Psychology Chapter on Memory

Consciousness: Topic 1

• 20% of college students believe aliens communicate through dreams
• 10% of people claim to have met or experienced an alien.
• Some individuals report alien abductions, raising questions about sleep, perception, and culture.
• Sleep Paralysis occurs during transitions in or out of REM sleep, where individuals feel awake but cannot move.
• Common features include anxiety, terror, and a sense of a menacing presence.
• Cultural influences can vary hallucinations—feelings of an intruder, or chest pressure are examples.
• Consciousness is our subjective experience of the world, our bodies, and our mental states.
• Altered states of consciousness include sleep paralysis, locked-in syndrome, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, mystical states, hypnosis, meditation, and states induced by psychoactive drugs.
• Sleep is characterized by low physical activity and reduced awareness.
• Associated with the secretion of hormones such as melatonin, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, and growth hormone.
• Sleep follows a 90-minute cycle consisting of 5 stages: Stages 1–4 (NREM): No eye movement, fewer dreams, and Stage 5 (REM): Rapid eye movement and vivid dreams.
• Sleep stages: Light sleep: Heart rate decrease, body temp drops, electric brain wave activity slows; Deep sleep: Brain erupts with powerful brain waves, body is recharged, immune & cardiovascular benefits, memory consolidation.
• Stage 1: Transition phase – lasts a few minutes, brain waves slow down, dreams are like photos
• Stage 2: Falling asleep – further slowing of brain waves, sleep spindles and K-complexes, 65% of total sleep
• Stages 3 and 4: Deep sleep – delta waves characterized by low frequency and high amplitude, crucial to feeling rested, growth hormone production, children spend more time in NREM3/4 than adults, suppressed by alcohol
• Stage 5: REM sleep – rapid eye movement, brain waves similar to wakefulness, temporary paralysis of skeletal muscles, eye and inner ear movements

Sleep Deprivation

• Sleep-deprived people feel increased stress and a tendency to overreact emotionally.
• Lack of emotional regulation has a biological basis.
• Reaction to neutral images as if they were emotional.
• Extreme case study with Peter Tripp showing severe effects of sleep deprivation like slurred speech, hallucinations, and paranoia, significant personality changes, and eventual dangerous conditions
• A growing concern among university students, with sleep hygiene practices recommended (regular sleep-wake schedule, avoiding caffeine, and a quiet sleep environment)
• Sleep needs vary across people but approx. 7-8 hours a night is the norm

Circadian Rhythm

• Biological rhythm that occurs over 24 hours.
• Regulated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) or biological clock of the hypothalamus.
• Sleep-wake cycle is linked to the environment's natural light-dark cycle.
• Body temp, hormone production, and blood pressure follow circadian rhythms

Why Sleep?

• Adaptive function: Sleep restores resources and reduces predatory risks. We remain vulnerable during sleep.
• Restorative function: Essential for memory consolidation, learning, and cognitive function.
• Essential for Growth: Vital for brain development.

Sleep Disorders

• Insomnia: Difficulty falling or staying asleep for at least 3 nights/week for a month, higher likelihood among some groups
• Experience distress, anxiety, and fatigue.
• Paradoxical Insomnia: Sleep-state misperception, sleep disorder where people believe they are sleep deprived despite having normal sleep, experience distress, anxiety and fatigue
• Night Terrors: Sudden waking episodes characterized by screaming, sweating and confusion, followed by return of deep sleep. Common in children—harmless.
• Sleep Apnea: Blockage of the airway during sleep – e.g. SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome)
• Narcolepsy: Sudden and unexpected onset of sleep, rapid entry into REM sleep.

Psychoactive Drugs and their Effects on Consciousness

• Substances that contain chemicals similar to those found naturally in the brain that alter biochemistry (neurotransmission).
• Influence on emotions, perceptions, and behaviors; can create dependence.
• Effect the nervous system (stimulants, depressants, and hallucinogens).
• Examples: Caffeine (stimulant), nicotine (stimulant), alcohol (depressant), THC (stim & dep)

Sleep Stages Overview

• Light sleep: Heart rate decreases, body temperature drops, and electric brain wave activity slows.
• Deep sleep: Brain activity increases with powerful brain waves - body is recharged; immune and cardiovascular benefits - memory consolidation occur

Opioids- Poppy Seed Derivatives

• CNS depressant - drowsiness, drifting in and out of consciousness.
• Binds to opioid receptors (dopamine agonist).
• Euphoria and relaxation, blur boundaries between wakefulness and dream-like consciousness.
• Reduced pain awareness.
• Depress respiration (decreased breathing).
• Build-up of carbon dioxide in the blood.
• Reduced opioid receptors sensitivity results in opioid tolerance.

Hallucinogens (psychedelics)

• Capable of producing hallucinations or changes in perception
• LSD, psilocybin, ayahuasca, marijuana, ecstasy, and salvia.

Narcotics

• Drugs that increase relaxation and relieve pain and anxiety.
• Highly addictive.
• Examples: Heroin and morphine (from poppy seeds)

Memory: Topic 3

• Human Memory: Many people believe that memory works like a recording device. Memory is like a wiki - you can add to it and other people can as well.
• Memory is the process by which we encode, store and retrieve information.
• Memory is not static, can change over time
• Memory is generally adaptive but prone to errors
• Three-stage model of memory: Sensoty→STM→LTM
• Sensory Memory: Briefly stores sensory information for a very brief time (e.g., Iconic memory holds visual information for less than a second, echoic memory holds sound for a few seconds).
• Short-term memory (STM): A temporary store for information that is actively worked on.

Human Memory Processes:

• Encoding: Transforming information into a usable format for storage in the memory system.
• Storage Retention: Saving information over time for later retrieval.
• Retrieval: Retrieving information at a needed later time

Long Term Memory/Processes:

• Declarative (explicit memory): Conscious recollection of facts and events (e.g., events in our lives, facts).
  • Semantic: General Knowledge (e.g. prime minister)
  • Episodic: Experiences in our lives (e.g., special holidays, first kiss)
• Nondeclarative (implicit memory): Unconscious learning and memory of skills or habits—not explicitly remembered (e.g., skills such as riding a bike or playing music)
  • Procedural: How to do something
  • Priming: Activating existing knowledge to aid the processing of new information.
• Amnesia: Memory loss which could be anterograde (inability to form new memories) or retrograde (inability to recall past memories):
  • Case study: Henry Molaison (HM)

Memory processes/failures:

• Encoding failures
• Retrieval failures—decay, interference, and amnesia
• Interference: Retroactive interference happens when new information interferes with the ability to remember old information; proactive interference occurs when old information impedes the learning and remembering of new information
• Amnesia: Loss of long-term memory (e.g., anterograde amnesia/retrograde amnesia)
• Case study: Clive Wearing
• False memories: recollection of an event that is fabricated or distorted
  • Laboratory induction

Eyewitness Misidentification

• Leading cause of wrongful convictions.
• Under immense pressure, difficult for eyewitnesses to recall details correctly.
• Case study: Ronald Cotton

Language, Thinking, and Reasoning: Topic 4

• Language is central to communication and understanding the world.
• Language develops without formal instruction through exposure, and children develop similar language milestones.
• Language acquisition is rooted in universal cognitive and neurological processes.

Language Processes

• Phonemes: Smallest units of sound in a language.
• Morphemes: Smallest units of meaning in a language.
• Syntax: Rules for organizing words into sentences.
• Cross-linguistic: differences in language across cultures

Language Development

• Critical period hypothesis—language acquisition is most efficient in early life. Bilingualism in early child development may be more advantageous
• Babbling: Infants begin by making various sounds, and these eventually become sounds relevant to their native language. The rate/speed/process of babbling can reflect development
• Words & Phrases: Children learn to combine words to create simple phrases/sentences. By 2 years, they can understand and use several hundred words.

Language Acquisition and Deprivation

• Critical period—proficiency in acquiring language is maximal early in life.
• Deprivation interferes with full language acquisition.
• Cases like Genie Wiley suggest the importance of a sensitive period for language development.

Language, Thinking, Reasoning

• Language influences how we think and understand the world (linguistic relativity—Sapir-Whorf hypothesis)
• Cognitive Economy: Our brains aim for efficiency, using shortcuts to save mental energy (e.g., heuristics).
• Cognitive Biases: Systematic errors in thinking when using heuristics, affect judgment in various contexts

Reasoning/Problem Solving

• Algorithms: Rules guaranteeing a solution with time/effort.
• Heuristics: Short-cut rules of thumb, faster but no guarantee, can lead to errors
• Obstacles: Cognitive biases, mental sets, and functional fixedness.

The Downside of Heuristics

• Representativeness heuristic—Judging the likelihood of something based on how similar it is to a stereotype.
• Availability heuristic —estimating the likelihood of events based on how easily examples come to mind.
• Base Rate Fallacy: Ignoring general facts (base rates) to focus on specific details.
• Anchoring Heuristic: Relying on a single piece of information to make decisions.

Framing Effects

• The way a question or statement is presented can influence decisions—gain vs. loss framing, positive/negative framing

Thinking Processes & Types of Information

Top-down processing: Using previous knowledge/experiences to understand new information more easily

• Concepts, prototypes, and categories

Test your understanding of memory based on psychological principles. This quiz explores sensory memory, short-term to long-term memory transfer, chunking, the central executive in working memory, and the adaptive functions of memory. Challenge your knowledge and see how well you grasp these concepts!