Memory Intro

Effortful processing (Controlled processing): mental activities (encoding, manipulating material) that require conscious processing or attention. Related to explicit memories and requires rehearsal, improved by attention and motivation. (ex: texting)

Automatic Processing: mental activities that are done through unconscious processing. Related to implicit memories (ex: reading)

Stroop Effect: an example of effortful processing that includes “shutting off” the reading sensors of the brain to analyze the color of the text instead (ex: yellow)

Selective Attention: the conscious focusing of awareness on a specific task and filtering out other stimuli. Requires less automatic processing than Divided Attention and includes the processing of one stimulus while blocking another (ex: listening on class)

Divided Attention: the conscious focusing of awareness on several stimuli at once. Requires more automatic processing and concurrent processing (ex: driving)

Metacognition (Introspection): thinking (cognition) about one’s own (meta) thinking (ex: test reflections)

● Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: when you are aware the existence of a piece of information but cannot seem to pull that information out

○ Research suggests that it’s faster to look it up, otherwise you’re encoding the incorrect pathway to finding that information

Memory Processing

ENCODING

● Visual Encoding / Structural Encoding (Not strong)

○ A shallow memory creation system by classifying something by the way it looks ● Acoustic Encoding / Phonemic Processing (Stronger)

○ Creating a mental representation of information as a sequence of sounds ● Semantic Encoding (Strongest & best for retrieval): involves a variety of methods for putting information into memory by emphasizing meaning through deep processing that creates long-lasting memories.

○ Introducing information to the memory system by way of introducing meaning (ex: rephrasing things, connecting concepts)

Rehearsal: the conscious repetition of information either to maintain the memory system or to encode the information

● Maintenance Rehearsal: repetition without meaning, a factor of intermediate processing ● Elaborative Rehearsal: factor of deep processing, related to attaching numerous associations and making applications, or relating to prior knowledge

○ Self-reference effect: making personal examples or relating ways to understand the information in order to remember information.

○ Visual imagery: creating new images based off of information (a part of semantic encoding)

Encoding failure may occur due to insufficient attention, ineffective encoding, shallow processing, or task shifting

STORAGE

Information Processing Memory Model (Atkinson-Shiffrin): 3 stage model of STORAGE that describes three distinct, sequential stages: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory

Sensory Memory / Sensory Store

● First stage of memory storage

● Iconic Memory: visual sensory store that is very brief, and images can be recalled within less than a second

● Echoic Memory: auditory sensory store in which sounds can be recalled within three or four seconds

Short-Term Memory

● Capacity: limited (approximately 7)

● Durability: 3-12 seconds

● George Miller said 7 plus or minus two on average

● Chunking: grouping information together as part of the short term memory in order to recall it later

Working Memory Model

● Auditory rehearsal and visual-spatial information pass through the central executive (focuses attention) and passes information in and out of long-term memory Long-Term Memory SEE VISUAL ON NEXT PAGE

● Unlimited capacity, and has generally permanent storage

● IMPLICIT (Automatic Processing)

○ Procedural: memory related to skills, habits, hobbies, usually done in the cerebellum

○ Priming: memory of a prior repeated stimulus

○ Conditioned Responses: unconscious memory related to an association between a learned response to an unlearned response

● EXPLICIT (Effortful Processing)

○ Semantic Long-Term Memory: Facts (Paris is the capital of France)

○ Episodic Long-Term Memory: events that are personal experiences (I remember eating a baguette in France)

Retrospective Memory: working memory that includes the retrieval of past events (LTM episodic), retrieving known facts, ideas and concepts (LTM semantic).

Prospective memory: Memory that deals with future occurrences. Mostly monitoring and remembering to do things in the future.

Organization

● Schema: broad categories that information is organized into for faster responses. Consistent information is better, but it can distort memories (you assume something was there when it wasn’t)

RETRIEVAL

Strategies for Retrieving

● Retrieval Cues

○ Mnemonics

○ Peg Word Mnemonic

○ Method of Loci Mnemonic (Memory Palace)

Retrieval Cues

● Serial-position effect (primary & recency effect): when you remember the first and last information that was given)

● Von Restorff (Distinctiveness Effect): When you remember unique items of information in a set of information

● Using Priming (showing them other information beforehand)

● Context-Dependent Memory: retrieval of information only when you are in the environment in which you learned it

● State Dependent Memory: physiological reactions have an effect on what information you retrieve, for example, if you’re hungry you’re more likely to remember something you did the last time you were hungry

● Mood-Dependent Memory: when emotions have an effect on what information you retrieve, for example, if you are in a happy mood, you are more likely to recall happy memories

FORGETTING

● Operational Definition of Forgetting: an increase in the number of errors when trying to bring back material from memory

● Retention: the proportion of material that is remembered

● Relearning: the process after a loss of learning of acquiring knowledge Hermann Ebbinghaus

● Used a case study on himself and tried to remember nonsense syllables ● Forgetting curve: the amount of information lost over time (happens super quickly (about a day) and then it levels off)

Overcoming the Forgetting Curve

● Rehearsal: maintenance and elaborative

● Time spent: More time spent learning was correlated with less time spent relearning (negative correlation: more of one means less of the other)

● Relearning is one measure of memory retention

○ Operational definition of relearning: The amount of time in minutes it takes to remember or relearn a list of 20 words that had been forgotten

● Overlearning: rehearsing material after mastery which staves of forgetting for longer ● Distributed practice (spaced learning) is more effective than massed practice (cramming)

○ Massed Practice: a study method involving rehearsal that takes place in one long p__eriod__ or several short periods that are close in time, which is less effective than distributed practice for memory and learning.

● Testing Effect: encoding and memory processing is much stronger if you elaborate rehearse by quizzing or testing yourself

Why do we forget?

● Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon (see earlier). Highlights that retrieval cues are important for retrieval

● Encoding Failure or Ineffective Encoding (see earlier)

● Decay: retrieval becomes harder as time passes

● Interference: (synonyms: blocks, hinders, impedes)

○ Proactive interference: the blocking of some older memory is due to some new memory (you can’t remember your old password because you only remember your new password)

○ Retroactive Interference: the blocking of some new memory is due to some older memory taking precedence (you can’t remember the new password because you only remember the old)

○ EXAM NOTE: interference applications in an FRQ response must indicate that the retrieval problems is the result of blocking by old and new memories. Be specific about which info is old and which information is new.

● Amnesia: the partial or total loss of memory due to an injury or an illness ○ Retrograde Amnesia: the partial or complete inability to remember information that was learned before the trauma or disease that caused the illness occurred ○ Anterograde Amnesia: the partial or complete inability to create new memories after the trauma or disease occurred.

○ Dissociative Amnesia: memory loss involving autobiographical information, usually due to psychological causes

○ EXAM TIP: must say that forgetting is because of an injury or illness and you must say what info is old or new

● Motivated Forgetting (Repression): the conscious or unconscious act of eliminating the awareness of painful or unacceptable thoughts and experiences

Elizabeth Loftus

● Asked 45 students to watch a video of a car crash and then estimate the speed that the car was going

● However, she’d change the question for different groups: How fast were they going when they smashed? Collided? Hit?

● Different verbs caused different approximation

● IV: five verbs DV: estimated speed, in mph, of the vehicles when they crashed ● Make a conclusion: The use of the verb (IV) distorted memory. The memory of how fast the cars were travelling (DV) could have been distorted by the verbal label used. ● Misinformation Effect: the tendency for individuals who have been provided with misleading information to alter their memories by adding false material to their recollections

Source v Reality Monitoring

● Source Monitoring: determining the origins (sources) of our memories. ○ Source monitoring error: you mistake the source of that information

○ Source amnesia: you completely can’t remember the source

● Reality Monitoring: determining if memories based on actual events (external) or our thoughts (internal)

Biological Bases for Memory

Brain Structures in Memory

● Hypothalamus: a limbic system structure that is related to encoding new, explicit memories

● Amygdala: responsible for strong emotions and the emotional components of memory ● Basal Ganglia: a subcortical structure related to goal orientated movements and also creating procedural, implicit memories.

● Short-term Memory, recall of an episodic memory, determining the order in which things happen — Frontal lobes

● Cerebellum: hindbrain structure related to implicit memories and the loss of memory. Also includes memories related to movement

Neurological Factors in Memory

● AcH (Acetylcholine): destruction of AcH neurons in the hippocampus is related to Alzheimers

● Glutamate is associated with long-term potentiation — the release of glutamate facilitates learning and this process in which repeated stimulation of the same neural networks strengthens neural networks and strengthens learning