Memory

PSYCH 101

Memory

1. Encoding, 2. storage, 3. retrieval

Encoding

Transform what we think, feel, perceive into an enduring memory

Three types: elaborative, visual imagery, organizational

Elaborative encoding

Linking/relating new info to current memory/knowledge

• Semantic judgement 

Visual Imagery encoding

Storing new info by converting it into mental pictures

• Shopping list into locations in childhood home (the memory palace) 

Organizational encoding

Categorizing info by noticing relationships among series of items 

• Improves recall as shown in fruits, animals, furniture demonstration in class

Memory storage

1. Sensory

2. Short-term/working memory

3. Long-term

Serial Position Effect

Tend to remember first (primacy) and last (recency) items on the list, not what’s in the middle 

Sensory storage

Kept for a few seconds or less

1. Iconic memory - eye/see

2. Echoic memory - ear/hear

Short-term memory

Stores non-sensory info kept for more than a few seconds but less than a minute 

• Can hold approx. 7 bits of info at a time

• Info either moves to LTM or is lost

Working memory

Short-term memory + long-term memory used to interpret/manipulate/process

Rehearsal

Review/practice of material held in short-term memory and can help move STM to LTM

Chunking

Groups together smaller bits of info into larger categories to remember more (7 bits of info at a time)

Long-term memory

Information kept for minutes to decades

• Unlimited capacity

• Can be used to process both sensory info and short-term memory

1. Explicit memory

2. Implicit memory

Biological Mechanism of LTM/Long-term potentiation

The more often a neural pathway is activated (repeated thoughts) and neurons fire, the stronger the synaptic connections become, making the associated memory easier to retrieve.

Explicit Memory

Part of long-term memory

Conscious recall (“I remember…”)

1. Semantic

2. Episodic

Semantic Memory

Part of explicit memory in long-term

• Deals with facts and general public knowledge (no context)

• 4th of July = American Independence

Episodic Memory

Part of explicit memory in long-term

• Personally experienced events unique to the individual’s memory (set in time and place)

• 4th of July =.Pink Witney & running from fireworks getting thrown at us

Implicit Memory

Part of long-term memory

Without conscious recall - influence of past experiences on later behavior/performance

1. Procedural memory

2. Priming

Procedural Memory

Part of implicit memory in LTM

Motor and cognitive skills

Knowing how to do things like brushing.teeth or throwing a ball

Priming

Part of implicit memory in LTM

• Enhanced identification of objects or words

• When something you see, hear, or experience helps your brain notice or react to related things faster later on

• Ex: List of words (retirement, Florida, arthritis, grey), will walk slower

• Ex: Fragments of pictures remembered after 17 years

Anterograde Amnesia

Can remember the past but cannot form new memories

Retrograde Amnesia

Cannot remember the past, but can make new memories

Retrieval

Bring to mind information that has been previously encoded and stored (from LTM back into STM)

Retrieval Cue

External information that is associated with stored information and helps bring it to mind

• Hint

Encoding Specificity Principle

A retrieval cue recreates specific way info was initially encoded 

• Context/place where you first formed memory, returning to location will help recall memory

• Ex: Sitting in the same classroom where you learned the info will help you retrieve it on a test

State-dependent retrieval

• Tendency for info to be better recalled when person is in the same emotional state during encoding as retrieval 

• Ex: Feeling anxious during a test does not help retrieval because it is not the same emotional state you were in when studying

Memory Failures

1. Transcience

2. Absentmindedness

3. Blocking

4. Bias

5. Persistence

6. Memory Misattribution

7. Suggestability

Transcience

Forget over Time (both start with “t”)

• Occurs soon after event in storage phase of memory

Absentmindedness

Lapse in Attention (both start with “a”)

• Divided attention affects elaborative encoding

Blocking

Failure to retrieve info available in memory even through you are trying to produce it (blocked)

• “Tip of the tongue”

Bias

Distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings on recollection of previous experiences 

Consistency Bias

Reconstruct the past to fit the present (to keep beliefs consistent)

• Ex: saying back in high school did not believe in love at first sight even though you might have to keep present belief of love at first sight is not real consistent

Change Bias

Exaggerating difference between what we feel now versus the past 

• Ex: Over the course of a long-term relationship question was asked every year…”“has the quality of your relationship improved, stayed the same, gotten worse?”

• Answer was “the relationship improved” even through the rating actually stayed the same (difference was exaggerated)

Egocentric Bias

Exaggerate past and present to uphold self-image, remember the positive things more than negative (about ourselves)

Persistence

Intrusive recollection of events (traumatic/disturbing) we wish we could forget

• Flashbulb memories -  detailed recollections of when and where we heard abt shocking events (9/11, covid lockdown) 

Memory Misattribution

Assigning a recollection or an idea to the wrong source

• Main cause of false eyewitness testimony (innocent man Ronald Cotton sent to jail bc of memory misattribution)

• Recognition memory should be rapid if reliable

Suggestibility

Tendency to incorporate misleading info from external sources into personal reflections

• Therapists/suggestive procedures can cause a recollection of false repressed memories due to wording of questions (implanting a memory that wasn’t there before)

• Also seen in McMartin Child Abuse case

• Easy to implant/create false memories

• Amsterdam Plane Crash - “did you see the video” answer was “yes”, there was no video