Download PSY110 Week 4 Memory

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 The
Structure of Human Memory
 A Closer Look at Retrieval
 Remembering as Reconstruction
 Forgetting
 Biology and Memory
 Memory in Legal and Therapeutic Settings
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 Information-Processing
• (Klatzky, 1984)
Theory
• makes use of modern computer science and
related fields
• provides models that help psychologists
understand the processes involved in memory
(Bishop, 2005)
• Memory involves 3 distinct processes.
 Encoding
 Storage
 Retrieval
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 Memory
• a cognitive process that includes the
encoding, storage, and retrieval of information
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
Briefly holds information from the senses
• visual information: for a fraction of a second
• auditory information: up to 2 seconds

Eidetic Imagery
• ability to retain image in sensory memory for extended period
• comes closest to being “photographic memory”
• more common in children
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
Capacity
• seven (plus or minus two) items for less than thirty seconds without rehearsal

Also called working memory
• STM acts as a workspace for carrying out mental activity

Duration
• Memories are lost in less than 30 seconds unless rehearsed.
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 Displacement
• occurs when STM is full
• new incoming item pushes out an existing item
 Chunking
• grouping bits of information into larger units
 Rehearsal
• repeating information to maintain it in STM
 maintenance rehearsal
 repeating information until stored in LTM
 elaborative rehearsal
 linking new information to that already known
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
Maintenance Rehearsal
• “shallow” processing
• encoding based on superficial features of information

Elaborative Rehearsal
• “deep” processing
• encoding based on the meaning of information

Craik and Lockhart (1972)
• hypothesized that deep processing is more likely to lead to long-term
retention than is shallow processing
• Retention tests showed that the deeper the level of processing, the
higher the accuracy of memory.
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 Automaticity
• ability to recall information from long-term memory
without effort
• allows working memory to be freed up for other tasks
 Super
Memory
• Any people with these abilities have neurological
conditions that have both positive and negative effects
on memory functioning.
• Kim Peek: exceptional memory, but autistic
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 Virtually
unlimited
capacity
 Contains vast stores of a
person’s permanent or
relatively permanent
memories
 Main Subsystems of LTM
 Declarative memory
 Non-declarative memory
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 Stores
facts,
information,
personal life events
 Can
be brought to
mind verbally or in
the form of images
 Episodic Memory
 records events as they
have been subjectively
experienced
 Semantic Memory
 stores general knowledge
or objective facts and
information
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
Also called implicit
memory

Stores motor skills,
habits, and simple
classically conditioned
responses
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
Recall
• task in which a person must produce required information by
searching memory

Retrieval Cue
• any stimulus or bit of information that aids in retrieving particular
information from long-term memory

Recognition
• identify material as familiar or as having been encountered before

Relearning Method
• measure of memory
• Retention is expressed as the percentage of time saved when material is
relearned compared with the time required to learn the material originally.
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 Serial
Position Effect
• For information learned in a sequence, recall is better
for items at the beginning and end than for items in the
middle of sequence.
• primacy effect
 tendency to recall the first items in a sequence more easily than
the middle items
• recency effect
 tendency to recall the last items in a sequence more easily than
the middle items
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
Context Effect
• We recall material more
easily in the same
environment in which it was
learned.

Godden and Baddeley
(1975)
• Participants memorized
words underwater or on
land.
• Words learned underwater
were best recalled
underwater.
• Words learned on land were
best recalled on land.
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 State-Dependent
Memory Effect
• the tendency to recall information better if one is in
the same pharmacological or psychological state
as one was when the information was encoded
• the effect appears to be greater for episodic than
for semantic memories
• stronger when positive emotions are involved
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 Reconstruction
• an account of an event that has been pieced together
from a few highlights
• Sir Frederick Bartlett (1886–1969)
 Reconstructive memory processes employ schemas
(frameworks of knowledge we have about people, objects, and
events).
 Schema-based processing is even more evident when
processing more complex information.
 Using schemas to reconstruct memories can lead to
inaccuracies.
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 Source Memory
• a recollection of the circumstances in which a memory was
formed
• Most memories do not include sources.
• source monitoring
 practice of intentionally keeping track of the sources of incoming
information
 necessary for encoding
 Flashbulb Memories
• memories for shocking, emotion-provoking events
• include information about the source from which the
information was acquired
• reconstructive in nature
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 Autobiographical
Memories
• recollections that include an account of the events
of person’s own life
• reconstructive in nature and include factual,
emotional, and interpretive information
• positive bias
 Pleasant autobiographical memories are more easily
recalled than unpleasant ones.
 Memories of unpleasant events become more
emotionally positive over time.
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 Expertise
 possessing extensive background knowledge that is
relevant to a reconstructive memory task
 Culture
• may influence ability to remember certain kinds of material
• Elders of the Iatmul people of New Guinea exhibit
impressive memory for the oral history of their people.
• The Asur people of India have exceptional memory for
locations.
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

Learned and relearned more than 1,200 lists of nonsense syllables
to discover how rapidly forgetting occurs
Curve of Forgetting
• Forgetting tapers off after a period of rapid information loss immediately following
learning.
• Meaningful material is forgotten more slowly, encoded more deeply.
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
Encoding Failure
• occurs when information was never put into long-term memory
• Can you recognize the real penny?
 Few people can recognize the accurate drawing of the penny.

Decay Theory
• Memories, if not used, fade with time and eventually disappear.
• Decay does not appear in long-term memories.
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
Proactive Interference
• Information already stored in memory interferes with remembering
newer information.

Retroactive Interference
• New learning interferes with remembering previously learned
information.
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
Consolidation Failure
• disruption in the consolidation process that prevents long-term memory
from forming

Motivated Forgetting
• suppression or repression in an effort to protect oneself from material
that is painful, frightening, or otherwise unpleasant

Prospective Forgetting
• not remembering to carry out some intended action
• most likely to forget action perceived as unpleasant

Retrieval Failure
• not remembering something one is certain of knowing
• tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon
 knowing information has been learned but being unable to retrieve
it
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 Hippocampus
• plays an important role in forming episodic
memories
• Formation of semantic memories involves the
hippocampus and parts of the hippocampal
region.
• The hippocampus is also involved in navigational
skills.
 The posterior of hippocampus is larger in taxi drivers
than in the general population.
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 Long-Term
Potentiation (LTP)
• an increase in the efficiency of neural transmission at
the synapse that lasts for hours or longer
• does not take place unless both sending and receiving
neurons are activated at the same time
• Blocking LTP interferes with learning.
 long-term memories not formed
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

Our strongest and most lasting memories are
usually fueled by emotion.
Epinephrine (adrenalin) and norepinephrine
(noradrenalin) activate the amygdala.
• help imprint powerful, enduring memories for threatening
events


Excessive levels of cortisol can interfere with
memory.
Estrogen appears to improve working memory
efficiency in pre-menopausal women.
• Post-menopausal estrogen replacement may increase the
risk of dementia.
• More research concerning the treatment of age-related
memory loss is needed.
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 Amnesia
• partial or complete loss of memory
• due to loss of consciousness, brain damage, or some
psychological cause
 Anterograde
Amnesia
• inability to form new long-term memories
• case of H. M.
 Retrograde
Amnesia
• loss of memory for experiences that occurred shortly
before a loss of consciousness
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
Dementia
• mental deterioration characterized by impaired memory and
intellect
• altered personality and behavior
• Individuals with dementia can lose episodic and semantic
memories.
• can result from cerebral arteriosclerosis, chronic alcoholism,
strokes

Alzheimer’s Disease
• a form of dementia caused by degeneration of brain cells
• High IQ plus lifelong intellectual activity may delay or lessen
Alzheimer symptoms.
• A new drug, bapineuzumab, prevents the development of
neurofibrillary tangles and shows promise for the treatment of
Alzheimer’s.
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 Human
memory is reconstructive.
• Eyewitness testimony is highly subject to error.
• should always be viewed with caution (Loftus, 1979)
 The
physiological stress of being a crime victim
creates memory gaps.
 Misinformation
Effect
• erroneous recollections of witnessed events
• results from information learned after the fact
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 Factors
Affecting Testimony Reliability
• Viewing a photograph of a suspect before seeing a lineup
• Viewing members of lineup all at the same time, rather than
one at a time
• The perpetrator’s race is different from that of the witness.
• Weapon used in the crime
• Leading questions used
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 Repression
• process by which traumatic memories are buried in the
unconscious
• Hypnosis and guided imagery are often used to help clients
recover repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse.
• Critics argue that therapists sometimes implant false memories in
clients.
• Imagining a fictitious event can lead to a false memory of the
event.
 Infantile Amnesia
• relative inability of older children and adults to recall events from
the first few years of life
• hippocampus in brain not fully developed
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