Memory

Cognitive Processing

Automatic processing Controlled processing Serial processing Parallel processing

Attention

Focusing attention on a narrowed range of stimuli Sustained v. Divided Filter

Early? (sensory input) Late? (after brain processes)

Top Down v. Bottom Up

Retention at three levels of processing. In accordance with levels-of-processing theory, Craik and Tulving (1975) found that structural, phonemic, and semantic encoding led to progressively better retention.

Enriched Encoding

Elaboration

Visual Imagery

Self-Referent Encoding

Baddeley & Hitch – Working Memory

Recognition versus recall in the measurement of retention. Luh (1922) had subjects memorize lists of nonsense syllables and then measured their retention with either a recognition test or a recall test at various intervals up to two days. As you can see, the forgetting curve for the recall test was quite steep, whereas the recognition test yielded much higher estimates of subjects’ retention.

Memory Systems

Implicit

Explicit

Implicit Memories

Procedural Learned skills Does not

require conscious recollection

Conditioned responses“automatic

memory”

Explicit Memories Declarative

Can be accessed directly

Involves episodic and semantic memory

Semantic General knowledge

not attached to time Language

Episodic Chronological

recollection of experience

“Flashbulb memory”

Memory for the past and future events Retrospective

Remembering events from the past or previously learned

Prospective Memory for future

events “What do I have to

do today?”

Why do we forget?

7 sins of memory

“Sins of Omission”

Transience--the decreasing accessibility of memory over time.

Absent-mindedness--lapses of attention and forgetting to do things.

Blocking--temporary inaccessibility of stored information, such as tip-of-the-tongue syndrome.

“Sins of Commission” Suggestibility--incorporation of

misinformation into memory due to leading questions, deception and other causes.

Bias--retrospective distortions produced by current knowledge and beliefs.

Persistence--unwanted recollections that people can't forget, such as the unrelenting, intrusive memories of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Misattribution--attribution of memories to incorrect sources or believing that you have seen or heard something you haven't.