General Psychology Chapter 7 Memory Notes

Memory Notes 1. Nature of Memory 1. Memory 1. The retention of info and experience over time 2. Occurs through 3 important processes: 1. Encoding-(take in information) 2. Storage-(retain information in a mental store house) 3. Retrieval- (recall the stored information for a later purpose) 2. Memory Encoding 1. To begin, we have to pay attention 2. Attention is selective because brain resources are limited 1. Divided Attention 1. concentrating on more than one activity at the same time 2. can be detrimental to encoding 3. Multitasking-some cases involve dividing attention among three or more activities; may be ultimate in divided attention 2. Sustained Attention-(vigilance)- ability to maintain attention to a selected stimulus for a prolonged amount of time 3. Levels of Processing 1. A factor that influences memory is whether we engage w/ information superficially or really get into it 2. Refers to continuum from shallow to intermediate to deep with deeper processing producing better memory 1. shallow processing-encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words 2. intermediate processing- stimulus is recognized and labeled 3. Deepest processing-Entails thinking about the meaning of a stimulus. 1. ex. thinking about the meaning of the word mom and about your own mother, her face, and her special qualities. 3. Elaboration 1. the formation of a number of different connections around a stimulus at any given level of memory encoding 2. Self-reference-relating material to your own experience 3. Link between elaboration during encoding and brain activity in which greater elaboration is linked w/ neural activity especially in the left frontal lobe of the brain as well as the hippocampus 4. Imagery 1. A person conjures up pictures associated with each thing that needs to be remembered 2. Allan Paivio 1. Memory is stored in one of two ways: 1. Verbal code such as a word or label 2. Image code – highly detailed and distinctive ; produces better memory than verbal code 2. Dual Code Hypothesis- memory for pictures is better than memory for words because pictures (with names) are stored as both image and verbal codes 3. Memory Storage 1. Quality of encoding does not alone determine memory quality, it must be stored properly 2. Storage 1. how information is retained over time and how it is represented in memory 2. Atkinson-Shiffrin Theory states that memory storage involves 3 separate systems: 1. Sensory Memory-time frames of a fraction of a second to several seconds 2. Short-Term Memory-time frames up to 30 seconds 3. Long-Term Memory-time frames up to a lifetime 3. Sensory Memory 1. holds info from the world in its original sensory form for only an instant, not much longer than brief time it is exposed to visual, auditory and other senses 2. Very rich and detailed but lost quickly unless certain strategies are used that transfer it to short-term or long-term memory 3. Echoic Memory- auditory sensory memory which is retained for up to several seconds 4. Iconic Memory-(image) visual sensory memory which is retained for about ¼ of a second 1. responsible for ability to “write” in the air with a sparkler 4. Short-Term Memory 1. limited capacity memory system in which info is retained for only as long as 30 seconds unless steps are take to retain it longer 2. Limited in capacity but can store information longer than sensory memory 3. A passive storehouse w/ shelves to store info until it moves to long-term memory 4. On many tasks, individuals are limited in how much information they can keep track of without external aids. Usually the limit is in the range of 7 ± 2 items 5. Memory span- number of digits an individual can report back, in order, after seeing them once 6. 2 ways to improve short-term memory: 1. Chunking- grouping or packing info that exceeds the7 ± 2 memory span into higher order units that can be remembered as single units 1. makes large amounts of info more manageable 2. Rehearsal-conscious repetition of information, repeating info over and over again to keep it in memory 1. w/ rehearsal, info can be retained indefinitely 2. often verbal, giving impression of an inner voice but can be visual/spatial 3. Doesn't work well for retaining info long term because it often involves mechanically repeating info w/out imparting meaning to it 4. Working Memory 1. the combination of components that include short-term memory and attention that allows us to hold info temporarily as we perform cognitive tasks 2. Not same as short-term memory 3. An active memory system with a capacity separable from short-term memory capacity 4. Related to cognitive aptitudes like intelligence 5. Brain manipulates (works with) and assembles info to help us understand, make decisions and solve problems 6. Mental place where thinking occurs 7. Alan Baddeley proposed a three-part model of working memory 1. Phonological Loop-specialized to briefly store speech-based information about the sounds of language. The phonological loop contains two separate components: an acoustic code (the sounds we heard), which decays in a few seconds, and rehearsal, which allows us to repeat the words in the phonological store. 2. Visuo-Spatial sketchpad -stores visual and spatial information, including visual imagery. As in the case of the phonological loop, the capacity of the visuo-spatial sketchpad is limited. If we try to put too many items in the visuo-spatial sketchpad, we cannot represent them accurately enough to retrieve them successfully. The phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad function independently. We can rehearse numbers in the phonological loop while making spatial arrangements of letters in the visuo-spatial sketchpad. 3. Central Executive- integrates information not only from the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad but also from long-term memory. In Baddeley’s view, the central executive plays important roles in attention, planning, and organizing. The central executive acts like a supervisor who monitors which information deserves our attention and which we should ignore. It also selects which strategies to use to process information and solve problems. Like the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad, the central executive has a limited capacity. If working memory is like the files you have open on your computer, the central executive is you. You pull up information you need, close out other things, and so forth 8. Long-Term Memory 1. a relatively permanent type of memory that stores huge amounts of information for a long time 2. size at 2.8 × 1020 (280 quintillion) bits, which means that our storage capacity is virtually unlimited 3. Complex, the top level divided into substructures: 1. Explicit Memory (Declarative Memory) 1. Conscious recollection of info, like specific facts/events and info that can be verbally communicated 2. Ex. Recounting the events in a movie 3. Permastore Memory (Bahrick)- portion of original learning that appears destined to stay w/ a person virtually forever, even w/out rehearsal 4. can be further subdivided: Episodic Memory-retention of info about the where when and what of life's happenings;is autobiographical;in brain involves reinstating activity that occurred when experience itself took place Semantic Memory- pertains to a person’s knowledge about the world;includes areas of expertise, general knowledge of the sort being learned in school, and everyday knowledge about the meanings of words, famous individuals, important places, and common things;appears independent of individual's personal identity w/ the past; 5. Has to do w/ remembering who, what, where, when and why 2. Implicit Memory (Nondeclarative Memory) 1. Memory in which behavior is affected by prior experiences w/out conscious recollection of the experiences 2. ex. knowing all the words to a song you hate 3. Subsets are: Procedural Memory-involves memory for skills Classical Conditioning-form of learning Priming-activation of info that people already have in storage to help them remember new info better and faster 4. Has to do w/ remembering how 4. Memory Organization 1. Schemas 1. Preexisting mental concept/framework that helps to organize and interpret information 2. Prior encounters w/ environment influence the way info is handled-how its encoded, inferences made and how it is retrieved 3. Also can be at work when info is recalled 4. Theory holds that long-term memory is not exact 5. Script Schema for an event often have info about physical features, people and typical occurrences 2. Connectionist Networks (Parallel Distributed Processing PDP) 1. Theory that memory is stored throughout brain in connections among neurons, several of which may work together to process a single memory 2. Memories are not large knowledge structures 3. Memories are more like electrical impulses and organized only to the extent that neurons and their activity are organized 4. Nodes-locations of neural activity, are interconnected 5. Explains how priming a concept (achievement) can influence behavior (performance) 5. Where Memories Are Stored 1. Neuroscience of memory suggests that memories are processes which are represented as connections throughout the brain, states of brain activity, recreating the brain's function when experiences first took place 2. Neurons and Memory 1. Collections of connected neurons making up memory may involve as many as 1,000 neurons 2. Single neurons are also at work in memory 3. Neurotransmitters play crucial role in forging connections that represent memory 4. Long-Term Potentiation concept used to explain how memory functions at the neuron level States that if two neurons are activated at the same time, the connection between them and the memory may be strengthened 5. Memories are longstanding connections that have been worn into the brain by experience 6. Brain Structures and Memory Functions 1. Many parts of the brain and nervous system are involved in memory 1. brain structures involved depend in part on what is being remembered 2. There is no one memory center in the brain 3. Explicit memory: the hippocampus, the temporal lobes in the cerebral cortex, and other areas of the limbic system play a role in explicit memory 1. information is transmitted from the hippocampus to the frontal lobes, which are involved in both: Retrospective memory (remembering things from the past) Prospective memory (remembering things that you need to do in the future) 2. The left frontal lobe is especially active when we encode new information into memory; the right frontal lobe is more active when we subsequently retrieve it 3. The amygdala, which is part of the limbic system, is involved in emotional memories 4. Implicit memory: The cerebellum (the structure at the back and toward the bottom of the brain) is active in the implicit memory required to perform skills 1. Various areas of the cerebral cortex, such as the temporal lobes and hippocampus, function in priming 4. Memory Retrieval 1. takes place when retained info in memory comes out of storage 2. Serial Position Effect 1. Tendency to recalls the items at the beginning and end of a list better than those in the middle 1. Primary Effect- better recall for items at the beginning of a list 2. Recency Effect- better recall for items at the end 3. Both Primary and Recency can influence how we feel about stimuli 3. Retrieval Cues and Retrieval Task 1. Recall 1. A memory task in which the individual has to retrieve previously learned info 2. Ex. Essay tests 2. Recognition 1. Memory task in which individual only has to recognize learned items 2. Ex. Multiple choice tests 3. Encoding Specificity Principle 1. Information present at the time of encoding/learning tends to be effective as a retrieval cue 2. Change in context between encoding and retrieval can cause memory to fail 3. Context-Dependent Memory- when people remember better when they attempt to recall info in the same context in which they learned it 4. Cues can become overloaded, and in that case info is likely to be forgotten or be retrieved incorrectly 4. Special Cases of Retrieval 1. Affects on memories 1. Pattern of info we remember 2. Schemas 3. Scripts 4. Situations associated with memories 5. Personal/Emotional Context 2. False Memories 1. occur when people remember something that never actually happened 2. Involve error in distinguishing between 2 kinds of mental contents 1. Internally Generated Experience-thinking about telling a friend something 2. Externally Generated Experience-actually telling them 5. Retrieval of Autobiographical Memories 1. Autobiographical Memory 1. A special form of episodic memory 2. Complex 3. Person's recollection of his/her life 4. Most include some reality and some myth 5. Allows us to learn from experience, understand ourselves and provides a source of identity 6. Generative- kind of people who contribute to future generations/leave a legacy 7. Reminiscence Bump 1. Effect that adults remember more events from the second and third decades of life than from other decades 2. May happen because during those times, we are forging a sense of identity or else because this is where a lot of important events happen 8. Seem to contain unending strings of stories and snapshots that can be categorized 1. Life Time Periods- most abstract level containing long segments of time measured in years/decades 1. Ex. Remembering something about high school life 2. General Events-Extended composite episodes measured in days, weeks or months 1. Ex. after graduation trip with friends 3. Event Specific Knowledge-Individual episodes measured in seconds, minutes or hours 1. Most concrete level 2. Ex. The first time you jet skied 9. Flashbulb Memory 1. Memory of emotionally significant events that people often recall w/ more accuracy and vivid imagery than everyday events 2. Emotion affects encoding and storage of memory and shapes retrieved details 3. Probably not as precisely etched in our brains 6. Memory for Traumatic Event 1. William James 1. An experience can be so emotionally arousing that it leaves a brain scar 2. Good evidence that emotionally traumatic events are usually more accurate than ordinary memory but still contain errors (distortions) 1. Probably as a result of stress related hormones 7. Repressed Memories 1. Repression- defense mechanism activated when a person is so traumatized by an event that they forget it and then forgets the act of forgetting 1. Main function to protect them from threatening info 2. Motivated Forgetting 1. Forgetting which occurs when individuals forget something because its so painful or anxiety-laden that remembering is intolerable 3. Discovered Memories 1. Jonathan Schooler- recovered memories are better termed discovered memories because regardless of accuracy individuals do experience them as real 8. Eyewitness Testimony 1. Memory=not perfect reflection of reality 2. May contain errors 3. Distortion, bias and inaccuracy of memory are factors in faulty memory 5. Forgetting 1. Encoding Failure 1. occurs when info was never entered into long-term memory 2. In some sense they're not cases of forgetting but of not remembering 2. Retrieval Failure 1. Theories that causes include problems w/ info in storage, effects of time, personal reasons for remembering/forgetting and brain condition 2. Persistent trying to retrieve info is associated w/ better learning even if attempts fail 3. Interference 1. One reason people forget 2. Interference Theory 1. People forget not because memories are lost from storage but because other info gets in the way of what they want to remember 3. Two kinds of interference: 1. Proactive-occurs when material learned earlier disrupts recall of material learned later 2. Retroactive-occurs when material learned later disrupts retrieval of info learned earlier 4. Both kinds might be explainable as problems with retrieval cues 4. Decay 1. Another reason people forget is time passing 2. Decay Theory 1. when we learn something new, a neurochemical memory trace forms but disintegrates over time 2. Suggests passage of time always increases forgetting 5. Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon (TOT) 1. Type of effortful retrieval 2. occurs when we are confident we know something but can't quite pull it out of memory 3. In TOT state we can successfully retrieve aspects of a word, like the first letter or number of syllable but not the word itself 4. Reveals we do not store all info about certain topics/experiences in one way 5. Research has shown sounds of words are linked in memory even if the meanings aren't 6. Prospective Memory 1. Memory for intentions 2. Includes both: 1. Timing- when we have to do something 2. Content- what we have to do 3. Time-based prospective memory- intention to engage in a given behavior after certain amount of time has gone by 1. Ex. Phone call to someone in an hour 2. Event-based prospective memory -Engage in intended behavior when external event/cue elicits it 1. More effective than time-based prospective memory 2. Ex. giving roommate a message when seeing them 4. Failure in prospective memory is called absentmindedness 1. more absentminded when preoccupied w/ something else, distracted or under a lot of time pressure 2. often involves breakdown between attention/memory storage 3. Failure generally occurs when retrieval is conscious, effortful process 7. Amnesia 1. Loss of Memory 2. Anterograde Amnesia- memory disorder affecting retention of new info/events (inability to make new memories) 3. Retrograde Amnesia- memory loss for a segment of past events 1. Much more common than anterograde 2. Frequently occurs when brain is assaulted by electrical shock/physical blow 4. Possible to have both retro and anterograde amnesia 6. Study Tips from Science of Memory 7. Memory and Health/Wellness 1. Keeping Memory Sharp 1. Memory=indicator of brain functioning