Module 18:InformationProcessing

Let’s test our memories with 2 activities.

Chapter 08: Memory

The Information-Processing Model

Module 18: Information Processing

Information Processing Model

• Encoding - getting information into the memory system

• Storage - the retaining of encoded information over time

• Retrieval - getting encoded information out of memory storage

Module 18: Information Processing

Encoding:Automatic and Effortful Processing

Automatic EffortfulProcessing Processing

• The unconscious encoding of some information without effort

• Usually information on space, time and frequency

• Encoding that requires attention and a conscious deliberate effort

• The best processing is through rehearsal or practice.

Rehearsal

• The conscious repetition of information in order to encode it

• The more time spent on rehearsal, the more information one tends to remember.

Rehearsal and Retention(From Baddeley, 1982)

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)

• German philosopher who did early memory studies with nonsense syllables

• Developed the forgetting curve, also called the “retention curve” or “Ebbinghaus curve”

• CAJ, TUM, ZIL, PEF, NAX, FOS, RET, KEW, NAR, VIB, SUR, GOY, BAH, WUX, DEM, LIG, QUI, YOF, PUD, FOY

• Can you learn these?

Ebbinaus Curve(From Baddeley, 1982)

Overlearning

• Continuing to rehearse after the point the information has been learned

• Rehearsing past the point of mastery

• Helps ensure information will be available even under stress

• How many times have you learned about July 4, 1776?

Overlearning Example

• First…eww, UGA• Back to back to

back National Champs.– Know their

routines, even under pressure

• How has overlearning effected their performances?

Encoding:Serial Position Effect

Module 18: Information Processing

•Remember the following: turkey, chicken, vulture, albatross, eagle, hawk, pigeon, dove, seagull, cardinal, rooster, henWait…Write down what you remember

Serial Position Effect

• The tendency to recall the first and last items in a list

• Primacy effect – the ability to recall information near the beginning of a list

• Recency effect – the ability to recall information near the end of a list

Primacy/Recency Effect(From Craik & Watkins, 1973)

Encoding:Spacing Effect

The tendency for distributed practice to yield better retention than is achieved through massed practice

How does this relate to studying?

Congrats!! You have just been chosen to throw for $1,000,000!!!

But…how will you prepare!

Distributed MassedPractice Practice

• Spreading rehearsal out in several sessions separated by period of time

• Usually enhances the recalling of the information

• Putting all rehearsal together in one long session (cramming)

• Not as effective as distributed practice

• What is an acceptable rate of return for you?

Encoding:Encoding Meaning

Module 18: Information Processing

Semantic Encoding

• The encoding of meaning

• Encoding information that is meaningful enhances recall

• Why is it hard to remember information learned in your least favorite class?

Semantic Encoding(From Craik & Tulving, 1975)

Acoustic Encoding

• Encoding information based on the sounds of the information

Visual Encoding

• Encoding information based on the images of the information

Self-Reference Effect

• The enhanced semantic encoding of information that is personally relevant

• Making information meaningful to a person by making it relevant to one’s life

Encoding:Encoding Imagery

Module 18: Information Processing

We will never forget this image:

• Why?• We remember

pleasant and not so pleasant images.

• For many of us, happy moments stick and unpleasant ones do not.

Encoding:Mnemonic Devices

Any examples?* My Aunt Rose Is Eating Twenty

Two Apples (Marietta)

Module 18: Information Processing

Mnemonic Device

• A memory trick or technique for remembering specific facts

• “Every good boy does fine” to remember the notes on the lines of the scale– Ever forget how to spell psych?– “People say you could have odd lots of

good years”

Method of Loci

• A mnemonic device in which the person associates items to be remembered with imaginary places

• Pg 341 2nd paragraph

Peg-Word System

• A mnemonic device in which the person associates items to remember with a list of peg words already memorized

• Goal is to visualize the items to remember with the items on the pegs

• One is a bun– The first thing to remember is a carrot– Imagine a steaming carrot on a bun!

• #4 in the self-test

Peg Word System:Remember… one two, buckle my shoe?

Encoding:Organizing Information

Module 18: Information Processing

Chunking• Organizing information into meaningful

units• More information can be encoded if

organized into meaningful chunks.• Phone numbers are often remembers as

chunks (the area code is actually one item)

Storage: Three Storage Systems

• Three distinct storage systems :

– Sensory Memory

– Short-Term Memory (includes Working Memory)

– Long-Term Memory

Storage: Sensory Memory

• The brief, initial coding of sensory information in the memory system

– Iconic store – visual information

– Echoic store – sound information

• Information held just long enough to make a decision on its importance

Storage: Short-Term Memoryaka: working memory

• Conscious, activated memory which holds information briefly before it is stored or forgotten– Holds 7 + or – 2 chunks of info

• Can retain the information as long as it is rehearsed

Storage:Long-Term Memory

Module 18: Information Processing

Storage: Long-Term Memory

• The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system

• Holds memories without conscious effort

Flashbulb Memory

• A vivid, clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

• Can be personal memories or centered around a shared event

Storage:Memory and the Brain

Long-Term Potentiation:An increase in a synapse’s firing efficiency

Believed to be the neural basis of learning & memory

Module 18: Information Processing

Storage:Explicit and Implicit

Memories

Module 18: Information Processing

Explicit Memory• Memory of facts and experiences that one

must consciously retrieve and declare

• Processed through the hippocampus

Implicit Memory• Memory of skills and procedures that are

retrieved without conscious recollection

• Processed through the cerebellum

Memory and the Hippocampus• Damage to the hippocampus would

result in the inability to form new explicit memories, but the ability to remember the skills of implicit memories

Retrieval, Recall & Recognition

• Retrieval - The process of getting information out of memory storage

• Two forms of retrieval– Recall– Recognition

• Recall - A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier– Essay, fill-in-the-blank, and

short answer test questions test recall

• Recognition - A measure of memory in which a person must identify items learned earlier– Multiple choice and

matching test questions test recognition

Retrieval: Context Effect• The enhanced ability to retrieve information

when you are in an environment similar to the one in which you encoded the information

Retrieval: State Dependent Memory

• The enhanced ability to retrieve information when the person is in the same physical and emotional state they were in when they encoded the information

• The retrieval state is congruent with the encoding state