The persistence of learning over time through

storage and retrieval of information

3 step process:

Encoding – processing info into memory system

Storage – retention of encoded info

Retrieval – process of getting info out of storage

Memory is like a computer’s information processing

system.

MEMORY

Encoding Storage Retrieval

3 basic stages of memories:

Sensory memory – immediate, brief recording of

sensory info

Short term memory (STM)/ working memory –

activated memory that holds a few items briefly

before it is encoded and stored or discarded

Long term memory (LTM) - the relatively permanent

and limitless storehouse

MEMORY

Atkinson-Shif frin and Baddley Models combined

MODIFIED 3 STAGE MODEL

Sensory

Memory LTM

STM or

Working

Memory

Sensory

Input

Attention

Encoding

Encoding

Retrieval

Forgetting Forgetting Forgetting

Memory includes (in ABC order) long -term memory, sensory

memory, and working/short -term memory. What’s the correct

order of these three memory stages?

TEST YOURSELF

O T T F F S S E N T

30 SEC TO REMEMBER THIS IN ORDER…

Automatic processing– ef fortless, unconscious encoding of

info

Reading signs while driving

Effortful processing – requires attention and conscious

effort

Reading the psych text book for comprehension and understanding

Rehearsal – conscious repetition

Spacing effect – memories are retained through distributed

practice

Why cramming for tests is BAD

Serial positioning effect – remembering the first and last

items in a list

ENCODING

Write the letters I asked you to memorize a few minutes ago.

OTTFFSSENT

Visual encoding – encoding of picture images

(ex: visualization of info on page) Imagery – mental pictures

Mnemonic devices – memory aids, especially those techniques that

use vivid imagery and organizational devices (ex: peg-

method/memory palace)

Acoustic encoding – encoding of sounds (ex:

rhymes with, repetition of info out loud)

Semantic encoding – encoding of meaning

(ex: assigning/creating meaning)

ENCODING

How to improve your memory with memory palace technique?

Summarize the video in one sentence. What’s the biggest ah -ha

moment?

STOP & JOT

Chunking – organizing items into familiar

manageable units; often occurs automatically

17761861191719412001 How can you chunk this?

How could you have chunked OTTFFSSENT?

ORGANIZING INFO FOR PROCESSING

Sensory Memory

Iconic memory – a momentary sensory memory of visual info (brief

photographic memory)

You can briefly look a word’s spelling to copy the

word, but cannot recall the spelling minutes later.

Echoic memory – a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli,

3-4 seconds

Teacher asks you “what did I just say?” and you can

recall the last few words

STORAGE

8 volunteers - think of your favorite food.

Now say your favorite food, plus everyone else’s

favorite food before you.

STM/Working memory

7 +/- 2

Importance of chunking

STORAGE

LTM – Unlimited

Implicit memory – procedures/skills (processed in part in the

cerebellum)

Explicit memory – retention of facts and experiences that you

can consciously declare (primarily processed/stored in

hippocampus)

Semantic memory – general knowledge

Episodic memory – events

Prospective memory – remembering to do something in the future

STORAGE

Flashbulb memories – clear, vivid memory of an

emotionally significant event

Episodic memory

STORAGE

Your friend tells you that her father experienced brain damage

in an accident. She wonders if psychology can explain why he

can still play checkers very well but has a hard time holding a

sensible conversation. What can you tell her?

TEST YOURSELF

Biological look at memory storage.

Long-term potentiation (LTP) – an increase in

a synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid

stimulation; believed to be a neural basis for

learning and memory As experience strengthens the pathways between neurons, synapses

transmit signals more efficiently

LONG-TERM POTENTIATION

Getting memories out of storage

Recall – retrieving info not in conscious awareness Short answer questions, fill -in-the-blank questions

Recognition – identifying items previously learned Multiple choice questions

Relearning – learning information a second time, faster than the first time Test corrections

RETRIEVAL

Déjà vu – the eerie sense that “I’ve experienced this before.”

Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.

Context-dependent memories – memories are more easily recalled in the same context as when they were encoded

State-dependent memories - memories are more easily recalled in the same state as when they were encoded

Crash Course – Making Memories

CONTEXT EFFECTS ON MEMORY

MEMORY:

FORGETTING AND

IMPROVEMENT

Just as important as remembering avoid clutter

Amnesia – the loss of memory

Biological – head injuries

FORGETTING

Absent-mindedness

Inattention to details; we cannot remember something we have not

encoded.

THREE SINS OF FORGETTING

A

Transience – storage decay

Even if we encode, we can still forget it later

Often unused info or info that no longer holds meaning.

THREE SINS OF FORGETTING

Blocking – inaccessibility of stored info (“it’s on the tip of my tongue…”)

Proactive interference – the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new info.

Retroactive interference – the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old info.

Motivated forgetting

Repression – in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety -arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.

Most psychologists today would agree that repressed memories do not exist.

THREE SINS OF FORGETTING

Source amnesia – attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, hear about, read about, or imagined.

Misinformation effect – incorporating misleading

info into one’s memory of an event.

Loftus’ study on recollections of car accidents using leading questions.

Bias – belief-colored recollections Memories are perceptions of the past and as such are subject to

expectations and bias.

THREE SINS OF DISTORTION

Eye witness recall is subject to false memory reconstruction.

Misinformation effect

Presupposing and leading questions

Children are more suggestible than adults can be lead to produce false memories through suggestive questions.

Young children can recall events as they occurred if…

neutral adult asks non-leading questions

uses words they understand.

EYE WITNESS RECALL

Study repeatedly to boost long term recall.

Make material personally meaningful.

Use mnemonic devices.

Minimize interference.

Test your own knowledge, both to rehearse the info

and determine what you do not know yet.

IMPROVING MEMORY

Biological Psychological Social-cultural

•LTP

•Automatic

processing

•Electric

current or head

injury

•Storage decay

•Rehearsal

•Context effects

•Priming

•Mood

•Stress

•Encoding and

organizing strategies

•Retrieval interference

•Memory construction

•Misinformation

effect

•Flashbulb

memories for

important events

•Level of implied

importance

•Source amnesia

MEMORY AS BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL

(PG. 390)

60 Minutes – Endless Memory (Pt. 1)

Zimbardo – Remembering and Forgetting

Brain Games – Remember This!

Crash Course – Remembering and Forgetting

VIDEOS