Memory Cognition The Process of Thought Copyright Allyn

Memory Cognition The Process of Thought Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

Key Question: What is Memory? Human memory is an information processing system that works constructively to encode, store, and retrieve information Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

What is Memory? Any system – human, animal, or machine – that encodes, stores, and retrieves information

Metaphors for Memory • Cognitive psychologists see human memory more as an interpretive system, such as an artist, rather than a system that takes an accurate recording, such as a video recorder

Human Memory is Good at: • Information on which attention is focused • Information in which we are interested • Information that arouses us emotionally • Information that fits with our previous experiences • Information that we rehearse

Vague Memory • Images that serve well enough in everyday life but are sparse in details • Example: The image of a nickel …we automatically fill in the gaps and missing details without realizing how much of the memory we are actually creating

Memory’s Three Basic Tasks Encoding Storage Retrieval

Memory’s Three Basic Tasks Encoding Storage The Process of Remembering 1. Select a certain stimulus out of many 2. Identify the distinctive features 3. Mentally label it to make it meaningful Retrieval Elaboration Deliberate encoding in which you connect a new concept with existing information in your memory

Memory’s Three Basic Tasks Encoding Storage • The retention of encoded material over time Retrieval

Memory’s Three Basic Tasks Encoding Storage Retrieval • Involves the location and recovery of information from memory

Testing Your Memory • Try to recall as many of the following words as possible without writing any of the down

comforter night moon blanket pillow snoring dreams avocado clock tired blanket pajamas monkey dark bedspread blanket quiet peaceful

comforter night moon blanket pillow snoring dreams avocado clock tired blanket pajamas monkey dark bedspread blanket quiet peaceful

How Do We Form Memories? Each of the three memory stages encodes and stores memories in a different way, but they work together to transform sensory experience into a lasting record that has a pattern of meaning

The Three Stages of Memory Sensory Memory Working Memory Long-term Memory

The Three Stages of Memory Sensory Memory Preserves brief sensory impressions of stimuli Working Memory Long-term Memory

The First Stage: Sensory Memory • On the next slide, you will see a series of letters for one second • Try to remember as many letters as you can • DO NOT WRITE THEM DOWN Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

DJB X HG CLY

The First Stage: Sensory Memory • How many can you recall?

DJB X HG CLY

The First Stage: Sensory Memory • A. Capacity/Duration • Holds the barrage of incoming sensations just long enough for brain to scan it and decide which information needs attention…. 1/4 of a sec • Lasts just long enough to dissolve into another and give us a sense of flow and continuity in our experience

The First Stage: Sensory Memory • Actual storage capacity can be 12 or more items, but all but 3 or 4 disappear before they enter our consciousness

The First Stage: Sensory Memory • B. Structure/Function • There is as separate sensory register for each sense…each holds a different kind of sensory information Visual Stimulation = Iconic Memory Auditory Stimulation = Echoic Memory Tactile (touch) Stimulation = Tactile Sensory Memory Olfactory Stimulation = Olfactory Sensory Memory Gustatory Stimuli = Gustatory Sensory Memory

The First Stage: Sensory Memory • The job of sensory memory is to store these images briefly If they were held too long, they would interfere with new information • Psychologists believe that, in this stage, memory images take the form of nerve impulses

The Three Stages of Memory Sensory Memory Working Memory Preserves recently perceived events or experiences for less than a minute without rehearsal, also called short-term memory or STM Long-term Memory

The Second Stage: Working Memory • Working memory consists of… • A central executive • A phonological loop • The sketchpad

Three Parts of Working Memory • Central Executive: Directs attention to material retrieved from LTM or to important input from the sensory memory • Phonological Loop: Temporarily stores sounds…. like someone’s name • Sketchpad: Stores and manipulates mental images…like when you can imagine yourself driving a car to school from home

• Like the central processing chip of a computer • The center of mental action AND the go-between for the other parts of memory • It is where the brain sorts out and encodes information before adding it to long term memory • We are conscious of everything in the working memory Working Memory

Working Memory • Also the area where ‘thinking’ occurs… which is the brain mulling over images and ideas taken from the LTM • AKA = Short Term Memory Example: A phone number you just looked up Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

Capacity/Duration • Has limited capacity and a short duration • Typically hold information for about 20 seconds • “Magic Number Seven” …seven items of any sort. . (letters, numbers, words, shapes, sounds) will fill the working memory of “Put on your thinking cap” most people • Has the smallest capacity of the three stages

Biological Basis: Working memory probably holds information in actively firing nerve circuits…most likely in the frontal cortex Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

Encoding and Storage in Working Memory • I. Chunking • II. Rehearsal • Maintenance Rehearsal • Elaborate Rehearsal • III. Acoustic Encoding: The Phonological Loop • IV. Visual and Spatial Encoding. . the sketchpad

Working Memory Aides To Overcome Limited Capacity and Short Duration Chunking Organizing pieces of information into a smaller number of meaningful units • Example: A social security number F-B-I-T-W-A-C-I-A-I-B-M FBI TWA CIA IBM Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

Acronyms are another way of chunking information to remember it. HOMES Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization PEMDAS Parentheses, Exponent, Multiply, Divide, Add, Subtract SNAFU Situation Normal, All F***ed Up ROY G. BIV Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet WTF Williamstown Theater Festival Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

Rehearsal Process in which information is repeated or reviewed to keep it from fading while in working memory Spacing Effect We retain information better when we rehearse over time

Rehearsal Maintenance Rehearsal Repeating information to remember it Ex: Cramming for a test, a shopping list in your head • Not an efficient method of transferring information into the LTM Elaborate Rehearsal Repeating information AND connecting it to knowledge already stored in LTM • A more efficient method of transferring information into the LTM • Ex: 1 -800 -EYE-EXAM

Working Memory Aides To Overcome Limited Capacity and Short Duration Acoustic Encoding Encoded memory of a stimulus on the basis of any sound associated with it Whrr -- pop -- splash -- cuckoo: You can hear in your mind the sounds they describe Examples: Hearing words and phrases Repeating notes to yourself while studying.

Working Memory Aides To Overcome Limited Capacity and Short Duration • Visual and Spatial Encoding. . . The Sketchpad • Encodes visual images and mental representations of objects in space • • Example: Holds those images you think of when trying to remember where you left your lost coat

Levels-of-Processing Theory Explanation for the fact that the more connections you make with new information while it is in the working memory to prior knowledge in the LTM, the more likely you are to remember it. Also known as… Elaboration or Elaborative Rehearsal

The Three Stages of Memory Sensory Memory Working Memory Long-term Memory Stores material organized according to meaning, also called LTM

The Third Stage: Long-Term Memory Capacity and Duration: • Largest capacity and duration • Capacity is unlimited • Lasts a lifetime unless damaged/dementia • Unknown why it has unlimited capacity • Stores information according to meaning Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

Parts of the Brain Associated with Long Term Memory Amygdala and Hypothalamus Strengthens memories that have strong emotional associations…. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Visual Cortex Generating visual images Hippocampus • Deterioration of the hippocampus the cause of Alzheimer’s Disease • Long term memories make a stop here before going into long term storage Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

The Third Stage: Long-Term Memory Procedural Memory Division of LTM that stores memories for how things are done Declarative Memory Division of LTM that stores explicit information Example: How to tie a shoe Requires some conscious mental effort (also known as fact memory) Example: The capital of Alberta Yes…this was intentional & Bacon 2007 Copyright © Allyn

Subdivisions of Declarative Memory Episodic Memory that stores personal events, or “episodes” Semantic Memory that stores general knowledge, including meanings of words and concepts

Please read the following story, and be prepared to have your memory tested for one of its sentences. This is an interesting story about the telescope. In Holland, a man named Lippershey was an eyeglass maker. One day his children were playing with some lenses. They discovered that things seemed very close if two lenses were held about a foot apart. Lippershey began experimenting, and his “spyglass” attracted much attention. He sent a letter about it to Galileo, the great Italian scientist. Galileo at once realized the importance of the discovery and set about to build an instrument of his own. He used an old organ pipe with one lens curved out and the other in. On the first clear night he pointed the glass toward the sky. He was amazed to find the empty dark spaces filled with brightly gleaming stars! Night after night Galileo climbed to a high tower sweeping the sky with his telescope. One night he saw Jupiter, and to his great surprise discovered near it three bright stars, two to the east and one to the west. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

Now decide which one of the following sentences was in the story A. He sent Galileo, the great Italian scientist, a letter about it. B. A letter about it was sent to Galileo, the great Italian scientist. C. Galileo, the great Italian scientist, sent him a letter about it. D. He sent a letter about it to Galileo, the great Italian scientist. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

Long-term memory Declarative memory Procedural memory Semantic memory Episodic memory Includes memory for: language, facts general knowledge Includes memory for: events, personal experiences Includes memory for: motor skills, operant and classical conditioning

Eidetic Memory • The so-called “photographic” memory • An "unfounded myth? ? ? " • Evidence of it is found more often in children than adults Eidetic memory as observed in children is typified by the ability of an individual to study an image for approximately 30 seconds, and maintain a nearly perfect photographic memory of that image for a short time once it has been removed http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=A 4 ugf. Cjql. Z 4

The Biological Basis of Long-Term Memory • Engram or Memory Trace Physical change in the brain associated with memory Where are memories held? ? …Probably anywhere • Long-term Potentiation (po-TEN-she-a-shun) The long-lasting improvement in communication between two neurons that results from stimulating them simultaneously

The Biological Basis of Long-Term Memory Consolidation The process by which short-term memories are changed to long-term memories

Anterograde Amnesia Inability to form memories for new information Retrograde Amnesia – Inability to remember information previously stored in memory Amnesia

• Watch 50 First Dates trailer • http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Erj. P 5 x. MTc 8 I

Flashbulb Memories Clear, vivid long term memory of an especially meaningful and emotional event Usually accurate for at least the first year after the event Information can be lost, but not destroyed or deleted

• Watch 9/11 Flashbulb Memories on Youtube • http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=evj 6 q 0 e. Cdd 8

Forgetting Maintenance Rehearsal Sensory Memory Attention Input ¼ of a second Encoding Working or Long-term Short-term memory Memory Retrieval 20 seconds Forever?