Chapter 9 - MemoryReading Map

• Thur, Jan 5 343 - 349

• Fri, Jan 6 349 – 354

• Mon, Jan 9354 – 365

• Tue, Jan 10 365 – 371

• Wed, Jan 11 372 – 383 - take home quiz

• Thur, Jan 12 Cards/Study Guide and quiz due

•

Clive Wearing

• Clive Wearing

• - the man with no short term memory

• 3 minute• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Vwigmktix2Y

• More on Clive Wearing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Wearing

Anterograde and Retrograde Amnesia

• Anterograde amnesia is a loss of the ability to create new memories after the event that caused the amnesia, leading to a partial or complete inability to recall the recent past, while long-term memories from before the event remain intact. This is in contrast to retrograde amnesia, where memories created prior to the event are lost. Both can occur together in the same patient.

The Phenomenon of Memory (344)

• Memory - the persistence of learning over time through storage and retrieval of information

Memory Loss and Memory Feats (344)

• Some can’t lay down new memories

• Some seem to not forget anything

• Check out this clip on a memory world record holder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL6OWKarzGU&feature=related

Memory Loss and Memory Feats (344)

• Flashbulb memories --- we best remember unique and/or highly emotional moments

Information Processing (345)

In forming memories we– Select

– Process

– Store

– Retrieve

information

In other words, we– Encode (sensory

information into neural impulses)

– Storage (retain the information)

– Retrieve (later get it back out)

Computer v Brain (345)

• Computer– Faster

– serially

• Brain– Slower

– parallel

Atkinson & Shiffron’s 3-Stage Processing Model of Memory (345)

• 1. Record fleeting sensory memory - we focus on certain stimuli only - selective attention

• 2. Process it into our short-term memory

• Encode it for long-term memory and later retrieval

Working Memory (346)

• Processing information in our short term memory

• Here we attend to, rehearse, manipulate information

• We associate new information with old information

• If we don’t work new information we lose it

Sleep and Memory (248)

• Information just before sleep is not remembered

• Information 1 hour before sleep is well remembered

• information during sleep in not remembered

Spacing Effect (348)

• Better retention if rehearsal is spaced

• The longer the space the better the retention

• Adaptive issue - spaced stuff is more likely to reoccur (ie feeding a baby) so we better remember it!

Serial Position Effect (349)

• If we are shown a list of items we will best remember the first and last items the best

Verbal and Visual Component (346)

• Baddeley (1992) - found that there is a verbal and visual component to working memory

• Parallel but limited

• So, we can’t have 2 conversations at once (verbal) but we can talk (verbal) and drive (visual) at the same time

Encoding (247)2 Types

• Automatic Processing– Unconscious encoding

– Things like space, time, well-known words

– Does not interfere with our effortful processing

– Effortful processing can become automatic

• Effortful Processing – Information

remembered only with effort and attention

Ebbinghaus Retention Curve (348)

• Ebbinghaus (1850 - 1909) studied memory

• In his experiment with nonsense syllables he discovered that the more time spent rehearsing on day 1 the less time needed on day 2 to recall the information

Next-in-Line Effect (347)

• We have the poorest memory for what is said by the person who speaks just before we have to speak.

• When we are “next” we focus on ourself rather than on what the person beside us said his name was!

3 Ways of Encoding Information (349)

• 1. Encode meaning

• 2. Visualize the information

• 3. Mentally organize the information

Encoding Meaning (349)

• Think about the meaning of the information

• What is its context?

• We remember what we encode, not necessarily what we heard

• Verbal information can be encoded visually, acoustically (sound) or semantically (meaning)

Ebbinghaus (349)

• Discovered that learning meaningful material requires 1/10th of the effort of learning meaningless material

30 second memory experiment

• Basketball• Music• Mustard• Coffee• Textbook• Vehicle• Snow• Pain• Stone• Success

Self-Reference Effect (349)

• You are more likely to remember information that you can relate to yourself

Encoding Imagery (351)

• Our earliest memories are usually visually encoded

• Re recall words best if we can picture them

• We best recall vivid, snapshot memories better than mundane memories

Rosy Retrospection (351)

• Our memories are often better than the actual event

Mnemonic Devices (351)

• Memory aids

• Ex - Method of Loci - associate a place with an item to remember

• Ex - Acoustic Code - use peg word (one) to remember item (bun)

• Ex - Visual Code - stick the carrot in the bun!!!!!!

Organizing Information for Encoding (352)

• Hierarchies - categories/divisions– Micky/Patty/Paul/Robby/Jason

• Chunking - easier to remember meaningful units of information – 359-1888 not 35 91 8 8 8 8

Storage: Retaining InformationSensory Memory (354)

G P L

F K W

C Z M

• George Sperling flashed 9 letters for 1/20th second. People can recall about half. When he flashed the letters even quicker, but, after the flash sounded 1 of 3 tones, people could recall an entire row.

• This is fleeting photographic memory.

Iconic and Echoic Memory (354)

• Fleeting photographic memory – of visuals is called

iconic memory - it last for a few tenths of a second

– Of sounds is called echoic memory - it lasts for 3 to 4 seconds.

Short Term Memory (355)

• Unless we meaningfully encode or rehearse sensory memory, it disappears

• Limited in duration (3 seconds) and capacity (7 bits of info + or - 2)

Short Term Memory (355)

• Better for random digits than letters

• Better for heard v. seen information

• Capacity - about as many words as you can speak in 2 seconds

Long Term Memory (355)

• Capacity is limitless• The average adult has about a billion bits of

information in memory and a storage capacity that is probably a thousand to a million times greater.

• 4 minute clip on memory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TausqSK9p9k

Storing Memories in the Brain (356)

• Our memory is vast but not always exact. Forgetting occurs as new experiences interfere with our retrieval and as the physical memory trace gradually decays.

• Memory Trace - is our memory’s physical basis ------ what is it???

Memory Trace and the Cortex? (356)

• Lashley trained rats to solve a maze and then cut out portions of their cortexes to see if it would effect their memories of the maze. No matter what small section he removed, the rats still remembered at least part of the maze.

• SO ---- memories don’t seem to reside in specific spots of the cortex.

Memory Trace and the Brain’s Electrical Activity? (356)

• Gerard (1953) tested rat’s maze abilities after he had stopped their brain’s electrical activity ---- the rats still remembered which way to turn to get the food in the maze

Long Term Memory and Synaptic Changes (357)

• Given increased activity in a particular pathway, neural interconnections (synapse between the axon and dendrites) form and are strengthened.

Memory and the Synapse (357)

• Kandel and Schwartz (1982) found that snails classically conditioned to recoil when squirted had changes in its synapses - more serotonin - neuron becomes more efficient at transmitting signals.

Long Term Potentiation (357)

• Increased synaptic efficiency makes for more efficient neural circuits. The sending neuron needs less prompting to release its neurotransmitter and receptor sites increase. This prolonged strengthening of potential neural firing, called long-term potentiation (LTP) provides a neural basis for learning and memory.

Long Term Potentiation (357)

• Image is of receptor sites before and after long term potentiation.

• Drugs can block or enhance LTP

• After LTP has occurred, a new electrical current (ie electroconvulsive treatment) won’t disrupt old memories but it will wipe out very recent memories

Stress Hormones and Memory (358)• Stress hormones boost memory. Stress hormones make

more glucose energy available to fuel brain activity.• The amygdala also boosts activity in the brain’s

memory-forming areas.• Drugs that block stress hormones inhibit memory• Weaker emotion means weaker memories. • BUT, prolonged stress corrodes neural connections and

shrinks the hippocampus which is used in forming memories.

• Sudden stress cal also block older memories - ie going blank during a speech.

Implicit and Explicit Memory (358)

Implicit Memory• AKA procedural

memory• Retention independent

of conscious recollection

• Unconscious capacity for learning

• Explicit Memory• Memory of facts and

experiences that one can consciously know and declare

• AKA declarative memory

Types of Long-term Memories

Hippocampus (360)

• New explicit memories of names, images and events are laid down via the hippocampus (and also frontal lobe) and then are stored elsewhere in the brain

• Damage to hippocampus disrupts recent memory but not long term memory

• Hippocampus is lateralized - one above each ear

• Damage to left hippocampus hurts remembering verbal information but not visual design or location.

• Damage to the right hippocampus does the opposite

Cerebellum (260)

• Place of implicit memory and classically conditioned responses

• Ex of the amnesia patient who won’t take her doctor’s handshake after he poked her the day before. She can’t remember his name but also doesn’t take his hand.

Amygdala (360)

• Emotional memories

• Damaged amygdala prevents learning fear conditioning.

Retrieval (361)

• Recall - a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier (ie fill in the blank test)

• Recall - the ability to retrieve information not in conscious awareness

• Recognition also proves learning.

• Recognition is a measure of memory where the person only has to identify items previously learned (ie MC test)

• Relearning time also proves initial learning

Retrieval Cues (362)

• In recognition tests, retrieval cues (ie pictures) provide reminders of information we couldn’t otherwise recall

Priming (362)

• The process where we identify a strand or association that leads to a memory

• AKA memory-less memory - we are primed to hear “hare” if we first see a picture of a bunny

• Mnemonics give us retrieval cues - one rhymes with bun

Context Effect (363)

• We best recall it if tested where we learned it

• Déjà vu - the feeling that I’ve experienced this before. Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience

Mood and Memory (364)

• Mood is a retrieval cue activating other memories associated with that mood

• State-dependent memory - what we learn in one state (ie happy) is more easily recalled when we are again in that state.

• Depression and alcohol disrupt encoding and storage - however, what I learn drunk or depressed will be best remembered (albeit badly) in that same state.

Mood-Congruent Memory (364)

• The tendency to recall memories that match your current mood

• Leads to things like the cycle of depression

• Moods effect our perceptions

Forgetting (365)

• Can be because of failure to encode, store or retrieve

7 Memory Failures (365)

• Forgetting– Absent-minded, inattention to detail causing encoding failure– Transience - storage decay (unused information)– Blocking - inaccessible stored information

• Distortion– Misattribution - confusing the source of the information– Suggestibility - misinformation– Bias - belief-colored recollections

• Intrusion– Persistence - unwanted memories

Encoding Failure (366)

• If we don’t encode, it doesn’t enter long-term memory

• As we age we are slower to encode• Older people recall less then young people but

have similar ability of recognition memory• Encoding failure is also because of our selective

attention• Some encoding is automatic and some requires

effort

Storage Failure (367)Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

• Ebbinghaus - much of what we learn we quickly forget, them forgetting levels off

• Why?– Fading of physical

memory trace– Accumulation of other

learning disrupts retrieval

Retrieval Failure (368)

• Memory is stored but unretrievable

• Retrieval cues can help

• Retrieval suffers with age

Interference (368)

• Retroactive– New learning disrupts

recall of older information

– This is why you should go to bed right after you finish studying!

– Best to study one hour before sleep

• Proactive– Old learning disrupts

recall of newer information

Positive Transfer (369)

• When old information (latin) HELPS us learn new information (french)

Motivated Forgetting (370)

• Unknowingly revising your history• Freud called this repression - we self-censor

painful information to protect our self-concept and to minimize anxiety

• Freud said that repressed memories are banished from our conscious BUT linger in our unconscious and can be retrieved with cues or with therapy.

Memory Construction (372)

• Misinformation Effect - we incorporate misleading information into our memory of an event

• As memory fades over time it is easier to inject misinformation

• We will guess to fill in memory gaps - then our guesses become our remembered reality

Loftus and Palmer Experiment

• People are shown a car crash. If they asked people how fast the cars crashed into each other (as opposed to hit each other) , speed was estimated higher and later they remember smashed glass

Source Amnesia (374)

• Attributing memories to the wrong source

• AKA source misattribution

Discerning True v. False Memories (375)

• Don’t rely on feelings because false memories can feel very real

• Persistence also doesn’t prove T or F memory

• In real memories there are better details. False memories are usually more “gist”

PET Scan and Memory (375)

• Roediger and McDermott (1995) - had subjects say candy, sugar, honey, taste. Then showed them a list of words and asked them to say whether they were the original words. The hippocamus was the same whether the guess was T or F. The left temporal lobe only lit up with correctly remembered words.

Child Eyewitness Recall (376)

• Leading questions

• suggestibility

Repressed or Constructed Memories of Abuse (377)

• Sustained stress can cause traumatic events to be forgotten

• False memory in therapies using guided imagery, hypnosis, dream analysis

• Problem of inferring childhood abuse from adult symptoms

• Therapy can be a setting to “create” memory

Improving Memory (381)

• PRTR (preview/read/think critically/review)• Over-learning boosts recall• Increase rehearsal time• Make material meaningful• Use mnemonics• Activate retrieval cues/context effect• Recall information quickly after learning it• Minimize interference (of sleep and of new learning)• Test yourself