Memory

1. Memory Storage: Retaining Information

2. Memory – Information Processing • Atkinson and Shiffrin’s “Three-Stage Processing” Model • Memories are stored in a three-step process of sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory

3. Memory – Information Processing • Sensory Memory – the immediate, initial recording of sensory information; fleeting, temporary information • Short-Term Memory – activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven-digits of a phone number while you are dialing, and then the information is either stored, or forgotten • Long-term Memory – the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of memories

4. Sensory Memory • Sensory memory retention is only fleeting and momentary; it is less than a second • Sensory memory retention allows us to remember small, quick bits of information for a very short period of time, though it is not generally encoded

5. Sensory Memory • Iconic Memory: Our fleeting photographic memory • Echoic Memory: Our fleeting memory for auditory sensations

6. Short-Term Memory or Working Memory • Short-term memory has two important characteristics. First, short-term memory can contain at any one time seven, plus or minus two, "chunks" of information. • Second, items remain in short-term memory around ten to thirty seconds. • The ability to hold and manipulate information over a brief period of time. Forgetting can occur rapidly, especially if distracted.

7. Short-Term Memory • This type of memory increases as children get older, but decreases in old age Short Term Memory

8. Short-Term Memory • Write down the words of all the pictures you can remember.

10. How many objects did you remember?

11. Long-Term Memory • A system in the brain that can store vast amounts of information on a relatively enduring basis • The information can be facts you learned a few minutes ago, personal memories that are decades old, or skills learned with practice.

12. There are three types of Long Term Memories • Episodic Memory – Memories of specific events, stored in a sequence • Semantic Memory – General knowledge of the world, stored as facts, meanings, or in categories • Procedural Memory – Memories of skills and how to perform them

13. Long Term Memories can be…. • Explicit Memory – Conscious memories of facts or events we actively tried to remember • Implicit Memories – Memories that are unintentional and are brought to consciousness inadvertently

14. Long-Term Memory • The average adult has more than a billion bits of information in memory • Storage capacity of long-term memories has been estimated at million times that (1,000,000 X 1,000,000,000)

15. Storing Memories in the Brain • The hippocampus is relevant to short-term memory especially, like a holding cell until memories can be transferred into long-term memory – especially explicit memory • The cerebellum is primarily responsible for implicit memory storage • The amygdala stores many memories tied to emotions The Hippocampus and Memory

16. Memory Retrieval: Getting Information Out

17. Retrieval • Retrieval is the process of getting information out of memory storage

18. Retrieval • Recall – memory is the ability to retrieve exact information learned at an earlier time • IE. Fill in the blank test. • IE. Columbus sailed in the year ________. 6 x 6 = _____. Define retrieval ______. My Social Security number is _______. Recall Memory

19. Retrieval • Recognition – a measure of memory in which a person only needs to identify items previously learned • IE. A multiple-choice test. • IE. Of the following choices, which is the correct answer to 6 x 6 ____. You can’t remember the names of all 400 kids you graduated high school with, but if I show you pictures of them you can remember who you went to school with and who you didn’t.

20. Retrieval • Relearning – the principle that if you’ve learned something and forgot it, you probably will learn the material more easily the second time – therefore, retrieval is easier and quicker as well • IE. Learned to play the guitar and played for five years. Haven’t played in 10 years, but you pick up a guitar and play a few tunes, and with a few lessons you play as well as you did before.

21. Retrieval • Primers – the activation of particular associations in memory, by a keyword or some other type of sensory input • Can’t remember a word? Here’s the first letter • Can’t remember a song? Here’s the first few notes • Seeing the color red brings back memories of… • Smelling suntan lotion brings back memories of….

22. Retrieval • Context Effects – the tendency to remember information better and more accurately when you are in a physical setting that is similar to the one that you learned the information in the first place

23. Retrieval • State-Dependent Theory – what we learn in one emotional or physical state – happy or sad, drunk or sober – is sometimes more easily recalled when we are again in that same emotional state

24. Retrieval • Mood-Congruent – our moods biasour past memories • IE. You had a fantastic wedding, happy and jovial. Five years later, in the middle of a bad divorce, all that you remember is how hectic the day was, how uncomfortable it was, how stressed you were, how annoying your wife-to-be was leading up to the day…….

25. Retrieval • déjà vu – “Already Seen” (French) • The eerie sense that “I’ve been in this exact situation before” • Paranormal Explanation – Precognition or Reincarnation? • Memory Explanation – If a situation is loaded with clues that are similar to ones already in memory, your brain makes similar associations between them

26. Memory Forgetting, Memory Construction, and Improving Memory Life Without Memory Life Without Memory II

27. Forgetting • Age - The older we get, the lessresponsive the brain areas associated with encoding and retaining memory are. Therefore, long-term memory is especially hindered. • Absent-Mindedness – inattention to detail leads to poor encoding, trivial storage, and often failed retrieval • AbM Test

28. Forgetting • Transience- • Ebbinghaus’ “Forgetting Curve” states that much of what we learn we indeed forget rather quickly – we forget about 35% of what we learn within five (5) days, but then we retain the rest for a rather long period of time

29. Forgetting • Decay Theory – forgetting is due to normal metabolic processes that occur in the brain over time; also, if memories are unused over a long period of time, they begin to naturally fade away

30. Retrieval Failures • Pro-active Interference – occurs when something you learned earlier (an old memory) disrupts your ability to create a new memory • IE. You buy a new car and want to switch on the headlights, but instead you keep turning on the windshield wipers.

31. Retrieval Failures • Retro-active Interference – occurs when new information makers it harder to recall something you learned earlier • IE. Your new phone number interferes with remembering your old phone number.

32. Retrieval Failures • Repression - a basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

33. Retrieval Failures • Tip-Of-The-Tongue Experience – the inability to get a bit of information that you’re absolutely certain is stored in your memory – the information is very close, but just out of reach

34. Memory Construction • Source Confusion – arises when the true source of a memory is forgotten, so you create details to fill in the gaps • Misinformation Effect – a person’s existing memories can be altered if the person is exposed to misleading information or questions • Eyewitness Testimony…How reliable is it? The Suggestibility of Memory

35. Medical Memory LossThe Hippocampus and Memory • Amnesia – sever memory loss • Retrograde Amnesia – especially due to injury, patients lose most of their memory of past events, especially most recent events • Anterograde Amnesia – the inability to form new memories • Alzheimers – as plaques build in the brain and interfere with neural transmissions, memories cannot be formed or retrieved