Distributed vs. Massed Study
Spread your study time out.
Testing Effect
Frequently test yourself on the material you read.
Elaborative Rehearsal
Connect new knowledge with existing knowledge instead of memorizing.
Mnemonic Devices
The more cues you can connect from your knowledge to new material, the better.
Levels of Processing Approach
Work to process ideas deeply and meaningfully (in your own words).
Memory
Retention & Retrieval of Skill & Knowledge
Reconstructive
Nature of Memory. Recalling is active or reconstructive
Nature of Mind or Mental Lexicon
Memories of similar things are inter-connected
Passive record keeping, such as video recorder (64%), to preserve the past. Active reconstruction, to anticipate the future
Paradox of Memory
Memories are both surprisingly good and poor
Illusion
False but subjectively compelling memory
Explicit Memory
Memories we consciously make: Episodic and Semantic
Episodic Memory
Memory for specific events (an episode)
Semantic Memory
General Knowledge. Not tied to a specific time and place.
Implicit Memory
Revealed indirectly. Procedural, Priming, Perceptual, Classical Conditioning
Procedural Memory
Knowing how to do something (skills, such as playing an instrument)
Priming
Changes in belief and perception caused by previous experience
Perceptual Learning
Recalibration of perceptual systems due to experience
Classical Conditioning
Learning about associations through stimuli
The three major systems of memory
Sensory Storage, Short-term storage, Long-term storage
Sensory Memory
Brief storage of perceptual (or raw) information before it is passed to STM
Each sense has its own sensory memory.
Iconic (visual) lasts only 1/3 – 1 second;
Echoic (auditory) can last 5-10 seconds.
Echoic Memory
Auditory, helps in taking notes during lecture
Iconic Memory
Eye movement is made up of fixations & saccades. We see the world continuously due to this. Iconic Memory lasts longer than fixations and saccades.
Saccadic suppression
No visual processing during saccades
Visual processing only during fixations
Therefore we should see in a “on and off” manner
But we see the world as a visual continuum
Short Term Memory (Working Memory)
ability to hold info we are currently thinking about, attending to, or processing actively
Chunking
Organizing info into meaningful grouping, allowing us to extend the span of STM
Magic Number of Working Memory
+ - 7 seconds
Decay
information naturally fades over time
Interference
loss of information due to competition with new, incoming information
Ways to extend duration of info in STM
Rehearsal and Elaborative Rehearsal
Rehearsal
repeating information in STM, extends its duration.
Maintenance rehearsal is simply repeating STM information in its original form.
Two types of interference
Retroactive and Proactive (thinking about language example)
Retroactive interference
New learning interfering old information
Proactive interference
Old information interfering with new learning
What makes interference stronger?
When learning information that is similar to old information you have
Long Term Memory
Relatively enduring store of information. Includes facts, experiences, and skills we've developed over a lifetime
Approach of Memory
Deeper the processing, better the recall
Visual < Phonological < Semantic
Serial Position Effect
Probability of recalling an item depends on its position in the memorized list of items
Primacy effect
tendency to remember stimuli presented earliest (Items in LTM at the time of recall)
Recency effect
Tendency to remember stimuli presented most recently (Items still in STM at the time of recall)
Three processes of memory
Encoding, Storage, Retrieval
Encoding
Getting the information into memory (ex. reading a book)
Storage
Keeping information in memory (ex. putting book back into its proper shelf)
Retrieval
The reactivation or reconstruction of info from memory (ex. picking the book back from its shelf)
Why may we forget someone’s name after meeting them in a party?
The infomation (the name) was never attended to or encoded.
The 3 R’s of Retrieval
Recall, Recognition, and Relearning
Recall
generating previously remembered information
Recognition
selecting previously remembered information from an array of options
Relearning – “methods of savings”
How much more quickly we reacquire something learned before
What is one of the best replicated effect in all history?
Distributed versus massed practice
Encoding Specificity
We are more likely to remember something when the conditions present at the time we encoded it are also present at retrieval.
Context Dependent Learning
Superior retrieval when the external context of the original memories matches the retrieval context (ex. Scuba Divers Study)
What does not guarantee accuracy of a memory?
Confidence, Emotion & Detail
False Memory
Memories can form, they are much more fallible than we believe
Flashbulb memory
Emotional memory that is extraordinarily vivid and detailed (ex. 9/11, shuttle blow up)
Phantom flashbulb memories
A study showed that a student recalled a significant event differently about 2 years later, but they didn’t mean to lie
Suggestive Memory Techniques
Procedure that encourages patients to recall memories that may or may not have taken place (ex. smashed vs touched)
Misinformation Effect
Creation of fictitious memories by providing misleading info about an event after it takes place (ex. “remember when you were lost in the mall?”)
People’s tendency to include the misinformation as part of their recall of the original experience.
Schema
An individual’s mental Rn that summarizes her knowledge about a certain type of event or situation. (ex. remembering books in a prof’s office but they weren’t there)
Semantic Association
In our mind (mental lexicon), semantically related words are networked together
Eyewitness testimony is less accurate when:
Different race from the witnesses,
after they talk to other witnesses,
only got a brief glimpse,
was under stress during the crime,
saw someone else shortly after the event,
under weapon focus
Eyewitness Testimony is more accurate when:
Sequential lineups (one person at a time) than simultaneous lineups (in groups)
Police telling the witness that the true criminal might or might not be present in the lineup (reduces demand chars)
Person conducting the lineup be blind to who the suspect is (similar to Rosenthal effect)
False Memory Controversy
Psychoanalysts started making everyone believe in abuse they had never recalled before seeing them. (Freudian view)
Amygdala
Formation & Storage of Emotional Memories.
Threat evaluation
Fear conditioning
Hippocampus
Learning
Memory consolidation: STM âžź LTM
Spatial navigation
Alzheimer’s Disease: memory loss & disorientation
Bilateral damage: anterograde amnesia
Retrograde amnesia
loss of memories of events before the damage
Anterograde amnesia
inability to form new memories
What disease is consistent with cortical loss?
Alzheimer's Disease
Procedural Knowledge
Knowledge of how to do something, e.g. riding a bike
Explicit/ Declarative Knowledge
Knowledge of info that can be expressed in words
Famous case of H.M.
Both hippocampus and amygdala were removed to try to cure epilepsy, could not form new episodic memories and could not recall some old memories