Chapter 6 Memory

1. Chapter 6Memory

2. Chapter 6 Overview • The structure of human memory • The nature of remembering • How reliable is memory? • Biology and memory • Forgetting • Improving memory

3. The Structure of Human Memory • Memory is the process of encoding, storage, consolidation, and retrieval of information

4. Processes required for remembering

5. Three memory systems

6. What are the characteristics of the sensory memory? • Briefly holds information from the senses • Visual information: for a fraction of a second • Auditory information: up to 2 seconds

7. What happens to information in short-term memory? • Holds about seven (plus or minus two) items for less than 30 seconds without rehearsal • Also called working memory • STM acts as a workspace for carrying out mental activity

8. What happens to information in short-term memory? • Displacement • When STM is full, each new, incoming item pushes out an existing item • Chunking • Grouping bits of information into larger units, which are easier to remember • Rehearsal • Repeating information to maintain it in STM • Maintenance rehearsal • Elaborative rehearsal

9. What kinds of information are stored in the subsystems of long-term memory? • Long-term memory has a virtually unlimited capacity that contains vast stores of a person’s permanent or relatively permanent memories

10. What kinds of information are stored in the subsystems of long-term memory? • Declarative memory • Stores facts and information, and life events • Episodic memory • Semantic memory • Nondeclarative memory • Stores motor skills, habits, simple conditioned responses

11. What kinds of information are stored in the subsystems of long-term memory? • Declarative memory • Stores facts and information, and life events • Episodic memory • Semantic memory • Nondeclarative memory • Stores motor skills, habits, simple conditioned responses

12. The Nature of Remembering • The processes that cause apparent memory lapses, such as being unable to recall a person’s name or a telephone number, represent two of the various principles that govern how we go about remembering things.

13. What are the three methods used by psychologists to measure memory? • Recall • Task in which a person must search memory to produce required information • Recall tasks are easier when retrieval cues are provided • Recognition • Task in which a person must identify information as having been encountered before • Relearning • Measures retention in terms of time saved when relearning material compared to learning it originally

14. What happens when information must be recalled in the order in which it was presented? • In the serial position effect recall is better for the beginning and ending items than for the middle items in the sequence • Primacy effect • Tendency to recall the first items in a sequence more easily than the middle items • Recency effect • Tendency to recall the last items in a sequence more easily than the middle items

15. How do environmental conditions and emotional states affect memory? • People recall material more easily in the same environment in which they learned it • Godden and Baddeley (1975) • Participants memorized words underwater or on land • Words learned underwater were best recalled underwater • Words learned on land were best recalled on land

16. How do environmental conditions and emotional states affect memory? • State-dependent memory effect • People tend to recall information better if they are in the same emotional state as when the information was encoded • e.g., when feeling anxious while exposed to snakes and spiders

17. What does research evidence say about flashbulb memory? • Extremely vivid memory of an event that is surprising, shocking, or highly emotional • These memories are not as accurate as people believe them to be • But, about 5% of children are capable of eidetic imagery • Ability to retain an image of a visual stimulus for several minutes

18. How does culture influence memory? • Culture may influence the ability to remember certain kinds of material • Elders of the Iatmul people of New Guinea exhibit impressive memory for the oral history of their people • The Asur people of India, who do not use artificial lighting, have exceptional memory for locations

19. How Reliable is Memory? • Contrary to Canadian neurosurgeon, Wilder Penfield, the human memory does not really function like a tape recorder or video recorder

20. What is meant by the statement “Memory is reconstructive in nature”? • People reconstruct memories, piecing them together from a few highlights, using information that may or may not be accurate • Frederick Bartlett • Reconstructive memory processes are influenced by schemas • Integrated frameworks of prior knowledge and assumptions

21. What conditions reduce the reliability of eyewitness testimony? • Viewing photograph of a suspect before seeing a lineup • When members of a lineup are viewed at the same time, rather than one at a time • When the perpetrator’s race is different from that of the witness • When a weapon has been used in the crime • When leading questions are used

22. What is the controversy regarding the therapy used to recover repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse? • Repression • Process in which traumatic memories are buried in the unconscious • Some therapists use hypnosis and guided imagery to help clients recover repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse • Critics argue that these therapists sometimes implant false memories in their clients • Research indicates that imagining a fictitious event can lead to false memory of the event

23. Biology and Memory • A person’s store of memories must exist physically somewhere in the brain. Neuronal processes are also involved in the storage of information in the brain. Trauma and disorders that affect brain structures, neuronal health, or both can seriously impair memory function.

24. What roles do the hippocampus and the hippocampal region play in memory? • The hippocampus plays an important role in forming episodic memories • Formation of semantic memories involves the hippocampus and other parts of the hippocampal region • The hippocampus is also involved in navigational skills • Posterior of hippocampus is larger in taxi drivers than in general population

25. Why is long-term potentiation important? • Long-term potentiation (LTP) • An increase in the efficiency of neural transmission at the synapse that lasts for hours of longer • LTP may be the basis for learning and memory at the level of neurons • When LTP is disrupted, long-term memories are not formed • Consolidation failure

26. How do hormones influence memory? • The strongest and most lasting memories are usually fueled by emotion • Presence of epinephrine (adrenalin) and norepinephrine (noradrenalin) in the bloodstream activate the amygdala and help imprint powerful, enduring memories for threatening events • Excessive levels of cortisol can interfere with memory • Estrogen appears to improve working memory efficiency • But post-menopausal estrogen replacement may increase risk of dementia

27. What kinds of memory loss are experienced by those who have amnesia or dementia? • Amnesia • Partial or complete loss of memory due to loss of consciousness, brain damage, or some psychological cause • Anterograde amnesia • Inability to form new long-term memories • Case of H. M. • Retrograde amnesia • Loss of memory for experiences that occurred shortly before a loss of consciousness

28. What kinds of memory loss are experienced by those who have amnesia or dementia? • Dementia • Mental deterioration characterized by impaired memory and intellect and by altered personality and behavior • Individuals with dementia can lose episodic and semantic memories • Can result from cerebral arteriosclerosis, chronic alcoholism, strokes • Alzheimer disease • A form of dementia caused by degeneration of brain cells • A high IQ plus lifelong intellectual activity may delay or lessen Alzheimer symptoms

29. Forgetting • Most people think of forgetting as a problem to be overcome, but it’s actually not always unwelcome. Still, when you need to remember particular information, forgetting can be very frustrating.

30. What did Ebbinghaus discover about forgetting? • Ebbinghaus found that the largest amount of forgetting occurs very quickly, then it tapers off • This relationship between time and forgetting is called the curve of forgetting

31. What causes forgetting? Source: Nickerson & Adams, 1979) • Can you recognize the real penny? • Encoding failure occurs when information was never put into long-term memory • Decay theory holds that memories, if not used, fade with time and eventually disappear

32. What causes forgetting? • Proactive interference • Information already stored in memory interferes with remembering newer information • Retroactive interference • New learning interferes with remembering previously learned information

33. What causes forgetting? • Proactive interference • Information already stored in memory interferes with remembering newer information • Retroactive interference • New learning interferes with remembering previously learned information

34. What causes forgetting? • Motivated forgetting • Forgetting through suppression or repression to protect self from painful or unpleasant information • Sometimes we forget because we don’t want to remember something • Prospective forgetting • Not remembering to carry out some intended action • Retrieval failure • Not remembering something one is certain of knowing • Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

35. Improving Memory • There are no magic formulas for improving your memory. Remembering is a skill that like any other requires knowledge and practice.

36. How can organization, overlearning, spaced practice and recitation improve memory? • Organization • Putting information in categories, sequences, sizes, or shapes to make retrieval easier • Overlearning • Practicing or studying material beyond the point where it can be repeated once without error • Overlearned material is remembered better and longer and is more resistant to interference • Spaced practice • Learning in short practice sessions with rest periods in between • A better study technique than massed practice • Recitation • Reciting, or practicing, what you have learned • Students recall more if they use more recitation