Chapter 7
Human Memory
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Human Memory: Basic Questions We Will Answer This Chapter
How does information get into memory? How is information maintained in memory? How is information pulled back out of memory?
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Today
OBJECTIVES:– ROLE OF ATTENTION– LEVELS OF ENCODING– HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY– INFORMATION-PROCESSING MODEL
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A NOTE ABOUT YOUR ASSIGNMENT FOR THIS CHAPTER. IT IS VERY DIFFICULT AND YOU NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS OR YOU WILL FAIL.
Before we begin today. . .
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YOUR ASSIGNMENT TONIGHT IS TO FORGET THE NUMBER
106
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YOU SHOULD ALL TRY TO NOT REMEMBER THE NUMBER 106 BECAUSE YOU WILL BE QUIZZED ON IT TOMORROW
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Encoding: Getting Information Into Memory
The role of attention – PAY ATTENTION!!! Focusing awareness – no multitasking Selective attention = selection of input
– Our brain is always filtering information since it can’t ALL get through
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Levels of Processing: Craik and Lockhart (1972)
Take 2 minutes to right down 1 example of: structural encoding; phonemic encoding; and semantic encoding
Incoming information processed at different levels: Deeper processing = longer lasting memory codes Encoding levels:
– Structural (Visual) = shallow– Phonemic (Acoustic) = intermediate– Semantic (Meaning) = deep
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Which type works best?
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Quiz Question
Darren was asked to memorize a list of letters that included v, q, y, and j. He later recalled these letters as e, u, i, and k, suggesting that the original letters had been encoded
A. Automatically
B. Structurally(Visually)
C. Semantically
D. Phonemically (Acoustically)
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Enriching Encoding: Improving Memory
Elaboration = linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding– Thinking of examples
• Self-generated examples work best (self-referent)
Visual Imagery = creation of visual images to represent words to be remembered– Easier for concrete objects: Dual-coding theory says both
visual and semantic get encoded, since either can lead to recall
Self-Referent Encoding– Making information personally meaningful
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Storage: Maintaining Information in Memory
Analogy: information storage in computers ~ information storage in human memory (fig.7.2)
Information-processing model (fig.7.3)– Subdivide memory into 3 different stores
• Sensory, Short-term, Long-term
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Attention
All the rest
External Stimuli
Sensory Registers
gone
Short Term Memory
Long Term Memory
Retrieval
1. Encoding
3. Retrieval
2. Storage
Information Processing Model
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Sensory Memory
Brief preservation of information in original sensory form
Auditory/Visual – approximately ¼ second– George Sperling (1960)
• Classic experiment on visual sensory store
Iconic (visual) memory – sensory images - ¼ sec Echoic (auditory) memory – sensory sounds – 3
sec.
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Figure 7.1 – Nickerson & Adams (1979) – Which is the correct penny?
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Penny
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YOU HAVE 10 SEC. TO MEMEORIZE THESE NUMBERS
1776181219151945
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Short Term Memory (STM)
George Miller (1956) wrote a famous paper called “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information,"
Name one aspect of our lives where we use a 7-digit number?– Phone number
Limited capacity – magical number 7 plus or minus 2- Chunking – grouping familiar stimuli for storage
as a single unit– Extends STM capacity
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STM
Name one aspect of our lives where we use chunking? – Social security, credit card
Limited duration – about 20 seconds without rehearsal– Rehearsal – the process of repetitively verbalizing or
thinking about the information
CHUNK fromGOONIES
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STM
DEMO: MEMORY CAPACITY
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DEMO: ALL PURPOSE MEMORY DEMONSTRATION
LISTEN TO THE LIST OF WORDS I WILL READ AFTER READING YOU WILL TRY AND RECALL
(WRITE DOWN ON SCRAP PAPER) AS MANY AS POSSIBLE
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All-purpose memory demo
Bed
Quilt
Dark
Silence
Fatigue
Clock
Snoring
Night
Toss
Tired
Night
Artichoke
Turn
Night
Rest
Dream
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Short-Term Memory as “Working Memory”
Baddeley (1986) – 3 components of working memory– Phonological rehearsal loop– Visuospatial sketchpad– Episodic buffer– Executive control system
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xxx 7.11
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Long-Term Memory: Unlimited CapacityOur more or less permanent memory storeAlmost unlimited capacity and durationPermanent storage?
– Flashbulb memories – not always accurate– Recall through hypnosis – can be false memories
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READ THE FOLLOWING WORDS ANDWRITE DOWN THE NAMES OF THE DIFFERENT GROUPS YOU SHOULD PLACE EACH INTO:
grapes table bus apple chair airplane desk banana sofa car train plum lamp motorcycle strawberry dresser bicycle peach
fruits, furniture, transportation
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How is Knowledge Represented and Organized in Memory?
Clustering -tendency to remember similar or related items in groups, and Conceptual Hierarchies -multilevel classification systems based on common properties among items. ex.- Animal-mammal-dog-beagle
Schemas -organized clusters of knowledge about a particular object or event abstracted from previous experience and Scripts -particular type of schema, organizing what a person knows about common activities.
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37. In a memory study, the experimenter reads the same list of words to two groups. She asks group A to count the letters in each word, and she asks group B to focus on the meaning of each word for a later memory quiz. During a recall test, participants in group B recall significantly more words than participants in group A. Memory researchers attribute this effect to differences in (A) priming (B) levels of processing (C) proactive interference (D) procedural memory (E) episodic memory
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Quiz Question
Your consciously activated but limited-capacity memory is called ________ memory.
A. short-termB. ImplicitC. EchoicD. ExplicitE. Semantic
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REVIEW WHAT IS THE DURATION & CAPACITY OF STM? 20 SEC., 7 +/- 2 UNITS
HOW CAN YOU EXTEND STM’S 20 SEC. DURATION?
REHEARSAL A GROUP OF FAMILIAR STIMULI STORED AS A
SINGLE UNIT WHAT IS CHUNKING? SEMANTIC ENCODING IS WHICH LEVEL OF
PROCESSING? DEEP
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How is Knowledge Represented and Organized in Memory? Clustering and Conceptual Hierarchies – F 7.13
Schemas and Scripts – Shank & Abelson (1977)
Semantic Networks – Collins & Loftus (1975) – Figure 7.14
Connectionist Networks and PDP Models – McClelland and colleagues - pattern of activity – neuron based model
Table of ContentsFigure 7.14 A semantic network..
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Automatic Processing
Unconscious encoding of incidental information.
Examples: what table you were seated at a restaurant; what you ate for breakfast, where on the page a word was, who you saw on the way to class today.
Things can become automatic with practice (when you first learn a new word, every time you hear it, you consciously and effortfully pull up the definition from meaning; after hearing it 50 times, you can understand the word without effort – reading Shakespeare.)
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Effortful Processing
Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.
Examples: vocabulary for school, dates, names Rehearsal is the most common It depends on the amount of time spent
processing the information. Overlearning (reviewing things you already know)
enhances retention.
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Spacing Effect
We increase long-term retention when we study or practice over time.
Cramming is an inefficient means of studying (ie, cramming = less time for guitar hero)
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Serial Positioning Effect We tend to remember the beginning (primacy effect) and end
(recency effect) of a list best. Primacy effect is stronger than recency effect if there is a delay
between the list and recall.
Order on list
Words remembered
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Retrieval: Getting Information Out of Memory
The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon – a failure in retrieval– Retrieval cues
Recalling an event– Context cues – “What president comes after Nixon?” – car– State-dependent retrieval – retrieval is better if you’re in the same
mental disposition
Reconstructing memories– ELIZABETH LOFTUS STUDY
• Eyewitness testimony of a car crash
-misinformation effect
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Forgetting: When Memory Lapses
Retention – the proportion of material retained– Recall – Recognition – Relearning
Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve– Non-sense syllables – Curve is very steep-most information is forgotten in the
first 9 hours, then it levels off over the next few weeks– Controversial due to non-sense syllables
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Why Do We Forget?
Ineffective Encoding -pseudoforgetting Decay theory Interference theory
– Proactive (forward acting)- previously learned information interferes with the retention of new information
– Retroactive (backward acting) - new information impairs the retention for previously learned information
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Retrieval Failure Encoding Specificity - the closer a retrieval cue is to
the way we encode the info, the better we are able to remember.
Repression – Freud’s term for motivated forgetting of painful, traumatic or unpleasant memories– Authenticity of repressed memories?– Memory illusions– Controversy
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REVIEW WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE MEMORY
RECOVERY PROBLEM THAT LOFTUS SHOWED IN HER EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY (CAR CRASH) STUDY?
MISINFORMATION EFFECT OR FALSE MEMORIES
ESSAYS QUESTIONS USE WHICH TYPE OF MEMORY RETRIEVAL?
RECALL
WHAT’S THE TERM FOR FREUD’S ‘MOTIVATED FORGETTING’ OF PAINFUL MEMORIES
REPRESSION
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The Physiology of Memory
Biochemistry– Alteration in synaptic transmission
• Hormones modulating neurotransmitter systems– Cortisol helps make flashbulb memories
• Protein synthesis - if you give drugs that interfere with protein synthesis, memory is impaired
Neural circuitry– Localized neural circuits
• Reusable pathways in the brain - may be specific for specific memories• Long-term potentiation - long-lasting increase in neural excitability at
synapses along a specific neural pathway. • Consolidation theory – gradual process of making memories
permanent over time Anatomy
– Anterograde (for subsequent events) – Retrograde Amnesia (for prior events)
• Cerebral cortex, Prefrontal Cortex, Hippocampus,• Dentate gyrus (Hippocampus), Amygdala, Cerebellum
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Explicit (Declarative) - involves intentional recall
Episodic Memories– Bday, graduation,
Christmas
Semantic Memories– Concept-based
knowledge, facts,
Formed by the hippocampus; stored in the cerebral cortex.
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Implicit (Non-declarative) - incidental, unintentional remembering -
Procedural Memories– Locking doors, shooting a
basketball, etc
Conditioned Memories– Salivating, blinking, etc.
Formed by the cerebellum; stored in the cerebral cortex.
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Neuroanatomy and memory
Hippocampus is the chief structure implicated in episodic and semantic memories (Tulving)
Plays a role is “fixing” memories during time after learning
Clive Wearing
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Clive Wearing
12 mins Part 1
Part 2 30 mins
Learner.org
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TECHNIQUES
Method of LociAs an aid to memorizing lengthy speeches, ancient Greek orators would visualize themselves moving through familiar locations
Peg Word SystemMemorize a master list: “one is a bun, two is a shoe…”
Use the same list, once you’ve memorized it, on any other listand visualize the 1st item on the list in between a hot dog bun, and the second being inside a shoe, etc.
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REVIEW:
WHICH MEMORY SYSTEM HANDLES PERSONAL EVENTS SUCH AS YOUR FIRST KISS OR YOUR GRADUATION?
EXPLICIT (DECLARATIVE)
WHICH MEMORY SYSTEM IS A GOLFER USING WHEN THEY SWING THE GOLF CLUB?
IMPLICIT (NON-DECLARATIVE)
LONG-LASTING INCREASE IN NEURAL EXCITABILITY AT SYNAPSES ALONG A SPECIFIC NEURAL PATHWAY IS THE DEFINITION OF WHAT TERM?
LONG-TERM POTENTIATION
GRADUAL PROCESS OF MAKING MEMORIES PERMANENT OVER TIME IS THE DEFINITION ON WHAT TERM?
CONSOLODATION THEORY
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WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING MEMORIES WOULD BE CONTAINED IN AN INDIVIDUAL’S SEMANTIC MEMORY?– GRADUATION PARTY, HOW TO PARK A CAR, A
TEACHERS NAME, BROKEN ARM THEN THEY WERE 10– TEACHERS NAME
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Quiz Question
Memory of facts is to ________ as memory of skills is to ________.
A. brainstem; hippocampusB. Explicit memory; implicit memoryC. Automatic processing; effortful processingD. Short-term memory; long-term memoryE. Iconic; echoic
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93. Memory for automatic activities, such as bike riding and handwriting, is known as (A) declarative (B) semantic (C) sensory (D) procedural (E) repressed
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