Memory
Chapter 5
Psyc103
Jen Wright
announcements
• Mid-semester evaluation – emailed link
• Exam extra credit
– MC/TF – Colin & Cosette will administer an “extra
credit” (.5 pt/question)
– Research Essay – article write-up off ereserve
• Instructions will be posted on the website
what is memory?
• A) the ability to store information over long
periods of time.
• B) the ability to store information over short
periods of time.
• C) the ability to retrieve information.
• D) A&B
• E) all of the above
three steps…
• The first step of memory is…?
– A) storage
– B) retrieval
– C) encoding
• The second step of memory is…?
• The third step of memory is…?
Encoding
Encoding Storage
Encoding Storage Retrieval
memory: two views
• Memory as a passive recording device
– Just like a tape-recorder, video-camera, copy machine
– Accurately and reliably records information from our
environment.
• Memory as an active process of construction (and
re-construction)
– Influenced by
• prior knowledge.
• future knowledge.
• emotional experiences.
• goals, interests, desires of rememberer.
• Hmmm…what is this starting to sound like?
encoding techniques
• Visual imagery
encoding
• Storing information in
a visual (pictorial)
form
– Remembering your
shopping list by
visualizing the objects
you want to buy
• Amplifies cognition
– Models
– Graphs
encoding techniques
• Elaborative encoding
– Forming
connections
• Semantic
• Categorical
– Conceptual
hierarchy
– Other associative
relationships
elaborative coding
rhyme
meaning
visual
elaborative coding (cont’d)
• Encoding influenced by many aspects of the
coder him/herself
• Historic connections (connections in time)
• Emotional significance
• Even (possibly) gender!
• What encoding techniques do you use?
reminders
• Mid-semester evaluation
• Exam “make-up” points
– Instructions for points missed on research essay
are posted on the website
– Extra credit for points missed on MC/TF will be
available starting next Monday
• Research participation
storage
• When it comes to storage, what comes first?
– A) sensory store
– B) long-term memory (LTM)
– C) short-term memory (STM)
• What comes second?
• What comes third?
• Working memory typically refers to:
– A) long-term memory
– B) short-term memory
storage
• Sensory store working STM LTM
• Strategies for actively using WSTM
– Rehearsal
– Chunking
What are some techniques you use?
long term memory
• Memory formation causes
changes in hippocampus
– Formation of new synaptic
connections
– Long-term potentiation
• T/F: Strengthening of
synaptic connections
• T/F: Heightened activity in
NMDA receptors
types of long-term memory
Which of these is the most
important for the development
of the “self”?
3+3=6
Context independent
Context dependent All kinds of things
Motor memory act as “primes”
amnesia
• Anterograde amnesia
– A) No memory forward – problem with storage
– B) No memory backward – problem with retrieval
• Retrograde amnesia
– A) No memory forward – problem with storage
– B) No memory backward – problem with retrieval
• Drug induced
• Brain damage (hippocampus)
• Semantic & episodic, but not procedural memory
retrieval
• Retrieval cues
– Information associated with stored information
that helps bring it to mind
• Interestingly, trying to remember looks
different from successfully remembering
retrieval cues
• Hints
• Semantic association
• Historic association
• Emotional state
association
• Smells and sounds
• Psychological/physical
state association
– State-dependent learning
seven “sins” of memory
• Transience
T/F: Forgetting things with the passing of time.
• Switch from specific memory to general memory
– “fill-in-the-blanks”
– Gist memories
• Gradual reconstruction (patch-work quilt)
• Interference
– Retroactive interference
– Proactive interference
absent-mindedness
Lapse in attention that
results in memory failure.
• Role of attention in
memory formation
– Divided attention
• Lower frontal lobe activity
• Division in allocated
resources
– Prospective memory
• Memory aides
persistence
• T/F: Recollection of
memories we cherish
& don’t want to
forget. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
False!
Intrusive recollection
of memories we wish
we could forget
– Flash-bulb memories
suggestibility
The incorporation of
misleading
information into
memory recollection.
– Confabulation
– Mere exposure
bias
• Distorting influences
of present
information to
memory recollection.
– Consistency bias
– Change bias
– Egocentric bias
memory misattribution
• Assigning memory/idea to
the wrong source
– Source memory
• Late to develop
– False recognition
• Associative connections
– Historical overlap
– Serious implications:
eyewitness testimony
blocking
T/F: Active attempt to
block storage of
information in memory.
False! Failure to retrieve
information that is
available in memory
– Tip-of-the-tongue
phenomena
– Absence of appropriate
retrieval cues
– Weak associative
connections
constructive nature of memory
• If constructive memory is so bad, then why do we have
it?
Constructive episodic simulation
– Being able to actively construct our past allows us to actively
imagine our future
• We need to learn to avoid future dangers by
remembering past dangers
– But the future is never an exact replica of the past
– It would be a useful adaptation to be able to alter the past in
ways that allow for an anticipation of possible future events
erasing our memories
• Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind…?
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GiLxkDK8sI
• If you could erase bad memories and/or
create good ones – would you?
• Nozick’s “experience machine”