MEMORY

1. MEMORY

2. Take a minute to list all the things that our memory is useful for. • Now think about all the things that we wouldn’t be able to do if we did not have our memory. -tying shoelaces -remembering faces -no friends -no self-concept -no personal identity

3. Human memory is not a single organ. • Technically we do not actually have a memory- we have different memory systems. • Memory consists of a collection of complex interconnected systems, each of which serves a different purpose and operates in a very different way.

4. Despite these differences, all memory systems have some functions in common-they each receive, process and store information for future use. • When we receive sensory information the brain must select what information will be attended to, processed and stored in the various memory systems and what will be eliminated and therefore not stored in memory. If this process did not occur our memory systems would be overloaded with unimportant information.

5. In terms of people who are said to have “lost” their memory- this is generally a reference to a situation where one or more memory systems have malfunctioned. • To have no memory at all you would probably be unconscious or dead.

6. MEMORY AS AN INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEM Most psychologists view memory as an active information-processing system that receives, organises, stores and recovers information. • This description compares memory to a computer in terms of the way information is processed.

8. Like a computer, memory does not passively receive and store new information. • Instead, it actively alters and organises incoming information so that it can be stored in a way that is relatively easily retrieved. • Memory and a computer are also comparable in the way that they each deal with information in a sequence involving three key processes: encoding, or conversion of information into a useable form; its storage or retention after being encoded; and its recovery or retrieval when needed.

9. ENCODING • Information that is received and stored in memory must be converted from its raw sensory state to a form that the brain can process and use. • New information must also be placed, or represented, in some form- sound, visual image, touch or meaning- in the memory system. • The entire process of converting information into a useable form or code that can be stored in memory is called encoding.

10. STORAGE • Next, information must be retained by the information-processing system. • Storage is the retention of information over time. • Personal computers usually store information on a hard drive, whereas human memory stores information in the brain.

11. RETRIEVAL • Finally, the information is retrieved, or located and taken out of storage when it is needed. • Retrieval is the process of locating and recovering the stored information from memory so that we are consciously aware of it.

12. The retrieval of some information is very easy and quick, such as your name or birth date. • Other information is harder to retrieve such as something you learnt in year 7 science. • In these instances we often rely on cues to retrieve information that has been stored in memory.

13. Copy out this diagram

14. MEASURES OF RETENTION • What methods do we use to test what has been retained in memory? • Teachers generally use tests or exams. But is your performance on a test or exam a reliable measure of how much information you have retained in memory?

15. There are different types of questions teachers ask, including multiple-choice questions, true/false questions, fill-in-the-blanks, short answer, and essay questions. • Research shows that the amount of information that will be retrieved from memory is, at least partly, dependent on the type of question asked. • There are three main kinds of measures that are used to determine how much information has been retained: recall, recognition and relearning.

16. RECALL • What are the names of the 7 dwarfs? • In order to answer this question, you would have searched through your long-term memory, tried to locate the information required, and either have produced or not produced the correct information.

17. RECALL • This approach to measuring the amount of information retained in memory is a test of recall. • Recall involves being asked to reproduce information with the fewest possible cues to assist retrieval.

18. In an experiment used to measure recall as a measure of retention, participants might be required to learn a list of randomly selected words. Then, after a period of time, they may be required to write, in any order, as many of the words off the list as they can. • This method is called free recall. Free recall is involved when participants are only asked to remember as much information as possible, in no particular order.

19. If participants were asked to recall a list of words in the order in which they were presented, researchers would be asking for serial recall. • Sometimes the general cue we are provided with to search information in our long-term memory is too general and the list of possible matches is too long. • Cued recall makes use of specific cues to aid retrieval. For example; being given the first letter of each of the 7 dwarfs names.

20. RECOGNITION • Which of the following are the names of the 7 dwarfs? -Bashful -Goofy -Happy -Dopey -Grumpy -Sneezy -Pop -Doc -Sleepy -Grouchy

21. RECOGNITION • Recognition involves identifying the correct information from among alternatives, such as in the previous question. • Generally we can retrieve more information when tested by the recognition method than we can with the recall method because the recognition method provides more cues that assist in the location and retrieval of information from long-term memory.

22. In an exam situation, students typically prefer M/C questions or true/false questions to an essay or short answer questions. • M/C and true/false questions involve recognising the correct response from among a small number of alternatives, whereas essay question require recall, where there are very few cues.

23. RELEARNING • Most people have times when they are unable to recall or to recognise information that has been stored in long-term memory. • Even though they are unable to retrieve this information, it does not necessarily mean that it has been forgotten. • Relearning or the method of savings, involves learning information again that has been previously learned and stored in long-term memory.

24. If information is learned more quickly the second time it is assumed that there must be some information retained from the first learning experience, whether we realise it or not.

25. HERMANN EBBINGHAUS • Ebbinghaus did an experiment using nonsense syllables (eg. Jux, kuv). Nonsense syllables are often used in memory research instead of words so that retention is not affected by the words having some sort of meaning or association with words already stored in memory. When Ebbinghaus measured his memory for what he had learned, he found that even if he could not remember a single item from the original list, he could relearn the list much quicker a second time than he had been able to with the original list. This indicated that some information had been retained from the initial learning.

26. This is also called the method of savings because it can be calculated using the following formula. • Savings = (no. of trials for original learning) – (no. of trials for relearning) x 100 (no. of trials for original learning) 1 Eg. 10 – 5 x 100 = 50% 10 1 • A savings score can also be calculated on the basis of the time taken to relearn information. Savings = (time taken for original learning) – (time for relearning) x 100 (time for original learning) 1

27. RELATIVE SENSITIVITY OF MEASURES OF RETENTION • Recall, recognition and relearning differ in their relative sensitivity as measures of retention. The sensitivity of a measure of retention refers to its ability to assess the amount of information that has been stored in memory.

28. Recall tends to be the least sensitive measure of retention, relearning tends to be the most sensitive measure of retention, and recognition tends to be less sensitive than relearning but more sensitive than recall.

29. In a study by Nelson (1978) on the three measures of retention, 24 university students were used as participants. • The experiment consisted of three stages- the initial learning stage, a stage in which recall and recognition of the initial learning were tested and finally a relearning stage. • In the first stage, participants were given a series of number-word pairs to learn, such as 49-party and 95-horse. • The second stage of the experiment required the participants to participate in the testing and relearning stages of the experiment.

30. In the testing stage, participants were required to complete two different types of tests. The first was a test of recall where the participants were given the original number as a cue and were asked to provide the association word that went with it. The second test was similar but required the participants to name the associated words from a list of 20-10 of which were the original words and 10 of which were new, unrelated words. The third stage of the experiment involved relearning the words from the previous list which had been incorrectly recalled and 10 new word pairs. They were then given a recall test on both the new information and the old information.

31. The results showed that a mean score of 48% of the target words were correctly recalled, and 69% were correctly recognised in the testing. Furthermore the percentage of target words correctly recalled during the relearning stage was significantly higher for the old items (88%) than for new items.

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33. STAGES OF MEMORY • The Atkinson-Shiffrin model (named after two psychologists) describes human memory as consisting of three distinguishable kinds of memory, with each one representing a stage through which information passes in a sequential way. -Sensory memory -Short-term memory -Long-term memory

34. Although these three memory systems are viewed as separate sub-systems of memory, they each operate simultaneously and interact in many ways. • Within each stage of memory, information processing involves encoding, storage and retrieval of information.

35. According to this model, when information is received from the environment, it passes from sensory memory to short-term memory and then to long-term memory. • Each stage of memory differs in terms of its function (the role it plays), its capacity (the amount of information it can hold at any given moment) and its duration (the length of time it can hold information).

36. Sensory memory is the entry point for new information into the memory system. • Anything that is not attended to in sensory memory is then lost. • If the information is attended to it is then passed on to short-term memory where it is stored for up to 20 seconds. • If an effort is made to retain this information it is then transferred to long-term memory, if not it is lost.

38. SENSORY MEMORY • Sensory memory is the entry point of memory-the initial stage of the memory system in which all of the stimuli that bombard our senses are retained in their original sensory form (not encoded) for a very brief time. • It is assumed to be unlimited in capacity.

39. An important function of sensory memory is that it stores sensory impressions long enough for them to slightly overlap one another. • This means that we see the world as continuous and not as a series of disconnected visual images or sounds. • Sensory information remains in sensory memory just long enough for it to be attended to and selected to be transferred to short-term memory (STM).

40. We are not consciously aware of the majority of information that enters our sensory memory. • However when we direct our attention to it in order to store it in STM we become consciously aware of it. • Incoming sensory information is stored in separate sub-systems called sensory registers and it is believed that there is a separate sensory register for each of the senses.

41. ICONIC MEMORY • Iconic Memory is the name given to visual sensory memory, or the memory of visual sensory information. • Visual images in their original sensory form are usually retained in iconic memory for one-third of a second. • Sperling’s experiment.

44. PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY • Some people are able to remember highly detailed scenes as if the actual event were occurring before them. • These people are said to have eidetic memory. These memories are said to be an exact replica of a visual image that persists over time without distortion. • These can last sometimes for days or weeks.

45. View this image for 30 seconds and then answer the following questions.

46. How many bows are on the girls apron? • Is the hemline of the girl’s dress above or below her knees? • How many flowers are in bloom on the taller plant? • How many whiskers are there on the cat in the tree? • How many stripes are on the cat’s tail? • What is the girl wearing in her hair?

47. ECHOIC MEMORY • Echoic Memory is the name given to auditory sensory information, or the memory of auditory sensory information. • It is called echoic memory because the sounds linger in it like an echo.

48. The main difference between iconic and echoic memory is the duration of time that they are able to hold on to information.

49. The availability of this information for 3-4 seconds is generally long enough to select what has been heard for further processing and interpretation before the sound disappears completely. • Auditory information must also be held for long enough for all parts of speech within a list of words to be identified.