Memory

Memory

Series of active systems that receive, store, organize, alter, and recover information

Types of memory

Sensory

Working

Long-Term

Sensory

Stores sensory information for a second or two

Working

Processes information through the process of maintenance rehearsa

Long-term

Requires encoding and storage, so that it can later be retrieved

Sensory memory

Fleeting storage system for sensory impressions

- Large capacity but short duration
- We are typically not aware of sensory memory

Iconic memory

A mental image or visual representation
- Typically stores visual sensory images for about half second

Echoic memor

A brief continuation of sensory activity in the auditory system after a sound is heard

Short-Term is

(Working) Memory

Working Memory

Thought to have a small capacity and a relatively short duration of about a dozen seconds

Information is subject to mental activity, valuation, and comparison with other things we know

The Capacity of Working Memory

The amount of information held in working memory depends on whether the information is comprised of sounds, mental images, or a combination of the two

Information bits

According to Miller, memory is limited to seven plus or minus two

Chunking:

-Recodes or reorganizes information into units that are already in long-term memory

- Suggests working memory holds about four to seven units of information

-Makes the most efficient use of space in working memory

Chunking:

The process of grouping similar or meaningful information ttogether

Maintenance rehearsal

Repeating the same sounds over and over keeps them in working memory.
- Without rehearsal, memories rapidly decay from memory.

Rote rehearsal

Learning by simple repetition

Elaborative rehearsal:

Makes information more meaningful, and better way to form lasting memories
- Meaning of information
- Form links between new and existing information

Long-term memory:

A storage system that can hold a great deal of information for a lengthy period of time

Storage based on meaning:

Encoded as images or sounds

- The idea that information is stored as a set of abstract concepts based on what information means to you

-Meaning attributed to various concepts, cultural adaptation

Organization Based on Networks

Memories linked in terms of their meaning will be stored together.

Network model

Explains the structure of long-term memories

Retrieval cue

Triggers retrieval of memories

Redintegration

Complete memory can be retrieved from partial cues or reminders

Types of Long-Term Memory

Implicty and Emplicty

Implicit

Lies outside of awareness

Explicit:

Stores information from your personal life, factual information that you can
consciously recall

The outside awarness of Implicit Memory

1. Those things that require motor or performance skills such as typing or driving

2. Classical conditioning

3. Priming: when the presentation of one stimulus (the priming stimulus) changes the way a person responds to another stimulus (the test stimulus)

More on Explicit memory

Stores information from personal life, names, faces, words,
dates, and ideas

has a semtic and epidsoc memory

Semantic memory

Factual knowledge about the world; some knowledge is almost immune to forgetting

Episodic memory

“mental time travel”, personal experience, life events; unless important, easily forgotten

Consolidation

Once formed, information is fairly lasting:

-Sleep assists in consolidation

-Can be prevented with electroconvulsive shock (ECS)

-Recent memories are more easily disrupted than older memories

The hippocampus is important in consolidation: Part of the limbic system and acts as a “switch” between working and long-term memory

Factors that Improve Encoding

Emotion and Deep Procseeing

Emotion

-Positive correlation between intensity of emotion and ability to
remember

Forgetting

-Occurs quickly before consolidation

- Ebbinghaus’s curve of forgetting

- Information connected in LTM is not lost nearly as quickly

Why forgetting happens

WFH

Retrieval failures WHF

-Often stem from one of four main reasons:

-Atypical brain function

- Disease such as Alzheimer's and other dementias

- Retrograde amnesia

-Anterograde amnesia Cue-dependent forgetting

More on WFH

State-dependent learning

-Both physical and emotional states

-Interference

-Retroactive

-Proactive

-Motivated forgetting

-Repression

-Suppression

False memory

-Memories that seem accurate in spite of the fact they never happened

-Memories formed when surprised, threatened, or under stress are especially prone to distortion

-Assumption that eyewitness testimony is infallible is
incorrect

The Recovered Memory/False Memory Debate

Hypnosis, guided visualization, suggestion, age regression, truth drugs, and other techniques can elicit fantasies that are mistaken for real memories.

-False memory syndrome: Being subjected to the planting
of a false memory

Explaining Inaccuracies in Memory

Information related to retrieval cues can make its way back into working memory.

-Some will be relevant.

- Some will be incomplete, and the gaps are filled in with other material

Source confusion

The origins of a memory are misremembered.

Cognitive interview

Uses redintegration to improve the memory of eyewitnesses

- Recreating the crime scene to provide retrieval cues

-Produces 35 percent more correct information than standard questioning

-Have people tell the story backwards

- Have them imagine the scene outside of their body

Chunking

Finding associations in everyday life, put information into meaningful groups

Elaborative rehearsal:

The more you rehearse information, the better you will remember it. Look for connections to existing knowledge

Spaced practice:

Short study sessions with brief rest periods

Mental images

Especially vivid ones, or mix words and images

Whole versus part learning:

Study the largest meaningful amount of information you can at one time
- Progressive-part method: For long, complex materia

Serial position

Give extra practice to the middle information

Overlearn:

Continue beyond bare mastery

Mnemonics:

Imposing an artificial organization on material if no one is naturally present

Acrostics:

First letters of the word are used to create as sentence

Keyword method:

Familiar word or image is used to link two other words or items

Create stories of chains:

Mental images connecting each item to be remembered

- Flashbulb memory

Recollections that seem unusually vivid

-Flashbulb memories activate the limbic system, but are not always accurate

-Deep Processing

- Think about the object and its meaning, considering connections to it in memory network

-Levels of processing effect:

Deep processing more likely to be encoded than that which is superficial information