Psychology - Chapter 8 (memory)

  • You are more likely to remember things that are special 

    • Events

    • Celebrations

  • Metaphors for memory 

    • Memory → storage and retrieval of information 

  • Search metaphor

    • The way we talk about memory in day-to-day life 

    • Plato and aristotle 

      • Describe memory as a wax tablet 

      • Rooms of house → searching for a object (memory)

      • Look for a book at library 

      • Looking through purse for object 

  • Memories are part of the physical landscape 

  • “Mental purse” → metaphor 

  • Failure of search 

    • Intbaility to remember something 

  • Using information about the past in combintation with information in th represent to form a useful response 

  • Reconstruction: better metaphor 

    • Memory takes information from environment to help trigger useful memories (freidns boyfriends fav color) 

    • It is better because instead of remembering old memories 

    • You are creting a useful response to a situation in which you have stored memory about

    • You meet a friend whos looking for a birthday card for her boyfriend, you walk iver and say “he likes the color  green” so you pick out a green card based on your friends memory. 

8.2 Encoding Memories: Prolonging the Present 

  • 1st step of memory process 

    • Occurrence of an event → something has to occur before we can remember it 

    • Encoding→ process for how our brains commit an event to memory 

      • About acquiring information 

      • Jason is studying for math test. He believes the best way for him to get information into his mind is to comeplcte different examples of math problems. Jason would like to solve this problem about memory.

    • After encoding brain must store memory 

  • Storage 

    • Process of maintain piece of information over time 

      • How finormation is physically represented in brain

      • Kayal is really interested in neuroscience. She is inteerzted in how the brain represents memories physically. Kyala would like to solbe this problem about memory .

  • Storage problem 

    • Inability to maintain piece of information over time 


8.2.1 Sesonry memory: icons and echoes 

  • Sensory memory 

    • System that keeps infromatoin translate by the senses briefly acitev in a relative unaldted, enxamined form 

    • Allows us tp perceive the world as a unified whole rather than a series of staggered images and sounds

    • Holds onto information in nervous system long enough for us to stitch one moment of our experience to the next 

  • Ecohic memory 

    • Lingering neuronal activity in auditory system 

    • Last longer 

      • Example: your ability to remember the las few words of a conversation which you wenre paying attention too. 

      • Think about a time when someone asked you a question or said something to you and you became distracted almost immediately; you probably had to ask again, because you’d already forgotten the question despite understanding it initially.

  • George sperling 

    • Experiment task was to remeber letters in a block 

    • He would show for only 20 seconds 

    • After words disappear particapnts only got half right 

    • Partial report technique:

      • He then presented each letter with a tone, a high tone indicated that particapntd should remember the top row and parigvapnts got them all right 

8.2.2 Immeditate Memory: Manipulating Information 

  • Immediate memory 

    • A system that holds onto limited memory 

    • Holds onto memory at the front of your mind 

    • Short term memory

  • Immediate memory process 

    • Immediate memory holds onto the first part of the sentence until you finish reading the whole sentence. 

  • Speech:

    • You friends first sentence is held in your mind until they finsih talking 

  • Characteristics of immediate memory 

    • Representation 

      • Inner voice 

        • Hearing your self talk in your head 

        • Memory can be represnetd verbally 

      • Inner eye 

        • Visual coding 

        • “How many windows in your house” → you start to imagine you walking through your house counting all the windows 

    • Duration 

      • How long can information stay in immediate memory before it is forgotten?

    • Rehearsal 

      • Process of repeating information to yourself 

  • Capacity:

    • Amount of information that you can fit into a single instance of rehearsal before ocntens being to break down

  • Magical number 7

    • George miller suggest average person could hold about seven separate pieces of information at a time in their mind 

  • Memory span 

    • The number of things you can remember at a time 

  • Scientists believe its not the number of things you have to memroize it is the rehearsal of how long it takes you to rehears the information to yourself 

  • Chunking 

    • Remembering things in chunks making it easier to memoirze 

  • Working memory model (baddeley and hitches model)

    • Immeidate memory is a place for manipialtion of infrtioantin (working memory) 

    • The phonological loop (Innver voice) 

      • Auditory and verbal information is temporarily stored and manipulated 

      • Sounds you hear 

    • Visuospaital sketchpad (inner eye)

      • Representation of the inner eye in the model and represents a aplace where visual spatial information is stored and manipulated 

      • Sights you see 

      • Inner eye 

    • Episodic buffer 

      • Temporary strage 

    • Central executive 

      • Direct the flow of information not only to and from the phonological loop and the visuosptial skethcpad but also to and from long term memory 


8.3 Long-term Memory: Connections and Storage 

  • Long term memory 

    • Store and recall information over lengthy periods of time

  • Kinds of long term memory 

    • Episodic memory (personal)

      • Contents pertain to specific events or episodes 

      • Includes most personally experience memories 

      • Feel emotions 

      • Reliveable  if you close your eyes 

      • Birthday party 

      • Played fetch with dog 

      • What happened 

    • Semantic memory (not personal)

      • Contents pertain to specific facts or concepts without personal epxeirnece 

      • Definition of word or spelling 

      • Patterns of letters 

      • What something is

    • Procedural memory 

      • Contents pertain to how to do something 

      • Skills

      • How to do something 

  • Perspective memory 

    • Have to remember to pick up milk 

    • Remembering to do something in the future 

  • Transfer to long term memory 

    • Elaborative rehearsal (elaboration)

      • Actively manipulating infromation in immediate memory so that we can meanifuflly connect it to other information that is already stored in our long-term memory 

  • Levels of processing experiment 

    • Asked people to remember a list of words presented one at a time 

  • Deep processing 

    • Involves making meaningful connections to existing knowledge 

    • Is chipmunk a living thing?

    • People tend to remember more things this way 

  • Shallow processing 

    • Encoding information based on only its surface charcteristics 

    • Asking if CHIPMUNK is written in capital letters 

    • Counting number of letters in a word 

  • Elbaraotve encoding 

    • Imagery → creating mental pictures 

    • Organizaiton → where something new you learnt fits 

    • Disciticvness → make things distinct (this is like this) 

    • Self-reference → how is related to me 

  • Effective encoding strategies 

    • Massed practice 

      • Cramming 

      • Not effective 

      • Studying the same material over a short time frame yields diminish returns 

      • Less learning occurs 

    • Spacing 

      • Studying over multiple hours, days and weeks 

  • Mneomnics 

    • Peg-word technique 

      • 1 is bun, 2 is shoe 

      • You know how to count (rhyming)

      • Grocrey list 

      • Spring forward fall backward 

    • Loci 

      • Person places information to remember in a known pathway 

      • Route to school 

    • Keyword method 

    • Acronyms

  • Retrieval practice 

    • Students read sceince texts and attmpeted to remember the informaiton from the passage 

    • Students who read and then test do better and the test is next week do better 

    • Students who read and re read (did not do good) but do good if the test is the next day 

  • Adaptive memory strategies 

    • Ways to remember information that matches up with the way our brans are designed to remember information

    • People are typically better at remembering information about living things compared to non living things 

8.4 Memory Retival: Putting the pieces together 

  • Retrieval problem: 

    • Problem the brain must solve to retain information from long term memory 

  • Retrieval practice for studying 

    • Close book 

    • Put away notes

    • Practice recalling concept you learn about 

  • Centrality of cues 

    • Cues are pieces of information that help us remember events from the past 

    • Triggers memory 

  • Free recall 

    • Remembering things without having other things to remind us 

    • Essays : write about a topic 

  • Cued reall

    • Remembering things with aid of other context 

    • Multiple choice questions

    • Use of flash cards to study 

  • Encoding specificity principle 

    • Retrieval cue is only useful when it matches how a piece of information was originally encoded 

    • RIVER DRINK RULER → SHORE WATER INCH

    • Relating things to one another 

    • Mood, location and mental state can infleunce memory 

      • When you are happy you remember things you did 

  • Transfer appropriate processing 

    • Doing similar things 

      • Helga studied the words by considering whether they rhymed with train, doing something similar at test will yield the best performance on the test. The process transfers appropriately.

    • Match phsycaial and metal process 

    • Try to enagnge in the same processes when encoding that youll be expected to enage in when testing to ensure that the appropriate cues are available 

    • Example

      • Think about the kinds of exam you might be expected to take 

      • What questions will be on them

      • Multiple choice?

      • When you are studying focus on highlighting differences among terms 

      • When practcing for piano recital the player does not simply reread sheet music instead the player practices playing the song 

      • Football players dont read play book they practice 

  • Explicit memory 

    • Occurs consciously and with intent 

  • Implict Memory 

    • Internally trying to recall information 


8.5 Under Construction = Memory Erros and the process of forgetting 

  • Memory errors 

    • Forgetting things 

  • Errors of omission 

    • Memory errors where information cannot be brought to mind 

    • 3 types 

      • Transience → how the memory for any particular even or piece of information tends to degrade over time (forgetting)

      • Absent-mindedness → infromaiton is not encoded to benign with, due to the lack of attention or a failure to rehearse the information (misplacing ur keys)

      • Blocking → cues we have available are enough to help us remember a piece of information. 

        • Tip-of-the-tonuge (TOT state)

          • People cannot remember a piece of information but feel as if they know what they are trying to remember (I KNOW BUT CANNOT THINK OF IT MOMENT)

  • Errors commission

    • Memory errors where wrong or unwanted information is brought to mind 

    • Allow us to remember things but pieces of information go missing 

    • Misattribution

      • Incorrect recall the soure of information we are trying to remember (parents calling you by a different name)

  • Deja Vu → cannot remember source of the information

  • Suggestibility bias 

    • Requires information that is misremebered to have been suggested by an outside source 

  • Persistence 

    • Memory system fails to prevent the recall of a memroy that is unwanted (negative or traumatic) 

    • PTSD → people with traumatic experience often epxiernce intrusive and disturbing thoughts and feelings reminding them of the events

  • Decay 

    • Memories fade away 

  • Retroactive interference 

    • Newly learned information makes it more difficult to recall older information

    • New memories (interefer) old memories  

  • Proactive interfecence 

    • Old infomraiotn intrfes with new information 

    • Forgetting where you parked your car in the same parking lot 

    • Old memories (interfere) new memories 

  • Flash bulb memories

    • Memories from events that are both surprising and particularly signfiacnt 

    • Have rich elaborate stories of what we were sdoinf when we heard the news 

    • Gun firing at CWJ LOL → me telling ariqa 

    • Cornavirus epidemic

  • Bias 

    • Memroies can change based on influence of knowledge 

  • Schemas 

    • Organized sets of facts and knwoelde about specific kinds of information 

    • Help us remember new finroation by fitting it into a set of knowledge that is alreayd highly organzed 

    • Clusters of facts “things found in bathroom” “facts about dogs”

    • Can become overgeneralized 


Forgetting and the brain

  • Why does forgetting occur???

  • Forgetting helps us keep in mind only information relevant to our present circumstances 

  • Remembering too much can make it difficult to function in daily life if the memories interfer with our activities 

  • Hyperthymeisa

    • Rare medicaul condition that leads to near perfect autobiographical recall 

    • Remembering is more of a curse then blessing 

    • Hyperthymesia heavily involves parts of the brain that process emotional information -- the amygdala does this, and connects with the hippocampus excessively to lead to the overly emotional encoding of memories.

  • Amnesia

    • Memory loss due to physical damage or problems in the brain 

    • Retrograde amnesia 

      • In films and pop culture 

      • Someone hits their head and forgewts everything about themselves  

      • People can recover 

    • Anterograde amnesia 

      • Inability to make new memories 

      • Information after injury is lost and never encoded or stored 

      • Only develops as a result of speicfc brain damage to the hippocampus 

      • Nsty viral infection 

      • Chroonic abuse of alcohiool 

      • Unitended consequence of brain surgery