JUST A SMALL CHALLENGE

WHATEVER YOU DO: FORGET WHAT WE ARE ABOUT TO SEE AND DISCUSS

Before we begin Studying MEMORY

today. . .

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GOT YA!106

WHAT IS YOUR FIRST MEMORY?What was your approximate age? Subject matter?

Was it dramatic or traumatic?

YOUR EARLIEST MEMORY…

Probably not before age of 3 unless severely traumatic

If you have earlier memories – it is likely you were told of the events later in life and placed the memory sometime after the age of 3

OVERVIEW OF THE INFORMATION PROCESSING MODEL This model views human memory as a

system that:EncodesRehearsesStores Retrieves bits of information

IN HUMANS, INFORMATION PROCESSING OCCURS IN THREE SYSTEMS

Sensory memory Short-term

memory Long term memory

LEVELS OF PROCESSING

SHALLOW PROCESSING maintenance

rehearsal Involves simple

repetition of the presented materials

Not effective encoding

DRAW A PENNY Volunteers Try to recall from your memory the

“face” of a typical penny

OK, SMARTIES. . . PICK THE PENNY We have displayed everyone's drawing. Which is most accurate?

PENNY

DEEP PROCESSING Elaborative

rehearsal Coding by

forming associations between new information and information already stored

Makes information meaningful

SUBJECTIVE ORGANIZATION

LIST ALL OF THE STATES IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA)

HERE THEY ARE

SUBJECTIVE ORGANIZATION How did you

organize your list of states?

Developing a personal way to categorize items in an effective wayEast to west West to eastAlphabetical

MNEMONIC DEVICES Memory cues for improving the

encoding, storage and retrieval of information

These have apparently been used throughout history, for example the Greek poet, Simonides about 500 BCE

Examples?Please excuse my dear aunt sallyNever eat sour watermelons

MEMORY AND RETRIEVAL

TYPES OF MEMORY Sensory Memory (sensory register) A very brief memory for sensory

information Allows for a very short period of time to

review the overwhelming amount of sensory information. Most is discarded.

Selected information is rehearsed for storage.

OTHER ISSUES Types of

EncodingVisual/IconicAcoustic/ AuditorySemantic

Flashbulb Memory

ProcessingAutomatic Effortful

Photographic memory

SHORT-TERM MEMORY Also called working memory A limited, relatively brief storage system

that holds items we are aware of and working with at any given time

Experiments indicate the duration of short term memory is limited to 15-20 seconds unless it is rehearsed

CAPACITY Seven + two This can be increased if information is

organized into chunks of meaningful or well practiced information

Note further research by Alan Baddeley who refers to this as “working memory” and suggests that it is more complex than George Miller’s version. Baddeley suggest four componentsPhonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad,

central executive system and an eposodic buffer

LONG TERM MEMORY Our more or less permanent memory

store

Almost unlimited capacity and duration

TYPES OF LONG-TERM MEMORY Endel Tulving suggests differing types of

memories.

Episodic Memories

Semantic memory

Procedural Memory

Dispositional Memory(added by Myers, D.)

EXPLICIT IMPLICIT Explicit or

declarative memory

Memories of which one is consciously aware

Processed in the hippocampus

Implicit or non-declarative memory

Memories of which one is not consciously aware

Processed in cerebellum

SERIAL POSITION EFFECT Our memory for a

list of items is better at the beginning and the end of the list than for items in the middle of the list

Called primacy and recency effect

Remember the activity where you had to recall words from a list!!

RETRIEVAL AND FORGETTING

RETRIEVAL Ability to remember information

Recall v. recognition

Recall

Recognition

HERMANN EBBINGHAUS Forgetting Curve Indicates that

much of what we learn we may quickly forget

EBBINGHAUS FORGETTING CURVE

RECONSTRUCTIVE MEMORY Accounts for the inaccuracy of

our recollections We “fill-in-the-gaps” How?

ConfabulationDistortionOverconfidenceMisleading post events

Framing-the structure of question

ROLE OF EMOTION Mood congruency

State dependent memory

EYE WITNESS TESTIMONY Elizabeth Loftus false memories

5 mins Accuracy of eye

witness testimony can be influenced by framing

Children particularly susceptible to false memories

EYE WITNESS TESTIMONY Little correlation between witness

certainty and witness accuracy

Eye witness testimony is BAD!

DEJA VU Means already seen

What is this?

Reading

WHAT IS FORGETTING? The inability to retrieve information

But WHY?

DECAY THEORY Argues that forgetting is caused by the

passage of time

A physiological memory track is laid down when a memory is made

Thus, there is no physiological mechanism to account for decay

INTERFERENCE THEORY Argues that retrieval failure occurs when established associations conflict with what we are trying to recall

Types:Proactive interferenceRetroactive interference

REPRESSION THEORY Sigmund Freud

Painful memories are self-censored and stored in the unconscious mind

This is controversial.

THE BIOLOGY OF MEMORYBegin with Clive WearingUpdate

THE BIOLOGY OF MEMORY Not that new. . . Early studies by

Lashley and Hebb with rats

THE BIOLOGY OF MEMORY James McConnell

and flatworms

NEUROANATOMY AND MEMORY Richard

Thompson and rabbits

His research

Procedural memories reside in the cerebellum

NEUROANATOMY AND MEMORY Hippocampus is

the chief structure implicated in episodic and semantic memories (Tulving)

Plays a role is “fixing” memories during time after learning

Case Study E. B. Clive Wearing

NEUROANATOMY AND MEMORY

The thalamus seems to be the structure that initially gives the “print” order for the memory.

Without this structure the memory never gets formed at all

NEUROCHEMISTRY AND MEMORY Research looks at neurochemistry involved in memory formationNorepinephrineDopamineGlutamateGABA

DISEASES OF MEMORY Amnesia involves forgetting under

conditions of severe psychological or physical trauma

Korsakoff’s syndrome- a disorder associated with chronic alcoholism that presents with hippocampus damage

DID YOU FORGET

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