CHAPTER 8
MEMORY
Memory = the retention of information or experience over time.
Memory occurs through 3 important processes:
1. Encoding - how we get information into our brain
2. Storage - how we retain information
3. Retrieval - how we get information back out
1. Encoding
Processing our sensory input is like sorting through e-mail. Some items we instantly discard. Others we open, read, and retain.
We process information by encoding its meaning, encoding its image, or mentally organizing it.
First, to encode information we must pay attention.
Then we process information at three levels of processing:
1. Shallow - like automatic processing….
2. Intermediate - recognition, and naming…..in our awareness
3. Deep - information has meaning…associations are made…we think about it
With deep processing….the more extensive the processing, the better the memory.
This extensive processing is called elaboration.
The more we elaborate the more distinct and unique the memory code becomes…..it will then be easier to search for and retrieve it later.
If we can create a self-reference to the information, the more likely we are to remember it. Through elaboration, we create more meaning
Imagery is one of the most powerful ways to make memories distinctive.
It has been documented that memory for pictures is better than memory for words because pictures are stored in memory as both image codes and verbal codes - so we have two avenues for retrieving information.
One method used to memorize words is called the Memory Palace. If you are given a list of words to memorize, imagine that you are walking through your home/apartment and visualize each of the words in a location or room.
If you are interested in memory techniques, I recommend a new book that's out called Moonwalking with Einstein, written by a journalist who entered an international memory competition.
2. MEMORY STORAGE -
The Atkinson-Shiffrin theory states that memory storage involves 3 separate systems:
Sensory memory - a fraction of a second to several seconds
Short - term memory - up to 30 seconds
Long-term memory - up to a lifetime
A. Sensory Memory - lasts only an instant unless we use strategies to transfer it into short or long term memory.
1. Echoic memory - auditory sensory memory..from the word echo
2. Iconic memory - …from icon..meaning image…visual sensory memory
Sperling’s study…..hypothesized that all 9 letters were seen in iconic memory but forgetting was rapid because no converted to STM or LTM
When he added in a tone….he added in echoic memory and location and was able to get a longer memory for letters in the display.
B. Short-term Memory -
a limited capacity memory system which retains memory up to 30 seconds unless strategies are employed to retain it longer.
In 1956, George Miller wrote the classic paper “The Magical Number 7, Plus or Minus 2”.
He studied memory span…and measured it in terms of the number of digits that an individual can report back in order after a single presentation of them…….beyond 9, the short-term memory capacity of most people has been exceeded.
Chunking -
one way to improve STM - Chunking involves grouping or packing information that exceeds the 7+/- 2 memory span - we organize the information into meaningful arrangements
Roy G. Biv……..colors of the rainbow; Homes - Great lakes - acronyms
Rehearsal - another way to improve STM - the conscious repetition of information
Baddeley’s working memory model - theory that Short -term memory is more complicated than the Atkinson-Shiffrin theory of sensory, short-term, and long-term memory systems…….
Baddeley proposed 3 components of what he called working memory rather than short-term memory
1. The phonological loop - sounds of language plus rehearsal
2. Visuospatial working memory - visual and spatial information
3. The central executive - integrates information from phonological loop, visuospatial working memory, and long-term planning…..like an executive director - decideswhat info to pay attention to and what to ignore
In this system of working memory…information is still held only temporarily.
C. Long-Term Memory - a relatively permanent type of memory that stores huge amounts of information for a long time.
See page 216 in text. Figure 7.8
Explicit Memory - remembering who, what, when, where, and why
Implicit Memory - has to do with remembering how
The book talks about the famous case of HM….now known to be Henry Molaison who died in 2008. He had memory of the past but no ability to make new explicit memories.
He retained implicit memory and the ability to learn how to do new things.
He had what is called anterograde amnesia…..the inability to retain new information.
This film - The Man with a 30 second Memory - illustrates another case of memory loss.
This is also a case of amnesia.
Amnesia is defined as the loss of memory.
In this case, he suffered from retrograde amnesia - in which someone loses memories of the past and anterograde amnesia - in which someone cannot retain new information.
Explicit Memory - also known as declarative memory - is the conscious recall of information such as facts and events and information that can be communicated verbally….the who, what, when, where and why
Two subtypes of Explicit Memory - episodic memory and semantic memory
Episodic Memory - is autobiographical information….information about you
Semantic Memory - is knowledge about the world….facts, concepts
The 2nd type of Long-term Memory is Implicit Memory - also known as Nondeclarative memory……. …the how.
Rather than remembering facts, this type of Long-Term memory remembers skills and sensory perceptions…..like typing, riding a bike, etc.
There are 3 types of Implicit Memory
1. Procedural Memory - which is memory for skills
2. Classical conditioning - automatic learned associations….hypertension from stress, or salivating from the aroma of cooking
3. Priming - occurs when associations are activated or “primed” without our awareness
Ex. Of priming -
How do you pronounce the word spelled by the letters s…h…o…p.?
What do you do when you come to a green light?……
if you say “stop”…that’s priming
One experiment involved putting a poster of a missing child on the wall. Subjects were then more likely to interpret an ambiguous adult-child interactions as a potential kidnapping.
Priming can be used in a positive way……put up pictures and words in your environment that reflect your goals.
Memory Retrieval
The Serial Position Effect - the tendency to recall the items at the beginning and end of a list more easily than items in the middle
Items at the beginning - the primacy effect
Items at the end - the recency effect
The primacy effect - items at the beginning are rehearsed more often so retained better
The recency effect - remembered because they are more recent - the memory is fresher
In one study, wine tasters preferred the first wine that they tasted……experimental groups tasted the wines in different orders….this demonstrated the primacy effect
In two other studies, participants felt that the best were saved for last in an exhibit of paintings and in American Idol tapes….again, experimental groups viewed the items in a different order…but still picked the last…..recency effect
,Retrieval of Emotional Memories
Flashbulb memory - is the memory of emotionally significant events that people often recall with more accuracy and vivid imagery than everyday events……people tend to remember where they were and what they were doing when the event happened.
Forgetting
Hermann Ebbinghaus was the first psychologist to conduct scientific research on forgetting.
Why do we forget?
1. Encoding failures - we didn’t learn it sufficiently to put into long term memory
So encoding failures are not about forgetting….they’re about not remembering in the first place.!!!!
2. Retrieval failures - one example is TOT phenomenon : tip-of-the-tongue - when we are confident that we know something but cannot quite pull it out of memory. - we can retrieve some of the information but not all of it
End.
