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Chapter 7

Human Memory

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Figure 7.1 – Nickerson & Adams (1979) – Which is the correct penny?

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Human Memory: Basic Questions

How does information get into memory?

How is information maintained in memory?

How is information pulled back out of memory?

Memory timeline

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Encoding: Getting Information Into Memory

The role of attention

Focusing awareness

Selective attention = selection of input

– Filtering: early or late?

Multitasking – issues of driving performance and cell phone use – study by Strayer and Johnson (2001)

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You pay attention. “Selective attention” If you don’t pay attention, your sensory memory will hear blah, blah. You have to pay attention to get info into your working memory

Encoding is effective when…

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Figure 7.4 Divided attention and driving performance – Strayer & Johnson (2001)

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Levels of Processing: Craik and Lockhart (1972)

Incoming information processed at different levels

Deeper processing = longer lasting memory codes

Encoding levels:– Structural = shallow– Phonemic = intermediate– Semantic = deep

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Table of ContentsFigure 7.6 – Retention at three levels of processing – Craik & Tulving (1975)

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Enriching Encoding: Improving Memory

Elaboration = linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding– Thinking of examples

Self-Referent Encoding

Visual Imagery = creation of visual images to represent words to be remembered– Easier for concrete objects

Figure 7.7

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We remember what we are interested in…

Can you remember my phone number?

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Storage: Maintaining Information in Memory Analogy: information storage in computers ~

information storage in human memory

Information-processing theories – Atkinson & Shiffrin (1977)– Subdivide memory into 3 different stores

• Sensory, Short-term, Long-term

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Sensory Memory

Brief preservation of information in original sensory form

Auditory/Visual – approximately ¼ second– George Sperling (1960)

• Classic experiment on visual sensory store• Partial report procedure

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Short Term Memory (STM)

Limited capacity – magical number 7 plus or minus 2– Chunking – grouping familiar stimuli for storage as a single

unit Limited duration – about 20 seconds without rehearsal

– Peterson and Peterson (1959) – Rehearsal – the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking

about the information

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Short-Term Memory as “Working Memory”

STM not limited to phonemic encoding

Loss of information not only due to decay

Baddeley (2001) – 4 components of working memory – Phonological rehearsal loop– Visuospatial sketchpad– Executive control system– Episodic buffer

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Long-Term Memory: Unlimited Capacity

Penfield’s neural stimulation

Permanent storage?– Flashbulb memories– Brown and Kulick

(1977) – study of assassinations

– Talarico & Rubin (2003)

– Recall through hypnosis

Debate: are STM and LTM really different?– Phonemic vs.

Semantic encoding– Decay vs.

Interference based forgetting

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How is Knowledge Represented and Organized in Memory? Clustering and Conceptual Hierarchies

Schemas and Scripts – Shank & Abelson (1977)

Semantic Networks – Collins & Loftus (1975)

Connectionist Networks and PDP Models – McClelland and colleagues - pattern of activity – neuron based model

Table of ContentsFigure 7.14 A semantic network..

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Retrieval: Getting Information Out of Memory

The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon – a failure in retrieval– Retrieval cues

Recalling an event– Context cues

Reconstructing memories – Loftus studies– Loftus & Palmer (1974) – I: smashed (40.8); collided

(39.3); bumped (38.1); hit (34.0); contacted (31.8) II: smashed (32%) hit (14%) control (12%) (broken glass?)

– Misinformation effect• Source monitoring, reality monitoring • cryptomnesia

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Seven Sins of Memory – Daniel L. Schacter

Transience – loss of memory over time

Absent Mindedness – breakdown of interface between attention & memory

Blocking – thwarted search for information to retrieve

Bias – influence of current knowledge and belief on how we remember our past

Misattribution – assigning a memory to the wrong source

Suggestibility – memories implanted as a result of leading questions, comments or suggestions when a person is trying to recall a past experience

Persistence – repeated recall of disturbing information or events that one may want to forget

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Forgetting: When Memory Lapses

Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve

Retention – the proportion of material retained– Recall – Recognition – Relearning

Hill of reminiscence – time frame of remembering

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Why Do We Forget?

Ineffective Encoding

Decay theory

Interference theory– Type of material– Proactive– Retroactive

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Retrieval Failure

Encoding Specificity

Transfer-Appropriate Processing

Repression and the memory wards

Authenticity of repressed memories?– Memory illusions– Controversy

False memories

Loftus & Pickrell’s (1995) lost-in-the-mall study

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The Physiology of Memory Biochemistry

– Alteration in synaptic transmission• Hormones modulating neurotransmitter systems• Protein synthesis

Neural circuitry– Localized neural circuits

• Reusable pathways in the brain• Long-term potentiation – changes in postsynaptic

neuron

Anatomy– Anterograde and Retrograde Amnesia – Clive Wearing

• Figure 7.23 - Cerebral cortex, Prefrontal Cortex, Hippocampus,

• Dentate gyrus, Amygdala, Cerebellum

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Are There Multiple Memory Systems?

Implicit vs. Explicit

Declarative vs. Procedural

Semantic vs. Episodic

Prospective vs. Retrospective

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Figure 7.26 – Retrospective versus prospective memory

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Eyewitness Accounts

Use of Eyewitness in court cases – Cutler & Penrod (1995), Loftus (1993)

Post information distortion

Source confusion

Hindsight bias

Overconfidence