HUMAN MEMORYModules 26-30 (Myers)

Human Memory: Basic Questions

How does information get into memory? How is information maintained in

memory? How is information pulled back out of

memory?

The Analogy

Figure 7.2 Three key processes in memory

(Spiral) FRQ on Memory #1 Mrs. Haltli memorizes the license plate of her

car during a family vacation, because she knows that the clerk at the hotel will ask for it at the reception desk. Explain the roles of the following memory concepts in her task using Atkinson and Shiffrin’s modified three-stage processing model of memory (Myers, 327).

Sensory Memory Attention Encoding Working/short-term memory Long-term memory Retrieval

(The purpose of FRQ #1 is to summarize the STAGES of the entire MEMORY PROCESS including encoding, storage, and retrieval).

Step #1: Encoding: Getting Information Into Memory

Step #1: Pay attention After we see, hear, touch, etc. something, we

unconsciously decide whether or not it’s important. If it is, we pay attention and encode it into memory.

Step #2: Filter out unimportant info This takes place constantly! Filtering happens twice

1. Immediately after sensory detection and before meaning recognition EX. React without knowing it

2. Immediately after meaning recognition and before response selection EX. You hear your name from across the room, even though you were not aware you were listening

a

While and after you are encoding memory, it is stored according to it purpose in one, two, or all three different cognitive warehouses:

1. Sensory Memory: from raw sense date; sensory store is about ¼ sec. Attention moves it into short-term/working memory. Evidence: afterimages, Sperling’s experiment (pg. 336)

2. Short-term/working memory: from filtered sensory data; this store is limited to 20-30 sec. max and 7+ or – 2 chunks of information. In order to maintain information, you must rehearse (repeat) it. Also has a visual, acoustic, organizational, and syncing features. Evidence: Miller’s experiment on the “Magic Number,” Ebbinghaus’ study on decay without rehearsal (pg. 353), Baddeley’s working memory model

3. Long-term memory: passed on by short-term/working memory; thought to be infinite in capacity; organizes information; decays overtime and may be altered by interference at time of retrieval. Evidence: Synaptic changes and long-term potentiation (pg. 340), role of hippocampus and cerebellum (pg. 344), flashbulb memory and stress hormone studies (pg. 341)

Step #2: Storage: Maintaining Information in Memory

Figure 7.7 The Atkinson and

Schiffrin model of memory storage

Information-processing theories

• Subdivide memory into 3 different stores• Sensory, Short-

term/working, Long-term

Baddeley’s expansion on STM called “working memory

STM as “Working Memory”

Baddeley (1986) – 4 components of working memory Phonological rehearsal loop:

represented ALL of STM in the original model is active when one uses recitation to temporarily hold on to information.

Visuospatial sketchpad: allows temporary holding and manipulation of visual images E.g mentally rearrange the furniture in your bedroom

Executive control system: handles the limited amount of information juggled at one time as people

engage in reasoning and decision making E.g. weigh pros and cons of something, like should I go to Five Guys or

Arby's?

Episodic Buffer: a temporary, limited capacity store that allows the various components of

working memory to integrate information serves as an interface between working and LTM.

Step #3: RetrievalGetting information back out of memory so you can use it. This mostly relates to long-term memory, though some of the phenomena are also found in short-term/working memory. Here’s what helps us retrieve:1. Retrieval cues (priming). Absence of Cues=Tip-of-the-

tongue phenomenon2. Context3. Proper mood to retrieve mood-congruent memories

We don’t know much else about retrieval, but we have learned why people forget.4. Storage decay5. Interference at the time of retrieval (proactive and

retroactive)6. Motivated forgetting, repression, and false recovered

memories7. Misinformation and imagination effects

1. Loftus’ study on car crashes (pg. 358)2. source monitoring incidents

(Spiral) FRQ on Memory #2

Mrs. Haltli is trying to memorize the names of all ten of her future-husband’s siblings in order to impress him while they are dating. What role will automatic processing have in this task (Myers, 327)? What role will effortful processing have in this task (Myers, 328)? As part of your answer, be sure to comment on Rehearsal Spacing effect Serial position effect

Additionally, how can each of the following levels of processing aid her in her task, and how effective is each in memory encoding (Myers, 331)? Visual encoding Acoustic/phonemic encoding Semantic encoding

(The purpose of FRQ #2 is to study LEVELS OF ENCODING/PROCESSING and their effectiveness)

Automatic vs Effortful Encoding Automatic: without knowing it, you memorize

Space: structural encoding; memorize the place on the page where information resides

Time: unintentionally note the sequence of the day’s events

Frequency: you unconsciously keep track of how many times you did something today

Well-learned information: you see the word “Taxi” on a car. You read it, but you don’t remember having read it.

Effortful: you memorize things on purpose by Rehearsal: (see short-term/working memory) Spacing effect: You shouldn’t try to memorize too much

at once. Space out the material over a period of time. CRAMMING DOESN’T WORK!

Serial position effect: You’re most likely to remember items at the beginning of the list and at the end. The middle gets fuzzy.

Levels of Processing:Craik&Lockhart(1972),Poldrack&Wagner,

(2004) Incoming information processed at different levels, and some

are more effective than others Deeper processing = longer lasting memory codes Encoding levels: each level has its own brain system

Structural, or contextual= shallow Location on page? Upper or lower case? Word length? Color? EX. You an see in your mind where the in information you

needed was on the textbook page. Acoustic/Phonemic = intermediate

The encoding of sound, especially the sound of words EX. What sobriety conceals, alcohol reveals

Visual= deep The encoding of picture images EX. I can picture the view of the Pecos from Santa Fe

Baldie. Semantic = deep

The encoding of meaning, including the meaning of words EX. I remember the word “cosecha,” because when I learned

it in Spanish class, it was early spring and I was planting a garden

Figure 7.4 Levels-of-processing theory

Figure 7.5 Retention at three levels of processing

(Spiral) FRQ on Memory #3

Mrs. Haltli wants to memorize all of the lyrics for The Lord of the Rings soundtrack, including the two dialects of Elvish. Explain how the following encoding strategies could benefit her in completing this task (Myers, 332).

Imagery Mnemonics Self-reference effect (self-referent encoding) (pg.

332) Chunking Hierarchies

(The purpose of FRQ #3 is to study ENCODING TECHNIQUES and some LTM CONCEPTS)

Note: This is not Mrs. H’s arm! Too manly.

Enriching Encoding: Improving Memory

Visual Techniques Imagery = creation of visual images to

represent words to be remembered Easier for concrete objects: Easier to remember

“metaphor” or “door” when these words are flashed onto a screen?

Dual-coding theory----Semantic codes + visual codes= better memory

Enriching Encoding: Improving Memory

Acoustic/Phonemic Techniques Mnemonics = memory aids, especially those

techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices Greek orators used them to help them retrieve lengthy

memorized passages and speeches. Both visual and acoustic codes used. EX. of Acoustic: Peg-word system requires you to

memorize a jingle, “One is a bun; two is a shoe; three is a tree; four is a door; five is a hive; six is sticks; seven is heaven; eitht is a gate; nine is swine; ten is hen.” Soon, you can remember the words without numbers (Bugelski et al., 1968).

EX. of Visual: Method of Loci requires you to do a “memory walk,” or memorize an image to represent each component of what you’re trying to remember. In a political speech: The basement is the introduction of my speech, the lobby is my welcome of guests, the elevator is my evidence on healthcare fraud, the second floor is my analysis of healthcare fraud, the staircase is my evidence of . . .

Enriching Encoding: Improving Memory

Semantic Techniques Elaboration = linking a stimulus to other information at the

time of encoding Thinking of examples like, “A phobia is an irrational fear. Oh, it’s

like the common fear of spiders!” Self-Referent Encoding

Making information personally meaningful E.g. Do you remember every street you pass every day? Do you remember the street your house is on?

Organizational Techniques Chunking = organizing items into familiar, manageable units;

often automatic (not effortful) EX. TW-ACIA-F-BILD-SAT-TYM-CA

EX. TWA-CIA-FBI-LDS-ATT-YMCA

Hierarchies= linear organization of concepts that interrelate; use once you develop expertise in a subject and are adding information; used for encoding subprinciples (see example on next slide)

Memory Organization: Go through these slides. Find examples of

each of these memory organizations in your own life.

Clustering and Conceptual Hierarchies:

Clustering is the tendency to remember similar or related items in groups (pg. 272) Conceptual hierarchies are multilevel classification systems based

on common properties among items (pg. 273).

Semantic Networks: Semantic networks consist of nodes representing concepts, joined

together by pathways that link related concepts E.g. thinking of butter makes bread easier to remember (see next

slide).

Leno

O’Brien

Carson

Democrat

Republican

Independent

Schema: This is a classroom. What would you expect to find that you don’t, and what do you find that you usually don’t?

The Great Memory FRQ Swap!

Group 1 will give their FRQs to Group 2 Group 2 will give their FRQs to Group 3 Group 3 will give their FRQs to Group 1

Group 1, grade FRQ 1, underlining key words and concepts. Give them a grade 1-10 at the bottom and write a short explanation justifying your grade.

Group 2, grade FRQ 2, underlining key words and concepts. Give them a grade 1-10 at the bottom and write a short explanation justifying your grade.

Group 3, grade FRQ 3, underlining key words and concepts. Give them a grade 1-10 at the bottom and write a short explanation justifying your grade.

Partner Review: Storage Theorists:

You and a partner will work to be able to verbally summarize and become adept at explaining the discovery of these major storage theorists. Use imagery, mnemonics, self-reference effect chunking, clustering, hierarchies and other deep encoding methods to commit them to memory.

1. Atkinson and Schiffrin (1968): sensory, short, long (pg. 327)

2. Sperling (1960): experiments on sensory memory (pg. 336)

3. G. Miller (1956): experiments on limited capacity of short-term memory (pg. 337)

4. Baddeley (1986): Working Memory (look up on web)

5. Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve. Decay. Recall vs recognition (pg. 353)

(MYERS MODULE 27-30)

STORAGE

EXTRA INFO TO ENHANCE THE BASIC KNOWLEDGE THAT YOU GAINED FROM THE

FRQ ACTIVITY

Storage: Maintaining Information in Memory

Information-processing theories Subdivide memory into 3 different stores

Sensory, Short-term, Long-term

Figure 7.7 The Atkinson and Schiffrin model of memory storage

Sensory MemoryCharacteristics: Is brief preservation of information in

original sensory form Allows the sensation to linger briefly

after the sensory stimulation is over in the visual form of an afterimage.

Auditory/Visual SM – approximately ¼ second

Sensory Memory

Auditory/Visual SM – approximately ¼ second

-George Sperling (1960)-Classic

experiment on visual sensory store

-illustrating how brief the sensory store actually is…his experiment is depicted in the following figure.

Figure 7.8 Sperling’s (1960) study of sensory memory

STM Continued

Limited duration – about 20 seconds without rehearsal Rehearsal – the process of repetitively

verbalizing or thinking about the information

How quickly is information lost without rehearsal?

Miller

Short Term Memory (STM) Definition: a limited-capacity store that

can maintain unrehearsed information for up to about 20 seconds.

Miller’s Limited capacity – magical number 7 plus or minus 2 Fact: The average person can hold 5-9

chunks of information in STM. Chunking – grouping familiar stimuli for

storage as a single unit Open to pg. 269 for an example. E.g. 8 -6- 7- 5- 3- 0- 9 can be thought of

as 7 individual numbers or they can be chunked together in groups of 2, 3, etc.

STM as “Working Memory”

Baddeley (1986) – 4 components of working memory Phonological rehearsal loop:

represented ALL of STM in the original model is active when one uses recitation to temporarily hold on to information.

Visuospatial sketchpad: allows temporary holding and manipulation of visual images E.g mentally rearrange the furniture in your bedroom

Executive control system: handles the limited amount of information juggled at one time as people

engage in reasoning and decision making E.g. weigh pros and cons of something, like should I go to Five Guys or

Arby's?

Episodic Buffer: a temporary, limited capacity store that allows the various components of

working memory to integrate information serves as an interface between working and LTM.

Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve for nonsense syllables

Recognition vs. Recall with nonsense syllables

Figure 7.17 Recognition versus recall in the measurement of retention

(Spiral) Famous Study for Memory

Study 16: “Thanks for the Memories” by Loftus

Directions: After reading the above study, identify and write down each of the following for 1 of the 4 experiments. READ ALL 4. Hypothesis Dependent and Independent Variables Experimental Design Results Implications

(Spiral) ForgettingOf course, there’s a lot of overlap between studies on

remembering and studies on forgetting. Go through slides 35-46 on the class website homepage and write down at least 3 things you didn’t already know about forgetting.

Poor Cues Interference

Pro and retroactive interference Source and reality monitoring (misattributions) misinformation

High Emotion and Flashbulb Memories Ineffective Encoding

divided attention superficial encoding (no semantic)

Decay Amnesia

Retrograde Anterograde

Connectionist Networks and PDP Models

Poor Cues=Poor Retrieval

Retrieval cues: The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon shows that recall is often guided by partial information about a word…retrieval cues. The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon – a failure in

retrieval

Recalling an event Context cues: Memories can also be reinstated by

context cues…easier to recall long-forgotten events if you return after a number of years to a place where you used to live.

Interference Interference theory: The negative impact of

competing information on retention Proactive: previously learned information interferes with

the retention of new information Retroactive: new information impairs the retention for

previously learned information

Reconstructing memories occurs during retrieval, but sometimes things go wrong Misinformation effect: Elizabeth Loftus’s car crashes

Figure 7.19 Retroactive and proactive interference

THE KEY IS TO FOLLOW THE ARROW!

Interference, Ctd. Source monitoring, reality

monitoring The misinformation effect is explained

in part by the unreliability of source monitoring

Source monitoring: the process of making attributions about the origins of memories

People make decisions at the time of retrieval about where their memory is coming from. E.g. Cryptomnesia is inadvertent plagiarism that occurs when you think you came up with it but were really exposed to it earlier.

Reality monitoring : a type of source monitoring involving determining whether memories are based in actual events (external sources) or your imagination (internal sources)

E.g. Did I pack my lunch, or did I only think about packing it?

“I told ‘em that a chain link fence would never hold rhinos! No, wait! I meant to tell ‘em!

Emotion: Stress Hormones Skew Remembering

Flashbulb memory Details of strong, emotional memories are often wrong,

and they become more wrong over time. Due to stress hormones at time of encoding. Flashbulb

memories decay more rapidly.

Flashbulb Memories

Ineffective Encoding and Decay

Ineffective Encoding: primarily due to (1) lack of attention or (2) phonemic or structural encoding instead of semantic encoding

Decay theory: forgetting occurs because memory traces fade with time. Remember Ebbingaus, Sperling, and Miller? Remember flashbulb memories?

Repression

Authenticity of repressed memories? Motivated forgetting of painful or unpleasant memories. Surge of reports of repressed memories of child sexual abuse. Empirical studies that show that it is not at all hard to create

false memories and that many recovered memories are actually the product of suggestion.

Memory illusions- Roediger and McDermott (2000) (1) Participants are asked to learn a list of words, (2) Another

target word that is not on the list but is strongly associated with the learned words is presented

Results: The subjects remember the non-presented target word over 50% of the time…on a recognition test, they remember it about 80% of the time.

Controversy Research clearly shows that memories can be created by

suggestion This issue becomes quite emotionally charged. Lack of data to estimate what proportion of recovered

memories of abuse are authentic and what proportion are not.

Recovered Memory: A Controversial Topic Crews, Frederick. The Memory Wars: Freud's Legacy in Dispute (*). New York

Review Books. 1995. Basically consists of two lengthy and famous articles on Freud and the recovered memory controversy written originally for the New York Review. Crews argues that Freud was wrong in general and particulars because he was not a good or even honorable scientist and that the recovered memory movement is thereby built on a shaky foundation. Includes also letters to the editor mostly highly critical of Crews and supportive of Freud, psychoanalysis, and recovered memories. For a more extended and even harsher critique of Freud and believers in psychoanalysis, see Malcolm Macmillan's Freud Evaluated: The Completed Arc (North-Holland, 1991)

Franklin, Eileen, & Wright, W. Sins of the Father. Crown, 1991. The notorious case of Ms. Franklin who recovered a repressed memory that her father killed her childhood friend over twenty years before. Her testimony was the only evidence used to convict her father. For suggestions that the memory probably was fabricated see Loftus, and Ofshe & Watters below and MacLean, Harry, Once Upon a Time (HarperCollins, 1993).

Fredrickson, Renee. Repressed Memories. (*) Fireside, 1992. An impassioned plea for the existence of repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse and guidelines for how to deal with them.

Freyd, Jennifer. Betrayal Trauma: The Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse. Harvard University Press, 1996. A distinguished cognitive psychologist presents the case for repressed and recovered memories of childhood abuse.

Figure 7.22 The prevalence of false memories observed by Roediger and McDermott (1995)

Amnesia

Retrograde Amnesia: you can’t remember memories before the incident, but new memories can still be created.

Anterograde Amnesia: you can’t remember most memories created after the incident, while long-term memories from before the event remain intact.

Both can occur together in the same patient. Memory storage is still a theory, so it’s hard to tell

what’s going on physically. We do know that the regions involved are certain sites in the temporal cortex, especially in the hippocampus and associated regions

How is Knowledge Representedand Organized in Memory?

Connectionist Networks and PDP Models Parallel distributed processing (or PDP) models of memory suggest that the

connections between units of knowledge are strengthened with experience. Tapping into any connection (via a memory process) provides us with access to all the other connections in the network.

Specific memories correspond to specific patterns of activation in these networks.

Example: Zoë's knowledge that the term neonate means "newborn" is linked to her memory of seeing a premature infant taken to a neonatal unit. Both neonate and neonatal are connected to her memory that neo means "new." When Zoë thinks of neonate, an image of her nephew as a newborn is also readily accessible. This background made it easier for her to understand that a neofreudian is a person who developed a new version of Freud's theory (Bernstein).

Long-term Potentiation The physical version of connectionist networks and PDP models. Neurons

connect to form memories. When memories are retrieved OFTEN, synaptic relations INCREASE. When memories are retrieved SELDOM, synaptic relations DECREASE. “Potentiation” refers to the action potentiation that travels down a neuron’s axon.

Other stuff . . .how interesting! Encoding Specificity: closer a retrieval cue is to

the way we encode the info, the better we are able to remember.

E.g. How do you remember the Pythagorean Theorem? Do you have a semantic link that you used to encode it? If so and you use the same link to retrieve it, you’ll likely remember it.

Transfer-Appropriate Processing: memory retrieval will be improved if the encoding method

matches the retrieval method E.g. Samantha studied for an auto mechanics test by spending many weekends

with her head under the hood of a car. However, much to her surprise, when it came time to take the test, the professor handed out a multiple-choice exam. Samantha, who felt that she had really learned the material, scored poorly. According to the transfer-appropriate processing model, Samantha did not do well because she encoded the material by applying what she had learned from the text, but the exam asked her only to retrieve specific facts. Samantha's encoding process wasn't appropriate for the retrieval process required by the exam.

(Spiral) Memory Systems

Take an index card that has declarative, procedural, semantic, episodic, prospective, retrospective memory written on it.

Research the term that is on your card. Find five different people who have

researched the other five kinds of independent memory.

Creatively find a way to schematically connect all six types of independent memory visually on a piece of butcher paper using the cards. You may mark the paper.

Resources: Myers pgs. 342-343, Weiten pgs. 290-293

Go to this website for additional information: http://www.human-memory.net/types_long.html

Prospective= remembering to do something that hasn’t happened yetRetrospective: remembering an event from the past.

Independent Memory Systems

(Spiral) Improving Memory

Myers 365-366. Look through these pages and plan on how to use at least three of these techniques to improve your memory in the near future. Write them down. You have 10 minutes.

(Spiral) AP Review on Memory:

19948. When rehearsal of incoming information is prevented, which of the following will most likely

occur?A. The information will remain indefinitely in short-term memoryB. There will be no transfer of the information to long-term memoryC. The sensory register will stop processing the informationD. Retrieval of the information from long-term memory will be easierE. Information already in long-term memory will be integrated with the incoming information 28. A teenager would most likely draw upon which of the following to recall her tenth birthday

party?F. Episodic memoryG. Semantic memoryH. Echoic memory I. Eeidetic imagerJ. State-dependent learning  33. Elena is presented with a list of 20 numbers. When asked to recall this list, she

remembers more numbers from the beginning than from the end of the list. This phenomenon demonstrates which of the following types of effects?

A. MnemonicB. PrimacyC. RecencyD. SecondaryE. Clustering

199913. According to the information-processing view of memory, the first stage in memory

processing involvesA. RetrievalB. StorageC. RehearsalD. EncodingE. Transfer 20. When a list of words is learned in order, the words most likely to be forgotten are

those that areF. At the beginningG. At the endH. In the middleI. Hardest to pronounceJ. Easiest to spell  28. An individual’s ability to remember the day he or she first swam the length of a

swimming pool is most clearly an example of which of the following kinds of memory?

K. SemanticL. FlashbulbM. ProceduralN. PrimingO. Episodic

20046. The ability to choose specific stimuli to learn about, while filtering out or ignoring

other information, is calledA. Selective attentionB. Subliminal perceptionC. Time-sharingD. MaskingE. Shadowing

38. A schema can be described asF. An outer layer of the eyeG. A mental constructH. A fissure between lobes of the brainI. An optical illusionJ. A fixed response to a particular stimulus 51. Which of the following is an example of retrograde amnesia?K. Ty cannot recall the face of the thief he saw running from the scene of the crimeL. Cassie’s vivid memory of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger is not

corroborated by those she was with at the timeM. Alberto is unable to remember anything since the accident that destroyed

portions of his hippocampusN. Katie attributes her poor performance on a standardized test to the fact that she

took the exam in a room other than the one in which she learned the materialO. Alyse cannot remember any details of what happened right before her car

accident

200473. Remembering how to roller skate involves which of the following kinds of

memory?A. SemanticB. EpisodicC. PrimingD. ProceduralE. Prospective 77. Material that an individual cannot remember but is on the “tip of the tongue” isF. In episodic memory, but not in semantic memoryG. In sensory memory, but not in iconic memoryH. In short-term memory, but not in long-term memoryI. Available, but not accessibleJ. Retrieved, by not encoded

86. When Shelly first had cable television service installed, PBS was on channel 9. Her cable company then switched PBS to channel 16. Shelly now has trouble remembering that PBS is on channel 16 and not on channel 9. This memory problem represents

K. Memory decayL. Retrograde amnesiaM. Reconstruction errorsN. Retroactive interferenceO. Proactive interference

20077. A moviegoer who cannot identify the name of a film star remembers the name when

a friend reviews a list of starts. This incident illustrates which two concepts in human memory?

A. Rehearsal and chunkingB. The primacy effect and the recency effectC. Constructive and reconstructive memoryD. The sensory register and short-term memoryE. Recall and recognition

13. Two groups of participants in a study are presented a list of 20 words. The first group is told to count the number of capital letters in the words and the second group is told to think of the definition of each word. When both groups are asked to recall the word lists, which of the following is most likely to occur?

F. Each group will recall the same number of words.G. The first group will recall more words than the second groupH. The first group will rehearse the words, but the second group will notI. The second group will recall more words than the first groupJ. Both groups will recall all of the words  31. An example of episodic memory is the memory ofA. One’s high school graduationB. The capital of a stateC. What the musical note C sounds likeD. How to typeE. A mood that is triggered by the experience of a particular scent

200773. Long-term potentiation is best described as the A. Interference effect of old memories on the formation of new

memoriesB. Disruptive influence of recent memories on the recall of old

memoriesC. Tendency of people to recall experiences that are consistent with

their current moodD. Increased efficiency of synaptic transmission between certain

neurons following learningE. Superior ability of older adults to recall events from their childhood

76. The process of remembering several pieces of information by mentally associating an image of each with a different location is a mnemonic device known as

F. The key-word methodG. The method of lociH. The peg word systemI. The link methodJ. Chunking

Key to AP Released Memory

1994 8. B 28. A 33. B

1999 13. D 20. C 28. E

2004 6. A 38. B 51. E

2004 CTD 73. D 77. D 86. E

2007 7. E 13. D 31. A 73. D 76. B