Memory732-928-8735

The Phenomenon of Memory Memory is learning that takes place over time – it

is information that can be stored and retrieved

Memory is like a computer – information must be encoded, stored and then retrieved Encoding is the processing of information into the

memory system Storage is the retention of memory over time Retrieval is the process of getting information out of

storage

How well information is encoded is really important when it comes to storing and retrieving the memory later

The Cycle of Memory

Information comes in as Sensory Memory

It becomes a short term memory – and is either encoded

through rehearsal or lost

Working Memory involves conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial

information, mixed with retrieved

information from long-term memory

Encoded and rehearsed

information becomes long-term memory and is available for

retrieval

Encoding

With little to no effort – we absorb an enormous amount of information

Without conscious effort – we automatically process information about: Space – like when you’re reading and you know where to go back and

look for something on a page Time – like how you unintentionally notice the sequence of your day:

forgot your coat in a classroom? It’s easy to retrace your steps from the day

Frequency – how effortless it is to realize how often something happens “It’s the fourth time I’ve heard that song today”

Since our brain is so amazing at multitasking – all of this unconscious processing takes place while your brain is also consciously controlling your walking, talking, driving, getting dressed – or unconsciously monitoring your breathing, digesting, balance

EncodingAutomatic processing is so effortless, that

it’s difficult to turn it off If you see a word in your native language (on a

truck, billboard, or building) it is almost impossible not to automatically (and without any effort) register the meaning

When you first learned to read – the processing was not automatic – but like many skills and activities – the learning over time (memory) makes the ability automatic

Encoding When we give attention and conscious effort to

learn a new concept, skill, or person’s name – we are using effortful processing

Oftentimes, the most successful way to effortfully process new information is through rehearsal, or conscious repetition

Germany (1850-1909) Ebbinghaus wants to scientifically assess the effects of rehearsal on memory

Forms a list of non-sense words, randomly selects a sample, and practices them before testing himself (via recall)

JIH, BAZ, FUB, YOX,

SUJ, XIR, DAX, LEQ,

VUM, PID, KEL, WAV,

TUV, ZOF, GEK, HIW

MALES STUDY THE NON-SENSE WORDS (BUT DON’T

REHEARSE THEM) FEMALES REHEARSE FOR ONE

MINUTE

WRITE DOWN AS MANY OF THE NON-SENSE

WORDS AS YOU CAN WITHOUT

TALKING!!!! YOU HAVE 30 SECONDS

WHAT OTHER FACTORS (VARIABLES) COULD HAVE AFFECTED THE ACCURACY OF OUR EXPERIMENT?

Our control group and experimental group were not equal (one all male, one all female)

We didn’t control for: Sleep Food Intelligence Age Native languages Other?

Encoding

What Ebbinghaus found out was that the amount of time spent learning increased the amount of information learned

What kind of correlation is this???

He also found that the minute he stopped using the information he memorized… he was unable to recall it!

This happens with math facts, foreign languages, and many other skills, too. Can you name any?

EncodingAnother effective way to encode information is to utilize

the spacing effect

Information practiced over time is more likely to make its way to make its way into your long term memory

If we only talked about Correlation and Causation in chapter one – you would not remember it in June – but we consistently bring our material back to that concept

Think about how you memorize peoples names when you are new… can you support the idea of the spacing effect helping long term memory?

Remember this list 1. Eggs

2. Milk

3. Bread

4. Basil

5. Cheese

6. Potatoes

7. Apple juice

8. Pears

9. Onions

10. Pizza

11. Pasta

12. Lettuce

13. Plates

14. Napkins

15. Shampoo

16. Thyme

17. Razors

18. Water

19. Lemons

20. Cereal

21. Cookies

22. Pretzels

23. Flour

24. Sugar

25. Vegetable oil

26. Dog food

27. Cumin

28. Cat liter

29. Soap

30. French Fries

What items did you remember?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

EncodingResearchers also notice the serial positioning effect in

memory tests

Given a list of items to remember – subjects are most likely to remember what is at the beginning and the end of the list

Why do you think that is?

The beginning of the list gets repeated the most – the end of the list is freshest in your memory

AnalyzeWhat do you think affected what people remembered and

misremembered about the shopping list?Remembered items they liked (meaning) Added items that weren’t there because of similar items

(shampoo was there, did you add conditioner?) (grouping, meaning)

Remembered items that go together (milk, eggs, cheese) but not dissimilar items (razors and flour) (grouping)

If you never go grocery shopping or cook – these words might not mean anything to you: Basil, cumin, thyme (familiarity)

Read and remember the following paragraph. You have 3 minutes. The procedure is really quite simple. First, you

arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put in their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more and the whole process will then have to be repeated. However, that is a part of life.

Write down everything you remember. You have 3 minutes.

Encoding for meaning

In 1972, Bransford and Johnson read the preceding paragraph to a group of college students – who when asked to recall did so with very little success.

They also read the same paragraph to a different group of college students, only this time they told the students they were going to listen to a paragraph about washing clothes.

The group that encoding with meaning (semantic encoding) displayed a drastically improved recall than the group who encoded only with sound (acoustic encoding) and a third group who read the paragraph to themselves (visual encoding)

What was the independent variable? What was the dependent variable? Which was the control group? Which was the experimental group?

Encoding for meaning

Ebbinghaus’ research suggested that even with rehearsal, the effort needed to remember meaningful material compared with nonsense (or meaningless material) only took 1/10th of the effort

For someone who knows what “slope” is… y=mx+b is an easy formula to remember

If you gave that same formula to a 1st grader who did not have the meaning behind the formula… it would be more easily misremembered or forgotten

Visual Encoding - Study the following words. You have

45 seconds.

Typewriter

Void

Cigarette

Inherent

Fire

Process

Flower

Disease

Deceit

Skill

Staples

Ring

Skis

Volume

Heat

Visual Encoding Our earliest memories (Usually something that happened

around the age of 3 or 4) are often visual and involve imagery – or mental pictures

We more easily remember concrete words (which lend themselves to imagery) than we do abstract (low imagery) words

Memory for concrete is superior because they become semantic (meaningful) and remain visual

Two types of encoding are better than one!

Visual Encoding Visual images are so powerful – that they often override more mundane

memories

This leads to the phenomenon of “rosy retrospect”

Use inference to explain what you think rosy retrospect is and give an example

People tend to remember things better than they thought they were at the time… Examples

Disney was great (because you forget how hot you were and how long the lines were)

Having a baby didn’t hurt that bad (because the visual of seeing your child for the first time overpowered just how bad those contractions hurt)

Visual Encoding

Mnemonic devices (memory aids that use visual imagery and organization) are another powerful memory tool rooted in imagery

ROY G. BIV, the devious little leprechaun at the end of the rainbow is really just the colors of the rainbow

a rat in the house might eat all the ice cream is the only way Mrs. Summers could get us to spell correctly in math class

Visual Encoding One study from the late 60s had subjects remember a song

using word association to remember numbers 1 through 9 (one; bun – two; shoe – three; tree and so on)

Subjects soon and without much effort could count by the peg words (bun, shoe, tree) with no effort

Subjects were then challenged to remember a grocery list by visually associating them with the peg words (Carrots – stick them in a bun; Milk – fill the shoe with it; Paper towels – drape them over a tree)

The visual encoding was so strong for the subjects that most scored with complete accuracy with minimal rehearsal time

Now Write down all of the words listed a few slides back. You have 45 seconds.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

Which words did you remember?Concrete Abstract

Typewriter Void

Cigarette Inherent

Fire Process

Flower Disease

Staples Deceit

Ring Skill

Skis Volume

Ring

Organizing Information for EncodingChunking – we can more easily recall

information when it is presented in familiar, manageable chunks

Chunking occurs so naturally that we take it for granted

When you give someone your phone number or credit card information – you usually only do so a few numbers at a time

If too much is presented at one – the short term memory is over whelmed and little to no information makes it to long term.

Organizing Information for EncodingWe also organize information into hierarchies

– which chunk and narrow information

Hierarchies start of broad and narrow down into more specific information

When given an outline or hierarchy – students (and people in general) are able to more accurately recall important information

Check Yo Self!!!! (before you wreck yo self)

1. Jot down the psychological names for taking information in, retaining it, and getting it back out

2. Explain what rehearsal is and how it works with memory

3. When people are tested on a list of words, they tend to best remember the first and last words. What is this called?

4. Explain why this phenomena happens.

5. What is a mnemonic device?

Storage: Retaining Information Iconic Memory – a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli

Echoic memory – a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

George Sterling in the 1960s tested iconic memory by flashing 3 rows of 3 letters for 1/20th of a second to participants

When asked to recall what they saw, they got less than half correct. Why do you think that is?

Sperling then added a tone to correspond to each row – and with this variable, participants were able to accurately recall all nine letter

Our brains register things we do not know they register… but storing them and retrieving them is often too difficult without some help!

What are the limits of short term memory

With out rehearsal – your short term memory is pretty stinky

To prove this – In 1959 Margaret Paterson asked people to remember groups of 3 consonants:(KLJ, MPQ)

She then asked them to count backwards from 100 by 3s – in order to prevent rehearsal of the consonant groups.

After 3 seconds, only about half of the consonants could be recalled

After 12 seconds, most people couldn’t remember any

What does this tell you about your studying techniques???

Do Nowhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

oSQJP40PcGI

Count how many passes the team in white makes. Pay attention!

Short –Term MemoryYour short term memory is limited not only in

length of time (as demonstrated by our earlier experiments) but also in its capacity

The magical number 7 (plus or minus two) was determined to be the average of what people can remember at any given time without rehearsal

Long-Term Memory Our potential for long-term memory storage is limitless

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vsYCSmBcM0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbjJo6gs274

People with “Amazing Meomory” say it’s all in the strategy and anyone can learn to have a great memory

What techniques about memory did you see the people using? Explain the theory behind why they work .

Storing Memories in the Brain For year, psychologists tried to figure out

WHERE memories are stored in the brain

In 1950, Karl Lashey train mice to solve a maze, then systematically cut out different regions of their brains

No matter what cortical area was removed, the mice always knew, in at least part, how to solve the maze

What does this tell you about memory storage?

Synaptic ChangesMemories begin as neural impulses – charges that pass

between the synapses

By studying sea slugs (remember their brains are similar to ours), neuroscientists saw that during a familiar experience, there was an increased amount of serotonin in the synapses between connecting neurons

Those synapses then became ore effective at transmitting signals

Relate this to what we learned about Alzheimer's and the plaques. How do plaques get in the way of memory?

Synaptic Changes The more serotonin releases between neurons, the less

prompting is needed to inspire recall of long-term memories

Because of this finding more research is being done into developing drugs that help with serotonin intake and and production to help with memory loss

What type of research found the finding?

What type of research is using this information?

Basic Research discovered the information. Applied Research uses it to help develop drugs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAKYzuhk-LY

Stress Hormones and Memory If there were a drug (doctor prescribed medicine) you could

take to dull upsetting or traumatic memories, would you take it? Why or why not?

Would you give it to your child or younger sibling to spare them the pain of such memories?

Stress Hormones and Memories When we are stressed or excited, our body releases stress

hormones that make our brains more active

The hormones induce glucose production, to fuel the brain and signal that something important has happened

The amygdala (part of which system?) helps regulate emotion-processing and can boost the encoding of highly-emotional memories AND reduce the encoding of neutral ones

Stress Hormones and Memory According to most research, stronger emotions

make for stronger memories

What kind of correlation is this?

As emotion goes up, the strength of the memory goes up. As emotion lessens, the strength of the memory lessens.

This is a positive correlation.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-blindness-when-everyone-is-a-stranger-20-03-2012/

Storing Implicit and Explicit Memories A memory-to-be comes into the brain through

the senses

Where it travels to next depends on the type of information it is

Some people suffer from a special type of amnesia, or memory loss, in which they are unable to form new memories

JimmyWas injured in the war in 1945 – and lost the ability to form

new memories

In 1975, psychologists Oliver Sacks asked him to name the president – he replied confidently, “FDR is dead, Truman’s at the helm”

Sacks asked Jimmy his age, and he reported that he was 19. Sacks then showed him his reflection in the mirror – Jimmy lost it

Sacks then distracted him and he forgot all about it

Jimmy The strange thing about Jimmy (and others like him) was that he could

LEARN new things

They could learn to solve puzzles, read mirror writing, learn complicated new skills on the computer – but none of them REMEMBERED that they learned how to do these things

One test showed amnesia patients pictures of familiar people’s faces – although they could not identify the faces explicitly, their physiological (body) reactions to familiar faces revealed that their brains did indeed recognized the faces

Explicit Memories – you are aware that you have them – memories of facts that you can know and declare

Implicit Memories – memories that you are not conscious of having

Types of long-term memories

ExplicitProcessed in the

hippocampus

Facts – General Knowledge

Personally experienced events (prior to the amnesia)

ImplicitProcessed in other brain areas,

including the cerebellum

Classical conditioning

Skills- motor and cognitive

Implicit or Explicit???(Number your paper from 1-10)

1. Driving a car

2. Doing a cartwheel

3. Solving a math problem

4. Recalling the names of your siblings

5. Recalling the names of three people you just met

6. Telling someone the last song you heard

7. Remembering if you turned off the stove (or not)

8. How to use utensils

9. How to write your name

10. What your name is

Answers1. Implicit

2. Implicit

3. Implicit

4. Explicit

5. Explicit

6. Explicit

7. Explicit

8. Implicit

9. Implicit

10. Explicit

Group B Close Your Eyes

Group A Close Your Eyes

Fill in the missing letters for the words below.

1.PE_K

2._ID

3.S_Y

4.F_N

5._OG

6._INE

7._AT

8.CA_E

9._AM

10.SA_D

Choices1. PEAK-PECK

2. AID-KID

3. SAY-SPY

4. FAN-FUN

5. DOG·HOG

6. NINE-PINE

7. MAT·OAT

8. CAKE-CAVE

9. JAM-RAM

10. SAID-SAND

Retrieval – Getting Information Out

To most people – memory is recall – the ability to retrieve information not in your conscious awareness (like what you ate for dinner)

To a psychologist – memory is ANY SIGN that something learned has been retained.

Recognizing (a measure of memory in which a person must identify learned information – like a multiple choice exam)and relearning (a measure of memory in which a person takes less time to relearn a task) also indicate memory

Retrieval Cues

Imagine a spider suspended in the middle of her web – held up by many strands extending outward in all different directions to all different points

The process of retrieving memory is like tracing a spider from its web - memories are “stored” in a “web” of associations – each piece of information is interconnected with another

The more associations you have to any piece of information, the more likely you are to remember it

Each bit of information acts like a hint – we call these retrieval cues

If you can’t remember where you left something, you usually close your eyes (or roll them up and to the right) and try to picture the last time you had it… you are looking for retrieval cues to help you remember where it might be

Priminghttp://gizmodo.com/5980749/this-is-how-your-b

rain-works

Priming – the usually unconscious activation of particular associations in memory

Priming helps us to remember things in a certain way

Context EffectsPutting yourself in a certain context can also help you remember

things HAVE YOU EVER…

Been sitting on the couch and realized you needed chips… Walked into the kitchen and forgot why you were there… Sat back down on the couch and remembered that you wanted chips?

When you walked into the kitchen, you were out of the context of being a chip eating couch potato… but as soon as you were back – you remembered how potato-ish you were

Context can also alter your mood – sometimes you walk into a room and are automatically in a bad mood – because you associate that room with something

Context Effects Sometimes, being in a familiar context leads us

to experience déjà vu – (French for “already seen”) the eerie feeling that “I’ve experienced this before”

Really, the situation is likely filled with similar retrieval cues to another event, that lead you to misremember it as that exact event

Moods and MemoriesWe also have state-dependent memories,

ones we can only remember when we feel a certain way

You are mad at your boyfriend and suddenly remember every annoying thing he ever did

You are feeling lovey-dovey and your boyfriend suddenly does sweet, romantic things all the time

ForgettingThe Seven Sins of Memory

FORGETTING

1. Absent Mindedness – inattention to details which leads to encoding failure (your mind is elsewhere as you lay down the car keys)

2. Transience – storage decay over time (unused information, like you locker combination from freshman year, fades as it becomes non-essential)

3. Blocking – inaccessibility of stored information (tip of your tongue syndrome)

DISTORTION

4. Misattribution – confusing the source of the information (putting words in someone else’s mouth, remembering a dream as if it were real)

5. Suggestibility – the lingering effects of misinformation (like a leading question that becomes a false memory… Did Ms. Appleby throw out your paper?)

6. Bias – belief-colored recollections (current feelings towards your bf or gf might change the way you felt about them when you first met. Was it really love at first sight or did you think he dressed like a total dork?)

INTRUSTION

7. Persistence – unwanted memories that seem to haunt you

Encoding FailureWhat numbers accompany 5 on your phone

(without looking?)

Much of what we sense never gets encoded because it is not important to our survival

The parts of our brain that are active for encoding also slow down with age – which explains some age related memory loss (totally normal)

Storage DecayAccording to research, our memories fade rapidly

with non-use at first, but then level out

This is called the forgetting curve

Three years after high-school, you may only remember 30% of the Spanish or French you learned… but 25 years later, you will still have approximately that 30%

Retrieval FailureSometimes the information is in there – but we struggle to get it

out (very frustrating)

This is where retrieval cues help. The more you have, the better your chances of figuring it out

Interference – sometimes new information gets in the way of retrieving old information

A new phone number might block your recall of an old one Proactive interference occurs when something you learned earlier

disrupts your recall of something you learned later Retroactive interference occurs when new information makes it

harder to recall older information

Which is it? Retroactive or Proactive?

1. You are fluent in English, and so you have a really hard time learning German.

2. You drove one way to work for six months, and so you can’t remember the short cut a co-worker just showed you.

3. You changed your password on your computer, and now you can’t remember what your password used to be.

4. You have a new girlfriend. But you keep calling her by your old girlfriend’s name. Yikes.

5. You learned to drive automatic. Now, learning to drive stick is really tricky.

Answers

1. Proactive

2. Proactive

3. Retroactive

4. Proactive

5. Proactive