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Creation of Memories. How Learning Becomes a Permanent Record: Stages of Memory. Implicit Memories. Our implicit memories are ones we have practiced at such a deep level, they no longer require our conscious effort: Interpreting people’s body language
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Creation of Memories How Learning Becomes a Permanent Record: Stages of Memory
Implicit Memories Our implicit memories are ones we have practiced at such a deep level, they no longer require our conscious effort: Interpreting people’s body language Navigating a hallway or highway as we walk, ride a bike and drive Reading, writing and talking were initially complex tasks but no longer Knowing what someone is going to say or react
Explicit Memories Explicit memories require a concerted effort by our conscious brain to encode We make an effort to acquire a new skill through practice, practice, practice—a procedural memory that will soon become implicit Declarative memories require effective elaboration.
Effective Processing of New Conceptual Information • Need to be paying attention and alert • Need to use active processing strategies such as: State the new information aloud Create meaningful examples of concepts Answer questions about the material Organize the material into an outline or concept map Discuss the new ideas with a friend (or your dog!)
Stage when encoding new information: Is normally referred to as our STM or Working Memory • Encode means to give meaning • Why is this stage of memory called our short-term memory? • Why is this stage also called our working memory?
Stage Two: Consolidation of Memories • Brain makes a permanent record of learning in order to turn it into a permanent memory • Consolidation of experience into a memory by our hippocampus takes about 30 minutes • If a person’s brain is in trauma is seriously or very depressed, the hippocampus will not be able to do its job very well, if at all!
Hippocampus • What could damage the hippocampus? Depress the hippocampus? Cause physical trauma to the hippocampus?
Consolidation involves permanent changes in our brain Additional neurotransmitters are produced by neurons Neural connections are being strengthened Neural connections are created Neurons in the circuitry are adding more dendrites
Eric Kandel used the aplysia as only has 20 thousand neurons & very large Apply electrode aplysia to cringe Over time the aplysia start to habituate to the electrode
Changes noted in aplysia • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZVxYBCpgGs • Youtube shows neural basis for memory
Kandel: “We are what we remember.” • “We are what we remember.”
If hippocampus is destroyed, no new memories can be formed • Anterograde amnesia: living only in the present • Clive Wearing was a brilliant choral director in Britain when he experienced an extensive viral infection of his brain which damaged all of his hippocampus
What his life is like because cannot form explicit memories • For 20 years Clive has been forgetting everything that has just happened. All day long, he believes he has just woken up from a deep haze. • He can not consciously learn new ideas or abilities so never remembers any conversations, where he is living or why. • In his words, his life is “Hell on earth—It’s like being dead—all the bloody time.”
People with anterograde amnesia can only recall their last 10-20 seconds • When not otherwise engaged, he constantly writes in his diary about his experience of feeling like he just woke up. Writes: “Woke up for first time.” Then, “Now really awake!” Minutes “Finally awake for the FIRST time!” Then, “Now REALLY unsurpassedly awake!” Each time crosses out previous entry.
Still has implicit memories of learned procedural skills When a sheet of music is put in front of him and he is assisted in getting started, he can still play the piano beautifully—as became implicit
Clive’s wife brings him great joy and contentment Each time he sees Deborah, he thinks that they are being reunited after a long separation. When with her, he feels content and happy.
Implicitly Clive has learned certain tasks after much repetition • He can shave & dress himself, quite fashionably as it turns out and walk down to kitchen & fix breakfast. • If he is interrupted in the process however, he becomes confused. Why? • After 12 years of living in a very nice cottage, his sense of anguish occurs far less often and has accepted his situation with very little obsession about ‘waking up.’ • Can go out for dinner & converse on certain topics. What would conversation with Clive be like?
Classic Film: “Memento” • Main character, Lenny, experienced serious brain trauma when attacked by drug dealers. • His hippocampus was destroyed so no longer can form new memories. • However, Leonard persists in trying to find the man who raped and murdered his wife
How could a person compensate for their inability to create new memories? • Lenny appears to be aware of his condition and tells everyone he meets all about it. Why would a person with anterograde amnesia not show this awareness? • He compensates by putting tattoos all over his body, making maps, and taking notes and pictures to serve as “memories” of new information. • In real life, people with anterograde amnesia would never use any of these compensating strategies. Why?
Tattoo on chest says “Find the person who raped and murdered my wife.”
Stage Three: Long Term Storage • Memories are stored throughout our cerebral cortex • Very difficult to totally lose a memory once formed as each experience and idea is stored in various parts of the conscious brain • But severe damage to cerebral cortex can result in retrograde amnesia—loss of stored memories • We will view a you tube of a football player who has lost all of his previous memories: Scott Balzans
Long term memories stored in memory structures or memory networks
Retrograde Amnesia http://abcnews.go.com/Health/football-player-scott-bolzans-life-deleted-irreversible-amnesia/story?id=14616045 Ex-Football Player’s Life is Deleted by Retrograde Amnesia
Comparing Two Types of Amnesia • What is anterograde amnesia? • What causes anterograde amnesia? • What is retrograde amnesia? • What causes retrograde amnesia?
Stage Four: Retrieval • Three ways to measure memory: 1) ability to recall; 2) ability to recognize; 3) ease at relearning the material • Measuring ease of relearning is most sensitive measurement of memory • Recall is more challenging than recognition. • Recall and recognition are both vulnerable to distortion
Exercise to show a unique quality of retrieval Will provide 12 words, one on each slide Do not write down! We will discuss later what you do and do not recall and why So, here we go.
Distortions occur during retrieval: Demonstrated in 3 minute clip Eye witness identification influenced by events that occur after a person witnesses a crime Showing mug shots can result in false identifications Suggestive comments by police during interviews reduce recall of accurate facts and cause distortion of memories
Cognitive Interview Office asks witness to place themselves at the scene of the crime Witness then asked to explain what happened without one interruption except for minor clarifications Recall increases by 50% with cognitive interviews
Now write as many of the 12 words as canresttiredawake dream eat snore slumber comfort Sleep rest tired awake bed night sound wake
False Memories Elizabeth Loftus and her experiment involving two women who had their non-existent tape recorder stolen at train station Students told that their parents had provided a story about a prank s/he had done to their first grade teacher False—but customize with own name and that of their first grade teacher
Many come to believe this truly happened The most powerful method of persuasion was when the story was coupled with an actual photo of the participant’s first-grade classroom In this condition, two-thirds developed false memories of the event When told later that memories were false, expressed disbelief—”No way! I remember it! This is so weird!”
How Can Police get False Confessions Intensive and very drawn out interrogations that make suspect feel extremely vulnerable Make lots of suggestions about how they went about committing the crime The suspect can come to believe they committed a crime that they did not!
