Chapter 8

What is memory

• Memory is recalling past events and past learning by means of encoding, storage, and retrieval

What are the three processes involved in memory

• Encoding - getting information into memory in the first place

• Storage - retaining memories for future use

• Retrieval - recapturing memories when we need them

What are the two theories of how memory works

• Information-Processing Model

• Parallel Distributed-Processing Model

What is the information-Processing Model

• Information passes through three memory stores during encoding, storage, and retrieval

• We are presented with a stimulus and our brain retains a sensory memory of it for less than a second

  • Sensory memories include: Iconic (what we see) and echoic (what we hear)

What is working (short-term) memory

• Holds information for 30 seconds; capacity is 5-9 items

What is the process of the information processing model

1. Stimulus from the environment

2. Sensory memory (info is not transferred is lost)

   • holds sensory info

   • Lasts up to ½ sec for visual ; 2-4 sec for auditory

   • Capacity = large

3. Working memory (information not transferred is lost)

   • Holds info temporarily for analysis

   • Up to 30 sec without rehearsal

   • Limited 5-9 items

4. Long-term memory

   • Relatively permanent storage

   • duration is relatively permanent

   • capacity is relatively unlimited

What is the parallel distributed-processing model

• Information is represented in the brain as a pattern of activation across entire neural networks

• Memories are stored in a network of associations throughout our brains

  • Connectionist

What is the difference between Parallel Distributed & Information processing model

• For PDPM memories are stored in a network of associations throughout our brains vs the IPM model of memory that says that material is processed and remembered in stages

What are the three systems within working memory (Baddeley & Hitch)

• Central executive : supervisory system that monitors and coordinates the entire working memory system by allocating attentional resources and selectively prioritizing information as it relates to two subsystems

  • Phonological loop - processes spoken and written information, “little voice” that repeats to keep it as active memory

  • visuospatial sketchpad - keeps track of images and spatial locations needed for navigation purposes (inner eye)

• Third subsystem added: episodic buffer - serves to link together information from the other parts of working memory and creates links to time and order as well as to long-term memory

How do we get information into memory?

• To get information into long-term memory, you need to pay attention to it and encode it

  • Automatic processing - when you remember something without much conscious awareness or effort

  • Effortful processing - when you remember something with careful attention and conscious effort

When is automatic processing used

• Used for remembering matters of time, space, and frequency

  • e.g. we can remember the path from our front door to our bedroom, we remember where things are in relation to us

When if effortful processing used

• Used for a lot of other stuff that we want to remember

  • E.g. studying for class, remembering someone’s name or phone number

Difference between attention and awareness

• To encode anything into memory using either type of processing, we need to pay attention to it

• But we are only aware of it in effortful processing

What is sensory memory

• Sensory memory involves detailed, brief sensory images or sounds retained for a brief period of time

  • Photograph viewed for a brief moment

  • Brief glance at a passing cat

  • random letters examined fro less than a second

What is working memory

• Short-term memory store for information you are thinking about right now, including

  • Recalled memories, such as phone numbers

  • what you are reading

How do you transfer sensory memory into working memory

• To transfer it into working memory, you must pay attention to the information.

• Once in working memory, information can be actively used and rehearsed (e.g., repeating a phone number)

  • Without attention, sensory information fades almost instantly

What is long-term memory

• All of the information we have gathered that is available for use, such as acquired skills, people we know, and past feelings

What is the spaced practice effect

• Facilitates moving working memories into long-term memory by rehearsing over time

  • e.g. don’t cram study

How do you transfer working memory into long-term memory (possibly rework)

• Encoding is required to move information from working memory into long-term storage.

• Strategies that help:

  • Rehearsal – consciously repeating information.

  • Spaced Practice Effect – studying over time strengthens memory better than cramming.

  • Meaningful encoding – understanding, elaborating, and connecting new info to existing knowledge.

  • Mnemonics, chunking, schemas, PQRST method – all enhance encoding.

What are the type of encoding

• Phonological - encoding based on sound

• Visual - encoding based on how the information looks

  • People with amazing visual encoding skills have eidetic (photographic) memory

• Semantic - encoding based on the meaning of the information

What are the best methods of effortful encoding

• Understand - we remember things better when we can understand what it means

• Elaborate - the more we can elaborate (or expand) on the meaning and make the information personally relevant, the better we remember it

• Mnemonic devices - techniques used to increase meaningfulness of information to make it more memorable

• Chunking - group bits of information together

  • e.g. remembering phone numbers

• Schemas - organize new information according to the categories created by previous experience and learning

• PQRST

What is the PQRST method

• Preview - skim if first, identify key themes

• Question - turn each subsection into a question that you’ll answer as you read

• Read - try to answer the questions you posed yourself

• Self-Recitation - ask and answer questions aloud to yourself

• Test - practice recalling information from what you read

What are the storage limits of memory

• Once information enters working memory it can be stored for only a limited period of time (30 sec.)

  • Either passed on to long-term or is lost

• Memory span= max number of items that can be recalled in the correct order

What are the types of long-term memories

• Explicit memory - memory that a person can consciously bring to mind

  • e.g. home address or date of birth

• Implicit memory - memory that a person is not consciously aware of, such as learned motor behaviours, skills, and habits

  • e.g. riding a bike

What are the types of explicit memories

• Semantic

  • Memory of general knowledge of the world

• Episodic

  • Memory of personal events or episodes from one’s life

Types of implicit memory

• Procedural memory

  • Motor skills and habits

• Classically conditioned memory

  • Conditioned responses like fear, disgust, excitement, etc.

• Priming

  • Exposure to something in your environment that makes a memory more accessible (e.g. seeing an ad reminding)

Types of long-term memories

• Explicit memory

  • Semantic - Facts and general knowledge

  • Episodic - Personal experiences and events

• Implicit memory

  • Procedural - Motor skills and habits

  • Classically conditioned - Conditioned responses to conditioned stimuli

  • Priming - Earlier exposure facilitates retrieval

How are long-term memories organized

• Not fully understood

• Regardless of their precise organization pieces of information stored in long-term memory are linked to each other, forming a vast network of interwoven associations

How do we retrieve memories

• Mentally search brain for stored information

• If it is located then it is brought back into working memory

What is serial position effect

Demonstrates two basic retrieval effects

• Primacy effect - more likely to remember things heard first

  • Happens when asked after a delay

• Recency effect - more likely to remember things heard most recently

  • Happens when asked soon after learning

What helps retrieval

• Retrieval cues - words, sights or other stimuli that remind us if the information we need to retrieve from our memory

• Context effects - we can remember things between where we first learned them

• Encoding specificity - the original context (location or situation), mood, or state in which we learn materials is loaded with retrieval cues which leads to memories of the original event

• Priming - one piece of information helps us retrieve other related memories

Recognition vs Recall

• Recognition: Identifying information when given cues (e.g., multiple-choice test).

  • Easier because of priming.

• Recall: Retrieving information without cues (e.g., essay test, free response).

  • Harder because it requires active search of memory.

What is state dependent memory

• Remembering things better when you are in the same state of mind you were in when you first learned it

  • Similar to context dependent memory but different

What is Flashbulb memories

• Detailed memories of an emotionally significant event, or of the circumstances surrounding the moment we learned about the event

  • e.g. whereabouts on 9/11 if you were old enough to live through that day

  • Not more accurate than any other memory

What is forgetting

• The inability to recall information that was previously encoded into memory

• May be due to failure of attention or lack of retrieval cues

What are the three possible reasons for retrieval failure

• Decay theory

• Interference theory

• Motivated forgetting

What is the decay theory

• Memory traces (physical traces in brain) fade over time if they are not used

• Forgetting curve - we forget a great deal very rapidly, but the forgetting levels off and the amount of information we retain stabilizes

What is interference theory

Forgetting is influenced by what happens to people before or after they take information in

• Proactive interference - competing information that is learned before the forgotten material, preventing its subsequent recall

  • Old info interferes with new

• Retroactive interference - learning of new information disrupts access to previously recalled information

  • New info interferes with old

What is motivated forgetting

We may forget information that is unpleasant, embarrassing or painful

• Repression - process in which we unconsciously prevent some traumatic events from entering our awareness so that we do not have to experience the anxiety or blows to our self-concept that the memories would bring

What are the three factors that contribute to memory distortions

• Source misattributions - remembering information, but not its source may lead to remembering information from unreliable sources as true

• Imagination - memories can be distorted by false information that comes from within

• Misinformation - exposure to new information, particularly misinformation, can also lead to the distortion or the manufacture of false memories

What could cause distorted or manufactured memories (maybe remove)

• Hypnosis in therapy, law enforcement, and other contexts has been shown to cause people to distort or manufacture memories, rather than rediscover them

What area of the brain is responsible for memory

• No specific memory region

• Prefrontal cortex - important in working memory

• Hippocampus - important for the transfer of memories into long-term memory

What brain mechanisms are involved in memory consolidation

• Memory consolidation – process by which memories stabilize in the brain.

• Potentiation – synchronous networks of neurons firing together.

• Neural circuits – pathways of connected neurons that strengthen with repeated use.

• Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) – repeated stimulation of certain neurons increases the likelihood they will fire strongly in the future.

How does memory and age work

• Before age 4 we have memories of faces, places and skills but not memories of life events

• Hippocampus develops slowly

• Most early episodic memories are emotional

• Some types of memory decline with age, starting in our 20s

  • Prospective (ability to remember future content) & retrospective (ability to remember content from the past)

What is an organic memory disorders

• Caused by brain injuries or medical conditions these injuries or conditions damage one or more of the brain regions or brain chemicals that are important in the formation, storage, or retrieval of memories

• Most common kinds are amnestic disorders and Dementias

What are the different types of amnestic disorders

• Anterograde amnesia - can’t form new memories

• Retrograde amnesia - can’t remember things before amnesia-inducing event

  • Who am I?

What is Dementia

• Severe memory problems combined with losses in at least one other cognitive function, such as abstract thinking or language

• Alzheimer’s is the most common

What causes Alzheimer’s

• Both senile plaques (protein fragments that accumulate between neurons) and neurofibrillary tangles (insoluble fibres that twist together) are thought to damage neurons in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients (both shown on the left).

• Plaques and tangles are absent in the healthy brain (right).