Chpt. 7 Memory

3 Ways to Acquire Memory

1. Encoding 2. Storage 3. Retrieval

3 Ways to Forget

1. Interference 2. Blocking 3. Absentmindedness

Organization of Long-Term Memory

1. Meaning (chunking/schemas) 2. Association Networks

(STORAGE) 3 Types

1.Sensory Storage 2.Short-term Storage 3. Long-term Storage Atkinson, Shiffrin 1968. Each storage retains different encoded input. Certain amount of info for a certain length of time.

Henry Molaison

1926-2008. Medial temporal lobes, area in middle of temporal lobes, hippocampus, removed for epileptic surgery. Lost ability to store info in long-term storage. ANTEROGRADE AMNESIA. But could learn Procedural Memory but didn't remember learning/doing it, but could acquire skills.

Filter Theory

1958. Donald Broadbent. How we selectively attend to most important info. Ex: emotion stimuli, faces.

Retrograde Amnesia

A condition in which people lose the ability to access memories they had before a brain injury. NO OLD MEMORIES. NO Explicit: Episodic/Semantic. Lose memories of past events, personal info, facts, people.

Anterograde Amnesia

A condition in which people lose the ability to form new memories after experiencing a brain injury. NO NEW MEMORIES. No way to encode short-term memory into long-term memory

3. Long-term Storage

A memory storage system that allows relatively permanent storage, probably of an unlimited amount of information. Stores information for re-access and use at later time. Primarily SEMANTIC, also visual, auditory. Dual coding provides richest encoding. Duration: unlimited. Capacity: unlimited. (How'd info get from short-term to long-term?)Levels of processing: maintenance rehearsal, elaborative rehearsal. (How's info organized?) meaning (chunking/schemas) and Association Networks.

2. Short-Term Storage

A memory storage system that briefly holds a limited amount of information in awareness. (Sensory storage when attention/focus and working memory transfers info to short-term storage.) Maintains info for immediate use, primarily AUDITORY, visual, semantic. Duration: 20 SECONDS. But INDEFINITE with working memory manipulation. Capacity: 7-8 items + or - 2. This is called MEMORY SPAN. Using working memory aids capacity. CHUNKING increases capacity. REPETITION extends duration. Holding place but with working memory--longer. Active processing in working memory increases both this capacity and this duration.

1. Sensory Storage

A memory storage system that very briefly holds a vast amount of information from the 5 senses in close to their original sensory formats. Creates perceptual continuity for the world around us. Encoded in the sense it is experienced: visual, auditory, taste, smell, touch. Duration: few seconds. Capacity: VAST. Huge amounts of sensory input. Maintain info very briefly. 5 types: vision, hearing, taste, smell, touch. Sensory input transduced into a neural signal processed in brain.

Mnemonics

Aid Retrieval. Learning aids or strategies that use retrieval cues to improve access to memory. Method of Loci: Associate items you want to remember with walking thru physical location and putting them in different places.

Working Memory

An active processing system that allows manipulation of different types of information to keep it available for current use. Works on info in short-term memory, manipulates info and can move it to lont-term memory. Chunking to increase capacity of memory span. Repetition to extend duration.

Change Blindness

An individual's failure to notice large visual changes in the environment. Selective attention filters out irrelevant info and causes people NOT to notice large changes in the environment. Experiment--switch people asking directions.

Retrieval Cue

Anything that helps a person access information in long-term storage. Sticky note, apps. Encountering stimuli can automatically trigger memories. Context, State, mnemonics

Primacy Effect

Better memory of items at beginning of list. Due to retrieving from long-term memory.

Recency Effect

Better memory of most recent items at end of list. Due to retrieving from short-term memory.

Flashbulb Memories

Brown/Kulik 1977 Vivid memories seem like a flash photo. Circumstances in which we first learned of even. Ex: who with, where we were, how we found out, details, etc. Example of EPISODIC memory. NOT problem of persistence. NOT recurring unwanted memory. Generally more confident about flashbulb memory than ordinary memory. Not perfectly accurate. Strong emotional response.

Memory Bias

Changing of memories over time so that they become consistent with our current beliefs or attitudes. Revise, remember successes more, more positive, etc.

Dual Coding

Combination of both visual and semantic encoding. Very successful method of transferring info into long-term storage. Ex: repeating phone number and making last 4 digits mean word.

Association Networks

Concepts are connected through their associations. The closer the concepts are, the stronger their associations. Collins/Loftus. 1975. Item's distinctive features linked in way that identifies item. Each unit of info in a network is a NODE. Each node connected to other nodes. Organized by category. Activating one node increases the likelihood closely associated nodes in same category activated.

Explicit Memories

Declarative Memory. Type of memory we can intentionally retrieve and describe. System for long-term storage of conscious memories that can be verbally described. Requires conscious effort and often can be verbally described. 1. Semantic 2. Episodic

Semantic Memory

EXPLICIT (can talk about it) Knowledge of facts independent of personal experience. Facts and knowledge.

Episodic Memory

EXPLICIT (can talk about it) Personal experiences. Info about time and place each experience occurred. Personally experienced events.

Repetition

Extends duration of short-term storage. Ex: repeating phone #. Remember as long as pay attention.

(ENCODING) Attention

Focusing mental resources on information; allows further processing for perception, memory, response. Limited--don't divide between too many tasks. Visual or auditory info. Focus on one feature for faster, only listen to one thing. Most unattended auditory info is not processed but some can filter in. Important info is personally relevant, loud, different. Selective attention allows us to filter unwanted info. Focus on what is important.

Memory Processed by several Regions of our Brain

Hippocampus: Within temporal lobe. Spatial meaning. New neural connections so experiences become lasting memories. Used in Consolidation of Memories Temporal Lobe: Explicit Memories. Medial temporal: ability to encode short to long-term memory and expand NEW explicit memories? Pre-Frontal cortex: working memory (focus/attention/encoding, manipulating info) amygdala: IMPLICIT memory. Fear learning. Cerebellum: IMPLICIT memory. Procedural Memory.

Schemas

How to chunk. Meaningful way to chunk up items. How to group items for long-term storage. Helps us to perceive, organize, process, use info. Guide us to relevant features. Interpret meaning based on our experiences. Can lead to bias, fit into our existing cultural schemas. Having a schema about info can help you remember it later on. Ex: laundry description.

Distortion

Human memory is not a perfectly accurate representation of the past, but is flawed. 5 ways Memory Bias Flashbulb Memories Misattribution Suggestibility False Memories

Procedural Memory

IMPLICIT (unconscious) A type of implicit memory that involves motor skills and behavioral habits. Employed to achieve goals. Coordinating muscle movements. Ex: following rules of road when driving, riding bike. Find consciously thinking about automatic behaviors interferes with smooth production of those behaviors. Tend to last long time.

Classical Conditioning

IMPLICIT (unconscious) Associating 2 stimuli elicits a response. Does NOT require conscious attention. Happens automatically without deliberate effort.

3.Absentmindedness

Inattentive or shallow encoding of events. Failing to pay attention is major cause. When prospective memory fails (future planning) because caught up in another activity. tip: go back to room where you forgot to get context dependent retrieval cue effect.

Chunking

Increases capacity in short-term storage. Using working memory to organize information into meaningful units to make it easier to remember. 1. Reduce # items by putting in units, so memory span increases. 2. Units are meaningful and easier to remember. More efficient at chunking with greater expertise with material.

Spreading Activation Models

Information that is heard or seen activates specific nodes for memories in long-term storage. Increases ease of access of stores info to linked info. EASIER RETRIEVAL. (Folders within folders)

Memory Systems (Types of Memory in Long-Term Storage) Figure p. 249

Long-Term Storage. EXPLICIT (Episodic and Semantic Memory) IMPLICIT (Classical conditioning, Procedural Memory) Long-term storage of memory has several memory systems located in different parts of brain.

Amnesia

Lost ability to store info in long-term storage. Can't retain and use info.

Memory Span

Miller 1956. Capacity of short-term memory about 7-8 items + or - 2. Maybe even just 4 items. Increases as children develop. Decreases as adults age.

Suggestibility

Misleading info, leading questions, affects memory. Loftus 1970s studies: red stop sign and yield sign. word "smashed" , people remembered broken glass in photo. Eyewitness accounts, change blindness. Eyewitness only good if paying attention WHEN event happens.

False Memories

Misled into recalling recognizing events that did not happen. Basic procedure: associate categories as something though not specifically listed. Experiment:remember when you were lost at mall. When a person imagines event happening they form mental image. Confuse mental image with real memory. Can't figure out source of image.

Misattribution

Misremember time, place, person, circumstance involved with memory. Source Amnesia=Memory for event but can't recall where we got info. Ex: Before 3, no memories, because no language Cryptomnesia=we come up with new idea but only retrieved idea from memory and failed to attribute the idea to its proper source. Ex: taking notes verbatim and not documenting source.

State

Mood. Internal cues. State-Dependent Memory Effect: Retrieval cue is when in same mood/state as when first learned.

1. Interference

Most forgetting occurs because other info (not because info is unused). 1.Retroactive Interference 2.Proactive Interference

Consolidation of Memories

New neural connections in hippocampus. A process by which immediate memories become lasting through long-term storage encoding. New synapses constructed. Your experiences become lasting memories. Medial temporal lobes/hippocampus like Google, coordinates storage of info between sites. Memories stored in cortex of sense they were taken in. So visual memories in visual cortex. Sound in auditory cortex. Regions active in perception are same regions used in remembering. Remembering almost like re-experiencing. Sleep helps with Consolidation.

Proactive Interference

Newer memories are hard to access due to interference from older info. CANT GET NEWER because too many older.

Implicit Memories

Non-declarative Memory. Not conscious of. The system for long-term storage of unconscious memories that cannot be verbally described. Does NOT require conscious effort and often cannot be verbally described. 1. Classical Conditioning 2. Procedural Memory

Retroactive Interference

Older memories are hard to access due to interference from newer info. Access to older memories impaired by newer memories. CANT GET OLDER.

Reconsolidation of Memories

Once memories activated, they need to be consolidated again for long-term storage. Reconsolidated memories may differ from original versions. When painful memories recalled in less threatening way, the memories themselves can become less threatening. Associated with less negative emotions. Classical conditioning technique:extinction. During period when memories susceptible to reconsolidation. Memories can be altered through reconsolidation.

Context

Physical location, odors, background music, etc. Context Dependent Memory Effect: remember better in same place where learned it at.

Encoding

Processing of information so that it can be stored. changing info into a neural code the brain can use. Memories created by encoding information from sensory input. Ex: reading/looking words/books. Attention, focusing, visual attention, auditory attention, selective attention, filter theory, change blindness.

Prospective Memory

Remembering to do something at some future time. Future oriented. Costs: cognitive effort, unable to attend closely to other info. Takes up cognitive resources. Cues can help us remember: sticky notes, app, etc. Costs in terms of reducing attentional resources and impairing short-term storage and working memory processing.

3 Part Memory Storage System Figure 7.6

Sensory storage goes to short-term storage by paying attention/focus, encoding. Info in short-term is manipulated in working memory by repeating and chunking. (Info not manipulated is lost). Short-term to long-term by encoding using maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal.

2. Blocking

Temporarily unable to remember something. Tip of the tongue Phenomenon--trying to recall specific words.

Retrieval

The act of recalling/remembering stored information when it is needed. Re-accessing the info for use. Allows accessing of previously encoded and stored info. Ex: remember for exam. Long-term storage, explicit (episodic, semantic) implicit (classical conditioning, procedural memory), consolidation of memories, reconsolidation, retrograde amnesia, anterograde amnesia.

Persistence

The continual recurrence of unwanted memories from long-term storage. Unwanted memories recur. PTSD=posttraumatic stress disorder. Some drugs, propanolol block norepinephrine receptors. Given right after event. Also extinction can be used during reconsolidation.

Forgetting

The inability to access a memory from long-term storage. Ebbinghaus 19th cent. Nonsense syllables. More time spent learning=less forgetting. Forgetting aids survival.

Memory

The nervous system's capacity to acquire and retain skills and knowledge for later retrieval. Multiple memory systems.

Storage

The retention of encoded representations over time. Maintaining info for some time. Ex: taking notes. Sensory storage (vision, hearing,taste,smell,touch), short-term storage (working memory, chunking), long-term storage (maintenance rehearsal, elaborative rehearsal, dual coding, meaning, chunking, schemas, association networks, spreading activation models). Duration, capacity, primacy effect, recency effect.

Maintenance Rehearsal

Using working memory processes to repeat information based on how it sounds/AUDITORY. Provides only shallow encoding of information and less successful long-term storage. Ex: repeating.

Elaborative Rehearsal

Using working memory processes to think about how new information relates to ourselves or our prior knowledge (SEMANTIC info). Provides deeper encoding of information for more successful long-term storage. Based on 1. Meaning--link knowledge to already stored. 2. Association Networks Activates more brain regions that shallow/maintenance rehearsal.