Memory

Chapter 9 343-383

“Your memory is your identity”

Outline
 Memory loss and feats,
information processing
 Encoding: how, what
 Storage:Sensory, short-
term, long-term
 Retrieval: Retrieval
Cues
 Forgetting: encoding
failure, storage decay,
retrieval failure
 Memory Construction:
Misinformation, source
amnesia, true and false
memories, repressed or
constructed memories?
Memory
 Defined as the “persistence of learning
over time through storage and retrieval of
information.”
 In large part you are what you remember
 Memories, unlike videotapes or
photocopies, are personally constructed,
which is why two people can experience
the same thing but recall it differently. In
other words, who you are affects how you
remember.
 Highly emotional memories surprising
memories are often very detailed –
Flashbulb memories
Key Elements of Memory

 Encoding – getting memories in

 Storage – retaining information
 Retrieval – recalling the memory

We experience fleeting sensory memory,

which feeds into our short term memory
where it can be encoded into long term
memory.
Encoding

 Automatic processing – we automatically

record a great deal about space, time, and
frequency of events. It is impossible to
switch this on or off it just happens.
 Effortful processing – consciously using
our attention to purposefully remember
something. Often we employ rehearsal
(repetition) to do this.
Ebbinghaus – Retention Curve

 The amount of
remembered material
depends on the
amount of time spent
learning it.
 Forgetting curve –
most information is
lost quickly with a
small part of it being
retained for long term.
Unless you rehearse
it!
Types of encoding

 Semantic – encoding according to meaning,

most effective
 Visual – encoding using images, words that
lend themselves to visual images are easier to
remember
 Acoustic – encoding using sound

- Mnemonics - memory aids especially ones

that use visual imagery and organizational
devices
Chunking

 Organizing items into familiar manageable units often

occuring automatically.
Examples of chunking remembering
A chess game by particular moves and
Strategies.
Types of Memory

 Iconic memory – sensory memory, for visual

images
 Echoic memory – sensory memory for audio.
 Short Term Memory – memory of random
information that is not rehearsed or deemed
significant that lasts only a few seconds and
can only recall a few items.
Long Term Memory
 Long Term
Potentiation – an
increase in a synapse’s
firing potential after a
brief rapid stimulation,
the physiological neural
basis for learning and
memory
Stress Hormones and Memory

 Stress hormones that occur when we get excited or

stressed affect memory – they boost it.
 The Amygdala, which processes emotions boosts
activity in the memory forming regions of the brain.
So weaker emotion = weaker memory.
 However prolonged stress (such as combat duty)
has the opposite effect and shrinks the hippocampus
(vital to memories).
 Sudden floods of emotion may block older memories
(stage fright can make people forget their lines)
Amnesia

 Amnesia is any type of memory loss. There

are different types.
 Some people damage the part of the brain
that encodes memories so they cannot have
anymore explicit long term memories.
However such people can still learn implicit
memories yet be unaware of their learning
them.
Explicit and Implicit Memory

 Explicit Memory – Memory of facts and

experiences that one can consciously know
and declare. Sometimes called declaritive
memory
 Implicit Memory – Retention independent of
conscious recall, also called procedural
memory. For example a motor skill like riding
a bike or the results of conditioning.
 Types of memory

Types of
Longterm memroy

Explicit Implicit
With Conscious recall Without conscious recall

Facts Personality Skills Classical and Operant

General Knowledge Experienced events Motor and cognitive Conditioning
Brain structure and Memory

 Hippocampus – Brain scans show most explicit

memory is laid down through the limbic system
and the hippocampus. The hippocampus sends
memories to the areas of the brain that need to
record them.
 The hippocampus structure has a right and a left
side on either side of the brain. If you damage
the left side you will have issues remembering
verbal experiences, the right, visual.
Memory storage
 Our memory is not stored in one place, remembering your
first kiss many areas of the brain will light up on a PET
scan. It take coordination of several parts of the brain both
to encode and retrieve memory.
 The Cerebellum – the cerebellum is used mostly for
muscle coordination but also for storing conditioning
responses. Damage to the cerebellum can cause implicit
memory loss. Likewise if the hippocampus is damaged
but not the cerebellum you can still be conditioned and
learn motor skills.
Retrieval

 Recall – a measure of memory in which the

person must retrieve information learned
earlier such as in a fill-in-the blank question.
 Recognition – measure of memory in which
a person need only identify previously
learned material such as in a multiple choice
question.
Retrieval Cues

 Priming. Priming is the activation of a

memory based on a particular association.
This often happens unconsciously.
 For example, being in the same room that
you had your first kiss in might activate that
memory randomly for you. Or a smell or a
song or etc etc.
 Mnemonic devices make use of retrieval
cues: For example ROY G BIV.
Retrieval Cues

 Context effects aid the recall of a memory.

Being in the same location where something
happened will help you remember it.
 Déjà vu – Déjà vu has been explained as
when a number of context cues come
together to create the sensation that you
have been in a situation before even if you
have not.
Moods and memory

 Mood Congruent - Moods can also affect

memory. If you are in a certain mood it’s a
context cue for remembering other events that
may have occurred during the same type of
mood.
 Example – think of hanging out with friends and
laughing at a joke, then you start to remember all
the other funny things you have done and keep
laughing, or when you are depressed you tend to
remember everything that is wrong with your life
Forgetting

 Absent mindedness – encoding issue by

not paying attention to detail
 Transience – storage decay, unused
memories fade
 Blocking – retrieval issue
Distortion

 Misattribution – confusing the source of

information. (like thinking a memory from a
movie scene really happened)
 Suggestibility – the lingering effects of
misinformation. Did Mr. Jones touch you? Later
may become a false memory.
 Bias – belief colored recollections. I never liked
him might be what someone remembers of
someone who lied to him when in reality they at
first were friends
Forgetting

 Encoding Failure - Some information is

encoded automatically but if its deemed not
important it requires effortful processing to
encode it. Do you know what’s on the back
of a penny?
 Storage Decay – after time of not using
memories they can decay or other memories
may interfere with them. Ebbinghaus’
forgetting curve is relevant here.
Retrieval Failure

 Proactive Interference – The disruptive effect of

prior learning on the recall of new information.
For example: Someone who knows French but
studies Spanish might have trouble remembering
Spanish
 Retroactive interference – the disruptive effect
of new learning on the recall of old information.
Someone who knows French who studies
Spanish might also have issues recalling French
Repression

 In Freud’s psychoanalytic theory the idea that

certain memories are repressed because
they are so painful the conscious self cannot
deal with them.
 Most modern psychologists will tell you that
more painful events are actually harder to
forget than remember.
Memory Construction

 Misinformation Effect – incorporating

misleading information into one’s memory of
an event.
 Source Amnesia – Attributing to the wrong
source an event we have experienced, heard
about, or read about or imagined.
 The misinformation effect and source
amnesia are the cause of many false
memories
Discerning True and False Memories

 False memories may feel real but brain scans can help
us discern if they are truthful. A brain scan will be able to
see if the memory is coming from the same place as
other memories that were truthfully recorded.
 A psychologist was taken in custody for a rape he didn’t
commit, he was let go because he had an airtight alibi.
He was on TV in an interview right before the rape and
there was no way he could have gotten to the crime
scene in time to commit it. Later it was found out that the
eye witness had actually watched the interview and had
source amnesia.
Memory Construction vs Repression

In 90% of studies done it has been shown that

children are more susceptible to suggestion
and false memories, the younger the more
susceptible they are.
Traumatic memories are sometimes forgotten,
most modern scientists point to the issue of
prolonged stress on the creation of
memories.
Repressed or Constructed Memories?

 Inthe 1990’s psychology went through the

“memory wars” where psychologists argued
over whether psychoanalysis was effective at
uncovering repressed childhood memories of
sexual abuse or if those memories were
actually constructed memories.
Elizabeth Loftus

 Elizabeth Loftus because a controversial psychologist by

doing experiments which showed the power of
suggestion in creating false memories. She showed the
memory construction is very real and gave an
explanation for false memories of abuse, or UFO
abductions, or people who claim to remember things from
past lives. Because Loftus herself was sexually abused
at age 6 and she remembered it, she saw people in
psychoanalysis trivializing abuse victims by being
coaching them to “remember” false abuse memories.
Research Conclusions

 Loftus and others through hard work and

many well documented experiments have
shown that most (but not all) traumatic
events are not forgotten by conscious mind
but rather are usually etched into that mind
and difficult to forget.
Improving Memory

 Study repeatedly to boost long term recall –

space it out, overlearn.
 Spend more time rehearsing or actively
thinking about the material. Actively study
don’t just read something as fast as possible
you will lose the information very quickly!
 Make the material personally meaningful to
you. Semantic encoding works best!
Improving Memory

 Mnemonic Devices are good for memorizing lists.

 Refresh your memory by activating retrieval cues –
think about the mood and place you were when the
memory occurred.
 Recall events while fresh in your mind before
misinformation can take effect
 Minimize interference, study before sleeping, don’t study
similar subjects right together.
 Test your own knowledge both to rehearse, and to learn
what you need to work on