Psych 101 Chapter 8

The Hippocampus

the hippocampus is involved in memory, specifically normal recognition memory as well as spatial memory (when the memory tasks are like recall tests). It seems to be more of a processing area for explicit memories. 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.

flashbulb memory

an exceptionally clear recollection of an important event

saying words aloud

another strategy used to improve memory. 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.

expressive writing

another strategy used to improve memory. expressive writing helps boost your short-term memory, particularly if you write about a traumatic experience in your life.

How to Study Effectively

some strategies and suggestions to help you hone your study techniques includes Use elaborative rehearsal, Apply the self-reference effect, Don't forget the forgetting curve, Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, Be aware of interference, Keep moving, Get enough sleep, Make use of mnemonic devices

arousal theory

strong emotions trigger the formation of strong memories, and weaker emotional experiences form weaker memories. 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 (McGaugh, 2003). This is clearly evidenced by what is known as the flashbulb memory phenomenon.

hyperthymesia

superior memory of autobiographical events (Marilu Henner from Taxi)

The Cerebellum

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

Karl Lashley

Are memories stored in just one part of the brain, or are they stored in many different parts of the brain? ________________________ began exploring this problem, about 100 years ago, by making lesions in the brains of animals such as rats and monkeys. He was searching for evidence of the engram

equipotentiality hypothesis

Based on Lashley's creation of lesions and the animals' reaction it was formulated that 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

Elizabeth Loftus

Cognitive psychologist who has conducted extensive research on memory. She has studied false memories as well as recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Also developed the misinformation effect paradigm

Misattribution

Distortion Error: appens when you confuse the source of your information.

bias

Distortion Error: our feelings and view of the world can actually distort your memory of past events. There are several types: Stereotypical bias involves racial and gender biases, Egocentric bias involves enhancing our memories of the past, Hindsight bias happens when we think an outcome was inevitable after the fact (I knew it all along).

suggestibility

Distortion Error: similar to misattribution, since it also involves false memories, but it's different. you create the false memory entirely on your own, which is what the victim did in the Donald Thomson case above. With suggestibility, it comes from someone else, such as a therapist or police interviewer asking leading questions of a witness during an interview.

sensory memory

In the Atkinson-Shiffrin model, stimuli from the environment are processed first in _______________ which is defined as storage of brief sensory events, such as sights, sounds, and tastes. It is very brief storage—up to a couple of seconds.

Stroop effect

J. R. Stroop discovered a memory phenomenon in the 1930s: you will name a color more easily if it appears printed in that color, which is called the ________________

false memory syndrome

Recall of false autobiographical memories. 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).

Memory Errors

Psychologist Daniel Schacter (2001), a well-known memory researcher, offers seven ways our memories fail us. He calls them the seven sins of memory and categorizes them into three groups: forgetting, distortion, and intrusion

Inaccurate and False Memories

Some people attributed Bush's wrong recall of 911 to conspiracy theories. However, there is a much more benign explanation: 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.

Interference

Sometimes information is stored in our memory, but for some reason it is inaccessible. 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 _____________

retrieval

The act of getting information out of memory storage and back into conscious awareness. 3 ways: recall, recognition, and relearning

construction

The formulation of new memories

The Amygdala

The main job of the amygdala is to regulate emotions, such as fear and aggression (Figure 8.9). The amygdala plays a part in how memories are stored because storage is influenced by stress hormones

amygdala, the hippocampus, the cerebellum, and the prefrontal cortex

The main parts of the brain involved with memory

Neurotransmitters

There also appear to be specific neurotransmitters involved with the process of memory, such as epinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, glutamate, and acetylcholine

encoding

We get information into our brains through a process called ______________ which is the input of information into the memory system. Occurs through automatic processing and effortful processing.

persistence

When you keep remembering something, to the point where you can't "get it out of your head" and it interferes with your ability to concentrate on other things

Recall

accessing information without cues. What we most often think about when we talk about memory retrieval: it means you can access information without cues. For example, you would use recall for an essay test.

memory consolidation

active rehearsal to move information from short-term memory into long-term memory

Recognition

happens when you identify information that you have previously learned after encountering it again. It involves a 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.

misinformation effect paradigm

holds that after exposure to incorrect information, a person may misremember the original event.

Visual encoding

input of images; the encoding of images. To see how visual encoding works, read over this list of words: car, level, dog, truth, book, value. If you were asked later to recall the words from this list, which ones do you think you'd most likely remember? You would probably have an easier time recalling the words car, dog, and book, and a more difficult time recalling the words level, truth, and value. Why is this? Because you can recall images (mental pictures) more easily than words alone. When you read the words car, dog, and book you created images of these things in your mind. These are concrete, high-imagery words. On the other hand, abstract words like level, truth, and value are low-imagery words. High-imagery words are encoded both visually and semantically (Paivio, 1986), thus building a stronger memory.

acoustic encoding

input of sounds, words, and music; the encoding of sounds, words in particular. You are driving in your car and a song comes on the radio that you haven't heard in at least 10 years, but you sing along, recalling every word. 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.

semantic encoding

input of words and their meaning; encoding of words & 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.)

Retrograde Amnesia

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. Waking up in hospital after car accident and not remembering anything prior to waking up in hospital

Implicit memories

memories that are not part of our consciousness. memories formed from behaviors. also called non-declarative memory.

Explicit memories

memories 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. (Note: Sometimes, but not always, the terms explicit memory and declarative memory are used interchangeably.)

Mnemonic devices

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. Example: Mr. VEM J. SUN for remembering the Planets

rehearsal

memory-enhancing strategy that involves 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)

Forgetting

refers to loss of information from long-term memory.

What are the 3 types of encoding?

semantic encoding, Visual encoding & acoustic encoding

Amnesia

the loss of long-term memory that occurs as the result of disease, physical trauma, or psychological trauma. 2 types: anterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia

Memory

the set of processes used to encode, store, and retrieve information over different periods of time (Figure 8.2).

Declarative memory

the storage of facts and events we personally experienced. Explicit (declarative) memory has two parts: semantic memory and episodic memory.

self-reference effect

the tendency for an individual to have better memory for information that relates to oneself in comparison to material that has less personal relevance. Semantic Encoding works best for remembering especially when we apply this

relearning

third form of retrieval - 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

semantic memory

type of declarative memory about words, concepts, and language-based knowledge and facts. Stored in our _____________ 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?

Procedural memory

type of implicit memory: it stores information about how to do things.

What are the most effective ways to ensure that important memories are well encoded?

Even a simple sentence is easier to recall when it is meaningful. Material is far better encoded when you make it meaningful.

Eyewitness Misidentification

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

transience

Forgetting error: first sin of the forgetting errors which means that memories can fade over time. storage decay: unused information tends to fade with the passage of time.

absentmindedness

Forgetting error: lapses in memory are caused by breaks in attention or our focus being somewhere else.

blocking

Forgetting error: memory error in which you cannot access stored information. Not being able to remember a famous actor's name the you know

The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve

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 (Figure 8.15). 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 (Ebbinghaus, 1885/1964). Your memory for new information decays quickly and then eventually levels out.

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

In order for a memory to go into storage (i.e., long-term memory), it has to pass through three distinct stages: Sensory Memory, Short-Term Memory, and finally Long-Term Memory. These stages were first proposed by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968). Their model of human memory (Figure 8.4), called Atkinson-Shiffrin (A-S), is based on the belief that we process memories in the same way that a computer processes information.

Short-term memory (STM)

a temporary storage system that processes incoming sensory memory; sometimes it is called working memory. takes information from sensory memory and sometimes connects that memory to something already in long-term memory. storage lasts about 20 seconds. George Miller (1956), in his research on the capacity of memory, found that most people can retain about 7 items in STM. Some remember 5, some 9, so he called the capacity of STM 7 plus or minus 2.

How do memories play a part in distorting facts?

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

unintended cues and suggestions

by police officers can effect eyewitnesses to to identify the wrong person. Like saying you did great when deciding between a lineup of several men even if not 100% sure

anterograde amnesia

commonly caused by brain trauma, such as a blow to the head. you cannot remember new information, although you can remember information and events that happened prior to your injury. The hippocampus is usually affected. 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

rehearsal

conscious repetition of information to be remembered

Long-term memory (LTM)

continuous storage of information - divided into 2 types (explicit & implicit). Unlike short-term memory, the storage capacity of LTM has no limits. 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.

Suggestibility

describes the effects of misinformation from external sources that leads to the creation of false memories. 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 _________________

effortful processing

encoding of information that takes effort and attention. Recalling the last time you studied for a test is an example of automatic processing. But what about the actual test material you studied? It probably required a lot of work and attention on your part in order to encode that information.

Episodic memory

information about events we have personally experienced. also called autobiographical memories

levels of processing

information that is thought of more deeply becomes more meaningful and thus better committed to memory. Used with elaborative rehearsal

The Prefrontal Cortex

involved with how people process and retain information. 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

elaborative rehearsal

memory-enhancing technique in which you think about the meaning of the new information and its relation to knowledge already stored in your memory. or 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.

engram

physical trace of memory. the group of neurons that serve as the "physical representation of memory"

reconstruction

process of bringing up old memories

Baddeley and Hitch

proposed a model where short-term memory itself has different forms. In this model, storing memories in short-term memory is like opening different files on a computer and adding information. The type of short-term memory (or computer file) depends on the type of information received. There are memories in visual-spatial form, as well as memories of spoken or written material, and they are stored in three short-term systems: a visuospatial sketchpad, an episodic buffer, and a phonological loop. According to Baddeley and Hitch, a central executive part of memory supervises or controls the flow of information to and from the three short-term systems.

Fergus Craik and Endel Tulving

psychologists who conducted a series of experiments to find out which of the 3 types of encoding would give you the best memory of verbal information. 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.

memory-enhancing strategies

technique to help make sure information goes from short-term memory to long-term memory

Storage

the creation of a permanent record of information. Once the information has been encoded, we have to somehow retain it. In order for a memory to go into storage (i.e., long-term memory), it has to pass through three distinct stages: Sensory Memory, Short-Term Memory, and finally Long-Term Memory. These stages were first proposed by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968). Their model of human memory (Figure 8.4), called Atkinson-Shiffrin (A-S), is based on the belief that we process memories in the same way that a computer processes information.

automatic processing

the encoding of details like time, space, frequency, and the meaning of words. Is usually done without any conscious awareness. What did you eat for lunch today? When was the last time you studied?

Retroactive interference

when information learned more recently hinders the recall of older information. or 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.

proactive interference

when old information hinders the recall of newly learned information. (giving someone your old address or phone number)

chunking

you organize information into manageable bits or chunks (another memory-enhancing strategy). 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.