MEMORY

1. MEMORY The ability to store and retrieve information over time.

2. Key Terms • Cognition The process of acquiring and using knowledge: thinking. • Information Processing Theory The mind is similar to a computer with input, processing, and output. • Reconstructive Memory Memory is stored in pieces, and later put back together using past & present information, emotions, beliefs, & bias. Eyewitness Testimony Errors Video

3. Stage Model of MemorySource: Adapted from Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In K. Spence (Ed.) The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 2). Oxford, England: Academic Press. Attention Encoding

4. Selective Attention Test • Watch this video and follow instructions: • Basketball players pass ball– count the passes made by white shirted team • Watch: Asking Directions and Door Video‬‏. • Watch: Color Changing Card Trick “Change Blindness” and “Selective Attention”– If we selectively pay attention to one or a few things – then we might miss others – including major changes that happen right in front of us. What happens to our memory of events we witness but to which we do not pay attention?

5. Stages of MemoryAccording to Atkisson and Shiffrin • Sensory memory • Visual (iconic, eidetic) Type • Duration 1/4 to 1/2 second, • Capacity is large • Function is brief storage of visual information • Auditory (echoic, hearing) Duration is 3 to 4 seconds • Short term memory (STM) [also called Working Memory] • Duration Less than 1 minute (20-30 sec) • Capacity of memory (7 + or - 2 bits) • Function - It is our Consciousness • Long Term Memory (LTM) • Duration is potentially limitless • Capacity is very large • Function is long term storage

6. Chunking • Chunking can deliberately or accidentally increase the size of short term memory S P D S C C H I B F A I C is DPS HCCS FBI CIA Backwards

7. MORE ON CHUNKSNote that they increase the size of STM • 713 • 281 • 832 All above are CHUNKS to Houston Residents • Each three digit number is one “Chunk” • “Chunks” are multiple items that are stored as a single item.

8. Long Term Memory (subtypes) • A. Explicit (Declarative) Memory * Knowledge or experiences that can be consciously remembered. 1. Episodic Memory * First hand experience (e.g. first date) 2. Semantic Memory * Facts and concepts (e.g. presidents) • B. Implicit (Nondeclarative) Memory Memories that can NOT be consciously remembered • Procedural e.g. riding a bike, typing on a keyboard, surfing • Priming • Classical Conditioning

9. Biology of Memory featuring Henry Gustav Molaison • Biology of Memory Video • Damage to his hippocampus made it impossible for him to store MOST new long term memories • He could NOT form new EXPLICIT EPISODIC memories • He could form new IMPLICIT PROCEDURAL [motor skill] memories

10. Stages of Memory - Review • Video about Short Term and Long Term Memory with Philip Zimbardo PhD – (A good review of some material covered in lecture) Memory (video) [Discusses STM, LTM and Retrieval]

11. Special Factors Regarding Memory (1) Regarding research on memory for lists of items -- • Serial Position Effect includes the • Primacy Effect – first list items are best remembered • Recency Effect – last list items are next best remembered • Middle Items are most often forgotten

12. Special Factors Regarding Memory (2) • “Flashbulb Memories” are memories for emotionally or otherwise important events, for example • Your own wedding? • Where you were and what you were doing when the twin towers in NYC fell? • If older, where you were when JFK was assassinated? • They do not appear to need encoding like other memories. • People are very confident of them. • They are not particularly accurate. • Flashbulb memory example – Video with Dr. Morecook[9:07]

13. Special Factors Regarding Memory (3) • Encoding Specificity Effect – subtypes are • 1. Context Effect [Location Effect] and • 2. State/Mood Effect • A memory is easier to recall if the person is asked to make the recall if they are in the same context [location] that they were in when they learned the material. • Ditto for state/mood.

14. Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)and the Study of Memory • Early Research • Invented the Nonsense Syllable for Memory Research [eg, gub, dof, lod, gaf, etc.) • Discovered the “Forgetting Curve”

15. Ways to Measure Long Term Memory(Can you retrieve the memory?) • Recall Method Free recall – e.g. essay test (Discuss Thorndike’s theory) Cued Recall – the SECOND fill in the blank question 1. The third American President was __________________ 2. The third American President was [cue] Thomas _______ • Recognition * -- Remembering previously seen information Example = Multiple choice tests Thorndike proposed the law of _______________ a. effect b. behavior c. consequences d. averages

16. Techniques to Improve Memory • Maintenance [Rote] Rehearsal * • Same as Repetition; not very effective – fast learning and fast forgetting too • Elaborative Encoding or Rehearsal • Relate items to another memory. Takes longer to learn this way but it leads to better retention

17. Improving Memory (cont.) • Mnemonic Devices * • Memory aids, e.g. associations, rhymes, songs, images, Method of Loci (place; story-telling) • Self-referencing * • Apply the material to yourself. (a form of elaborative rehearsal) • Overlearning * • Study more even though you “know it” • Spacing * • Distributed practice is better than massed practice, [that is, SPACE OUT studying behavior instead of cramming the night before a test] • Acronyms – “fake words” where each letter represents another word

18. Causes of Forgetting • Encoding failure * [see next slide] [Information not stored properly; can’t find it] • Retrieval Failure • Motivated forgetting/Freudian Repression - Inability to bring information into working memory due to anxiety [fear] • Tip of the tongue phenomenon • Amnesia [with a biological cause] Biological cause , e.g. disease, head injury 4. Interference [first studied by Ebbinghaus!] • Proactive – earlier memories interfere with later ones • Retroactive – later memories interfere with earlier ones

19. Image attributed to Stangor, 2011. Introduction to PsychologyWhich is the real penny? Which memory process failed: encoding, storage or retrieval?

21. Schema • Cognitive structures that we use to mentally organize our world. • Cognitive structures INCLUDE our beliefs about what the world SHOULD be. • What schemas were at work in the prior exercise?

22. The legal system and memory • The work of Elizabeth Loftus • The work of Stephen Ceci

23. Elizabeth Loftus 1 • Death of her mother by drowning • Her uncle accidentally implants the false memory of Loftus finding her dead mother’s body • Loftus’s desire to implant false memory in others in a research situation was frustrated because it could do psychological harm

24. Elizabeth Loftus 2 • Loftus did interesting but less controversial research at first – to demonstrate how memories can be altered by others

25. Elizabeth Loftus 3 • Loftus famous “Lost at the Mall” experiment later demonstrated that “False Memories” can be implanted

26. Stephen Ceci andFalse Memories 1 • Parents volunteered their small Children for a free med exam at Medical school • Exam was videotaped with parent in room • Exam did not include the privates, as agreed with parents • Parents must return one week later for exam results • Child is asked about the exam

27. Stephen Ceci andFalse Memories 2 • Doctor asks “I looked for an elephant in your ear, didn’t I?” and similar additional queries. • Doctor asks, “I looked at your privates, didn’t I?” -- to which many children then said “YES”. • One child then volunteered an astonishing remark [see lecture] • Medical professionals should keep a parent in the room when with a child – as self protection

28. Memory and the Law • Courts must use memory including eyewitness testimony as part of drawing conclusions • Eyewitness testimony is not conclusive, but is useful • The confidence that the witness has in their memory and the prestige of the person testifying does NOT make the memory more trustworthy. [duh – remember flashbulb memories and the video when we started the chapter about the law students bad memory for the fake robbery?]