Memory

Memory• The persistence of learning

over time through the storage and retrieval of information–Your memory is your mind’s

storehouse, the reservoir of your accumulated learning

Memory

• Memory involves three fundamental processes:

1. Encoding2. Storage3. Retrieval

Memory – Information Processing• Encoding – putting into

• Storage – keeping

• Retrieval –getting out

Encoding• Encoding is the

processing of information into

the memory system – the first step of building a

memory is sensory input

Encoding – Effortful Processing

• Two effortful practices that may help to gather (encode) sensory information include rehearsal and spacing

Encoding –

• Rehearsal – the conscious repetition of information

• Like studying or practice!

Encoding – • Spacing Effect – rehearsing

information repeatedly, over time. • Spaced studying beats cramming!

• Rehearse a bit, take a break, begin rehearsing as you start forgetting things, take a break, rehearse again as you begin to forget, etc.

Types of Encoding• Visual (Mental) Encoding – the

encoding of picture images• Acoustic Encoding – the

encoding of sounds• Semantic Encoding – the

encoding of meanings, especially of words

Visual / Mental Encoding• Where did you go yesterday, who was

with you, where did you eat, and what did you wear? Remembering visual information is often easier than remembering formulas, definitions, names and dates.

• Visual encoding applies the idea of mental pictures to words and concepts, in order to put them into memory easier.

Encoding –Mental / Visual Imagery

• A mental picture of Lady Macbeth.• While reading John Grisham’s “The Firm”,

you picture Tom Cruise as the main character.

Encoding – Mental Imagery

• When encoding a list of words, apply a mental picture to each word. IE. Typewriter, fire, cigarette, scary.

Encoding – Mental Imagery Example

• Grocery List • A through J• Make a list of thing you buy @ the grocery

store starting with A, B, C – J• Directions follow

Auditory Encoding - Sounds

• auditory encoding enhances the processing of information by applying rhyme schemes, stories, songs, etc. to the information.

Encoding – Auditory Encoding

• 30 Days has September, April, June and November. All the rest have 31, except February…

• In fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue.

• "i" before "e," except after "c," or in sounding like "ay" as in "neighbor" or "weigh."

Auditory Encoding - Sounds• “What sobriety conceals, alcohol

reveals”.• “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must

acquit,” is easily remembered by jurors when a lawyer is fighting for his client’s innocence.

Encoding – Auditory Encoding

• Songs are another great way to remember things – SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK !!

Encoding –More Strategies (Mnemonics)

• Chunking – Organizing items into familiar, manageable units

• Acronyms – Organizing items by creating words or sentences from the first letters of the words or information to be remembered

Chunking Numbers

• Put your pencil down• Remember the numbers I saw verbally

Encoding –Chunking

1,8,1,2,1,7,7,6,1,9,4,1,1,4,9,2

Encoding –Chunking

• Much easier to encode the numbers into our memory if we “chunk” them:

• Try to remember these numbers:1812, 1776, 1941, 1492

Encoding –Chunking

• Where they easier to remember?

• They were the same numbers as before…

1,8,1,2,1,7,7,6,1,9,4,1,1,4,9,2

• 1812, 1776, 1941, 1492

Encoding –Acronyms

• Need to learn the names of North America’s five “Great Lakes”?–HOMES – Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior

Encoding – Effortful ProcessingAcronyms

• National Basketball Association – NBA

• Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus – SCUBA

Encoding – Effortful ProcessingAcronyms

•Can’t remember how to spell Arithmetic?–A Rat In Toms House Might Eat Toms Ice Cream

–Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally - mathematical order of operations: Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiply and Divide before you Add and Subtract

–How about the planets in order…• My Very Educated Mother Just

Showed Us Nine Planets – • …only no more Pluto so how about

My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nothing

Encoding with emotions• Flashbulb Memories – a clear memory of

an emotionally significant moment or event– Where were you when 9/11 occurred, or

when Kennedy was shot? – You clearly remember your first hit in

Little League, your first kiss, the first day of high school, a funeral, a wedding….. even though the memory may be many years old, you have a clear recollection.

MemoryPart II

Storage and Retrieval

Memory – Information Processing

• “Three-Stage Processing” Model

• Memories are stored in a three-step process of sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory

Memory – Information Processing

• Sensory Memory – the immediate, initial recording of sensory information; fleeting, to-be-remembered information

Memory – Information Processing

• Short-Term Memory – activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven-digits of a phone number while you are dialing, and then the information is either stored, or forgotten

Memory – Information Processing

• Long-term Memory – the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of memories

Sensory Memory

• Sensory memory retention is only fleeting and momentary

• Sensory memory retention allows us to remember small, quick bits of information for a very short period of time

Sensory Memory

G Z E P

RK O D

BT X F

Sensory Memory

• How many letters can you recall?• Most people can recall four or five

letters in that short of a time span, but know that there were more.

Sensory Memory

• Sensory memory retention is what is used when you see a face in the crowd for a split second….you recognize features quickly, determine she/he was cute, but then you can’t remember any details of their face

Sensory Memory• Was he/she cute?• What was he/she wearing? What color

was it?• What color was his/her hair? How long

was it?• What color was her lipstick?• What was his/her facial expression? • What color were his/her eyes?

Short-Term Memory or Working Memory

• The ability to hold and manipulate information over a brief period of time. Forgetting can occur rapidly, especially if distracted

Short-Term Memory or Working Memory

• Short-term memory has two important characteristics. – First, short-term memory can contain at

any one time seven, plus or minus two, "chunks" of information.

– Second, items remain in short-term memory around twenty to thirty seconds.

Short-Term Memory• This type of

memory increases as children get

older…

…but decreases in old age

• Activity• Pens and pencils DOWN

• Look at the picture • You will have15 seconds

Short-Term Memory

• Write down the words of all the pictures you can remember.

• How many objects did you remember?

Short-Term Memory

• We can only consciously process a very limited amount of information in our short-term memory.

Short-Term Memory• We can only consciously process a very limited amount of information in

our short-term memory.

• Overload your short-term memory? You might forget what you read, ask

yourself where you put your briefcase, and ask your phone partner the same thing twice.

Long-Term Memory• A system in the brain that can

store vast amounts of information on a relatively enduring basis

• The information can be facts you learned a few minutes ago, personal memories that are decades old, or skills learned with practice.

Long-Term Memory

• The average adult has more than a billion bits of information in

memory• Storage capacity of long-term memories has been estimated at million times that (1,000,000 X

1,000,000,000)

Retrieval

• Retrieval is the process of getting information out of memory storage

• You may need to remember exact facts and figures, or you may only need to remember general terms and identifications.

Retrieval• Recall – memory is the ability to

retrieve exact information learned at an earlier time– IE. Fill in the blank test.– IE. Columbus sailed in the year ________.

6 x 6 = _____. Define retrieval ______. My Social Security number is _______.

Retrieval• Recognition – a measure of memory

in which a person only needs to identify items previously learned– IE. A multiple-choice test.– IE. Of the following choices, which is the

correct answer to 6 x 6 ____. You can’t remember the names of all 400 kids you graduated high school with, but if I show you pictures of them you can remember who you went to school with and who you didn’t.

Retrieval• Relearning – the principle that if

you’ve learned something and forgot it, you probably will learn the material more easily the second time – therefore, retrieval is easier and quicker as well– IE. Learned to play the guitar and played

for five years. Haven’t played in 10 years, but you pick up a guitar and play a few tunes, and with a few lessons you play as well as you did before.

Retrieval• Retrieval Cues – clues that provide

reminders of information that otherwise would be more difficult to remember; clues that can guide us the where to look for the right answers.

Retrieval

• Priming – the activation of particular associations in memory; this may be done consciously or unconsciously, purposefully or incidentally

Retrieval– IE. Mnemonic clues (Roy G Biv) are primers

that allow you to remember information many types of factual information

– IE. A “Missing Child” poster makes you think about your own abduction as a child

– IE. The color red prompts memories of days on your grandfathers farm, with its big red barn

– IE. The first letter of each vocabulary word is provided on your test.

Retrieval Cues• Context Effects – the tendency to

remember information better and more accurately when you are in a physical setting that is similar to the one that you learned the information in the first place

Retrieval Cues• Mood-Congruent – along with the state-

dependent theory, our moods bias our memories also (we remember things better when we are in the same mood as when the memory was formed)– IE. You had a fantastic 5th birthday party, with lots

of friends, gifts, clowns, etc. BUT, you had a cold that day and were sad. Your memory of your 5th birthday party may be that it was long, dreary, and sad.

Retrieval Cues

• State-Dependent Theory – what we learn in one physical state – such as drunk or sober – is sometimes more easily recalled when we are again in that same state

Retrieval Cues• déjà vu – “Already Seen” (French)

– The eerie sense that “I’ve been in this exact situation before”

– Paranormal Explanation – Precognition or Reincarnation?

– Memory Explanation – If a situation is loaded with clues that are similar to ones already in memory, your brain makes similar associations between them

MemoryForgetting, Memory Construction,

and Improving Memory

Retrieval Failures

• Repression - a basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

• People can knowingly, or unknowingly, revise their own histories

Retrieval Failures

• Tip-Of-The-Tongue Experience – the inability to get a bit of information that you’re absolutely certain is stored in your memory – the information is very close, but just out of reach

Medical Memory Loss• Amnesia – severe memory loss

– Retrograde – forget things from the past– Anterograde – inability to form new

memories but remember the past

• Alzheimers – as plaques build in the brain and interfere with neural transmissions, memories cannot be formed or retrieved

False Memories• Source Confusion – arises when the true

source of a memory is forgotten, so you create details to fill in the gaps– You actually saw that on tv…

• Misinformation Effect – a person’s existing memories can be altered if the person is exposed to misleading information– Eyewitness Testimony…How

reliable is it?

Elizabeth Loftus

How To Make Memories Last?A Few Suggestions

• Focus your attention• Commit the necessary time• Space your study sessions• Organize the information• Elaborate on the material

How To Make Memories Last?A Few Suggestions

• Use visual imagery and other mnemonics

• Explain it to a friend• Reduce Interferences• Since we usually remember the early

part and the last part, spend extra time on the middle

• Use contextual clues to jog memory