Memory Psychology Notes Pt 1

Memory Psychology Notes Studying and Encoding Memories: - Memory: learning that persists over time; information that has been acquired and stored and can be retrieved. - Some disorders slowly strip away memory. Such as Alzheimer’s disease, which begins as difficulty remembering new information, progressing to an inability to do everyday tasks. Measuring Retention: - Recall: retrieving information that is not currently in your conscious awareness but that was learned at an earlier time. A fill-in-the-blank question tests your recall. - Recognition: identifying items previously learned. A multiple choice question tests your recognition. - Relearning: learning something more quickly when you learn it a second or later time. When you review the first weeks of course work to prepare for your final exam, or engage in a language used in early childhood, it will be easier to relearn the material than when you first learned it. - Tests of recognition and of time spent relearning demonstrate that we remember more than we can recall. Retrieval Practice: 1. Multiple-choice questions test our recognition. Fill-in-the-blank questions test our recall. 2. If you want to be sure to remember what you’re learning for an upcoming test, would it be better to use recall or recognition to check your memory? Why? I would say that recall would be the way to go. I say this because when it comes to fill-in-the-blank, you really have to know the answers from the top of your head. I feel like when recalling something, it has more to it than recognizing. Memory Models: - Encode: get information into our brain. - Store: retain that information. - Retrieve: later get that information back out. - Our brain processes many things simultaneously by means of parallel processing, our ability to deal with multiple stimuli at the same time. (Ex: driving). - Connectionism: views memories as products of interconnected neural networks. - Neuroplasticity: forming and strengthening pathways that allow you to interact with and learn from your constantly changing environment. - Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin proposed a three-stage information-processing model: 1. We first record to-be-remembered information as a fleeting sensory memory. 2. From there, we process information into short-term memory, where we encode it through rehearsal. 3. Finally, information moves into long-term memory for later retrieval. - Atkinson and Shiffrin’s model helps us to think about how memories are processed, but researchers now recognize that there are other ways that short-term memories form. For example, some information slips into short-term memory without our conscious attending to it (automatic processing), And so much active processing occurs in the short-term memory stage that we now call it working memory. Working Memory: - Atkinson and Shiffrin saw short-term memory merely as a space for briefly storing recent thoughts and experiences. Alan Baddeley and others extended our understanding. - They called this stage working memory because it resembled an active “scratch pad: where our brain makes sense of new experiences and links them with our long-term memories. - Working memory is influenced by nature and nurture. Some people possess better working memory than others do and that’s because of heredity. Children exposed to stressful situations tend to have poorer working memory as adults. Even momentary mental fatigue can reduce our working memory capacity. - Baddeley’s Model, a central executive, coordinates this focused processing. Without focused attention, information typically fades. - Whether we soak up information using our eyes or our ears, working memory helps us integrate our previous experiences to make smart decisions. 1. How does the working memory concept update the classic Atkinson Shiffrin three-stage information-processing model? Working memory shows that short-term memory is more than what Atkinson and Shiffrin believed. Originally, they believed that short-term memory was just a place where we held recent thoughts, but working memory has shown that it can be linked with long-term memory. 2. What are two basic functions of working memory? Active integration of new information with existing long-term memories and focusing of our spotlight of attention. Encoding Memories: - Explicit (declarative) memories: the facts and experiences that we can consciously know and declare. - Effortful processing: encoding that requires attention and conscious effort. - Implicit (nondeclarative) memories: automatic processing that happens without our awareness, produces some things we can know without actively thinking about them. Automatic Processing and Implicit Memories: - Our implicit memories include procedural memory for automatic skills. (Ex: how to ride a bike, drive a car.) - Without conscious effort you can automatically process information about: 1. Space: While studying, you often encode the place where certain material appears; later, when you want to retrieve the information, you may visualize its location. 2. Time: While going about your day, you unintentionally note the sequence of its events. Later, realizing you’ve left your phone somewhere, the event sequence your brain automatically encoded will enable you to trace your steps. 3. Frequency: You effortlessly keep track of how many times things happen, as when you realize, “This is the third time I’ve run into her today!” Effortful Processing and Explicit Memories: - Automatic processing happens effortlessly. - Learning to read wasn’t automatic, but as time continued it became automatic. Sensory Memory: - Sensory memory: feeds our active working memory, recording momentary images, sounds, and strong scents. However, it is fleeting. - Iconic memory: a fleeting sensory memory of visual stimuli. - Echoic memory: memory for auditory stimuli. Short-Term Memory Capacity: - What are the limits of what we can hold in this middle, short-term stage? George Miller proposed that we can store about 7 pieces of information in short-term memory. But, the number varies by task. - Without the active processing that we now understand to be a part of our working memory, short-term memories have a limited life. - The bottom line: It’s probably a bad idea to try and watch a live stream, text your friends, and write a psychology paper at the same time, with your attention switching among them. - Working memory capacity appears to reflect intelligence level. 1. What is the difference between automatic and effortful processing, and what are some examples of each? Automatic and effortful processing differ because automatic processing does not require any conscious learning, rather it just becomes learned. For example, automatic processing could be reading or potentially driving a car. But, when studying for a test, you are using effortful processing and actively trying to remember the information. 2. At which of Atkinson-Shiffrin’s three memory stages would iconic and echoic memory occur? The first stage, sensory memory. Effortful Processing Strategies: - Chunking: organizing items into familiar, manageable units, which enables us to recall it more easily. - Mnemonics: a memory aid that uses vivid imagery. - When combined, chunking and mnemonic techniques can be great memory aids for unfamiliar material. - Hierarchies: when people develop expertise in an area this often happens. It is composed of a few broad concepts divided and subdivided into narrow concepts and facts. Distributed Practice: - Spacing effect: the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice. - Massed practice: cramming, can produce speedy short-term learning and an inflated feeling of confidence, but usually you forget very fast. - Distributed Practice: produces better long-term recall. After you’ve studied long enough to master the material, further study at that time becomes inefficient. - Testing Effect: repeated self-testing. - The point to remember: Spaced study and self-assessment beat cramming and rereading. Practice may not make perfect, but smart practice – occasional rehearsal with self-testing – makes for lasting memories. Levels of Processing: - Shallow processing: encodes on an elementary level, such as a word’s letters or, at a more intermediate level, a word’s sounds. - Deep Processing: encodes semantically, based on the meaning of the words. The deeper, more meaningful the processing, the better our retention. - Self-Reference Effect: the tendency to remember self-relevant information - The point to remember: You can profit from taking time to find personal meaning in what you are studying. 1. Which strategies are better for long-term retention: cramming and rereading material, or spreading out learning over time and repeatedly testing yourself? Spreading out learning over time and repeatedly testing yourself. 2. If you try to make the material you are learning personally meaningful, are you processing at a shallow or a deep level? Which level leads to greater retention? You would be learning at a deeper level. Deep level leads to greater retention. Review: Studying and Encoding Memories: LOQ 8-1: What is memory, and how is it measured? Memory is stored information that can be retrieved. Memory is measured by: recall, recognition, and relearning. LOQ 8-2: How do memory models help us study memory, and how has later research updated the three-stage information-processing model? Memory models such as the three-step model, teach us the basics of memory. For example, the three-stage information-processing model showed us about sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. However, as later research continued, we discovered that short-term memory is not as simple as it seems, and actually is connected to long-term memory. It is referred to as working memory. LOQ 8-3: How do explicit and implicit memories differ? Explicit memories (declarative) are facts that we know and experiences we can declare. Implicit memories occur through automatic processing, and produce things without us having to actively think about them. LOQ 8-4: What information do we process automatically? We can automatically process information about space, time, and frequency. LOQ 8-5: How does sensory memory work? Sensory memory happens because of your senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste), and lasts very shortly. It can then be connected to your short-term memory. LOQ 8-6: What is our short-term memory capacity? We can remember about seven things in our short-term memory at a time. LOQ 8-7: What are some effortful processing strategies that can help us remember new information? Some strategies include: chunking, mnemonics, the spacing effect, hierarchies, etc. LOQ 8-8: How do distributed practice, deep processing, and making new material personally meaningful aid memory? When making new information personal, you are more likely to remember it. Once a meaningful connection has been made with information, recalling it is easier. TERMS AND CONCEPTS TO REMEMBER: 1. Recall: would use a fill in the blank test. 2. Recognition: would be used in multiple choice. 3. Relearning: going previous information learned and applying it. 4. Encoding: getting information into the brain 5. Storage: retain that information 6. Retrieval: later get the information back out. 7. parallel processing: when the brain takes in multiple information at the same time. For example, this is very important in vision. If we see multiple things at the same time, we take in that information. 8. sensory memory: memory that is used from the senses. (touch, smell, taste, hear, see) 9. short-term memory: memory that is used for a short period of time, and can be moved into long-term memory. 10. long-term memory: information that is held for a long period of time, even a lifetime. 11. working memory: small information held in the mind that can be used for cognitive tasks. 12. explicit memory: facts and experiences 13. effortful processing: the purposeful gaining of information to try to remember 14. automatic processing: the gaining of information that happens without it meaning to 15. implicit memory: occurs in automatic processing, the unintentional gaining of knowledge 16. iconic memory: memory that happens because of vision 17. echoic memory: memory that happens because of eyesight 18. Chunking: an effortful processing technique where you obtain a lot of information in a short period of time 19. Mnemonics: an effortful processing technique that uses visuals and imagery to try and remember things. 20. spacing effect: an effortful processing technique that is used to gain knowledge over a period of time, instead of all at once. 21. testing effect: using self-assessment and testing to gain knowledge. 22. shallow processing: not as deeper of a meaning, encodes on an elementary level like words or sounds. 23. deep processing: encodes based on the meaning of the word. The more meaningful connection, the more retention there will be. MASTER THE MATERIAL 1. A psychologist who asks you to write down as many objects as you can remember having seen a few minutes earlier is testing your recall. 2. The psychological terms for taking in information, retaining it, and later getting it back out are encode, store, and retrieve. The concept of working memory: a. clarifies the idea of short-term memory by focusing on the active processing that occurs in this stage. b. splits short-term memory into two substages—sensory memory and iconic memory. c. splits short-term memory into two types: implicit and explicit memory. d. clarifies the idea of short-term memory by focusing on space, time, and frequency. 4. Sensory memory may be visual ( iconic memory) or auditory ( echoic memory). 5. Our short-term memory for new information is limited to about seven bits of information. 6. Memory aids that use visual imagery or other organizational devices are called mnemonics. Storing and Retrieving Memories: Memory Storage: - Our capacity for storing long-term memories is essentially limitless. - Memories are brain-based, but the brain distributes the components of a memory across a network of locations. - The point to remember: Despite the brain’s vast storage capacity, we do not store information as libraries store their books in single, precise locations. Instead, brain networks encode, store, and retrieve information that forms our complex memories. Explicit Memory System: the frontal lobes and hippocampus: - Semantic: facts and general knowledge - Episodic: experienced events - The network that processes and stores new explicit memories for facts and episodes includes your frontal lobes and hippocampus. - The left and right frontal lobes process different types of memories. Recalling a password and holding it in working memory would activate the left frontal lobe. Calling up a visual party scene would more likely activate the right frontal lobe. - Hippocampus and nearby brain networks as people form explicit memories of names, images, and events. - With left-hippocampus damage, people have trouble remembering verbal information, but they have no trouble recalling visual designs and locations. With the right side damaged, the problem would be reversed. - Memory Consolidation: After memories in the hippocampus are registered and temporality held to be remembered, memories will migrate to the cortex for storage. Sleep supports memory consolidation. Implicit Memory System: The Cerebellum and Basal Ganglia: - The cerebellum plays a key role in forming and storing the implicit memories created by classical conditioning. Implicit memory formations need the cerebellum. With a damaged cerebellum, people cannot develop certain conditioned reflexes. - The basal ganglia, deep brain structures involved in motor movement, facilitate formation of our procedural memories for skills. 1. Which parts of the brain are important for implicit memory processing, and which parts play a key role in explicit memory processing? For implicit, the basal ganglia and the cerebellum play a large role. For explicit, the hippocampus and frontal lobes. 2. Your friend has experienced brain damage in an accident. He can remember how to tie his shoes but has a hard time remembering anything you tell him during a conversation. How can implicit versus explicit information processing explain what’s going on here? Implicit information has allowed for your friend to still remember how to tie his shoe. However, either his frontal lobe or hippocampus has been damaged since he is not able to remember explicit information. The Amygdala, Emotions, and Memory: - Stress hormones focus memory. Memory provokes the amygdala (two limbic system, emotion-processing clusters) to initiate a memory trace – a lasting physical change as the memory forms – that boosts activity in the brain’s memory-forming areas. - “Stronger emotional experiences make for stronger, more reliable memories.” These experiences even strengthen recall for relevant, immediately preceding events. - Flashbulb Memories: clarity of memories of surprising, significant events. Synaptic Changes: - Long-Term Potentiation (LTP): increased efficiency of potential neural firing, which provides a neural basis for learning and remembering associations. A physical basis for memory. - Drugs that block LTP interfere with learning. Drugs that mimic what happens during learning increase LTP. And rats given a drug that enhanced LTP learned a maze with half the usual number of mistakes. - After LTP has occurred, passing an electric current through the brain won’t disrupt old memories, but the current will wipe out very recent memories. - The Bottom Line: Learn something and you can change your brain a little. 1. Which brain area responds to stress hormones by helping to create stronger memories? The amygdala. 2. Increased inefficiency at the synapses is evidence of the neural basis of learning and memory. This is called Long-Term Potentiation. Memory Retrieval: Retrieval Cues: - Retrieval Cues: when you encode into memory a target piece of information and associate it with other bits of information. (your surroundings, mood, seating position, etc.) - Retrospective Memory: retrieve memories for past - Prospective Memory: our intended future actions - Reminiscence Therapy: a way to help people recall older memories using retrieval cues Priming: - Priming: the “awakening of associations”, our associations are activated without our awareness. - Priming is often “memoryless memory” – an implicit, invisible memory, without your conscious awareness. It can also influence behaviors. Adults and children primed with money-related words and materials change their behavior in various ways, such as by reducing helpfulness.