extra attention to difficult information. • Have you ever noticed how it's sometimes easier to remember information at the beginning or end of a chapter? Researchers have found that the position of information can play a role in recall, which is known as the serial position effect. While recalling middle information can be difficult, you can overcome this problem by spending extra time rehearsing this information. Another strategy is to try restructuring the information so it will be easier to remember. When you come across an especially difficult concept, devote some extra time to memorizing the information. 10. Vary your study routine. • Another great way to increase your recall is to occasionally change your study routine. If you are accustomed to studying in one specific location, try moving to a different spot to study. If you study in the evening, try spending a few minutes each morning reviewing the information you studied the previous night. By adding an element of novelty to your study sessions, you can increase the effectiveness of your efforts and significantly improve your long-term recall.

30. Three Kinds of Memory Tasks • Recall • producing required information by searching memory • Retrieval Cue • Any stimulus or bit of information that aids in retrieval • Recognition • Identifying material as familiar or as having been encountered before • Only requires that you recognize it, not recall all the information • Relearning • Retention expressed as the percentage of time saved when material is relearned.

31. Recognition Are you better at remembering faces than names? Have you wondered why? It’s because the task involves recognition rather than recall. You must recall the name but merely recognize the face.

32. The Nature of Remembering • Reconstruction • an account of an event pieced together from a few highlights. • May or may not be accurate • Schemas • integrated framework of knowledge and assumptions about people, objects, and events • Affect how the person encodes and recalls information • May or may not be accurate • Memories are usually reconstructed, shorter, and more consistent with an individual’s viewpoint • Puzzling features are adapted to fit expectations or familiar objects • Positive Bias • Pleasant events are remembered more than unpleasant events • Aids with current emotional well-being

33. Reconstruction When people recall an event, such as a car accident, they are actually reconstructing it from memory by piecing together bits of information that may or may not be totally accurate.

34. The Nature of Remembering • Eyewitness Testimony • Is highly subject to error and should be viewed with caution • U.S. Department of Justice prepared national guidelines for collecting eyewitness evidence in 1999 • Minimize identification of suspects errors by first describing the perpetrator and then searching for photos to match the description • Lineup errors are minimized through sequential viewing • Viewing members of lineup one at a time rather than all together • Mistakes are more likely if person is of another race or if a weapon was used in the crime • Misinformation Effect – misleading information supplied after the event confounds a witnesses memory • Stress of the event does not lessen ability to remember critical details while less important details may be lost • Confidence of eyewitnesses has much to do with ease of recall not accuracy of information.

35. Recovering Repressed Memories • Controversy initially surrounded sex abuse victims and the idea: • “if you think you were abused and your life shows the symptoms, then you were” removed responsibility of establishing proof • May be false “recovered” memories influenced by suggestions. • Hypnosis techniques often used to aid in recovery of memories • Hypnosis does not improve the accuracy of memory only the confidence in what was remembered. • Persons asked to Imagine a fictitious event develop a false memory of the event. • Repeated exposure to suggestions of false memories can create them • Individual differences in suggestibility may also play a role • Infantile amnesia – the inability to recall events from the first few years of life likely due to limited language and hippocampus development • APA & AMA both agree repressed memories exist and that false memories can be constructed.

36. Flashbulb Memories An extremely vivid memory of the conditions surrounding one’s first hearing the news of a surprising, shocking, or highly emotional event. • News of the death or injury of a family member or friend • News of a catastrophe • Easily recalled due to high • Emotionality • Consequentiality – importance of the consequences of the event • Rehearsal – how often people think or talk about the events afterward • Appear to be forgotten at about the same rate and ways as other kinds of memories • Eyewitnesses to the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon almost certainly formed flashbulb memories of the witnessed events. • Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news on September 11, 2001?

37. Memory and Culture The matter and manner of recall are often predominantly determined by social influences. • Swazi herdsman recall minute individual differences of every cow • History of a tribe preserved orally by specialists • Impressive memory feats possible because its an integral and critically important part of the culture in which they live • Other memory components usually no different • Stories set in own cultures more easily remembered than those set in other cultures • Culturally based schemas may also influence memory and recall

38. Serial Position Effect The finding that, for information learned in a sequence, recall is better for the beginning and ending items than for the middle items in the sequence • Primacy effect • The tendency to recall the first items in a sequence more readily than the middle items • Recency effect • The tendency to recall the last items in a sequence more readily than those in the middle • Poorer recall of information in the middle of a series because it is no longer in short-term memory • Serial position effect supports notion of separate systems for short and long-term memory

39. Context dependent memory. • Information is easier to recall when a person is in the same environmental context they were in when they learned it. • Elements of the physical setting where information is learned are encoded along with the memory

40. State dependent memory. • The tendency to recall information better if one is in the same pharmacological or psychological state as when the information was encoded • Students exposed to spider and/or snakes while learning a list of words recalled more words when the creatures were present during recall • Depressed adults recall more negative life experiences • More likely to recall parents as unloving and rejecting • Depression impairs memory • Younger depressed patients more impaired than older • Negative recall tendency reverses itself when depression lifts

41. Biology and Memory: The Nature of Learning 0 • Learning • The process by which experiences change our nervous system and hence our behavior. • Stimulus-response learning • Learning to automatically make a particular response in the presence of a particular stimulus; includes classical and instrumental conditioning. • Classical conditioning • A learning procedure; when a stimulus that initially produces no particular response is followed several times by an unconditioned stimulus that produces a defensive or appetitive response. This type of learning involves: • Unconditioned stimulus • Unconditioned response • Conditioned stimulus • Conditioned response

42. The Nature of Learning 0 • Hebb rule • The hypothesis proposed by Donald Hebb that the cellular basis of learning involves strengthening of a synapse that is repeatedly active when the postsynaptic neuron fires. • Instrumental conditioning • A learning procedure whereby the effects of a particular behavior in a particular situation increase (reinforce) or decrease (punish) the probability of the behavior; also called operant conditioning. • Reinforcing stimulus • An appetitive stimulus that follows a particular behavior and thus makes the behavior become more frequent. • Punishing stimulus • An aversive stimulus that follows a particular behavior and thus makes the behavior become less frequent.

43. The Nature of Learning 0 • Motor learning • Learning to make a new response. • Relational learning • Involves learning the relationships among individual stimuli such as becoming familiar with the contents of a room.

45. Biology & Memory: Learning & Synaptic Plasticity • Induction of long-term potentiation • Long-term potentiation • A long-term increase in the excitability of a neuron to a particular synaptic input caused by repeated high-frequency activity of that input. • Hippocampal formation • A forebrain structure of the temporal lobe, constituting an important part of the limbic system; includes the hippocampus proper (Ammon’s horn), dentate gyrus, and subiculum.

46. Biology & Memory: Learning & Synaptic Plasticity • Role of NMDA receptors • Associative long-term potentiation • A long-term potentiation in which concurrent stimulation of weak and strong synapses to a given neuron strengthens the weak ones. • NMDA receptor • A specialized ionotropic glutamate receptor that controls a calcium channel that is normally blocked by Mg2+ ions; involved in long-term potentiation.

47. Biology & Memory: Learning & Synaptic Plasticity • Role of NMDA receptors • AP5 • 2-Amino-5-phosphonopentanoate; a drug that blocks NMDA receptors. • AMPA receptor • An ionotropic glutamate receptor that controls a sodium channel; when its open, it produces EPSPs. • Role of NMDA receptors • Dendritic spike • An action potential that occurs in the dendrite of some types of pyramidal cells.

48. Biology & Memory: Learning & Synaptic Plasticity • Mechanisms of synaptic plasticity • CaM-KII • Type II calcium-calmodulin kinase, an enzyme that must be activated by calcium; may play a role in the establishment of long-term potentiation. • Nitric oxide synthase • An enzyme responsible for the production of nitric oxide. • Long-term depression (LTD) • A long-term decrease in the excitability of a neuron to a particular synaptic input caused by stimulation of the terminal button while the postsynaptic membrane is hyperpolarized.

49. Instrumental Conditioning and Motor Learning • Reinforcement: Neural circuits involved in reinforcement • Medial forebrain bundle (MFB) • A fiber bundle that runs in a rostral-caudal direction through the basal forebrain and lateral hypothalamus; electrical stimulation of these axons is reinforcing. • Ventral tegmental area (VTA) • A group of dopaminergic neurons in the ventral midbrain whose axons form the mesolimbic and mesocortical system; plays a critical role in reinforcement. • Nucleus accumbens • A nucleus of the basal forebrain near the septum; receives dopamine-secreting terminal buttons from neurons of the ventral tegmental area and is thought to be involved in reinforcement and attention. • Nucleus accumbens • A nucleus of the basal forebrain near the septum; receives dopamine-secreting terminal buttons from neurons of the ventral tegmental area and is thought to be involved in reinforcement and attention

50. Biology and Memory • Hippocampal Region • A part of the limbic system which includes the hippocampus and underlying cortical areas • Involved in the formation of semantic memories. • Anterograde amnesia. • The inability to form long-term memories of an event occurring after brain injury or surgery. • Other long and short-term memories usually are intact