MEMORY: Memory is any indication that learning has persisted over time

Three Tasks of Memory:

• Encoding: acquiring
• Storage : maintaining
• Retrieval: Accessing

Two Models of Memory: Three Box/ Information Processing - How we remember?

Levels of Processing - How deep we remember?

Type 1: 3 Stages of Memory: Information Processing Model: Three Box Model (Atkinson and Shiffring)

Three Box model proposes the three stages that information passes through before it is stored:

Sensory, Short / Working and Long Term Memory

Stage 1 - Sensory

• -split-second holding tank
• -the information your senses are processing right now is held in sensory memory less than a second
• -George Sperling did experiments, showed iconic memory – a split-second perfect photograph of a scene – 12 ITEMS
• -Other experiments indicate echoic memory – split-second memory for sounds
• -Most of the information in sensory memory is not encoded
• -Selective attention determines which sensory messages get encoded

Stage 2 -Short-term/Working Memory: Awareness

• -memories we are currently working with
• 20-30 seconds / -temporary
• -capacity is limited on average to around seven items (7+/-) Miller
• -Events are encoded as visual codes, acoustic codes, or semantic codes
• -Capacity can be expanded through chunking and rehearsal
• -Mnemonic devices- memory aids
• -Rehearsal or simple repetition can hold information in short-term memory

Stage 3 -Long-term Memory

• -permanent storage
• -capacity is unlimited
• -memories can decay or fade

Long Term Memory is stored in three different formats:

• Episodic memory – memories of specific events stored in a sequential series of events
• Semantic memory – general knowledge of the world stored as facts, meanings, or categories rather than sequentially
• Procedural Memory – memories of skills and how to perform them. These are sequential but might be very complicated to describe in words

Long Term Memory can be subdivided into two types: Explicit (declarative) and Implicit - Non-declarative

• Explicit – conscious memories of facts or events
• Implicit – unintentional memories that we might not even realize we have (Memoryless memories

Eidetic Memory is Photographic Memory - Very Rare and is more likely in children before 3 than adults

LEVELS OF PROCESSING MODEL /INFORMATION PROCESSING

This theory explains why we remember what we do by examining how deeply the memory was processed or thought about.

Memories are neither short- nor long-term. They are deeply (elaboratively) processed or shallowly (or maintenance) processed.

According to the levels of processing theory, we remember things we spend more cognitive time and energy processing.

This theory explains why we remember stories better than a simple recitation of events and why, in general, we remember questions better than statements.

• Encoding: acquiring
• Storage : maintaining
• Retrieval: Accessing

Focus is on Retrieval -

There are several factors that influence why we can retrieve some memories and why we forget others.

-Primacy / Serial Position effect – more likely to recall items presented at the beginning of a list

-Recency effect- ability to recall the items at the end of a list

-Context - Encoding specificity

-Flashbulb memories – episodic

-Mood-congruent memory- ability to recall a memory is increased when current mood matches mood when stored

-State-dependent memory-

-Constructive Memory – false memories, leading questions can easily influence u

FORGETTING:Why do we forget?

7 Sins TAB – MSB – S

Forgetting Sins: TAB

1. Transience – Ebbinghaus/ storage decay / relearning indicates it does not really disappear if encoded properly

2. Absent Mindedness – failure to encode

3. Blocking: Interference

-Retroactive interference – learning new information interferes with the recall of older information

-Proactive interference – older information learned previously interferes with the recall of information learned more recently

Serial Position Effect

Primacy Effect

Recency Effect

Distortions in Memory: MSB

4. Misattribution: The memory exists and it is a correct recollection of information but with incorrect recollection of the source of that information. For example, a person who witnesses a murder after watching a television program may incorrectly blame the murder on someone she saw on the television programSuggestibility: Memories of the past can be distorted by a deliberate suggestion or influenced by the manner in which they are recalled. Classic Loftus Experiment – Misinformation Effect will impact on memory construction

5. Suggestibility: Memories of the past can be distorted by a deliberate suggestion or influenced by the manner in which they are recalled. Classic Loftus Experiment – Misinformation Effect will impact on memory construction.For example, a person sees a crime being committed by a redheaded man. After reading in the newspaper that the crime was committed by a brown-haired man, the witness "remembers" a brown-haired man instead of a redheaded man. / scar example

Fabricated Memories: Lost in the Mall –

Recovered Memory Syndrome

6. Bias: The influence of personal beliefs, attitudes, and expectations of memories:Expectancy &Self Consistency

Intrusive Memories - S

7. Persistence: When we can not forget / Usually intense negative emotions / Depressed people, or people with phobias / obsessions

Improve Your Memory:

• Mnemonics techniques for improving memory
• Method of Loci: associate items on a list with a place or familiar location
• Meaningful Associations long-term

How memories are physically stored in the brain.

The physical trace of memory – Engram

Hippocampus is important in encoding new memories. Damage can cause anterograde amnesia (can’t encode any new memories)

Long term potentiation- studies of neurons indicate that they can strengthen connections between each other through repeated firings, this might be related to the connections we make in our long-term memory

Consolidation – Story of HM has taught that most long term memories make a stop in the hippocampus before their final destination to the cortex

Language:

• - Phonemes and Morphemes
• - Grammar, Semantics, and Syntax
• - Stages of language development (babbling, one-word, two word (telegraphic)
• - Linguistic relativity (Whorf)
• - Skinner vs. Chomsky