Psych 101 Week 11

3 short term systems in Baddeley and Hitch's model

1) Visuospatical sketchpad 2) Episodic buffer 3) Phonological loop

The Case of S.

-A.R. Luria studied a man, known as S., for over 30 years. -S = Mnemonists -Man walked into Luria's laboratory and asked him to test his memory. -Luria gave him a long string over numbers, words, nonsense syllables, and could not detect any limit to his ability to recall them, generally w/o mistake, even years later. -Could just look at a table of number and recite the table in any direction in less than 40 seconds -Colours and numbers reminded S of images e.g: 6 reminded him of a man with a swollen foot -S has synethesia: a blending of sensations. When he saw a number, he saw a visual representation of it in the form of a person. -S could remember a list of numbers by visualizing a walk, for example, through the Red Square in Moscow. Rather than remembering the list he would place the various persons in the list of numbers around the Red Square and walk through the Red Square Mentally, visualizing the people he walked by

3 ways you can retrieve information out of your long-term memory storage system

1) Recall 2) Recognition 3) Relearning

Applying the self-reference effect

-As you go through the process of elaborative rehearsal, it would be even more beneficial to make the material you are trying to memorize personally meaningful to you. -In other words, make use of the self-reference effect. Write notes in your own words. - Write definitions from the text, and then rewrite them in your own words. -Relate the material to something you have already learned for another class, or think how you can apply the concepts to your own life. -When you do this, you are building a web of retrieval cues that will help you access the material when you want to remember it.

Mnemonic devices and studying

-As you learned earlier in this chapter, mnemonic devices often help us to remember and recall information. -There are different types of mnemonic devices, such as the acronym. -An acronym is a word formed by the first letter of each of the words you want to remember. -For example, even if you live near one, you might have difficulty recalling the names of all five Great Lakes. What if I told you to think of the word Homes? HOMES is an acronym that represents Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior: the five Great Lakes. -Another type of mnemonic device is an acrostic: you make a phrase of all the first letters of the words. For example, if you are taking a math test and you are having difficulty remembering the order of operations, recalling the following sentence will help you: "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally," because the order of mathematical operations is Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction. -There also are jingles, which are rhyming tunes that contain key words related to the concept, such as i before e, except after c.

Korsakoff's syndrome

-Attributable to the brain damage that results from thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency; thiamine deficiency often accompanies heavy alcohol consumption. -The full syndrome involves severe anterograde and retrograde amnesia, sensory and motor problems, extreme confusion, and personality changes. -This amnesic syndrome is considered a medial diencephalic amnesia (in contrast to medial temporal lobe amnesia in H.M's case)

Ebbinghaus and forgetting curve

-Effects of retention delay on percent savings -At very short delays, his savings were really good but as the delays got longer his savings got poorer and poorer -To provide the data for his famous forgetting curve, Ebbinghaus learned over 1200 lists of nonsense syllables. -However, it seems that Ebbinghaus's memory was somewhat on the poor side: Attempts to replicate his studies have yielded curves that are not quite so steep. Not as dramatic as a drop-off in percent savings

Ebbinghaus

-First empirical studies of memory were those of Hermann Ebbinghaus -Ebbinghaus served as his own subject: He would study a 13- item list of nonsense syllables (e.g., kar, tud, veg) until he could recall the entire list (criterion was 2 error-free recitations). He would record the number of trials it took him to learn the list. -After studying a list, Ebbinghaus would then wait for some interval of time and then determine how long it would take him to relearn the list. This gave him a 'savings' score: %savings = Trials to learn - Trials to relearn/Trials to learn x 100% ) -Savings score designed to reflect the relative ease with which we relearn something

H.M

-H.M. received a bilateral temporal lobectomy--the removal of the medial portions of both temporal lobes, including most of the hippocampus and amygdala, and some adjacent cortex -H.M had retrograde amnesia because he had difficulty remembering the events in the 2 years prior to his surgery (cannot retrieve memories for some delimited period of time prior to that time at which brain damage occurred) -He also had severe anterograde amnesia (cannot form new memories of events occurring after brain damage). He could remember events only for a very short time -H.M.'s short term memory (memory lasting not longer than 30 s) was intact, as illustrated by his performance on the digit span test. -In contrast, H.M.'s long term memory was severely impaired, as illustrated by his performance on the digit span + 1 test. -So one thing that H.M.'s case illustrates is the division between short-term and long-term memory. -His case also illustrates the difference between EXPLICIT and IMPLICIT memory (shown by mirror drawing test)

Plato and Aristotle memory models

-In 4th century BC, Plato and Aristotle had several different memory models: 1) Wax tablet model: Memories are like impressions made in wax 2) Aviary model: Each memory is a bird of a different species that is contained within a particular cage 3) Scribe model: Each of us has a miniature scribe (homunculus) in us that takes notes on our personal experiences

Study strategies: Using elaborative rehearsal

-In a famous article, Craik and Lockhart (1972) discussed their belief that information we process more deeply goes into long-term memory. -Their theory is called levels of processing. If we want to remember a piece of information, we should think about it more deeply and link it to other information and memories to make it more meaningful. -For example, if we are trying to remember that the hippocampus is involved with memory processing, we might envision a hippopotamus with excellent memory and then we could better remember the hippocampus.

Free recall vs. recognition

-In general, recognition tasks tend to be much easier than free recall tasks -Recognition = study list, then looking at a set of items and identify items from the list that are familiar -Recall = study list and recall it without any cues

Digist span test

-In the digit span test, an individual is read a list of digits (presented at a rate of 1/second). At the end of the sequence, the individual must recall them in order. -e.g: Trial 1: 1 Trial 2: 3, 7 Trial 3: 6, 2, 1 Trial 4: 9, 5, 6, 9 Trial 5: 2, 5, 8, 2, 9 etc. -Normal digit span range is 5-7. H.M's digit span was 6.. so his STM is intact

Forgetting curve and studying

-Information we learn will leave our minds rapidly with time -Even if you think you know the material, study it again right before test time to increase the likelihood the information will remain in your memory. -Overlearning can help prevent storage decay.

Mirror Drawing test

-Involves tracing the outline of a figure using only a mirror -Most people are terrible at this on their first trial, but after doing this over many trials, they will improve slowly. -Likewise, H.M. also showed improvement despite the fact that he didn'tactually recall doing the task previously-- that is, on day one, he would show some improvement over the course of many trials, but then the next day when the tester came in to test him a second time, he wouldn't remember the name of the tester, he wouldn't even remember doing the test before, but yet he would show improvements on his mirror drawing ability. -H.M's improvement over time illustrates intact implicit (procedural;non-declarative) memory -His lack of memory for training memory for the training sessions show a deficit in explicit (declarative) memory -H.M = Henry Molaison died on Dec 2, 2008.

Mnemonic devices and memory aids

-Mnemonic devices are memory aids that help us organize information for encoding. -They are especially useful when we want to recall larger bits of information such as steps, stages, phases, and parts of a system. -Brian needs to learn the order of the planets in the solar system, but he's having a hard time remembering the correct order. His friend Kelly suggests a mnemonic device that can help him remember. Kelly tells Brian to simply remember the name Mr. VEM J. SUN, and he can easily recall the correct order of the planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. -You might use a mnemonic device to help you remember someone's name, a mathematical formula, or the seven levels of Bloom's taxonomy. -It seems the more vivid or unusual the mnemonic, the easier it is to remember. The key to using any mnemonic successfully is to find a strategy that works for you.

Exercise and learning

-Of course you already know that exercise is good for your body, but did you also know it's also good for your mind? -Research suggests that regular aerobic exercise (anything that gets your heart rate elevated) is beneficial for memory. -Aerobic exercise promotes neurogenesis: the growth of new brain cells in the hippocampus, an area of the brain known to play a role in memory and learning.

Digit span +1 test

-On each trial in the digit span + 1 test, an individual is read a list of digits--presented at a rate of 1 per second. -At the end of the sequence, the individual must recall them in order. -Then on the next trial, they are presented with the same sequence but with an extra digit added to the end. -Trial 1: 1 Trial 2: 1, 7 Trial 3: 1, 7, 4 Trial 4: 1, 7, 4, 3 Trial 5: 1, 7, 4, 3, 9 etc. -Most people can repeat about 15 digits after 25 trials. H.M. could not manage to repeat more than 8 after 25 trials.

Interference and studying

-To reduce the likelihood of interference, study during a quiet time without interruptions or distractions (like television or music).

Rehearsing

-Review the material over time, in spaced and organized study sessions. -Organize and study your notes, and take practice quizzes/exams. Link the new information to other information you already know well.

Expressive writing

-Some other strategies that are used to improve memory include expressive writing and saying words aloud. -Expressive writing helps boost your short-term memory, particularly if you write about a traumatic experience in your life. -Masao Yogo and Shuji Fujihara (2008) had participants write for 20-minute intervals several times per month. -The participants were instructed to write about a traumatic experience, their best possible future selves, or a trivial topic. -The researchers found that this simple writing task increased short-term memory capacity after five weeks, but only for the participants who wrote about traumatic experiences. Psychologists can't explain why this writing task works, but it does.

Saying words out loud

-What if you want to remember items you need to pick up at the store? Simply say them out loud to yourself. -A series of studies (MacLeod, Gopie, Hourihan, Neary, & Ozubko, 2010) found that saying a word out loud improves your memory for the word because it increases the word's distinctiveness. -Feel silly, saying random grocery items aloud? This technique works equally well if you just mouth the words. Using these techniques increased participants' memory for the words by more than 10%. These techniques can also be used to help you study.

Sleep and learning

-While you are sleeping, your brain is still at work. -During sleep the brain organizes and consolidates information to be stored in long-term memory

World Memory Championships

1. At the 2006 World Memory Championships, Clemens Meyer remembered a 188-digit spoken list of digits, and could still recite it five hours later. Backwards. 2. Former World Champion, England's Ben Pridmore, memorized the dates of 96 historical events - in just five minutes. 3. In 2002, England's Dominic O'Brien, eight times World Champion, successfully set a new Guinness World Record by recalling 54 inter-shuffled decks of playing cards, having seen each card only once. He made eight errors out of the 2808 cards, four of which he corrected himself after being told he had made the mistakes.

P O R N

Proactive Interference Old affects new Retroactive interference New affects old

Flashbulb memory phenomenon

-A flashbulb memory is an exceptionally clear recollection of an important event. (flashbulb memory: a record of an atypical and unusual event that has very strong emotional associations) -Where were you when you first heard about the 9/11 terrorist attacks? -Most likely you can remember where you were and what you were doing. -In fact, a Pew Research Center (2011) survey found that for those Americans who were age 8 or older at the time of the event, 97% can recall the moment they learned of this event, even a decade after it happened. -Even flashbulb memories can have decreased accuracy with the passage of time, even with very important events. For example, on at least three occasions, when asked how he heard about the terrorist attacks of 9/11, President George W. Bush responded inaccurately. In January 2002, less than 4 months after the attacks, the then sitting President Bush was asked how he heard about the attacks. He responded inaccurately. -Human memory, even flashbulb memories, can be frail. In fact, memory can be so frail that we can convince a person an event happened to them, even when it did not. -In studies, research participants will recall hearing a word, even though they never heard the word. -For example, participants were given a list of 15 sleep-related words, but the word "sleep" was not on the list. -Participants recalled hearing the word "sleep" even though they did not actually hear it (Roediger & McDermott, 2000). -The researchers who discovered this named the theory after themselves and a fellow researcher, calling it the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm.

Retrieval

-Act of getting information out of memory storage and back into conscious awareness -This would be similar to finding and opening a paper you had previously saved on your computer's hard drive. -Now it's back on your desktop, and you can work with it again. Our ability to retrieve information from long-term memory is vital to our everyday functioning. -You must be able to retrieve information from memory in order to do everything from knowing how to brush your hair and teeth, to driving to work, to knowing how to perform your job once you get there.

Misinformation effect

-After witnessing some event, the presentation of misleading information can lead to difficulties in remembering the original event. -Loftus also developed the misinformation effect paradigm, which holds that after exposure to incorrect information, a person may misremember the original event. -According to Loftus, an eyewitness's memory of an event is very flexible due to the misinformation effect. -To test this theory, Loftus and John Palmer (1974) asked 45 U.S. college students to estimate the speed of cars using different forms of questions. -The participants were shown films of car accidents and were asked to play the role of the eyewitness and describe what happened. They were asked, "About how fast were the cars going when they (smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted) each other?" The participants estimated the speed of the cars based on the verb used. -Participants who heard the word "smashed" estimated that the cars were traveling at a much higher speed than participants who heard the word "contacted." The implied information about speed, based on the verb they heard, had an effect on the participants' memory of the accident. -In a follow-up one week later, participants were asked if they saw any broken glass (none was shown in the accident pictures). Participants who had been in the "smashed" group were more than twice as likely to indicate that they did remember seeing glass. -Loftus and Palmer demonstrated that a leading question encouraged them to not only remember the cars were going faster, but to also falsely remember that they saw broken glass. -Perceived speed greatest to lowest: Smashed, Collided, Bumped, Hit, Contacted

Cerebellum and memory

-Although the hippocampus seems to be more of a processing area for explicit memories, you could still lose it and be able to create implicit memories (procedural memory, motor learning, and classical conditioning), thanks to your cerebellum. -For example, one classical conditioning experiment is to accustom subjects to blink when they are given a puff of air. When researchers damaged the cerebellums of rabbits, they discovered that the rabbits were not able to learn the conditioned eye-blink response.

Memory

-Information processing system like a computer -Memory is the set of processes used to encode, store, and retrieve information over different periods of time -Encoding --> Storage --> Retrieval

Amnesia

-Amnesia is the loss of long-term memory that occurs as the result of disease, physical trauma, or psychological trauma. -Psychologist Tulving (2002) and his colleagues at the University of Toronto studied K. C. for years. K. C. suffered a traumatic head injury in a motorcycle accident and then had severe amnesia. Tulving writes: the outstanding fact about K.C.'s mental make-up is his utter inability to remember any events, circumstances, or situations from his own life. His episodic amnesia covers his whole life, from birth to the present. The only exception is the experiences that, at any time, he has had in the last minute or two. (Tulving, 2002, p. 14)

Major parts of the brain involved in memory

-Amygdala -Hippocampus -Cerebellum -Prefrontal cortex

Eyewitness Testimony

-An eyewitness is often considered to be one of the best sources of information in determining the guilt or innocence of a defendant. -Yet, there is evidence that one's memory for events can be subject to considerable distortion. Studies of the misinformation effect have been particularly informative.

Hippocampus and memory

-Another group of researchers also experimented with rats to learn how the hippocampus functions in memory processing. -They created lesions in the hippocampi of the rats, and found that the rats demonstrated memory impairment on various tasks, such as object recognition and maze running. -They concluded that the hippocampus is involved in memory, specifically normal recognition memory as well as spatial memory (when the memory tasks are like recall tests). -Another job of the hippocampus is to project information to cortical regions that give memories meaning and connect them with other connected memories. It also plays a part in memory consolidation: the process of transferring new learning into long-term memory. -Injury to this area leaves us unable to process new declarative memories. -One famous patient, known for years only as H. M., had both his left and right temporal lobes (hippocampi) removed in an attempt to help control the seizures he had been suffering from for years. -As a result, his declarative memory was significantly affected, and he could not form new semantic knowledge. -He lost the ability to form new memories, yet he could still remember information and events that had occurred prior to the surgery.

Equipotentiality hypothesis

-Based on Lashley's creation of lesions and the animals' reaction, he formulated the equipotentiality hypothesis: if part of one area of the brain involved in memory is damaged, another part of the same area can take over that memory function (Lashley, 1950). -Although Lashley's early work did not confirm the existence of the engram, modern psychologists are making progress locating it. Eric Kandel, for example, spent decades working on the synapse, the basic structure of the brain, and its role in controlling the flow of information through neural circuits needed to store memories

Atkinson-Shiffrin (A-S) model of human memory

-Based on the belief that we process memories in the same way that a computer processes information -Sensory input enter Sensory memory, and information not transferred is lost. -From sensory memory, information goes to short-term memory and information not transferred is also lost (unrehearsed info is lost) -Information from our short-term memory then goes into our long-term memory, some info from there may be lost, and retrieval occurs back to the short-term memory

Conditioning

-Classical conditioning of fear response = implicit memory

Memory consolidation

-Conscious repetition of information to be remembered to move STM into long-term memory -Going from encoding to storage -Think of short-term memory as the information you have displayed on your computer screen—a document, a spreadsheet, or a web page. -Then, information in short-term memory goes to long-term memory (you save it to your hard drive), or it is discarded (you delete a document or close a web browser). -The goal of improving one's encoding is useless if there is no consolidation of the encoded information into a long-term memory store. -Many researchers believe that the process of consolidation is mediated by the hippocampus. And that individual memories are stored diffusely throughout the cerebral cortex.

Long-term memory (LTM)

-Continuous storage of information -The storage capacity of LTM has no limits -Can be retrieved back to STM -It encompasses all the things you can remember that happened more than just a few minutes ago to all of the things that you can remember that happened days, weeks, and years ago -In keeping with the computer analogy, the information in your LTM would be like the information you have saved on the hard drive. It isn't there on your desktop (your short-term memory), but you can pull up this information when you want it, at least most of the time. -Not all long-term memories are strong memories. Some memories can only be recalled through prompts. For example, you might easily recall a fact— "What is the capital of the United States?"—or a procedure—"How do you ride a bike?"—but you might struggle to recall the name of the restaurant you had dinner when you were on vacation in France last summer. -A prompt, such as that the restaurant was named after its owner, who spoke to you about your shared interest in soccer, may help you recall the name of the restaurant.

Automatic processing

-Done without any conscious awareness -Encoding of details like time, space, frequency, and the meaning of words -Recalling the last time you studied for a test (but not the actual test material you studied)

Visual encoding

-Encoding of images -You can recall images (mental pictures) more easily than words alone -When you read the words car, dog, and book you create images of these things in your mind. These are concrete, high-imagery words -Abstract words such as level, truth, and value are LOW-imagery words -High-imagery words are encoded both visually and semantically, thus building a stronger memory

Acoustic Encoding

-Encoding of sounds, words in particular -In the United States, children often learn the alphabet through song, and they learn the number of days in each month through rhyme: "Thirty days hath September, / April, June, and November; / All the rest have thirty-one, / Save February, with twenty-eight days clear, / And twenty-nine each leap year." -These lessons are easy to remember because of acoustic encoding. -We encode the sounds the words make. This is one of the reasons why much of what we teach young children is done through song, rhyme, and rhythm.

Egocentric bias

-Enhancing our memories of the past -Did you really score the winning goal in that big soccer match, or did you just assist?

Eyewitness Misidentificaion

-Even though memory and the process of reconstruction can be fragile, police officers, prosecutors, and the courts often rely on eyewitness identification and testimony in the prosecution of criminals. -However, faulty eyewitness identification and testimony can lead to wrongful convictions (leading cause of wrongful conviction in DNA exoneration cases) -Suggestive police identification procedures like stacking lineups to make the defendant stand out and telling the witness which person to identity and confirming witness choices can cause wrongful convictions

Episodic memory

-Events we have personally experienced -The concept of episodic memory was first proposed about 40 years ago (Tulving, 1972). -Since then, Tulving and others have looked at scientific evidence and reformulated the theory. -Currently, scientists believe that episodic memory is memory about happenings in particular places at particular times, the what, where, and when of an event (Tulving, 2002). -It involves recollection of visual imagery as well as the feeling of familiarity -Also called autobiographical memories

Explicit memories

-Explicit memories are those we consciously try to remember and recall. For example, if you are studying for your chemistry exam, the material you are learning will be part of your explicit memory. -Sometimes, but not always, the terms explicit memory and declarative memory are used interchangeably. -Episodic and Semantic

3 categories of how memories fail us

-Forgetting -Distortion -Intrusion

Forgetting

-Forgetting refers to loss of information from long-term memory. -We all forget things, like a loved one's birthday, someone's name, or where we put our car keys. As you've come to see, memory is fragile, and forgetting can be frustrating and even embarrassing.

Memory construction

-Formulation of new memories

Capacity of STM

-George Miller found that most people can retain 7 items in STM. Some remember 5, some 9, so he called the capacity of STM 7 plus or minus 2 -Recall is somewhat better for random numbers than for random letters, and is also often slightly better for information we hear (acoustic encoding) rather than see (visual encoding)

Engram

-Group of neurons that serve as the "physical representation of memory" -Lashley explored this by making lesions in the brain of animals such as rats and monkeys -First, Lashley (1950) trained rats to find their way through a maze. Then, he used the tools available at the time—in this case a soldering iron—to create lesions in the rats' brains, specifically in the cerebral cortex. -He did this because he was trying to erase the engram, or the original memory trace that the rats had of the maze. -Lashley did not find evidence of the engram, and the rats were still able to find their way through the maze, regardless of the size or location of the lesion.

Recognition

-Happens when you identify information that you have previously learned after encountering it again -Involves the process of comparison -When you take a multiple-choice test you are relying on recognition to help you choose the correct answer -Here is another example. Let's say you graduated from high school 10 years ago, and you have returned to your hometown for your 10-year reunion. You may not be able to recall all of your classmates, but you recognize many of them based on their yearbook photos.

Semantic memory

-Having to do with language and knowledge about a language -Knowledge and concepts -Type of explicit memory -e.g: What does argumentative mean? -Stored in our semantic memory is knowledge about words, concepts, and language-based knowledge and facts -For example, answers to the following questions are stored in your semantic memory: Who was the first President of the United States? What is democracy? What is the longest river in the world?

Hindsight bias

-Hindsight bias happens when we think an outcome was inevitable after the fact. This is the "I knew it all along" phenomenon. -The reconstructive nature of memory contributes to hindsight bias (Carli, 1999). We remember untrue events that seem to confirm that we knew the outcome all along.

Schemas

-How our brains represent past and new information. • We constantly update existing schemas based on new information. • Schemas help us to organize our memories. - Clusters of knowledge about particular objects or events that are generalizations based on previous experience.

2 types of sensory memory

-Iconic memory (visual): around 1 second -Echoic memory (auditory): around 5-10 seconds

Implicit memories

-Implicit memories are memories that are not part of our consciousness. -They are memories formed from behaviors. -Implicit memory is also called non-declarative memory. -Procedural and Emotional Conditioning and Priming

Forgetting curve

-In 1885, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus analyzed the process of memorization. -First, he memorized lists of nonsense syllables. Then he measured how much he learned (retained) when he attempted to relearn each list. -He tested himself over different periods of time from 20 minutes later to 30 days later. -The result is his famous forgetting curve. -Due to storage decay, an average person will lose 50% of the memorized information after 20 minutes and 70% of the information after 24 hours. -Your memory for new information decays quickly and then eventually levels out.

Baddely and Hitch model of memory

-In this model, short-term memory itself has many different forms -Storing memories in short-term memory is like opening different files on a computer and adding information -Type of short-term memory depends on type of information received -There are memories in visual-spatial form, memories of spoken/written material, and they are stored in 3 short-term systems -Central executive part of memory supervises or controls the flow of information to and from the 3 short-term systems

Priming

-Incomplete pictures test: present individual with complete picture then some time later (weeks later) give them incomplete picture and ask them to complete drawing. Person who has seen complete picture is better at completing the incomplete picture -Many students will briefly refresh themselves with their notes before an exam with the hope that activating that knowledge will make it easier to draw upon during examination

hyperthymesia

-Individuals with super autobiographical memory, can answer questions like what did you eat for lunch on April 10, 2009? -Normally appears in adolescence -Pretty rare, only a bout 12 known individuals have this ability

Encoding

-Input of information into the memory system -Formation of a new memory -Once we receive sensory information from the environment, our brains label or code it -We organize the information with other similar information and connect new concepts to existing concepts -Encoding information occurs through automatic processing and effortful processing

Relearning

-Involves learning information that you previously learned -Whitney took Spanish in high school, but after high school she did not have the opportunity to speak Spanish. Whitney is now 31, and her company has offered her an opportunity to work in their Mexico City office. -In order to prepare herself, she enrolls in a Spanish course at the local community center. She's surprised at how quickly she's able to pick up the language after not speaking it for 13 years; this is an example of relearning.

Arousal theory

-It is also believed that strong emotions trigger the formation of strong memories, and weaker emotional experiences form weaker memories; this is called arousal theory. -For example, strong emotional experiences can trigger the release of neurotransmitters, as well as hormones, which strengthen memory; therefore, our memory for an emotional event is usually better than our memory for a non-emotional event. -When humans and animals are stressed, the brain secretes more of the neurotransmitter glutamate, which helps them remember the stressful event. -This is clearly evidenced by what is known as the flashbulb memory phenomenon

Why is Loftus sceptical of repressed and recovered memories?

-Loftus is not saying that childhood sexual abuse doesn't happen, but she does question whether or not those memories are accurate, and she is skeptical of the questioning process used to access these memories, given that even the slightest suggestion from the therapist can lead to misinformation effects. -For example, researchers Stephen Ceci and Maggie Brucks (1993, 1995) asked three-year-old children to use an anatomically correct doll to show where their pediatricians had touched them during an exam. -Fifty-five percent of the children pointed to the genital/anal area on the dolls, even when they had not received any form of genital exam. -Ever since Loftus published her first studies on the suggestibility of eyewitness testimony in the 1970s, social scientists, police officers, therapists, and legal practitioners have been aware of the flaws in interview practices. - Consequently, steps have been taken to decrease suggestibility of witnesses. One way is to modify how witnesses are questioned. When interviewers use neutral and less leading language, children more accurately recall what happened and who was involved. -Another change is in how police lineups are conducted. It's recommended that a blind photo lineup be used. This way the person administering the lineup doesn't know which photo belongs to the suspect, minimizing the possibility of giving leading cues. Additionally, judges in some states now inform jurors about the possibility of misidentification. -Judges can also suppress eyewitness testimony if they deem it unreliable.

Amygdala and memory

-Main job of the amygdala is to regulate emotions, such as fear and aggression -The amygdala plays a part in how memories are stored because storage is influenced by stress hormones. -For example, one researcher experimented with rats and the fear response (Josselyn, 2010). -Using Pavlovian conditioning, a neutral tone was paired with a foot shock to the rats. This produced a fear memory in the rats. After being conditioned, each time they heard the tone, they would freeze (a defense response in rats), indicating a memory for the impending shock. -Then the researchers induced cell death in neurons in the lateral amygdala, which is the specific area of the brain responsible for fear memories. -They found the fear memory faded (became extinct). -Because of its role in processing emotional information, the amygdala is also involved in memory consolidation: the process of transferring new learning into long-term memory. -The amygdala seems to facilitate encoding memories at a deeper level when the event is emotionally arousing.

Anterograde amnesia

-Most commonly caused by brain trauma, such as a blow to the head -With anterograde amnesia, you cannot remember new information, although you can remember information and events that happened prior to your injury. -The hippocampus is usually affected and this suggests that damage to the brain has resulted in the inability to transfer information from short-term to long-term memory; that is, the inability to consolidate memories. -Many people with this form of amnesia are unable to form new episodic or semantic memories, but are still able to form new procedural memories. -This was true of H. M., which was discussed earlier. The brain damage caused by his surgery resulted in anterograde amnesia. H. M. would read the same magazine over and over, having no memory of ever reading it—it was always new to him. He also could not remember people he had met after his surgery. If you were introduced to H. M. and then you left the room for a few minutes, he would not know you upon your return and would introduce himself to you again. However, when presented the same puzzle several days in a row, although he did not remember having seen the puzzle before, his speed at solving it became faster each day (because of relearning).

Debate of repressed and recovered memories

-On one side of the debate are those who have recovered memories of childhood abuse years after it occurred. -These researchers argue that some children's experiences have been so traumatizing and distressing that they must lock those memories away in order to lead some semblance of a normal life. -They believe that repressed memories can be locked away for decades and later recalled intact through hypnosis and guided imagery techniques. -Research suggests that having no memory of childhood sexual abuse is quite common in adults. For instance, one large-scale study conducted by John Briere and Jon Conte (1993) revealed that 59% of 450 men and women who were receiving treatment for sexual abuse that had occurred before age 18 had forgotten their experiences. -Ross Cheit (2007) suggested that repressing these memories created psychological distress in adulthood. -The Recovered Memory Project was created so that victims of childhood sexual abuse can recall these memories and allow the healing process to begin. -On the other side, Loftus has challenged the idea that individuals can repress memories of traumatic events from childhood, including sexual abuse, and then recover those memories years later through therapeutic techniques such as hypnosis, guided visualization, and age regression.

Storage

-Once information has been encoded, we place it in storage -Storage is the creation of a permanent record of information

Neurotransmitters involved in memory

-There continues to be discussion and debate among researchers as to which neurotransmitters play which specific role -Found that epinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, glutamate, and acetylcholine play a role -We know that communication among neurons via NT is critical for developing new memories

False memory syndrome

-Other researchers have described how whole events, not just words, can be falsely recalled, even when they did not happen. -The idea that memories of traumatic events could be repressed has been a theme in the field of psychology, beginning with Sigmund Freud, and the controversy surrounding the idea continues today. -Recall of false autobiographical memories is called false memory syndrome. -This syndrome has received a lot of publicity, particularly as it relates to memories of events that do not have independent witnesses—often the only witnesses to the abuse are the perpetrator and the victim (e.g., sexual abuse).

Prefrontal cortex in memories

-Other researchers have used brain scans, including positron emission tomography (PET) scans, to learn how people process and retain information. -From these studies, it seems the prefrontal cortex is involved. -In one study, participants had to complete two different tasks: either looking for the letter a in words (considered a perceptual task) or categorizing a noun as either living or non-living (considered a semantic task) (Kapur et al., 1994). Participants were then asked which words they had previously seen. -Recall was much better for the semantic task than for the perceptual task. -According to PET scans, there was much more activation in the left inferior prefrontal cortex in the semantic task. -In another study, encoding was associated with left frontal activity, while retrieval of information was associated with the right frontal region

Self-schemas

-Particular ways in which we come to view or understand ourselves.

Memory Rescronstuction

-Process of bringing up old memories -Yet as we retrieve our memories, we also tend to alter and modify them. -A memory pulled from long-term storage into short-term memory is flexible. -New events can be added and we can change what we think we remember about past events, resulting in inaccuracies and distortions. People may not intend to distort facts, but it can happen in the process of retrieving old memories and combining them with new memories

Stereotypical bias

-Racial and gender biases - For example, when Asian American and European American research participants were presented with a list of names, they more frequently incorrectly remembered typical African American names such as Jamal and Tyrone to be associated with the occupation basketball player, and they more frequently incorrectly remembered typical White names such as Greg and Howard to be associated with the occupation of politician

Context-dependent memory

-Refers to the fact that if we try to recall information from where we learn the original information, we have a more difficult time than if we recall the information in the same location where we learn the new information -So for example, this predicts that if you were to want to do really well on an exam that you would actually study in the exam room in which you were actually going to take the exam. -Context-dependent memory refers to the idea that retrieval of a memory will be optimal when the external cues present at the time of retrieval are matched, as closely as possible, to those present at the time of encoding. -Such external cues can be physical location (e.g., a room), they can also be temporal cues (e.g., the duration of an event, the time of day of an event). -The most dramatic experimental illustrations of this phenomenon have come from the study of Pavlovian conditioning, where changing the testing chamber or room can diminish the elicitation of a conditional response (e.g., freezing behaviour) by a conditional stimulus (e.g. a light or tone). -Some everyday examples: 1. Leaving one's room to retrieve an object in a second room, then forgetting about what you wanted to retrieve when you enter that second room. 2. Experiencing long "lost" memories upon returning to a location one has not been to in a long time

State-dependent memory

-Refers to the fact that our mental state at the time of encoding should match our mental state at the time of retrieval for optimal retrieval. -That is, if you were, for example, affected by a psychoactive drug like marijuana at the time that you were studying for an exam, you would probably also want to be under the effects of that drug at the time of taking the exam if you wanted to optimize your recall. -State dependent memory refers to the idea that the retrieval of a memory will be optimal when the state of an individual at the time of retrieval is matched, as closely as possible, to the state at the time of encoding. Two types of commonly studied state-dependent memory: 1. Drug-dependent memory. 2. Mood-dependent memory

Neurons and memory consolidation

-Repeated activity by neurons leads to increased NT in the synapses and more efficient and more synaptic connections -This is how memory consolidation occurs

Effortful processing

-Required more work and attention on your part to encode that information -Test material you studied

Retroactive interference

-Retroactive interference happens when information learned more recently hinders the recall of older information. For example, this week you are studying about Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory. Next week you study the humanistic perspective of Maslow and Rogers. Thereafter, you have trouble remembering Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development because you can only remember Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. -e.g: Learn sibling's new college email address and knowledge of her new email address interferes with recall of old email address Learn Item 1 --> Learn item 2 --> try to recall item 1 = retroactive interference

Retrograde Amnesia

-Retrograde amnesia is loss of memory for events that occurred prior to the trauma. -People with retrograde amnesia cannot remember some or even all of their past. -They have difficulty remembering episodic memories. -What if you woke up in the hospital one day and there were people surrounding your bed claiming to be your spouse, your children, and your parents? The trouble is you don't recognize any of them. You were in a car accident, suffered a head injury, and now have retrograde amnesia. You don't remember anything about your life prior to waking up in the hospital. This may sound like the stuff of Hollywood movies, and Hollywood has been fascinated with the amnesia plot for nearly a century, going all the way back to the film Garden of Lies from 1915 to more recent movies such as the Jason Bourne trilogy starring Matt Damon. -However, for real-life sufferers of retrograde amnesia, like former NFL football player Scott Bolzan, the story is not a Hollywood movie. Bolzan fell, hit his head, and deleted 46 years of his life in an instant. He is now living with one of the most extreme cases of retrograde amnesia on record.

Improving storage

-There isn't too much that we can do to aid the storage of material--at least that we know of. Although, it is conceivable that there might be some means of doing so. -For example, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that maintaining a healthy physiological state would be beneficial

Which of the 3 types of encoding give the best memory of verbal information?

-Some years ago, psychologists Fergus Craik and Endel Tulving (1975) conducted a series of experiments to find out. -Participants were given words along with questions about them. -The questions required the participants to process the words at one of the three levels. -The visual processing questions included such things as asking the participants about the font of the letters. -The acoustic processing questions asked the participants about the sound or rhyming of the words, and the semantic processing questions asked the participants about the meaning of the words. -After participants were presented with the words and questions, they were given an unexpected recall or recognition task. -Words that had been encoded semantically were better remembered than those encoded visually or acoustically. -Semantic encoding involves a deeper level of processing than the shallower visual or acoustic encoding. -Craik and Tulving concluded that we process verbal information best through semantic encoding, especially if we apply what is called the self-reference effect.

Inteference

-Sometimes information is stored in our memory, but for some reason it is inaccessible. -Makes retrieval difficult -This is known as interference, and there are two types: proactive interference and retroactive interference.

Encoding Failure

-Sometimes memory loss happens before the actual memory process begins, which is encoding failure. -We can't remember something if we never stored it in our memory in the first place. This would be like trying to find a book on your e-reader that you never actually purchased and downloaded. -Often, in order to remember something, we must pay attention to the details and actively work to process the information (effortful encoding). -Lots of times we don't do this. -For instance, think of how many times in your life you've seen a penny. Can you accurately recall what the front of a U.S. penny looks like? -When researchers Raymond Nickerson and Marilyn Adams (1979) asked this question, they found that most Americans don't know which one it is. The reason is most likely encoding failure. Most of us never encode the details of the penny. We only encode enough information to be able to distinguish it from other coins. If we don't encode the information, then it's not in our long-term memory, so we will not be able to remember it.

3 stage procedure of studying misinformation effect

-Stage 1: All participants experience an event Stage 2: Participants are divided into 3 groups: 1. Consistent group: presented with post-event information that is consistent with stage 1 (e.g., Was there a person by the stop sign?). 2. Inconsistent group: presented with post-event information that is inconsistent with stage 1 (e.g., Was there a person by the yield sign?). 3. Neutral group: (e.g., no questions presented). Stage 3: Participants are tested for their recall and/or recognition of the original event. (e.g., presented with 2+ versions of the event and asked to choose which was the original event). -The general finding is that the inconsistent group will have poorer recognition/recall of the original event than either of the other two groups. Another finding is that the longer the time interval between stages 1 and 2, the poorer the performance of the inconsistent group.

Sensory memory

-Stimuli from the environment are processed first in sensory memory: storage of brief sensory events, such as sights, sounds, and tastes -Very brief storage - up to a couple of seconds. Brief, fleeting sensory store -Temporary memory store, if you are attenting to that memory it moves to short term memory, if your not that info is lost -We are constantly bombarded with sensory information and we can't absorb all/or most of it -If we do not view sensory information about sights, sounds, smells, and textures as valuable information we discard it -If something is valuable we move it to our short-term memory system

Individuals with extraordinary memory abilities: How may storage be involved

-Storage = The maintenance of an encoded memory over time (the engram). -Their nervous system might have a modified ability to store information for particular durations.

Declarative memory

-Storage of facts and events we have personally experienced -Also known as explicit

Short-term memory (STM)

-Temporary storage system that processes incoming sensory memory -Also called working memory -Short-term memory takes information from sensory information and can also connect the memory to something already in the long-term memory -Lasts about 20 seconds -May be rehearsed, encoded, or lost

Semantic Enoding

-The encoding of words and their meaning -It was first demonstrated by William Bousfield (1935) in an experiment in which he asked people to memorize words. -The 60 words were actually divided into 4 categories of meaning, although the participants did not know this because the words were randomly presented. -When they were asked to remember the words, they tended to recall them in categories, showing that they paid attention to the meanings of the words as they learned them. -Thinking about how something new relates to something you already know

Autobiographical memory problems

-The gist of autobiographical memories tends to be correct. However, their finer details are subject to considerable amounts of distortion. -These effects are probably due to reconstruction at the time of recall: We fill in the gaps with details that we believe must have happened based on inference. -The reconstruction of autobiographical memories is influenced by our schemas. -Schemas are indeed important for autobiographical memory, if they change over time this should affect what your remember from your past.

Individuals with extraordinary memory abilities: How retrieval may be involved

-The recovery of a previously encoded memory. -Their nervous system might have a modified ability to retrieve the information that it has stored.

Self-reference effect

-The self-reference effect is the tendency for an individual to have better memory for information that relates to oneself in comparison to material that has less personal relevance

Improving recall

-There certainly is some evidence that one can improve one's recall of stored information. -Most of the techniques for improving recall are based on the belief (whichis supported by the scientific literature) that it is important to match the conditions at the time of recall to those at the time of encoding. -Two examples of this are context-dependent memory and state-dependent memory. Both are part of Tulving's encoding-specificity hypothesis.

Individuals with extraordinary memory abilities: How may encoding me involved?

-They might have a modification of the ability to incorporate new information into their nervous system.

Where did the idea that memories are stored diffusely throughout the cerebral cortex come from?

-This was largely the result of work done by Karl Spencer Lashley (1890 - 1958). -Over the course of a 30-year period, Lashley investigated the effects of cortical excisions and cortical cuts on the maze learning abilities of rats. -Lashley's results led him to propose two laws: 1. Mass Action: The amount of loss is proportional to the amount of cortex destroyed. 2. Equipotentiality: It is not where you lesion the cortex, it is how much of it you lesion. "the characteristics of the nervous network are such that, when it is subject to any pattern of excitation, it may develop a pattern of activity, reduplicated throughout an entire functional area by spread of excitations, much as the surface of a liquid develops an interference pattern of spreading waves when it is disturbed at several points" (Lashley, 1929)

7 ways our memory fails identified by Daniel Schater

-Transience -Absentmindedness -Blocking -Misattribution -Suggestibility -Bias -Persistence

Tulving's encoding-specifity hypothesis

-Tulving's encoding-specificity hypothesis states that the conditions at the time of retrieval should match the conditions at the time of encoding.

Procedural memory

-Type of implicit memory: stores information about how to do things -Memory for skilled actions like how to brush your teeth, how to drive a car, how to swim the crawl stroke -Your body will remember these movements and not forget them even if you don't do it for a couple of decades - e.g: If you present an accomplished guitarist with a guitar, even if he has not played in a long time, he will still be able to play quite well

Rehearsal

-Type of memory enhancing strategy to make sure information goes from short-term memory to long-term memory -Rehearsal = the conscious repetition of information to be remembered. -Think about how you learned your multiplication tables as a child. You may recall that 6 x 6 = 36, 6 x 7 = 42, and 6 x 8 = 48. Memorizing these facts is rehearsal.

Suggestibility

-Type: Distortion -False memories -Different from misattribution although it also contains false memories but with misattribution you create false memories entirely on your own, but with suggestibility it comes from someone else like when a therapist or police interviewer asks leading questions of a witness during an interview -e.g: Result from leading questions

Bias

-Type: Distortion -Memories distorted by current belief system -Your feelings and view of the world can distort your memor of past events -e.g: Align memories to current beliefs

Misattribution

-Type: Distortion -Source of memory is confused -e.g: Recalling a dream memory as a waking memory

Blocking

-Type: Forgetting -Accessibility of information is temporarily blocked -Frustrating because you have the information on the tip of your tongue.. you can't access stored information -e.g: Tip of the tongue.. you know the name of the song but you cannot access the name

Transience

-Type: Forgetting -Accessibility of memory decreases over time -Memories fade over time -Storage decay: unused information tends to fade with the passage of time. e.g: Forget events that occurred long ago

Absentmindedness

-Type: Forgetting -Forgetting caused by lapses in attention (breaks in attention or focus being somewhere else) e.g: Forget where your phone is, driven back home to make sure you turned off the stove

Persistence

-Type: Intrusion -Inability to forget undesirable memories -It's actually a failure of our memory system because we involuntarily recall unwanted memories, particularly unpleasant ones. For instance, you witness a horrific car accident on the way to work one morning, and you can't concentrate on work because you keep remembering the scene. -e.g.: Traumatic events

Recall

-What we most often think about when we talk about memory retrieval -It means you can access information without cues -You would use recall for an essay test

When is material better encoded?

-When material is meaningful

Proactive interference

-When old information hinders the recall of newly learned information. -e.g: new year starts and you write down old year learn combo to high school locker but memory, memory of old locker combination interferes with recall of new gym locker combo item 1 learned --> item 2 learned --> try to recall 2 --> proactive interference from number 1

Suggestability

-When someone witnesses a crime, that person's memory of the details of the crime is very important in catching the suspect. -Because memory is so fragile, witnesses can be easily (and often accidentally) misled due to the problem of suggestibility. -Suggestibility describes the effects of misinformation from external sources that leads to the creation of false memories. -In the fall of 2002, a sniper in the DC area shot people at a gas station, leaving Home Depot, and walking down the street. These attacks went on in a variety of places for over three weeks and resulted in the deaths of ten people. During this time, as you can imagine, people were terrified to leave their homes, go shopping, or even walk through their neighborhoods. Police officers and the FBI worked frantically to solve the crimes, and a tip hotline was set up. Law enforcement received over 140,000 tips, which resulted in approximately 35,000 possible suspects (Newseum, n.d.). -Most of the tips were dead ends, until a white van was spotted at the site of one of the shootings. The police chief went on national television with a picture of the white van. After the news conference, several other eyewitnesses called to say that they too had seen a white van fleeing from the scene of the shooting. At the time, there were more than 70,000 white vans in the area. Police officers, as well as the general public, focused almost exclusively on white vans because they believed the eyewitnesses. Other tips were ignored. When the suspects were finally caught, they were driving a blue sedan. -As illustrated by this example, we are vulnerable to the power of suggestion, simply based on something we see on the news. Or we can claim to remember something that in fact is only a suggestion someone made. It is the suggestion that is the cause of the false memory.

Elaborative rehearsal

-You could also enhance memory by using elaborative rehearsal: a technique in which you think about the meaning of the new information and its relation to knowledge already stored in your memory. -For example, in this case, you could remember that 520 is an area code for Arizona and the person you met is from Arizona. -This would help you better remember the 520 prefix. If the information is retained, it goes into long-term memory.

Stroop effect

-You name a colour more easily if it appears printed in that colour

Chunking

-You organize information into manageable bits or chunks. -Allows you to remember more than 7 +/- 2 numbers. You can remember 7 +/- 2 chunks. -Chunking is useful when trying to remember information like dates and phone numbers. -Instead of trying to remember 5205550467, you remember the number as 520-555-0467. -So, if you met an interesting person at a party and you wanted to remember his phone number, you would naturally chunk it, and you could repeat the number over and over, which is the rehearsal strategy.

2 types of LTM

1) Explicit 2) Implicit -Understanding the different types is important because a person's age or particular types of brain trauma or disorders can leave certain types of LTM intact while having disastrous consequences for other types.

3 types of encoding

1) Semantic coding 2) Visual encoding 3) Acoustic Encoding

What stages does a memory have to go through in order to go into storage?

1) Sensory Memory 2) Short-Term Memory 3) Long-Term Memory

Ways to improve encoding

1. Focus your attention on the material you want to remember. This process is enhanced by the removal of distracters. 2. Elaborate on the material. The more personal the elaboration (i.e., self-referent encoding), the better the recall. Creating examples, both personal and non-personal, also helps. 3. Use visual imagery. 4. Elaborate on your existing schema.

Drug-dependent memory

1. If people are drunk at the time of learning something (encoding) then best recall occurs when they are in that same drunken state. 2. If people are high (e.g., via marijuana) at the time of learning, then best recall occurs when they are high.

Misinformation effect and legal system

1. The judge and lawyers must prevent the use of leading questions-- subtle word changes might alter a witness' report. 2. Witnesses should be allowed to use notes during a trial. 3. Juries should be informed about the fallibility of eyewitness testimony.

Mood-dependent memory

Some experiments have shown that better recall occurs when there is a match between one's mood at the time of encoding and one's mood at the time of retrieval. However, there seem to be many caveats: 1. Only occurs under conditions of free recall. 2. Easier to demonstrate when happy vs. sad mood. 3. Easier to demonstrate when moods are intense. 4. Easier to demonstrate when material is related to real-life events. -There have also been difficulties replicating some of the earlier experiments.