Gen Psych Mod 8 Memory Notes

POWERPOINT NOTES

MEMORY

Studying memory makes us ask these question:

How do we process & store information?
Are there different types of memory?
How do we retrieve memories?
Why do we forget things?

HOW MEMORY FUNCTIONS

Memory is an info processing system & is similar to a computer. It’s a set of processes used to encode, store, & retrieve info over different periods of time.

Encoding: inputting info into memory system
Storage: retaining the encoded info
Retrieval: getting info out of memory & back into awareness (so I guess consciously retrieving memory & thinking about it, like if you were having a convo about an event from last week)

ENCODING

When the brain gets info from the environment, it:

Labels/codes it
organizes it w/other similar info
connects new concepts to existing concepts

Encoding goes through 2 types of processes:

Automatic processing - encoding details like time, space, frequency, & the meaning of words. Usually done w/out conscious awareness, like remembering WHEN you last studied.

Effortful processing - encoding of details that takes time & effort, like WHAT you last studied, learning new skills.

TYPES OF ENCODING

Semantic encoding - encoding words & their meanings.

Most effective form of encoding. Attaching meaning to info makes it easier to recall later
Involes a deeper sense of processing

Visual encoding - encoding images

Words that evoke a mental image (like dog or car) are easier to remember than more abstract words (like truth or level).

Acoustic encoding- encoding sounds

Self-reference effect - the tendency of an individual to have better memory for information relating to themself than to material that is less personal/relevant to them.

STORAGE: BADDLEY & HITCH MODEL

Baddley & Hitch proposed a model that said there are different types of short-form memory & storage depending on the type of info received.

storing info is like opening folders on a computer & adding info/data to them

3 Short-Term Systems:

Visuospatial sketchpad
Episodic buffer
Phonological loop

The model says a “Central Executive” supervises the flow of info between systems.

STORAGE: A-S Model

Storage makes permanent record of info.

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of Memory

Info passes through 3 stages before making it to long-term memory
The model is based on the idea that memory is very similar to how computers process memory

SENSORY MEMORY

Sensory memory - storage of brief sensory events, like sights, sounds, & tastes

It’s stored for only a couple of seconds
It’s the 1st step of processing stimuli from the environment
If the info isn’t important, it’s discarded
If the info is valuable, it’s moved to short-term memory

SHORT-TERM MEMORY (STM)

Short-term/working memory - temporary storage system that processes incoming sensory memory

lasts about 20 sec
Capacity is usually about 7 items, give or take 2 (discovered by George Miller)

Short-term memories are either discarded or put into long-term memory.

Memory consolidation - transferring STM (short-term memory) to long-term memory

This can be done through rehearsal: consciously repeating info to remember it

LONG-TERM MEMORY

LTM is the continous storage of info

It is UNLIMITED & is like info you download on a hard drive

There are 2 main components: explicit & implicit.

LTM: EXPLICIT MEMORY

Explicit (declarative) memory: memories of facts & events we can consciously remember & recall/declare.

Include 2 types: Semantic & Episodic

Semantic: knowing words, concepts, & language.

Ex: knowing who the President is

Episodic: info about events we personally experienced.

Ex: remembering your bday, or the what, when, & where of an event.
Also called autobiographical memory
A small number of ppl (including actress Marilu Henner) have a highly superior autobiographical memory called hyperthymesia. (I think this is the one where you can remember every event of your life, including your birth.)

LTM: IMPLICIT MEMORIES

Implicit memory: memories that aren’t part of our consciousness

formed through behaviors

Procedural: stores info about how to do things

skills & actions
Ex: how to ride you bike, tie your shoes, or drive

Implicit memory also includes behaviors learned through emotional conditioning.

You might have a fear of spiders but not remember why you were conditioned to fear them or what happened to cause that conditioning.

RETRIEVAL

How do you get info back out of storage?

Retrieval - getting info out of storage & back into conscious awareness

Needed for everyday functioning, like knowing how to drive or how to do your job once you get there.
3 ways to retrieve info:

Recall - accessing info without cues (used for an essay test)
Recognition - being able to identify info that you’ve previously learned after encountering it again (used for a multiple choice test)
Relearning - learning info you’ve already learned

PARTS OF THE BRAIN INVOLVED IN MEMORY

Karl Lashley & Engrams

Lashley looked for evidence of engrams - groups of neurons that are the “physical representation of memory.”

He studied parts of the brain involved in memory-making by making lesions (changes/damage) in animal brains (rats, monkeys)
He trained rats to find their way through a maze, then made brain lesions to see if that would affect their memory.
The rats still remembered their way. It didn’t provide evidence of engrams, so he made a new hypothesis:

Equipotentiality hypothesis: if one part of the brain involved in memory-making is damaged, then another part of the brain can take on that job for it.

Eric Kandel - studied the synapse & its role in controlling info flow through neural circuits needed to store memories.

These parts of the brain are involved in memory:

DESCRIPTIONS OF PARTS OF THE BRAIN INVOLVED IN MEMORY

Amygdala

involved in fear & memories (memory storage is affected by stress hormones)

Hippocampus

Associated with explicit, spatial, & recognition memory
Process info to cortical regions that give memories meaning & connect them w/other memories
involved in memory consolidation
if it’s damaged, you can’t make new memories

*Patient H.M.

He had both temporal lobes (including hippocampus) removed to stop his seizures
He couldn’t make new memories & forgot lots of his old memories too.

Cerebellum

helps process procedural memories, like how to play the piano & classical conditioning
if it’s damaged, you can’t do classical conditioning, like the eye-blink response to air being blown in your eyes.

Prefrontal cortex

looks like it’s involved in remembering semantic tasks
Encoding = left frontal activity
Retrieval of info = right frontal region

NEUROTRANSMITTERS
Communication between neurons via neurotransmitters is KEY to forming new memories.

The more often this communication happens, the more these connections are made, & the stronger & more long-term the memory becomes.

Neurotransmitters involved in memory:

Epinephrine
Dopamine
Serotonine
Glutamete
Acetylcholine

Arousal Theory - strong emotions form strong memories; weak emotions form weak memories

FLASH-BULB MEMORY

Flash-bulb memory - a record of an unusual event that has very strong emotional associations

Some flash-bulb memories can act as generational reference point, like:

The assassinations of MLK Jr, JFK, Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy
The first humans landing on the Moon
9/11

They can depend on cultural reference & personal involvement

A national leader suddenly resigning could become a flashbulb memory for JUST those citizens
An athlete suddenly retiring could become a flashbulb memory for JUST fans of that sport/team/player

9/11 is the most recent flashbulb memory extensively researched.

AMNESIA

Amnesia: losing long-term memory due to disease or physiological/psyhological trauma.

There are 2 common types:

Anterograde amnesia: unable to learn new info after trauma

commonly caused by brain trauma
Hippocampus is usually affected - means info can’t be transferred from STM to LTM

Retrograde amnesia: losing memory (whether partial or complete) for events that happened before trauma

MEMORY CONSTRUCTION & RECONSTRUCTION

Construction: forming new memories

Reconstruction: bringing up old memories

When we retrieve memories, we often unintentionally alter/modify them, causing them to be inaccurate & distorted.

Suggestibility: the effects of misinformation from external sources that leads to making false memories

This can make people remember something that was only suggested & didn’t happen
Memories are fragile, so they’re susceptible to suggestion
An important area of study has been the role of suggestibility in eyewitness testimonies.

EYEWITNESS MISIDENTIFICATION

Studies show that suggestive police identification can alter eyewitnesses’ memories & cause them to misidentify someone.

THE MISINFORMATION EFFECT

Elizabeth Loftus

studied false memories

Misinformation effect paradigm - a person might misremember something after being exposed to wrong info

Study (1974)

A study with college students was done. Students were asked to watch videos of cars moving & later say about how fast they were moving.

Students who heard the word “smashed” estimated the cars were going faster than people who heard the word “contacted” did.
Also, people who heard the word “glass” had the false memory of seeing glass.

REPRESSED & RECOVERED MEMORIES

There’s a controversial theory that says memories/events can be repressed or falsely recalled/remembered.

False memory syndrome: recalling false autobiographical memories

Repressed memories:

Some psychologists believe it is very possible to completely repress traumatic childhood events, like abuse.

This can lead to psychological distress in adulthood
Some psychologists think that through hypnosis or guided imagery, these memories can be recalled.

WHY DO WE FORGET?

Forgetting - loss of info from LTM

Encoding Failure

This happens when the memory (info? Typo?) doesn’t get stored into memory.

Successful encoding takes effort & attention.

MEMORY ERRORS

Schachter’s 7 Sins of Memory:

(Forgetting Type)

Transcience - accessibility of memories worsens over time (storage decay)
Absentmindedness - forgetting caused by lapses in attention
Blocking - temporarily blocking accesibility of info (the tip-of-the-tongue situation)

(Distortion Type)

Misattribution - source of memory is confused
Suggestibility- false memories
Bias - memories distorted by current belief system

(Intrusion Type)

Persistence - unable to forget undesirable memories

TRANSCIENCE/STORAGE DECAY

Over time, unused info fades away

Ebbinghaus (1885)

Studied memorization process

The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve shows how quickly memory for new info decays

50% after 20 minutes
70% after 24 hrs

BIAS

Schachter says your feelings & view of the world can distort your memory of past events.

Stereotypical bias - involves racial & gender biases

Ex: a group of people in a study might more frequently incorrectly remember African American names being associated with the job of being a basketball player, & they might associate white names more with a politician.

Egocentric bias - enhancing our memories of the past

people remember events in a way that makes them look better

Hindsight bias - tending to think an outcome was inevitable after it happened

Thinking you knew it all along

PERSISTENCE

Many soldiers involuntarily recall horrible, unwanted memories

INTERFERENCE

WAYS TO ENHANCE MEMORY

Rehearsal - consciously repeating info to remember it

Chunking - organizing bits of info to make it more manageable

Ex: how phone numbers are in 3 chunks

Elaborative rehearsal - technique where you think about new info’ s meaning & rleate it to info already stored in your memory

Mnemonic devices - memory aids that help us organize info for encoding

Ex: ROY-G-BIV, alphabet song (?), etc

HOW TO STUDY EFFECTIVELY

Memory techniques are helpful when studying for class

Use elaborative rehearsal - link new info to old info to make it more meaningful & rememberable
Apply the self-reference effect - make info personally meanigful to YOU
Don’ t forget the forgetting curve - keep studying to prevent storage decay
Rehearse
Be aware of interference (study w/out distractions)
Keep moving (blood flow helps the brain & memory)
Get enough sleep (the brain consolidaed memories during sleep)
Use mnemonic devices

VOCAB

absentmindedness

lapses in memory that are caused by breaks in attention or our focus being somewhere else

acoustic encoding

input of sounds, words, and music

amnesia

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

anterograde amnesia

loss of memory for events that occur after the brain trauma

arousal theory

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

Atkinson-Shiffrin model

memory model that states we process information through three systems: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory

automatic processing

encoding of informational details like time, space, frequency, and the meaning of words

bias

how feelings and view of the world distort memory of past events

blocking

memory error in which you cannot access stored information

chunking

organizing information into manageable bits or chunks

construction

formulation of new memories

declarative memory

type of long-term memory of facts and events we personally experience

effortful processing

encoding of information that takes effort and attention

elaborative rehearsal

thinking about the meaning of new information and its relation to knowledge already stored in your memory

encoding

input of information into the memory system

engram

physical trace of memory

episodic memory

type of declarative memory that contains information about events we have personally experienced, also known as autobiographical memory

equipotentiality hypothesis

some parts of the brain can take over for damaged parts in forming and storing memories

explicit memory

memories we consciously try to remember and recall

false memory syndrome

recall of false autobiographical memories

flashbulb memory

exceptionally clear recollection of an important event

forgetting

loss of information from long-term memory

implicit memory

memories that are not part of our consciousness

levels of processing

information that is thought of more deeply becomes more meaningful and thus better committed to memory

long-term memory (LTM)

continuous storage of information

memory

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

memory-enhancing strategy

technique to help make sure information goes from short-term memory to long-term memory

misattribution

memory error in which you confuse the source of your information

misinformation effect paradigm

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

mnemonic device

memory aids that help organize information for encoding

persistence

failure of the memory system that involves the involuntary recall of unwanted memories, particularly unpleasant ones

proactive interference

old information hinders the recall of newly learned information

procedural memory

type of long-term memory for making skilled actions, such as how to brush your teeth, how to drive a car, and how to swim

recall

accessing information without cues

recognition

identifying previously learned information after encountering it again, usually in response to a cue

reconstruction

process of bringing up old memories that might be distorted by new information

rehearsal

repetition of information to be remembered

relearning

learning information that was previously learned

retrieval

act of getting information out of long-term memory storage and back into conscious awareness

retroactive interference

information learned more recently hinders the recall of older information

retrograde amnesia

loss of memory for events that occurred prior to brain trauma

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

semantic encoding

input of words and their meaning

semantic memory

type of declarative memory about words, concepts, and language-based knowledge and facts

sensory memory

storage of brief sensory events, such as sights, sounds, and tastes

short-term memory (STM)

holds about seven bits of information before it is forgotten or stored, as well as information that has been retrieved and is being used

storage

creation of a permanent record of information

suggestibility

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

transience

memory error in which unused memories fade with the passage of time

visual encoding

input of images