7 A Memory Example computer Our memories are

7 A: Memory

Example: computer Our memories are less literal and more fragile The Brain is slower, but can does many things at once

Connectionism Modern Memory model We first record to be remembered info as fleeting: sensory memory From there we process info into short-term memory, where we encode it through rehearsal Information than moves onto long-term memory for later retrieval

Modified three-stage processing External events (sensory input)->Sensory memory (Encoding)/Important info)->Working/Short-term memory (Encoding and Retrieving)->Long-term memory Short-term: last about a minute (#) Working memory: memories that last for days or weeks (stays longer) but not permanently (studying)

Working Memory Concentrates on active processing of info People’s working memory capacity differs

How we Encode Automatic Processing: unconscious encoding of information Ex: Where you ate dinner yesterday? Parallel Processing: doing many things at once Effortful Processing: encoding that requires attention and conscious effort Ex: What is standard deviation?

Automatic Processing • Space: example when studying you often encode the place on a page and if struggling will try to visualize • Time: unintentually note the sequence of today’s events • Frequency: keep track of how many times things happen • Well-learned information: register words with meaning

Effortful Processing • Durable and accessible memories • We can boost our memory through rehearsal • The amount remembered depends on the time spent learning • Overlearning-additional rehearsal increases retention (practice is key)

Effortful Processing Spacing effect: we retain information between when rehearsal is distributed over time Mass practice (cramming) can produce speedy shortterm learning and confidence but distributed study time produces better long-term recall

Effortful Processing Spreading out learning (over a semester) helps not only on final exams but also retaining that information for a lifetime (testing effect) Spaced study and self-assessment beats cramming

Effortful Processing: Serial Effect • Our tendency to recall the first best the last and first items in a list • Primacy (first): Remembered items at the beginning of the list • Recency (recent): Remembered items come at the end of the list/most recent • Von Restorff effect: exception: when information is list is unique (president example)

Levels of Processing Visual encoding-picture/images Acoustic encoding-sound Semantic encoding-meaning Processing a word deeply by its meaning produces better recognition later than does shallow processing such as appearance or sound

Self-reference effect: good recall of information when it is meaningful to us

Visual Encoding Imagery-mental pictures, powerful aid to effortful processing especially when combined with meaning Mnemoic: memory aids Can also help organize material for later retrieval

Organizing information for Encoding Chunking: organizing items into familiar units (occurs automatically) Hierarchies: composed of a few broad concepts divided and subdivided into narrower concepts and facts

Encoding: selective attention http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=IGQmdo. K_Zf. Y

Storage: retaining information Sensory memory Iconic memory: momentary memory of visual stimuli Fleeting photographic memory Echoic memory: momentary memory of auditory stimuli Linger for 3 to 4 seconds Both have helped the initial recording of sensory info

Working/Short-term Memory Limited in duration and capacity Short-term memory better for random digits than random letters At any given moment we can consciously process only a very limited amount of info

Long-term Memory Our capacity for storing long-term memories is essentially limitless

Storing Memories in the Brain We don’t store information in discrete precise locations Ex: Rats in maze

Synaptic Changes Memory trace? Nerve cells must communicate through their synapses/ Thus to understand the basis of memory we have to look how neurons communicate with one another via their neurtransmitter messangers

Synaptic Changes We know experience (age) does increase neural interconnections to form or strengthen Increased synaptic efficiency makes for more efficient neural circuits. The sending neuron now needs less prompting to release its neurotransmitter and the receiving neuron’s receptor sites may increase

Long-term potentiation Prolonged neural firing provides a neural basis for learning and remembering Rats given a drug that enhances LTP learned a maze with half the usual # of mistakes

LTP Pharamceutical companies competing to develop memory-boosting drugs One approach is developing drugs that boost production of the protein CREB Thus lead to increased production of proteins that help reshape synapses and consolidate short-term into longterm memory

LTP Drugs that boost glutamate, a neurotransmitter that enhances synaptic communication Most effective, safe, and free memory enhancer…….

LTP After LTP has occurred, passing an electric current through the brain won’t disrupt old memories, but will wipe out very recent memories Ex: Blow to the head (football players)

Stress Hormones and Memory in Brain Stronger emotional experiences make for stronger, more reliable memories People given a drug that blocks the effects of stress hormones will have trouble remembering the details of an upsetting story Ex: rape victim Video clip on Stress and Memory-AP Collins

Limits to stress-enhanced remembering Sustained abuse or combat: can shrink the hippocampus When stress hormones are flowing older memories may be blocked Ex: Stressed rats have harder time finding their way out of the maze

Storing implicit and explicit memories Anmesia: unable to form new memories Destroyed conscious recall not unconscious capacity Implict: “how to do something” Motor skills, bike ridind Explicit: People may not be able to explain how they know to do something

Hippocampus Damage to this area disrupts memory Left: trouble remembering verbal information Right: trouble recalling visual designs or locations Active when we sleep: loading dock while the brain register and temporarily holds the episode Simultaneous activity between the brain while sleeping Once stored, we activate various parts of the frontal and temporal lobes

The Cerebellum The brain region at the rear of the brainstem, which forms and stores the implicit memories created by classical conditioning When damaged, people cannot develop certain conditioned reflexes Eye test: puff of air

Retrieval: Getting Information Out Recall: the ability to retrieve information not in conscious awareness Ex: 5 minute clip you have seen before, fill in the blank Recognizing: person identifies previously learned material Ex: unit test (multiple choice) Relearning: Amount of times saved when learning material for a second time

Retrieval Cues Memories are stored in a web of associations Anchor points you can use to target information you want to retrieve later Mneomic Devices Best come from associations we form at the time we encode the memory (5 senses)

Retrieval Cues-Priming “Wakening of associations” Invisible memory without explicit remembering Behaviors can be primed in social situations

Context Effects Putting yourself back in the context where you experienced something can prime your memory retrieval Ex: pencil, desk Déjà vu: being in a similar context to one we’ve been in before may trigger the experience The current situation may be loaded with cues that unconsciously retrieved an earlier similar experience Don’t pay attention to the details around us

Moods and Memory State-dependent memory what at we learn in one state may be more easily recalled when we are again in that state Emotions become retrieval cues When happy we recall happy events, see the world as a happy place, thus prolongs our good mood When depressed, we recall sad events, which darkens our interpretation of current events

Forgetting Three sings of forgetting Absent –mindedness-in attention to details leads to encoding failure (our mind is elsewhere) Transience-storage decay over time (unused info fades) Blocking-inaccessibility of stored information (retrieval failure)

Forgetting Three sins of distortion Misattribution-confusing the source of info (dream) Suggestibility-lingering effects of misinformation Bias-belief colored recollections (feelings )

Forgetting One sin of intrusion Persistence-unwanted memories (sexual assault)

Encoding Failure Age can affect encoding efficiency Helps age-related memories decline Without effort, many memories never form Penny example

Storage Decay Forgetting Curve: the course of forgetting is initially rapid then levels off with time Why? It is a gradual fading of the physical memory trace Accumulation of learning that disrupts our retrieval

Occurs when the retrieval process does not produce a complete response but produces parts. Forgetting as a result of retrieval failure rather than encoding or storage failure

Retrieval Failure Contribute to the occasional memory failures of older adults who are frustrated by the tip-of-the-tongue forgetting Interference and Motivated Forgetting

Retrieval Failure: Interference Proactive interference: occurs when something you learned earlier disrupts your recall of something you experience later Retroactive interference: occurs when new information makes it harder to recall something you learned earlier Information presented in the hour before sleep is protected from retroactive inference because the opportunity for interfering evens is minimized When should you study?

Proactive or retroactive? I’ve used my locker combination for years. One day I had to learn a new one for just one day. Now I can’t remember my old one. I keep calling my new girlfriend by my old girlfriend’s name!

Retrieval Failure: Motivated Forgetting People unknowingly revise their own histories Sigmund Freud: he proposed that we repress painful memories to protect our self-concept and to minimize anxiety Many people disagree saying that its extremely hard to forget emotional memories or traumatic experiences

Video clips-AP Collins

Memory Construction We infer our past from stored information plus what we later imagined, expected, saw, and heard Eye witness testimony

Memory Construction: Misinformation and Imagination effects Misinformation effect: after exposure to subtle misinformation, many people misremember Hard to discriminate between real and suggested events The more vividly we can imagine things, the more likely we are to inflate them into memories

Memory Construction: Source Amnesia We retain the memory of the event, but not of the context in which we acquired it Ex: Rumor mill

Memory Construction: Discerning True and False Memories Much as perceptual illusions may seem like real perceptions, unreal memories feel like real memories Memories we derive from experience have more detail than memories we derive from imagination Why memories are so fallible: Our imagination and expectation are very powerful

Memory Construction: Discerning True and False Memories of imagined experiences are more restricted to the gist of the supposed event-the associated meaning and feelings Because gist memories are durable, children’s false memories sometimes outlast their true memories especially as children mature

Memory Construction: Children’s Eyewitness Recall Interviewers who ask leading question can plant false memories Children can testify if they have not talked with the involved adult prior to the interview and when their disclosure is made in a first interview with a neutral person who ask non-leading questions

Repressed or Constructed Memories of Abuse Sexual abuse happens: no characteristic “survivor syndrome” Injustice happens: some innocent people have been falsely convicted Forgetting happens: both negative and positive Recovered memories are commonplace: cued by a remark or an experience Memories before the age of 3 are unreliable: infantile amnesia Memories “recovered” under hypnosis or the influenced of drugs are especially unreliable Memories whether real or false can be emotionally

Elizabeth Loftus: main issues that occupy researchers People are prone to mis-information when time allows the original memory to fade Young people are susceptible to the misinformation effect Some have argued that the original memory traces are changed by post-event information Misleading info can turn a lie into memory’s truth

Elizabeth Loftus and Impossible Memories To show that reconstructed memories are not just amalgamations of actual experiences Video clip on AP Collins

Improving Memory SQ 3 R-Survey, Question, Read, Rehearse, Review-Unit 1 Study repeatedly: exercise memories, wait time Make the material meaningful: form images, understand organize info, relate to what you already know Activate retrieval cues: re-create the situation and the mood in which your original learning occurred Use mnemoic devices: chunk items, rhymes Minimize interference: study before sleeping Sleep more Test your own knowledge-self-assessment