February 24 EQ- How does memory happen?

Agenda: 1. Daily Sheet 2. Memory Intro

Activities 3. Memory Notes 4. Flashbulb Poems

Table of Contents: 120. February 24 121. Memory Notes 122. Flashbulb Poem

HW- Review notes and finish your flashbulb poem! Vocabulary:

Memory- learning that has persisted over time; information that has been stored and can be retrieved

Memory Activity 1 Pick one of the following events and tell me about in as much detail as you can. Your first kiss Your favorite family vacation Your first day of high school Learning to drive a car

Memory Activity 2

1. Who was the first president of the United States? 2. Solve the following problems:

1. 12 x 10 2. 3 + 5 3. 6/2 4. 151 x 0

3. Name the planets in order. 4. How many states are there in the United States? 5. List three mammals. 6. What is an amphibian? 7. What are the seven continents? 8. How do you find the circumference of a circle?

Memory Activity 3

1. Tell me HOW to write a letter “Y” 2. Tell me HOW to ride a bicycle. 3. Tell me HOW to throw a ball.

Three Types of Memory • Episodic Memory- memory

of a specific event – Ex: What you had for dinner

last night. What you did this morning before school.

– “flashbulb” memories- memories that we store in GREAT detail, like a photograph

• Events with special meaning

• We think of them often

• They are connected to major events in the world- disaster or tragedy

Three types of memory, cont… • Semantic Memory- your

memory of facts, words, concepts

– Don’t know when, why and how you learned them “you just know it”

Three types of memory, cont… • Implicit Memory- the skills,

learned habits and conditioned responses that you have

– ex: riding a bike, typing, playing piano

– These stay with you for awhile even if you don’t do them often

Review: Which type of memory is this? (Episodic,

Semantic or Implicit) 1.Your first time on roller skates. 2.The vacation you went on last summer. 3.How to tie your shoes. 4.The name of all the Presidents. 5.Your phone number and address and social

security number. 6.How to drive a car. 7.When you found out there wasn’t a Santa Claus. 8.How to solve a math problem. 9.How to tie a tie. 10.MLA format for citing information in an essay.

How Does Memory Work? An Information-Processing Model Here is a simplified description of how we PROCESS

memories:

Encoding: getting the information ready to store (acoustic, visual or semantic)

Storage: the information is held in a way that allows it to later be retrieved

Retrieval: reactivating and recalling the information

Encoding

Storage

Retrieval

OTTFFSSENT

Look at this string of letters for 30

seconds and MEMORIZE it!

1. Write down the string of letters in the correct order.

2. How did you memorize it?

a. Picture it in your head?

b. read the list over and over again in your head?

c. make sense of the letters? (make a word out of them?acronym?)

The Ways we can encode…

• Visual Encoding: the encoding of picture images.

• Acoustic Encoding: the encoding of sound, especially the sounds of words.

• Semantic Encoding: the encoding of meaning.

Model for the Stages of Memory The Atkinson-Shiffrin Model (1968) 1. Stimuli are recorded by our senses and held briefly in sensory memory. (fleeting memory of the sights and sounds around you at any given moment- sights last less than one second, sounds- less than 4) 2. Some of this information is processed into short-term memory. This is the stuff we give attention to and encode through rehearsal. (lasts 30 seconds at most, holds an average of 7 items at any given time) 3. Information then moves into long-term memory where it can be retrieved later. (stored permanently, capacity is limitless)

Sensory Memory

Echoic Memory- memory of sounds lasts about 3-4 seconds in your sensory memory Ex:“what did I just say?” Even if you weren’t paying attention,

you can retrieve about the last eight words from echoic memory.

Visual Memory- lasts less than 1 second

Sensory memory refers to the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information before it is processed into short-term, working, or long-term memory.

Capacity of Short-Term AKA Working Memory

If some information is selected from sensory memory to be sent to short-term memory, how much information can we hold there?

Average amount is 7 +/- 2 (5-9) More recent research suggests

that the average person, free from distraction, can hold about:

7 digits, 6 letters, or 5 words.

Test: see how many of these letters and numbers you can recall after they disappear. No need for a hyphen before the V.

Test:

– V M 3 C A Q 9 L D

Storing Memories

Other memories form without us realizing it is happening…

effortful processing: Explicit memories are formed through studying, rehearsing, thinking, processing, and then storing information in long-term memory.

automatic processing: our brains automatically pay attention to: space, time, frequency, and things we recognize and know well

Some memories require “work” to form. (experiences and facts)

Effortful Processing Strategies

If we have short-term recall of only 7 letters, but can remember 5 words, doesn’t that mean we could remember more than 7 letters if we could group them into words?

This is an example of an effortful processing strategy, a way to encode information into memory to keep it from decaying and make it easier to retrieve.

Effortful processing is also known as studying.

Examples:

Chunking (grouping)

Mnemonics: images, maps, and peg-words

Hierarchies/categories

Rehearsal, especially distributed practice

Deep processing

Semantic processing

Making information personally meaningful

Can you remember this list?

Effortful Processing Strategies

Chunking

Why are credit card numbers broken into groups of four digits? Four “chunks” are easier to encode (memorize) and recall than 16 individual digits.

Memorize: ACPCVSSUVROFLNBAQ XIDKKFCFBIANA

Chunking: organizing data into manageable units

XID KKF CFB IAN AAC PCV S SU VRO FNB AQ

• Chunking works even better if we can assemble information into meaningful groups:

X IDK KFC FBI BA NAACP CVS SUV ROFL NBA Q

X IDK KFC FBI BA NAACP CVS SUV ROFL NBA Q

Nine Swap Cell Ring Lust

Plugs Lamp Apple Table Sway

Army Bank Fire Hold Worm

Clock Horse Color Baby Sword

Desk Bell Find Bird Rock

Chunking

Horse Cat Dog Fish Bird

Orange Yellow Blue Green Black

Table Chair Desk Bookcase Bed

Teacher School Student Homework Class

Apple Banana Kiwi Grape Mango

Mnemonics

Read: plane, cigar, due, shall, candy, vague, pizza, seem, fire, pencil

Which words might be easier to remember?

Write down the words you can recall.

Lesson: we encode better with the help of images.

A mnemonic is a memory “trick” that connects information to existing memory strengths such as imagery or structure.

You might also try to create a word or phrase to help you remember this list. Paul Chased Dee Saying Can Very Purple Snakes Feel Pain?

Rehearsal- repeating something over and over again either visually or orally to process it <studying>

The spacing effect was first noted by Hermann Ebbinghaus in the late 1800s: You will remember better, for longer if you study in small bits of time over a period of time

Testing effect- you remember something better if you have to answer questions about it instead of just reading it

Massed Practice refers to cramming information all at once. You will not retain the information well once the test is over.

When encoding information, we are more likely to retain it if we deeply process even a simple word list by focusing on the semantics (meaning) of the words.

“Shallow,” unsuccessful processing refers to memorizing the appearance or sound of words.

Deep/Semantic Processing Effortful Processing Strategies

We can memorize things better when we connect deeply to it by either thinking about the meaning of the words, relating it to our own lives or creating a vivid mental story to go along with the words

The self-reference effect, relating material to ourselves, aids encoding and retention.

Now try again, but this time, consider how each word relates to you.

Making Information Personally Meaningful

Effortful Processing Strategies Memorize the following words: bold truck temper green run drama glue chips knob hard vent rope

Explicit Memory Processing

Episodic and Semantic memories are processed by the HIPPOCAMPUS. As you sleep, the hippocampus goes through your memories for the day and files them away.

Implicit memories are processed by the CEREBELLUM.

Emotions and Memory

Strong emotions, especially stress, can strengthen memory formation.

Flashbulb memories refer to emotionally intense events that become “burned in” as a vivid-seeming memory.

Note that flashbulb memories are not as accurate as they feel.

Vividly storing information about dangers may have helped our ancestors survive.

Emotions, Stress Hormones, the Amygdala, and Memory

How does intense emotion cause the brain to form intense memories? 1.Emotions can trigger a rise in stress hormones. 2.These hormones trigger activity in the amygdala, located next to the memory-forming hippocampus. 3.The amygdala increases memory-forming activity and engages the frontal lobes and basal ganglia to “tag” the memories as important.

As a result, the memories are stored with more sensory and emotional details. These details can trigger a rapid, unintended recall of the memory. Traumatized people can have intrusive recall that is so vivid that it feels like re-experiencing the event.

Instant I Remember Poem

Line 1: I remember Line 2: I remember Line 3: I remember Line 4:And Line 5: I remember Line 6: I remember Line 7: I remember Line 8: Even Line 9: I remember Line 10: But my favorite memory’s yet to come.

SAMPLE

I remember the day at the beach

I remember the hot sand burning my feet

I remember how cold the ocean felt

and how my skin seemed to sizzle in the heat

I remember the boardwalk clamor

I remember how I wanted to eat everything in sight

I remember walking and baking in the hot sun

Even though now it’s still February and gloomy

I remember savoring that summer day

But my favorite memory’s yet to come

Flashbulb Memory Poem