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Chapter 7
Memory
© 2014 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Sarah Grison • Todd Heatherton • Michael Gazzaniga
Psychology in Your Life
FIRST EDITION
Section 7.1
How Do We Acquire Memories?
7.1 How Do We Acquire
Memories?
• Memory
– The nervous system’s capacity to acquire
and retain skills and knowledge for later
retrieval
We Acquire Memories by
Processing Information
• Encoding
– The processing of information so that it can
be stored
• Storage
– The retention of encoded representations
over time
• Retrieval
– The act of recalling or remembering stored
information when it is needed
• See figure 7.2 next slide
Attention Allows Us to Encode a
Memory
• Attention
– Focusing mental resources on information;
allows further processing for perception,
memory, and response
Attention Allows Us to Encode a
Memory
• Visual attention
– We automatically pay attention to and
recognize basic visual features in an
environment, including color, shape, size,
orientation, and movement
• Auditory attention
– Selective-listening studies examine what we
do with auditory information that is not
attended to
• See figures 7.3, 7.4 next slide
Selective Attention Allows Us
to Filter Unwanted Information
• Filter theory
– Filter theory attempts to explain how we
selectively attend to the most important
information
• Change blindness
– An individual’s failure to notice large visual
changes in the environment
Section 7.2
How Do We Maintain Memories
over Time?
7.2 How Do We Maintain
Memories over Time?
• Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin proposed
that we have three different types of
memory stores: sensory storage, short-
term storage, and long-term storage
• Each of these memory stores retains
different encoded input, and each has the
capacity to maintain information for a
certain length of time
• See figure 7.5 and table 7.1 next slide
Sensory Storage Allows Us to
Maintain Information Very Briefly
• Five types of sensory stores
– Sensory storage: A memory storage system
that very briefly holds a vast amount of
information from the five senses in close to
their original sensory formats
– One type of sensory storage very briefly
maintains visual input. Four other types of
sensory stores maintain all the other sensory
input: auditory, smell, taste, and touch
Sensory Storage Allows Us to
Maintain Information Very Briefly
• Duration and capacity of sensory storage
– Sperling concluded that participants
maintained many of the 12 items in sensory
storage for about one-third of a second
– By maintaining a large amount of information
for a fraction of a second, sensory storage
enables us to experience the world as a
continuous stream of information rather than
as discrete sensations
• See figure 7.7 next slide
Working Memory Allows Us to Actively
Maintain Information in Short-Term
Storage • Short-term storage
– A memory storage system that briefly holds a
limited amount of information in awareness
• Working memory
– An active processing system that allows
manipulation of different types of information
to keep it available for current use
Working Memory Allows Us to Actively
Maintain Information in Short-Term
Storage • Duration of short-term storage
– Short-term storage may be a “location” for
maintaining memories. Working memory
allows for manipulation of sounds, images,
and ideas for longer maintenance in short-
term storage
Working Memory Allows Us to Actively
Maintain Information in Short-Term
Storage • Capacity of short-term storage
– George Miller noted that the capacity limit of
short-term storage is generally seven items
(plus or minus two), which is referred to as the
memory span
– Chunking: Using working memory to
organize information into meaningful units to
make it easier to remember
• See figure 7.8 next slide
Long-Term Storage Allows Us to
Maintain Memories Relatively
Permanently • Long-term storage
– A memory storage system that allows
relatively permanent storage, of a probably
unlimited amount of information
Long-Term Storage Allows Us to
Maintain Memories Relatively
Permanently • Encoding for long-term storage
– Maintenance rehearsal: Using working
memory processes to repeat information
based on how it sounds (auditory
information); provides only shallow encoding
of information
Long-Term Storage Allows Us to
Maintain Memories Relatively
Permanently • Encoding for long-term storage
– Elaborative rehearsal: Using working
memory processes to think about how new
information relates to ourselves or our prior
knowledge (semantic information); provides
deeper encoding of information for more
successful long-term storage
• See figure 7.9 next slide
Long-Term Storage Allows Us to
Maintain Memories Relatively
Permanently • Long-term storage versus short-term
storage
– Long-term storage lasts longer, has a far
greater capacity, and depends on deep
encoding of information
Long-Term Storage Allows Us to
Maintain Memories Relatively
Permanently • Long-term storage versus short-term
storage
– The primacy effect refers to the better
memory people have for items presented at
the beginning of the list
– The recency effect refers to the better
memory people have for the most recent
items, the ones at the end of the list
• See figure 7.10 next slide
Our Long-Term Storage Is Organized
Based on Meaning
• Schemas
– Decisions about how to chunk information
depend on schemas, ways of structuring
memories in long-term storage that help us
perceive, organize, process, and use
information
Our Long-Term Storage Is Organized
Based on Meaning
• Association networks
– Meaning of information is organized in long-
term storage based on networks of
associations
– Spreading activation models of memory.
According to these models, information that is
heard or seen activates specific nodes for
memories in long-term storage
• See figure 7.11 next slide
Section 7.3
What Are Our Different Long-Term
Storage Systems?
7.3 What Are Our Different
Long-Term Storage Systems?
• Henry Molaison (H.M.)
• Retrograde amnesia
– A condition in which people lose the ability to
access memories they had before a brain
injury
7.3 What Are Our Different
Long-Term Storage Systems?
• Anterograde amnesia
– A condition in which people lose the ability to
form new memories after experiencing a brain
injury
• See figures, 7.12, 7.13, 7.14a and 7.14b
next slide
Our Explicit Memories Involve
Conscious Effort
• After the surgery, H.M. could not encode
new memories in long-term storage
Our Explicit Memories Involve
Conscious Effort
• Amnesia and explicit memory
– Explicit memory: The system for long-term
storage of conscious memories that can be
verbally described
Our Explicit Memories Involve
Conscious Effort
• Episodic and semantic memory
– Episodic memory: A type of explicit memory
that includes personal experiences
– Semantic memory: A type of explicit memory
that includes knowledge about the world
Our Implicit Memories Function
Without Conscious Effort
• Implicit memory and amnesia
– Implicit memory: The system for long-term
storage of unconscious memories that cannot
be verbally described
Our Implicit Memories Function
Without Conscious Effort
• Classical conditioning and procedural
memory
– Classical conditioning employs implicit
memory
– Procedural memory: A type of implicit
memory that involves motor skills and
behavioral habits
• See figure 7.17 next slide
Prospective Memory Lets Us
Remember to Do Something
• Prospective memory
– Remembering to do something at some future
time
– Remembering to do something takes up
valuable cognitive resources
• See figure 7.18 next slide
Memory Is Processed by Several
Regions of Our Brains
• Memory’s physical location
– Not all brain areas are equally involved in
memory; a great deal of specialization occurs
• Consolidation of memories
– Consolidation: A process by which
immediate memories become lasting through
long-term storage
• See figures 7.19, 7.20 next slide
Memory Is Processed by Several
Regions of Our Brains
• Reconsolidation of memories
– Once memories are activated, they need to
be consolidated again for long-term storage;
this process is known as reconsolidation
– Retrieved memories can be affected by new
circumstances, so reconsolidated memories
may differ from their original versions
Memory Is Processed by Several
Regions of Our Brains
• Reconsolidation of memories
– Researchers have shown that using the
classical conditioning technique of extinction
during the period when memories are
susceptible to reconsolidation can be an
effective method for altering bad memories
Section 7.4
How Do We Access Our
Memories?
7.4 How Do We Access Our
Memories?
Retrieval Cues Help Us Access
Our Memories
• Retrieval cue
– Anything that helps a person access
information in long-term storage
• Context and state aid retrieval
– Context-dependent memory effect
– State-dependent memory
• See figure 7.22 next slide
Retrieval Cues Help Us Access
Our Memories
• Mnemonics aid retrieval
– Mnemonics are learning aids or strategies
that use retrieval cues to improve access to
memory
– Method of loci
We Forget Some of Our
Memories
• Forgetting
– The inability to access a memory from long-
term storage
– Hermann Ebbinghaus examined how long it
took him to relearn lists of unfamiliar
nonsense syllables and used these data to
develop the forgetting curve
• See figure 7.23 next slide
We Forget Some of Our
Memories
• Interference
– Retroactive interference: When access to
older memories is impaired by newer
memories
– Proactive interference: When access to
newer memories is impaired by older
memories
• See figures 7.24a, 7.24b next slide
We Forget Some of Our
Memories
• Blocking
– Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
– Blocking often occurs because of interference
from words that are similar in some way, such
as in sound or meaning, and that are
repeatedly experienced
We Forget Some of Our
Memories
• Absentmindedness
– Absentmindedness is the inattentive or
shallow encoding of events. The major cause
of absentmindedness is failing to pay
attention
Our Unwanted Memories May
Persist
• Persistence
– The continual recurrence of unwanted
memories from long-term storage
– Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
– Erasing memories leads to many ethical
questions
Our Memories Can Be Distorted
• Distortion
– Human memory is not a perfectly accurate
representation of the past; it is flawed
• Memory bias
– Memory bias is the changing of memories
over time so that they become consistent with
our current beliefs or attitudes
Our Memories Can Be Distorted
• Flashbulb memories
– These vivid memories seem like a flash
photo, capturing the circumstances in which
we first learned of a surprising and
consequential or emotionally arousing event
• See figures 7.26a and 7.26b next slide
Our Memories Can Be Distorted
• Misattribution
– Misattribution occurs when we misremember
the time, place, person, or circumstances
involved with a memory
– In cryptomnesia, we think we have come up
with a new idea but really have retrieved an
old idea from memory and failed to attribute
the idea to its proper source
• See figure 7.27 next slide
Our Memories Can Be Distorted
• Suggestibility
– When people are given misleading
information, this information affects their
memory for an event