Introduction to Psychology
Suzy Scherf
Lecture 9: How Do We Know?
Memory
Memory - What’s it for?
Why don’t we remember everything about all our past
experiences?
1.
2.
Memory - What’s it for?
Why don’t we remember everything about all our past
experiences?
3.
4.
Memory - What’s it for?
For our memory systems to function efficiently we
have to forget much of our experience or ignore it all
together (ie. never encode it).
Change Blindness -
What’s Important for Us to Remember?
How is the Mind Organized to Think?
Cognitive Processes
• Memory • Learning
• Language • Reading
• Categorization • Problem Solving
• Recognition • Cognitive Heuristics
• Object knowledge • Mathematics
• Thinking about Minds
Information Processing: Bottom-Up
Influences
Bottom-Up Influences Example
What’s the Mind Designed to Do?
• Too general a problem -
Information Processing: Top-Down
Influences
Top-Down Influences Example
Top-Down Influences Example
Top-Down Influences Example
Top-Down Influences Example:
Change Blindness
• If cognition were only influenced by bottom-up
processes, -
• How much of the physical stimulus do we actually
encode and remember?
• What kind of information is important for us to hold
on to for future reference?
Change Blindness -
What’s Important for Us to Remember?
QuickTime™ an d a
Sorenson Video deco mpressor
are need ed to see this p icture .
The Organization of Cognition
• Cognitive Modules designed by Evolution =
• Triggered and influenced by environmental input =
Facts about Memory
• “Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our
feeling, even our action.” - Luis Bunuel
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Facts about Memory
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Memory Modules
Short-Term/Working Memory (15-
30 sec)
No Rehearsal
Long-Term Memory (years)
100
90
80
Percentage Retention
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1 2 5 10 15 25 35 50
Years since learning
Long-Term Memory (years)
Implicit Memory
• Being influenced by a memory -
• Priming:
ch _ _ mu _ _ _ og _ y _ _ _ _ v _ c _ do o _ t _ _ us
Implicit Memory
• Being influenced by a memory of a prior experience
without having conscious memory of the experience.
• Procedural:
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Explicit Memory
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Explicit Memory
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• Episodic:
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Explicit Memory
• Memory for facts and events that is available to
conscious recall
• Semantic:
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Implicit vs. Explicit Memories
Memory Performance
Practice effect -
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Memory Performance
Retention effect -
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Retention Effect
Memory as a Designed Cognitive
Module
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Modularity within the Memory Module
• Memory for food vs. memory for water
• Memory on a short-term basis vs. memory on a long-
term basis
• Memory for how to do things vs. memory for facts
and events
Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain
Working Memory Deficits -
• Lesions to -
• ADHD?
D’Esposito, et al. 2000
Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain
Mammillary bodies - Fornix - Hippocampus
Fornix
Mammillary bodies
Hippocampus
Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain
Antegrade Amnesia -
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Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain
Korsakof’s - can’t form new memories
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• Oliver Sack’s patient Mr. Thompson
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Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain
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Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain
Retrograde Amnesia -
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• Usually impairment in __________ memory
• A different pathology effects _________ memory
Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain
Alzheimer’s Disease -
Semantic Dementia -
Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain
Impairments in implicit memory:
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• Involves damage to the ___________
Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain
Impairments in implicit memory:
Striatum = ________ + _________
Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain
Parkinson’s Disease -
Huntington’s Disease -
Memory Modularity
Even though there are separate memory modules
designed to solve problems that reflect real-world
occurrences of events..
Memory Modules also interact: