Cognition: Memory

A P P S Y C H O L O G Y: U N I T 5
 Introduction: Fact or Falsehood?

Memory storage is never automatic; it always takes effort

 False

When people go around a circle saying their names, their

poorest memories are for what was said by the person directly
in front of them
 True
Memory aids (for example, those that use imagery and devices
for organization) are no more useful than simple rehearsal of
information
 False
Only a few people have any type of photographic memory
 False
 Introduction: Fact or Falsehood?

 Although our capacity for storing information is large,

we are still limited in the number of permanent
memories we can form
 False
 When people learn something while intoxicated, they
recall it best when intoxicated
 True
 The hour before sleep is a good time to commit
information to memory
 True
 The confidence of eyewitnesses is an important
predictor of their accuracy
 False
 Memory:
The Basics

PA R T O N E
 Memory: The Basics

Memory
 The persistence of learning over time
through the encoding, storage, and
retrieval of information
 Memory: The Basics

In order to remember any

event:
 We must get the information
into our brain : ENCODING

 Retain that information:

STORAGE

 Later get it back out for our

use: RETRIEVAL
 Memory: The Basics

Entering Saving data Displaying

data through to a flash data on a
a keyboard drive monitor
Memory:
Models
 Memory: Models

 Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin proposed a three-stage

model of memory:
 Memory: Working Memory

Today’s researchers recognize other ways long-term

memories form
 For example, some information slips into long-term memory via a
“back door,” without our consciously attending to it (automatic
processing)
 So much active processing occurs in the short-term memory stage
that many now prefer the term working memory
 Memory: Working Memory

Working Memory:
 A newer understanding of

short-term memory that

focuses on conscious, active
processing of incoming
auditory and visual-spatial
information
 Includes information

retrieved from long-term

memory
 Memory: Working Memory
Working Memory:
 Alan Baddeley’s (2002) model of

working memory, includes visual-

spatial and auditory rehearsal of new
information
 A hypothetical central executive

(manager) focuses our attention and

pulls information from

long-term memory to
help

make sense of new

information
 Phonological loop – handles auditory
information
 Visuospatial sketchpad – processes
visual and spatial information
 Memory: Working Memory

 Some information, like the route you walked to your last class,
you can process with great ease (which frees your memory
system to focus on less familiar events)

 But, to retain new information, like a physics equation, you

need to pay attention and try hard

 Requires different types of encoding…

Memory:
Encoding

PA R T T W O

“Get that info in

there..!”
 Memory: Encoding

Encoding
 The set of mental operations performed on sensory information to
convert it into a form that is usable in the brain’s storage systems

 Two main types of encoding:

 Automatic (implicit) & Effortful (explicit) Processing
 Memory: Encoding

Automatic Processing
 Unconscious processing of incidental information:

 Space (place of information on page)

 Time (sequence of the day’s events)
 Frequency (how many times things happen)
 Well-learned information (words on a delivery truck)
 Memory: Encoding
Effortful Processing
 Conscious processing that requires attention and effort
• Example: Learning to read (requires rehearsal/repetition)

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Levels of Processing
 Memory: Encoding

Visual/Structural Encoding
 The encoding of visual structure
 How a word looks
 Level of Processing
 MOST SHALLOW
 Example
 Extravagant
 “Is the word written in capital letters?”

 Boy
 “How many letters are in this word?”
 Memory: Encoding

Acoustic/Phonemic Encoding
 The encoding of sound
 Emphasizes what a word sounds like

 Level of Processing
 SHALLOW
 Example
 Bait
 “Does the word rhyme with weight?”
 Memory: Encoding

Semantic Encoding
 The encoding of meaning
 Emphasizes the meaning of verbal input

 Level of Processing
 DEEP
 Example
 Bobcat
 Would the word fit in the sentence: “He met a ______ on the street?”
Effortful Processing Strategies
 Memory: Effortful Processing Strategies

Self-Referent Encoding (Self-Reference Effect)

 People’s recall of information tends to be slanted in favor of

material that is relevant to them

 Memory: Effortful Processing Strategies

Mnemonics
 Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery
and organizational devices
 Helpful mnemonic method
 Method of Loci
• Matching items with an imagined location
 Method of Loci

 To remember 10 items on a grocery list –

 Honey, dog food, sugar, oranges, ice cream, peanut butter, bread,
pork chops, milk, and potato chips

 To remember…take a “tour” of the house…

 Begin in the kitchen and see honey dripping down into the toaster on the
counter and a giant St. Bernard eating his dog food on top of the kitchen table.
Proceed to the living room, where sugar is embedded in the shag carpet,
oranges are under the pillows, peanut butter is stuck between the piano keys,
and ice cream is in the roaring fireplace. Go up the stairs, with a slice of bread
on each step. Pork chops are floating in the bathtub, milk is tipped over on the
dresser in the bedroom, and potato chips are stuck between the bedsheets.
 When you get to the supermarket, retour your house.
 Loci Questions

1. What’s in the toaster?

Honey
2. What’s on the kitchen table?
St. Bernard eating his dog food
3. What’s in the living room carpet?
Sugar
4. What’s stuck between the piano keys?
Peanut butter
5. What’s floating in the bathtub?
Pork chops
 Memory: Effortful Processing Strategies

Chunking
 Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs
automatically

1–7–7–6–1–4–9–2–1–8–1–2–1–9–4
–1
Acronyms are another way
of chunking information…

HOMES
ROYGBIV
 Memory: Effortful Processing Strategies

Hierarchy
 Complex information broken down into broad concepts and further
subdivided into categories and subcategories
 Increases the likelihood of recall and recognition
 Outline notes, concept maps, flow charts, etc.
 Memory: Effortful Processing Strategies

Distributed Practice
 Spacing Effect
 We retain information better
when we rehearse (or encode)
over time rather than mass
studying/cramming

 Testing Effect – enhanced

memory after repeated self-
testing (retrieval) of
information
Memory:
Storage
PA R T T H R E E

“Keep that info in

there..!”
 Memory: Storage

Atkinson & Shiffrin Model of Memory Storage (1971)

 Three stores of memory are shown below
 Memory: Storage

Sensory Memory
 Preserves information in its original sensory

form for a brief time, usually only a fraction

of a second
 Iconic Memory
 Momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli

 Lasts no more than a half a second

 Echoic Memory
 Momentary sensory memory of auditory

stimuli
 Lasts no more than 4 seconds
 Memory: Storage

Short-Term Memory (STM)

 A limited-capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information

for about 10-20 seconds

 Holds a few items briefly, before the information is stored or forgotten
 Capacity (George Miller, 1956)
 7±2 items (memory span)

 Varies by task

 How to increase capacity?

 Chunking!
• FBINBCCIAIBM
• FBI-NBC-CIA-IBM
 Memory: Storage
Long-Term Memory (LTM)
 An unlimited capacity

storehouse that can hold

information over lengthy
periods of time
 Includes knowledge, skills, and
experiences
 Though we have a huge capacity
for storage, we don’t store most
information with exactness
 Memory: Storage

Physical Location of Memories

 Memory is NOT stored in a single

spot
 Synaptic Change
 When learning occurs, serotonin is
released by the neurons of certain
synapses
 Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
 Synaptic enhancement after learning
 An increase in the release of

neurotransmitter or receptors on
the receiving neuron indicates the
strengthening of synapses
Long-Term Potentiation
 Memory: Storage

Prospective Memory
 Memory for tasks to be completed in the future
 Ex: sending an email, getting gas on the way home, doing your hw
tonight!
 Requires working memory because the intended action must enter
consciousness at the appropriate time in order to be executed
 Requires long-term memory because a person must not only remember
that she or he must complete a task, but also remember what that task
is
Types of Memory
 Memory: Storage

Implicit Memory
 Without conscious recall
 Nondeclarative Memory
 Processed in the cerebellum &

basal ganglia
 Memory: Storage

Implicit Memory
 Actions, skills, conditioned

responses & emotional responses

 Also known as Procedural Memory
 Skill Memory
• Riding a bike, typing, tying one’s
shoes
 Automatic Reactions
• Tensing up at the sound of a dentist’s
drill
 Memory: Storage

Explicit Memory
 Conscious recall
 Declarative Memory
 Recollection of words,

definitions, names, dates,

faces, events, concepts and
ideas
 Hippocampus – stores

explicit memories
temporarily
 Memory: Storage

Explicit Memory
 Memories are not permanently

stored in the hippocampus

 Instead, this structure seems

to act as a loading dock where

the brain registers and
temporarily holds the elements
of a to-be-remembered episode
—its smell, feel, sound, and
location
 Then memories migrate for

storage elsewhere
 This process is called memory

consolidation
 Memory: Storage

Two types of Explicit Memories

 Semantic Memory
 General knowledge that is not tied to a specific time
 Episodic Memory
 Chronological, or temporarily dated, recollections of personal
experiences
 Memory: Storage

Emotions & Memory

 Emotions trigger stress

hormones that influence

memory formation
 Stress hormones provoke

the amygdala which initiates

emotion-related memory
formation
 Significantly stressful events

form almost unforgettable

memories
 Memory: Storage

Flashbulb Memory
 A clear, sustained long-term memory of an emotionally significant moment

or event

People from different generations remember different events:

 Assassination of JFK

 The Challenger explosion

 September 11th

 Michael Jackson’s death

Think of a memory from your generation…….

Where were you?
What were your emotional reactions?
Memory: Retrieval
PA R T F O U R

“Get that info out of

there..!”
 Memory: Retrieval

Measures of Memory
 Recall
 A measure of memory in which a person must
retrieve/reproduce information in the absence of cues
 Ex –open-ended questions, fill in the blank

 Recognition
 A measure of memory in which a person must only identify
items previously learned
 Ex – multiple choice test, matching

 Relearning
 A measure of memory that assess the amount of time saved
when learning material for a second time
 Ex – 5 attempts to learn something when it previously took 10

attempts
Retrieval Cues
 Memory: Retrieval

Retrieval Cues
 Stimuli that help gain access to stored memories; serve as anchor

points
 Mnemonic Devices
 Priming
 Context Cues
 Serial Position Effect
 Memory: Retrieval

Priming
 The activation, often unconsciously, of
particular associations in memory
 Often referred to as “memory-less
memory”
 Occurs without explicit remembering
 Memory: Retrieval
Context Effects
 Involves placing yourself in the

context where you initially

experienced something
 Helps to prime memory retrieval
 Memory: Retrieval

Serial Position Effect

 Our tendency to recall best the last (a recency effect) and first

items (a primacy effect) in a list

 Immediate recall impacted more by recency effect
 Later recall impacted more by primacy effect
Mood & Memories
 Memory: Retrieval

State-Dependent Memory
 What someone learns in particular

state, is more easily recalled when

he/she is again in that state
 Examples:
 Someone who hides money while drunk
may forget its location until drunk again
 If you study while on the treadmill,
increasing your heart rate, you will likely
have better recall of the material when
your heart rate is accelerated again
 Memory: Retrieval

Mood-Congruent Memory
 The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s

current good or bad emotional state (mood)

 When happy, we recall happy events and therefore see the world as a
happy place, which helps prolong our good mood
 When depressed, we recall sad events, which darkens our
interpretations of current events
Memory: Forgetting
PA R T F I V E

“Where’d that info go?”

 Memory: Forgetting

Forgetting
 The inability to retrieve
information due to poor
encoding, storage or
retrieval
 Memory: Forgetting

Encoding Failure
 Obviously, we will not remember what we fail to encode
 Without encoding, information never enters into one’s long-term
memory
 EXAMPLE: Nickerson & Adams’ Penny Test
 NOTE: Age can impact encoding…
 Memory: Forgetting

Storage Decay
 Poor durability of stored

memories leads to their decay

 Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885)

 The Forgetting Curve
• The course of forgetting is
initially rapid, but levels off
over time
 Memory: Forgetting

Retrieval Failure
 Although the information is retained in the memory store, it

cannot be accessed
 You may lack the information needed to retrieve it
 Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
 Memory: Forgetting

Proactive Interference
 The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new

information – Past interferes with recent/new!

 Example
 If you buy a new combination lock, your well-rehearsed old

combination may interfere with your retrieval of the new one

 Memory: Forgetting

Retroactive Interference
 The disruptive effect of new

learning on the recall of old

information - Recent interferes
with past/old!
 Example
 If someone sings new lyrics to the

tune of an old song, you may have

trouble remembering the original
(old) words
 Sleep prevents retroactive
interference & leads to better
recall
 Memory: Forgetting

Motivated Forgetting
 Forgetting unwanted memories,

either consciously or unconsciously

 Freud proposed that our memory

systems self-censor painful

information through repression
 Repression
 A defense mechanism that

banishes anxiety-arousing
thoughts, feelings and memories
from consciousness
 Memory researchers think

repression, rarely, if ever, occurs

When do we forget?

Unfortunately,
forgetting can occur
at any memory stage

As we process
information, we filter,
alter, or lose much of
it
 Let’s Review…

Ellen can’t recall the provisions of the Treaty of

Guadalupe Hidalgo because she was daydreaming when
it was discussed in history class
 Ineffective encoding (lack of attention)
Rufus hates his job at Taco Haven & constantly forgets
when he is scheduled to work
 Retrieval failure (motivated forgetting)
 Let’s Review…

Ray’s new assistant is named Jason Timberlake. Ray

keeps calling him Justin.
 Proactive Interference
Tania studied history on Sunday morning & sociology
on Sunday evening. It’s Monday, and she’s struggling
with her history test because she keeps confusing
prominent historians with influential sociologists.
 Retroactive Interference
Memory: Reconstruction
 Memory: Reconstruction

Misconception
 Memory is a mental videotape that can provide faithful
reproductions of past events
Reality
 Countless studies in recent decades have demonstrated that
memories are incomplete, distorted, fuzzy reconstructions of past
events
 The adjectives that best describe memory are not exact or
accurate, but rather fragile, fallible and malleable
 Memory: Reconstruction

Reconsolidation
 A process in which previously stored memories, when
retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again
 When we “replay” a memory, we often replace the original with
a slightly modified version
Imagination Inflation
 A type of memory distortion that occurs when imagining an

event that never happened increases confidence in the memory

of the event
 False memories
 Memory: Reconstruction

The Misinformation Effect

 The incorporation of misleading information into one’s

memory of an event
 Elizabeth Loftus demonstrated that when exposed to subtle
misleading information, people may misremember
 Eyewitnesses must reconstruct their memories when questioned
about an event; rarely accurate
Brain Games: False Memory and Misinformation
Effect
 Memory: Reconstruction

Loftus & Palmer (1974)

 The Automobile Accident Test
 Group A: Hit
 Group B: Smashed
 Weeks later…broken glass?
Loftus and Palmer – Crash Footage (replication)
Elizabeth Loftus – False Memories
Loftus: False Memories – Getting Lost in a Shopping
Mall
 Memory: Reconstruction

Reality Monitoring
 Refers to the process of deciding whether memories are based on

external sources (one’s perceptions of actual events) or internal

sources (one’s thoughts and imaginations)
 Did I take my medicine this morning?
 Did I lock my car door?
 Did I turn off the oven?
 Did I say that or think it?
 Repeatedly imagining nonexistent actions and events can create
false memories
 Memory: Reconstruction

Source Amnesia/Source
Misattribution
 Faulty memory for how, when, or
where information was learned or
imagined
 Tends to affect a person’s explicit
memory and along with the
misinformation effect, is at the
heart of many false memories
 What is déjà vu?

that eerie sense that “I’ve

experienced this before”

Cues from the current situation may

unconsciously trigger retrieval of
an earlier experience. Source amnesia is one possible explanation for
this phenomenon.
Memory: Amnesia
 Memory: Amnesia

Types of Amnesia
 Retrograde Amnesia
 Tumor, Trauma, etc.
 Involves the loss of memories for events that occurred prior to the
onset of amnesia
Life Without Memory – Clive Wearing
 Memory: Reconstruction

Types of Amnesia
 Anterograde Amnesia
 Damage to the hippocampus
 Involves the loss of memories
for events that occur after the
onset of amnesia
 An inability to form new
memories
 The Case of H.M. (Henry

Molasion)
What Happens When You Remove the
Hippocampus?
 Memory: Reconstruction

Infantile Amnesia
 We cannot reliably recall happenings from our first three years
 Happens because our brain pathways have not yet developed

enough to form the kinds of memories we will form later in life

 Also, we index much of our explicit memory using words that

nonspeaking children have not learned