Chapter 7 MEMORY

1. Chapter 7MEMORY Section 1:Three Kinds of Memory Section 2:Three Processes of Memory Section 3:Three Stages of Memory Section 4:Forgetting and Memory Improvement

2. Chapter 7 Section 1: Three Kinds of Memory What is Memory? • Memory is the process by which we recollect prior experiences and information and skills learned in the past. • One way to classify memory is according to the different kinds of information it contains: events, general knowledge, and skills.

3. Chapter 7 Section 1: Three Kinds of Memory Question: What are the three kinds of memory? THREE KINDS OF MEMORY • Episodic memory– memory of a specific event that took place in the person’s presence or through experience • Semantic memory– general knowledge that people remember • Implicit memory– a memory that consists of the skills and procedures one has learned

4. Chapter 7 Section 1: Three Kinds of Memory Episodic Memory • Episodic Memory is memory of a specific event • Flashbulb memories--Events so important that it seems as if a flashbulb goes off and we photograph it in every detail. • There are several reasons why certain memories become etched in our minds when the “flashbulb” goes off. • Sometimes places or events make an impression on us because they are connected to other events that are important at the time, such as a major disaster or tragedy.

5. Chapter 7 Section 1: Three Kinds of Memory Semantic Memory • Semantic memory– general knowledge that people remember • We usually do not remember when we acquired the information in our semantic memory. • Examples of semantic memory • You remember the alphabet, you so not remember where, when or how you learned it. • Most of what you have learned in your classes at school has become part of your semantic memory. • Episodic and semantic memories are both examples of explicit memory.

6. Chapter 7 Section 1: Three Kinds of Memory Implicit Memory • The opposite of explicit is implicit and another kind of memory is implicit memory • Implicit memory– a memory that consists of the skills and procedures one has learned • Things that are implicit are implied or not clearly stated • Memories consist of the skills or procedures you have learned—throwing a ball, jumping rope, typing, using a computer, playing a musical instrument. • Once skills have been learned, they tend to stay remembered for many years perhaps even a lifetime.

7. Chapter 7 Homework Practice Online • Go to http://go.hrw.com • Type in sy7 ch7 • Complete section 1 • Print

8. Chapter 7 Section 2: Three Processes of Memory Question: What are the three processes of memory? THREE PROCESSES OF MEMORY • Encoding– the translation of information into a form in which it can be stored • Storage– the second process of memory and is the maintenance of encoded information over a period of time • Retrieval– third process of memory; consists of locating stored information and returning it to conscious thought

9. Chapter 7 Section 2: Three Processes of Memory Encoding • The first stage of processing information • When we place information into our memory like computers, we encode it. • We convert the physical stimulation we have received into psychological formats that can be mentally represented. • On a sheet of paper write this list of letters OTTFFSSENT • Look at the letters for 30 seconds and memorize as much of the list as possible.

10. Chapter 7 Section 2: Three Processes of Memory • Visual codes • Did you try to see them in your mind as a picture? • If so, you used visual code. • You tried to form a mental picture of the letters in your mind.

11. Chapter 7 Section 2: Three Processes of Memory • Acoustic Codes— • Did you read the list to yourself and repeat it several times? • You may have said the letters one after another trying to remember the letters • The acoustic code records the letter in your memory as a sequence of sounds.

12. Chapter 7 Section 2: Three Processes of Memory • Semantic codes • Did you try to make sense of the letters, or try to figure out what they mean? • A semantic code represents information in terms of its meaning. • You may have tried to find words that begin with each letter in the list. • What you may not have realized when you first examined the list is that the letters OTTFFSSENT • Stands for the first letter of the series of numbers from one to ten • By using semantic codes, you can memorize lists of letters and other items more easily and will probably remember them for a longer amount of time than you would otherwise.

13. Chapter 7 Section 2: Three Processes of Memory Storage • Once information is encoded it must be stored • This is the second stage in the memory process. • Human storage of information is not all that different from a computer’s storage of information. • With a computer, the user must instruct the machine to save information in its memory. • Otherwise it will lose the newly encoded information when the user shuts off the computer. • People who want to store new information in their memory use a variety of strategies.

14. Chapter 7 Section 2: Three Processes of Memory • Maintenance Rehearsal—repeating information over and over again to keep from forgetting. • The more time spent in rehearsing or repeating information the longer the information will be remembered. • Maintenance rehearsal does not try to make information meaningful by connecting it to past learning, it is a relatively poor way to put information in permanent storage.

15. Chapter 7 Section 2: Three Processes of Memory Elaborative Rehearsal • Elaborative Rehearsal—A more effective and lasting way to remember new information is to make it meaningful by relating it to information you already know well • Widely used in education because it has proved to be a much more effective method than maintenance rehearsal.

16. Chapter 7 Section 2: Three Processes of Memory Organizational Systems • Memories that you store become organized and arranged in your mind for future use. • Your memory resembles a vast storehouse of files and file cabinets in which you store what you learn and need to remember. • The more you learn, the more files you need and the more elaborate your filing system becomes. • As your memory develops, it organizes the information you learn into files and then files within files.

17. Chapter 7 Section 2: Three Processes of Memory Filing Errors • Our ability to remember information even when we are healthy and functioning well is subject to error. • Some memory errors occur because we “file” information incorrectly. • Have you ever mistakenly placed a paper in the wrong folder?

18. Chapter 7 Section 2: Three Processes of Memory Retrieval • The third stage of the memory process • Retrieval consists of locating stored information and returning it to conscious thought. • To retrieve information stored in a computer we have to know the name of the file and the rules for retrieving information. • Some information in our memory is so familiar that it is readily available and almost impossible to forget. • Using the semantic code may be more complex than seeing the list in your mind’s eye and it might take you a little longer to reconstruct the list of letters. However, by using the 1-10 device, you have a much better chance of remembering the letters and of remembering them for a longer time.

19. Chapter 7 Section 2: Three Processes of Memory Context-Dependent Memory • Have you ever been to a place that brought back old memories? • The memories that came back to you in that place are called context-dependent memories . • These memories are dependent on the place where they were encoded and stored. • Students do better on tests when they study for a test in the room where the test will be given. You should also study in a variety of other settings to improve your recollection of the material after the tests are over. • Police sometimes take witnesses to the scene of the crime in the hope that such visits will improve their memories of what they witnessed.

20. Chapter 7 Section 2: Three Processes of Memory State-Dependent Memory • Sometimes people retrieve memories better when they are in the same emotional state they were in when they first stored the memories.\ • Memories that are retrieved because the mood in which they were originally encoded is re-created are called state-dependent memories. • Not only is memory better when people are in the same moods as when the memories were acquired, it is also better when people are in the same states of consciousness.

21. Chapter 7 Section 2: Three Processes of Memory On the Tip of the Tongue • Sometimes we come so close to retrieving information that it seems as though the information is on the “tip of the tongue.” • Also know as the “feeling-of-knowing experience.” • The files in our memory have labels, so to speak, that include both the sounds and the meanings of words, we often try to retrieve memories that are on the tip of the tongue by using either acoustic or semantic cues.

22. Chapter 7 Homework Practice Online • Go to http://go.hrw.com • Type in sy7 ch7 • Complete section 2 • Print

23. Chapter 7 Section 3: Three Stages of Memory Question: How are the three stages of memory related to each other? • Some images held in sensory memory are transferred to short-term memory. (STM) • Information that is repeated in short-term memory can be transferred to long-term memory. (LTM)

24. Chapter 7 Sensory Memory • First stage of memory and consists of the immediate, initial recording of information that enters through our senses. • A memory trace or impression made on our senses by the image would last for only a fraction of a second. • A memory trace of a visual stimulus held in our sensory memory decays within a second. • Psychologists believe that all of our senses have sensory registers. • The mental pictures we form of visual stimuli are called icons. Iconic memories are like snapshots. • The ability to remember visual stimuli over long periods of time (what most of us think of as photographic memory) is called eidetic imagery. • Mental traces of sounds, called echoes, are held in a sensory register called echoic memory.

25. Chapter 7 Short-Term Memory • It is also called the working memory. • We use our short-term memory a great deal of the time. • When you look up a number in the phone book and then walk cross the room to reach the phone, you try to keep the number in your short-term memory long enough to dial it. • Information in short-term memory begins to fade rapidly after several seconds. If you want to keep it longer you have to keep rehearsing the information or take other steps to prevent it from fading.

26. Chapter 7 The Primary and Recency Effects • Primary effect—the tendency to recall the initial items in a series of items. • We may remember first items better because our minds are fresher when we first see or hear them. • Recency effect—the tendency to recall the last items in a series.

27. Chapter 7 Chunking • Chunking—the organization of items into familiar or manageable units. • Think back to OTTFFSSENT. If you tried to rememver it letter by letter, there were 10 distinct pieces, or chunks, of information to retain in your short-term memory. • It is difficult to remember 10 meaningless chunks. • By encoding OTTFFSSENT as “Other flowers sent” you reduce the number of chunks from 10 to 3 and you have to remember the variations in spelling. • Most people can not remember more than 9 items at a time in their short-term memory.

28. Chapter 7 Interference • Short-term memory is like a shelf that holds only so much. • Only a limited amount of information can be retained in short-term memory. • Interference occurs when new information appears in short-term memory and takes the place of what is already there. • Interference is what happened at the party when Dan asked Todd to look at his watch and tell him the time. • The new numbers bumped the old numbers off the short-term memory shelf. • Short-term memory is very useful but it is only a temporary solution to the problem of remembering information. • Short-term memory is the bridge between sensory memory and long-term memory.

29. Chapter 7 Long-Term Memory • It is the third and final stage of memory. • To remember something more than just briefly, you have to take certain steps to store it in your long-term memory. • You can use mechanical repetition (maintenance rehearsal) to transfer information from short-term memory to long-term memory. • Relating new information (elaborative rehearsal) is another way. • Your long-term memory already contains far more information than an encyclopedia or a computer’s hard drive. • Every minute of every day of your life you have been storing information into your long-term memory.

30. Chapter 7 Capacity of Memory • Psychologists have yet to discover a limit to how much can be stored in a person’s long-term memory. • Even though there is no limit to how much we can remember, we do not store all of our experiences permanently. • We are more apt to remember things that capture our attention. If we get distracted or uninvolved with what is occurring around us, we are not going to remember as much as we will if we are interested or paying attention.

31. Chapter 7 Memory as Reconstructive • Psychologists today recognize that electrical stimulation of the brain does not bring about the accurate replay of memories. • Memories are not recorded and played back like videos or movies. They are reconstructed from the bits and pieces of our experience. • We tend to remember them according to our beliefs and needs. • In other words, we put our own personal stamp on our memories. • That is why brothers and sisters can have differing memories of the same family events. Each sibling has interpreted the information differently.

32. Chapter 7 Schemas • Schemas are the mental representations that we form of the world by organizing bits of information into knowledge. • On a sheet of paper, write the words eyeglasses an hourglass. • Now draw a picture of these two items. • When you draw the items you did not draw them exactly from memory. • You drew them from you ideas about what eyeglasses and hourglasses look like.

33. Chapter 7 Homework Practice Online • Go to http://go.hrw.com • Type sy7 ch7 • Click on Section 3 • Complete and Print your quiz

34. Chapter 7 Section 4: Forgetting and Memory Improvement Question: In what ways can memory be improved? IMPROVING MEMORY • Drill and Practice – doing something over and over again (repetition) • Relating to Things One Already Knows – elaborative rehearsal • Forming Unusual Associations– making an unusual or humorous association with something else to help you recall the information

35. Chapter 7 Section 4: Forgetting and Memory Improvement Forgetting and Memory Improvement • Forgetting is the flip side of memory. • Forgetting can occur at any one of the three stages of memory—sensory, short-term, or long-term memory. • Information in long-term memory can also be lost. • Because long-term memory holds such vast amounts of material and the material is represented in an abstract form, forgetting and other memory errors occur. • Old learning can interfere with new learning. • For example: if you study a new foreign language, your knowledge of a language you already know or are studying at the same time can interfere with your new learning especially if they are somewhat similar.

36. Chapter 7 Basic Memory Tasks • Do you know what DAL, RIK, and KAX are? • They are nonsense syllables or meaningless sets of consonants with a vowel in the middle. • A German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus used nonsense syllables to study memory and forgetting.

37. Chapter 7 Recognition • Recognition—is one of the three basic memory tasks. • It involves identifying objects or events that have been encountered before. • It is the easiest of the learning tasks. For example—Multiple Choice tests, you only have to recognize the correct answer. • See example on page 168 in textbook—Harry Bahrick’s study.

38. Chapter 7 Recall • The second memory task is recall. • Recall something means to bring it back to mind. • You try to reconstruct it in your mind. • Psychologists also use paired associates to measure recall. Paired associates are lists of nonsense syllables. • The people try to retrieve one syllable with the other serving as the cue. • Learning the vocabulary of a foreign language is something like learning paired associates.

39. Chapter 7 Relearning • The third basic memory task is relearning. • People who have been out of school for 25 years might not remember the algebraic formulas they learned when they were in high school. However, they could probably relearn them very quickly if someone showed them how to use them again. • We can usually relearn fairly rapidly things we once know but forgotten.

40. Chapter 7 Different Kinds of Forgetting • Much of the time, forgetting is due to interference or decay. • Decay—the fading away of a memory—is similar to a burning candle. • Both decay and interference are part f normal forgetting. • Memory loss occurs in long-term memory when something that has been stored there cannot be retrieved. • There are more extreme kinds of forgetting.

41. Chapter 7 Repression • We sometimes forget things on purpose without even knowing we are doing it. • We forget them by pushing them out of our consciousness. • Freud called this kind of forgetting repression.

42. Chapter 7 Amnesia • Psychoanalysts believe that repression is responsible for a rare but severe kind of forgetting called dissociative amnesia. • Amnesia is severe memory loss caused by brain injury, shock, fatigue, illness, or repression. • Other kinds of amnesia include infantile amnesia, anterograde amnesia, and retrograde amnesia.

43. Chapter 7 Infantile Amnesia • Some people think that they can remember special events that took place in their infancy, but they cannot. • Freud found that they could not remember things that had happened to them before the age of three. This forgetting of early events is called infantile amnesia. • People in their 70s and 80s have many precise memories of their life between the ages of 6 and 10. • College freshmen have difficulty remembering events that occurred before the age of 6, even though these events occurred only 13 or 14 years earlier. • Freud explained infantile amnesia in terms of repression. • Infantile amnesia probably reflects biological and cognitive factors. • The hippocampus that is involved in the storage of memories does not become mature until we are about two years old. • Myelination of brain pathways is incomplete for the first few years, so memory formation remains somewhat inefficient.

44. Chapter 7 Cognitive Reasons for Infantile Amnesia • Infants are not particularly interested in remember the past year • Infants tend not to weave episodes together into meaningful stories of their lives. • Infants do not make reliable use of language to symbolize or classify events.

45. Chapter 7 Anterograde and Retrograde Amnesia • Trauma to the brain caused by a blow to the head, electric shock, or brain surgery can cause memory loss of events that took place both before and after the trauma. • Retrograde amnesia—people forget the period leading up to a traumatic event. • In the most severe cases of retrograde amnesia, the person cannot remember a period of several years prior to the traumatic incident. • A man received a head injury in a motorcycle accident, he had no memory of anything that had happened since he was 11 years old. He even thought he was still 11.

46. Chapter 7 Improving Memory • Psychologists have been able to identify different strategies people can use to improve their memory. • Drill and Practice—going over and over and over again • Repetition is one fairly effective way to transfer information from sensory memory to short-term memory and from short-term memory to long-term memory.

47. Chapter 7 Improving Memory (continued) • Relate to things you already know • Elaborative rehearsal • It requires you to think more deeply about the new information • Learning to expand our knowledge by relating new information to things we already know beings early.

48. Chapter 7 Improving Memory (continued) • Form Unusual Associations • Try to make it stand our from ordinary things. • No time to make a list use different body parts to remember the items.

49. Chapter 7 Improving Memory (continued) • Construct Links • You may find it easier to remember vocabulary words from a foreign language if you construct a meaningful link between each foreign word and its English equivalent.

50. Chapter 7 Improving Memory (continued) • Use Mnemonic Devices • Mnemonic devices are systems form remembering information. Such devices usually combine chunks of information into a format, such as an acronym, phrase, or jingle. • Example—Roy G. Biv • Example—HOMES (Great Lakes) Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior