CH 8 Psychology

Psychology 101

Memory

Set of processes used to encode, store, and retrieve information over different periods of time

Encoding

• Gets information into our brains

• Input of information into the memory system

• Once we receive sensory information from the environment, our brains label or code it

What are the two processing that encoding information occurs in?

1. Automatic processing

2. Effortful processing

Automatic processing

• Encoding of details like time, space, frequency, and the meaning of words

• Done without any conscious awareness

Effortful processing

• Required a lot of work and attention on your part in order to encode that information

What are the three types of encoding?

1. Semantic encoding

2. Visual encoding

3. Acoustic encoding

Semantic encoding

• Encoding of words and their meaning

• First demonstrated by William Bousfield (1935)

  • An experiment in which he asked people to memorize words

  • 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

Visual encoding

Encoding of images

Acoustic encoding

Encoding of sounds, words in particular

Psychologists Fergus Craik and Endel Tulving (1975)

• Which of the three types of encoding do you think would give you the best memory of verbal information?

  • 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

Self-reference effect

Tendency for an individual to have better memory for information that relates to oneself in comparison to material that has less personal relevance

Storage

• Creation of a permanent record of information

• In order for a memory to go into storage (i.e., long-term memory), it has to pass through three distinct stages

  • First proposed by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968)

    • Atkinson and Shiffrin's model (picture)

  • Baddeley and Hitch (1974) proposed a working memory model too

Atkinson and Shiffrin's model (picture)

Based on the belief that we process memories in the same way that a computer processes information

What are the three distinct stages of storage?

1. Sensory memory

2. Short-term memory

3. Long-term memroy

Baddeley and Hitch (1974) proposed a working memory model

• Short-term memory has different forms

• Storing memories in short-term memory is like opening different files on a computer and adding information

• Working memory files hold a limited amount of 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 central executive part of memory supervises or controls the flow of information to and from the three short-term systems, and the central executive is responsible for moving information into long-term memory

Three short-term systems from Baddeley and Hitch model

1. Visuospatial sketchpad

2. Episodic buffer

3. Phonological loop

Sensory memory

• Storage of brief sensory events, such as sights, sounds, and tastes

• Atkinson-Shiffrin model

• We cannot absorb all of it, or even most of it

  • Sensory information about sights, sounds, smells, and even textures, which we do not view as valuable information, we discard

  • If we view something as valuable, the information will move into our short-term memory system

Short-term memory (STM)

• A temporary storage system that processes incoming sensory memory

Short-term and working memory are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are not exactly the same. Why?

• Short-term memory is more accurately described as a component of working memory

• Short-term memory takes information from sensory memory and sometimes connects that memory to something already in long-term memory

• Short-term memory storage lasts 15 to 30 seconds

Rehearsal

Moves information from short-term memory to long-term memory

What are the two types of rehearsal?

1. Active rehearsal

2. Elaborative rehearsal

Active rehearsal

• A way of attending to information to move it from short-term to long-term memory

• You repeat (practice) the information to be remembered

  • If you repeat it enough, it may be moved into long-term memory

Elaborative rehearsal

Act of linking new information you are trying to learn to existing information that you already know

George Miller (1956)

• Reviewed most of the research on the capacity of short-term memory and found that people can retain between 5 and 9 items, so he reported the capacity of short-term memory was the "magic number" 7 plus or minus 2

• However, more contemporary research has found working memory capacity is 4 plus or minus 1

• Often slightly better for information we hear (acoustic encoding) rather than information we see (visual encoding)

Peterson and Peterson (1959)

• Memory trace decay and interference are two factors that affect short-term memory retention

• Investigated short-term memory using the three letter sequences called trigrams that had to be recalled after various time intervals between 3 and 18 seconds

• During decay, the memory trace becomes less activated over time, and the information is forgotten

Keppel and Underwood (1962)

• Examined only the first trials of the trigram task and found that proactive interference also affected short-term memory retention

• During proactive interference, previously learned information interferes with the ability to learn new information

• Both memory trace decay and proactive interference affect short-term memory

• Once the information reaches long-term memory, it has to be consolidated at both the synaptic level, which takes a few hours, and into the memory system, which can take weeks or longer

Long-term memory (LTM)

• Continuous storage of information

• Storage capacity is believed to be unlimited

• Memories are organized in semantic (or associative) networks

Semantic network

• Consists of concepts, and as you may recall from what you’ve learned about memory, concepts are categories or groupings of linguistic information, images, ideas, or memories, such as life experiences

  • Concepts are believed to be arranged hierarchically in the mind

  • Related concepts are linked, and the strength of the link depends on how often two concepts have been associated

• Differ depending on personal experiences

Spreading activation

• Important for memory, activating any part of a semantic network also activates the concepts linked to that part to a lesser degree

• If one part of a network is activated, it is easier to access the associated concepts because they are already partially activated

• When you remember or recall something, you activate a concept, and the related concepts are more easily remembered because they are partially activated

• However, the activations do not spread in just one direction

• When you remember something, you usually have several routes to get the information you are trying to access, and the more links you have to a concept, the better your chances of remembering

What are the two types of long-term memory?

1. Explicit

2. Implicit

Explicit memory

• Those we consciously try to remember, recall, and report

• Divided into episodic memory and semantic memory

Episodic memory

• AKA Autobiographical memories

• Information about events we have personally experienced (i.e., an episode)

• First proposed about in the 1970s (Tulving, 1972)

• Involves recollection of visual imagery as well as the feeling of familiarity

Semantic memory

• Knowledge about words, concepts, and language-based knowledge and facts

• Typically reported as facts

• Having to do with language and knowledge about language

Implicit memories

• Long-term memories that are not part of our consciousness

• Demonstrated in the performance of some task

What are the two types of explicit memory?

1. Episodic

2. Semantic

What are the three types of implicit memory?

1. Procedural

2. Priming

3. Emotional conditioning

Procedural memory

• Often studied using observable behaviors

• Stores information about the way to do something, and it is the memory for skilled actions, such as brushing your teeth, riding a bicycle, or driving a car

• When you first learned to do these tasks, someone may have told you how to do them, but everything you learned since those instructions that you cannot readily explain to someone else as the way to do it is implicit memory

Priming

• Type of implicit memory

• Exposure to a stimulus affects the response to a later stimulus

• Can vary and may include words, pictures, and other stimuli to elicit a response or increase recognition

Retrieval

Act of getting information out of memory storage and back into conscious awareness

Recall

What we most often think about when we talk about memory retrieval: it means you can access information without cues.

Recognition

• Happens when you identify information that you have previously learned after encountering it again

• Involves a process of comparison

What are the three ways you can retrieve information out of your long-term memory storage system?

• Recall

• Recognition

• Relearning

Relearning

Involves learning information that you previously learned

Engram

Group of neurons that serve as the “physical representation of memory”

Karl Lashley

• Are memories stored in just one part of the brain, or are they stored in many different parts of the brain?

• Made lesions in the brains of animals such as rats and monkeys

• Trained rats to find their way through a maze

• 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

• 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

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

Amygdala

• Fear and fear memories

• Memory formation

• Regulate emotions

• Plays a part in how memories are stored because storage is influenced by stress hormones

• Involved in memory consolidation: the process of transferring new learning into long-term memory

• Using Pavlovian conditioning, a neutral tone was paired with a foot shock to the rats; 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

Hippocampus

• Associated with declarative and episodic memory as well as recognition memory

• Project information to cortical regions that give memories meaning and connect them with other memories

• lays a part in memory consolidation: the process of transferring new learning into long-term memory.

Cerebellum

Plays a role in processing procedural memories, such as how to play the piano

Prefrontal cortex

Appears to be involved in remembering semantic tasks

Arousal theory

Strong emotions trigger the formation of strong memories, and weaker emotional experiences form weaker memories

Flashbulb memory

An exceptionally clear recollection of an important event

Amnesia

• Loss of long-term memory that occurs as the result of disease, physical trauma, or psychological trauma

What are the two common types of amnesia?

1. Anterograde amnesia

2. Retrograde amnesia

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

• Hippocampus is usually affected

• 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

Retrograde amnesia

• Loss of memory for events that occurred prior to the trauma

• Cannot remember some or even all of their past

• Difficulty remembering episodic memories

Construction

Formulation of new memories

Reconstruction

Process of bringing up old memories

Suggestibility

Describes the effects of misinformation from external sources that leads to the creation of false memories

Misinformation effect paradigm

• created by cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus

• Holds that after exposure to additional and possibly inaccurate information, a person may misremember the original event

• The implied information about speed, based on the verb they heard, had an effect on the participants’ memory of the accident

False memory syndrome

• Recall of false autobiographical memories

• 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)

Forgetting

Loss of information from long-term memory.

Psychologist Daniel Schacter (2001)

• Offers seven ways our memories fail us

• Calls them the “seven sins of memory”

What are the three categories of seven sins of memory?

1. forgetting

2. Distortion

3. Intrusion

Transience

• Forgetting

• Accessibility of memory decreases over time

• Forget events that occurred long ago

Absentmindedness

• Forgetting

• Forgetting caused by lapses in attention

• Forget where your phone is

Blocking

• Forgetting

• Accessibility of information is temporarily blocked

• Tip of the tongue

Misattribution

• Distortion

• Source of memory is confused

• Recalling a dream memory as a waking memory

Suggestibility

• Distortion

• False memories

• Result from leading questions

Bias

• Distortion

• Memories distorted by current belief system

• Align memories to current beliefs

Persistence

• Intrusion

• Inability to forget undesirable memories

• Traumatic events

German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus

• Analyzed the process of memorization

• Memorized lists of nonsense syllables

• 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

Interference

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

What are the two types of interference?

• Proactive interference

• Retroactive interference

Proactive interference

When old information hinders the recall of newly learned information.

Retroactive interference

Happens when information learned more recently hinders the recall of older information

Memory-enhancing strategies

• Ways we can improve our memory

  • Ex: Rehearsal, or the conscious repetition of information to be remembered

Chunking

You organize information into manageable bits or chunks

Elaborative rehearsal

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

Mnemonic devices

• Memory aids that help us organize information for encoding

• Especially useful when we want to recall larger bits of information such as steps, stages, phases, and parts of a system

Levels of processing

• Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart (1972) article

• 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

Self-reference effect

Relate the material to something you have already learned for another class, or think how you can apply the concepts to your own life.

Distributed practice

Study across time in short durations rather than trying to cram it all in at once

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse

Review the material over time, in spaced and organized study sessions

Study efficiently

Flash cards

Be aware of interference

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

Keep moving

• Exercise is good for your body, but did you also know it’s also good for your mind?

• 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

Get enough sleep

• 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

________ is a memory store with a phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer, and a central executive.

• sensory memory

• episodic memory

• working memory

• implicit memory

working memory

The storage capacity of long-term memory is ________.

• one or two bits of information

• seven bits, plus or minus two

• limited

• essentially limitless

Essentially limitless

The three functions of memory are ________.

• automatic processing, effortful processing, and storage

• encoding, processing, and storage

• automatic processing, effortful processing, and retrieval

• encoding, storage, and retrieval

encoding, storage, and retrieval

This physical trace of memory is known as the ________.

• engram

• Lashley effect

• Deese-Roediger-McDermott Paradigm

• flashbulb memory effect

Lashley effect

An exceptionally clear recollection of an important event is a (an) ________.

• engram

• arousal theory

• flashbulb memory

• equipotentiality hypothesis

flashbulb memory

________ is when our recollections of the past are done in a self-enhancing manner.

• stereotypical bias

• egocentric bias

• hindsight bias

• enhancement bias

egocentric bias

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is also known as ________.

• persistence

• misattribution

• transience

• blocking

blocking

The formulation of new memories is sometimes called ________, and the process of bringing up old memories is called ________.

• construction; reconstruction

• reconstruction; construction

• production; reproduction

• reproduction; production

construction; reconstruction

When you are learning how to play the piano, the statement “Every good boy does fine” can help you remember the notes E, G, B, D, and F for the lines of the treble clef. This is an example of a (an) ________.

• jingle

• acronym

• acrostic

• acoustic

acrostic

According to a study by Yogo and Fujihara (2008), if you want to improve your short-term memory, you should spend time writing about ________.

1. your best possible future self

2. a traumatic life experience

3. a trivial topic

4. your grocery list

a traumatic life experience

The self-referencing effect refers to ________.

• making the material you are trying to memorize personally meaningful to you

• making a phrase of all the first letters of the words you are trying to memorize

• making a word formed by the first letter of each of the words you are trying to memorize

• saying words you want to remember out loud to yourself

making the material you are trying to memorize personally meaningful to you

Memory aids that help organize information for encoding are ________.

• mnemonic devices

• memory-enhancing strategies

• elaborative rehearsal

• effortful processing

mnemonic devices