Chapter 5: Memory

Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical information refers to the portion of remote memory that has to do with personal events such as a prom or a wedding. It is difficult to assess the accuracy of such memories, but often, as events of recalled time and time again, they may be embellished. There is no reason to believe that autobiographical memory declines with age.

Factual Memory

Factual memory refers to the portion of remote memory that has to do with things such as political events, movies, tv shows, and lyrics to songs from the past. Older people tend to remember factual information just as well as younger people.

Reasons for Memory Loss

Reasons for memory loss include factors such as * Age - There is a general memory decline associated with age. The greater the chronological age, the greater the level of memory failure (typically). * Gender - Women tend to do better on memory tests than men. Females decline first on tests of fluid abilities, whereas men decline on tests of crystallized abilities. * Education - Those with higher levels of education do better on memory tests, but this relationship is correlational, not causal. * Activity Level - Individuals with higher activity levels tend to do better on tests of memory. Activities include things such as social engagement, participation in clubs and other activities, and physical engagement.

Remote Memory

Remote memory is essentially very long-term memory. It is composed of factual and autobiographical memory. Both factual and autobiographical memory seem to be well-maintained with age.

Semantic Memory

Semantic memory is the component of the long-term memory store that holds general or world knowledge/information that was not obtained at any specific time or place. Semantic knowledge has been learned a long time ago and has been in the long-term memory store for a significant amount of time.

Chunking

The capacity of the short-term memory store can be increased by using a technique called chunking that involves grouping pieces of information into meaningful groups.

Information Processing Model

The information processing model views the brain as a computer that encodes, stores, and retrieves information. Information is first entered into the sensory memory store, then short-term memory store, the long-term memory story.

Role of Hippocampus in Memory

Under normal circumstances, the hippocampus shrinks one to two percent per year starting around adolescence or later.

Hypotheses About the Reminiscence Bump

* Self-Image: A period of time for assuming a person's self-image * Cognitive: Encoding is better during periods of rapid change (these often occur between the ages of 10 and 30) * Cultural Life Script: Culturally shared experiences help to shape recall

Research on Remote Autobiographical Memory

Barick looked at people who graduated high-school 3 months to 57 years ago and tested their recall and recognition of names. Barick found that recognition and matching performance remained pretty constant and almost perfect up to 34 years after graduation. He found that up to 15 years after graduation facial recognition remained over 90%. Barick found that adults in their 70s could recognize 70% of classmates names. Recall measures, especially free recall, were not as good as recognition and they started to decline amost immediately after graduation. After age 21, there is a steady drop in name recall. The differences that Barick found between recognition and recall tasks are pretty consistent with memory research. Craik says that the difference between recall and recognition tasks places greater demands on the memory system. Remote memory stays pretty accurate over the years.

Episodic Memory

Episodic memory is a component of the long-term memory store that holds information about specific events that happened at specific times. Episodic memory shows age-related decline. In everyday life, episodic memory plays an important role in helping us to remember things such as where we parked our car, or where we put our keys. In laboratory studies, individuals have better memory for motor activities than for cognitive activities.

External Mnemonics

External mnemonics are memory aids that use physical aids or cues to help individuals remember. They include such things as calendars, alarms, bookmarks, and other reminders. Individuals should not become too reliant on external aids because memory is a muscle that must be used in order to be maintained.

Factors Associated with Memory Loss

Health can balance out educational level in terms of there relation to memory loss. Health risks that are associated with a decrease in memory include coronary heart disease and other chronic diseases, strokes, diabetes mellitus, vitamin deficiencies, etc. Substance or alcohol abuse can also cause memory problems. Dementia is obviously associated with memory problems, as is depression. Depression is also associated with a vitamin B deficiency and individuals may not put forth the effort to encode or retrieve information. (Depression is not a major problem with old people however, and most older adults get happier with age.)

Internal Mnemonics

Internal Mnemonics are visual or verbal memory aids that can help individuals to remember things. They require more cognitive effort, but can be very useful in improving memory. Internal mnemonics include things such as acronyms, visual imagery, mental images, etc.

Kirk Erikson et. al.

Kirk Erikson and his colleagues conducted a year-long study in which they divided older adult participants into two groups: and aerobic exercise group and a stretching exercise group. At the beginning of the study, MRIs were conducted to determine the size of the hippocampuses of participants in both groups and the sizes were found to be the same. MRIs were taken again at the 6 month and 1 year mark, and at the time of both measurements the aerobic group showed an increase in the size of the hippocampus. The aerobic exercise group also did better on tests of memory which suggests that exercise can slow down, or even reverse, age-related changes in the brain.

Korsakoff Syndrom

Korsakoff Syndrome is a problem cause by alcohol abuse for extended periods of time. Individuals with Korsakoff Syndrome have bad short term memories and have a hard time making new memories which means they are essentially living in the past. This can occur with significant periods of prolonged abuse.

Primary Memory

Primary memory is the passive component of the short-term memory store which holds information in the form that it was stored. An example of primary memory would be looking up a phone number and remembering it long enough to dial. Primary memory shows little to no age-related decline.

Procedural Memory

Procedural memory is the component of the long-term memory store that allows us to acquire skills that we demonstrate through action. It includes such things as riding a bike, driving a car, playing an instrument, or typing on a keyboard. Motor skills are not the only things that are part of procedural memory; Comprehension and understanding of language also call for procedural memory. Although older adults may take longer to remember how to do some things, there is no reason to suspect that they are not able to if they are given adequate time and effort.

Help for Memory

Techniques for memory include paying more attention to things that need to be processed, using external or internal mnemonic aids, and using various training techniques.

Long-Term Memory Store

The long-term memory store has three different types: episodic, semantic, and procedural. Information can be held for a few seconds, hours, days, up to a lifetime. It has a seemingly unlimited capacity.

Method of Loci

The method of loci is an example of an internal mnemonic that individuals are often taught to use during memory training programs. The user is told to imagine walking through a familiar place, such as their home, and placing objects that need to be remembered at various places throughout the house.

Reminiscence Bump

The reminiscence bump refers to the phenomenon of older adults having the strongest and most vivid memories for events that happened between the ages of 10 and 30. This phenomenon seems to apply to both factual and personal information.

Short-Term Memory Store

The short-term memory store is the second step in information processing: it typically holds information for about 30 seconds. The short-term memory store has a limited capacity for the number of items that it can hold; the magic number 7 + or - 2. As the number of items exceeds the capacity, items will be discarded and lost from the memory store. Short-term memory has two components: Primary and working memory.

Attributions for Memory Failure

There exists an age-based double standard in memory failure. Memory failure in older adults is often attributed to internal stable factors such as decreased memory ability and mental difficulty, which are considered less controllable and, therefore, warrant more sympathy. Identical memory failure in young adults is often attributed to internal unstable factors such as lack of effort or attention. Older people tend to think that there memory is worse than it actually is and perception of memory does not tend to correlate with actual memory performance.

Sensory Memory Store

This is the first step in information processing: Information that is registered is entered into the sensory memory store and stays there for a very brief period of time. There are three types of sensory memory: iconic (visual), echoic (auditory), and haptic (tactile). Iconic memory typically lasts for less that five seconds if it is not moved to short-term storage, echoic typically lasts about 3 seconds, and haptic typically lasts about 10 seconds. Sensory memory doesn't seem to be affected by age. If information is not outstanding or acknowledged then it will not be encoded and will likely be lost.

Working Memory

Working memory is the component of the short-term memory store that actively processes and manipulates information: It is referred to as a "mental scratch pad." Baddely referred to working-memory as a desktop in which information is held and manipulated until it is done being used and then discarded. Working memory has a central executive mechanism that directs information to be processed by either the phonological loop or the visuo-spatial sketch pad. The phonological loop processes speech based information and the visuo-spatial sketch pad processes visual and spatial information. These subsystems hold and manipulate information as necessary. Working memory requires selecting, recording, and processing information. Adults may have a harder time working with more complex information in working memory.