CH 7: What is Memory PDF

CH 7: What is memory? What is the true nature of memory? Memory: The retention and retrieval of information or experience over time. It occurs through 3 processes: 1. Encoding 2. Storage 3. Retrieval What is Memory Encoding? Encoding: the process by which information gets into memory...

CH 7: What is memory? What is the true nature of memory? Memory: The retention and retrieval of information or experience over time. It occurs through 3 processes: 1. Encoding 2. Storage 3. Retrieval What is Memory Encoding? Encoding: the process by which information gets into memory storage Some is automatic Some takes effort Paying attention Processing deeply Elaborating Mental imagery. Q: What is Attention? Attention is selective because the brain's resources are limited and cannot attend to everything. It takes half our conscious to pay attention to someone talking to us What we pay attention to is selected automatically Divided attention Multitasking Negative consequences for learning and memory Handwritten notes are better for deep processing. Concentrating one more than one activity at the same time. EX: Listening to music while studying DETRIMENTAL to ENCODING Sustained Attention Maintain attention to a selects stimulus for a long time EX: Studying notes Q: What are the levels of processing? Encoding can be influenced by levels of processing A continuum from shallow —> intermediate —> deep EX: You’re asked to memorize the word mom Shallow processing: noting the physical features of the stimulus such as shapes of the letters Intermediate processing: giving the stimulus a label as in reading the word mom Deep: thinking about the meaning of the stimulus—> my own mom and her special qualities The more deeply you process the better you recall memory DEEP PROCESSING:  Taking something you ALREADY KNOW and can easily retrieve from memory —> attach new info to it in a meaningful way. Q: What is elaboration? Elaboration: the formation of a number of different connections around a stimulus at any given level of memory encoding. The more elaborate, the better the processing. Self referencing is relating material to your own experience Helps with elaborating deeply Greater elaboration of information is linked with neural activity especially in the brain's left frontal lobe. Hippocampus is activated Q: How does imagery improve memory? Pavio believes memory is stored in two ways 1. Image code —> produces better memory 2. Verbal code What is Memory Storage? Storage: how information is retained over time and how it is represented in memory Atkinson-Shiffrin theory: Memory involves 3 separate systems 1. Sensory memory: time frames of a fraction of a second to several seconds 2. Short term memory : time frames up to 30 seconds 3. Long term memory: Time frames up to a lifetime. Fails to capture dynamic ways of short term function. We attend, manipulate and use it to solve problems. Q: What is sensory memory? Sensory memory Holds information from the world in its original sensory form for only an instant. Rich and detailed Information is lost quickly unless we use strategies to transfer it to short term/long term memory. Echoic memory: auditory sensory memory which is rationed for several seconds Iconic memory: visual sensory memory which is retained for one quarter of a second Responsible for ability to write in the air with a sparkle on Canada Day Sperling's flashing letter experiment All nine letters were initially processed at the iconic sensory memory level but forgetting from iconic memory occurred so rapidly that the participants did not have time to transfer the letters to short term memory. He created a mental image for them and they performed much better Q: What is short term memory? Short term: limited capacity memory system in which information is usually retained for 30s unless u use strategies to retain it. Passive storehouse for memories until it goes to long term Not related to cognitive aptitudes Miller said indvs are limited in how much info they can keep w/o external aids. Limit is in the range of 7+/- 2 Memory Span: the number of digits an indv can report back in order after a single look. Q: What is chunking and rehearsal? These are ways to improve memory Chunking: grouping/packing info into higher order units that can be remembered as single units. Make large amounts of information more manageable Chunks that have no meaning are harder to remember Rehearsal: conscious repetition of information Info with or without rehearsal lasts for half a min in sort term memory If rehearsal is uninterrupted it can be retained indefinitely Does not work for long term because rehearsing does not pair meaning Associated with left hemisphere (for language) and wernickes area Q: What is working memory? Working memory: a combo of components including short term memory and attention that allow us to hold information temporarily as we perform cognitive tasks. NOT THE SAME AS SHORT TERM Active memory system: uses memories to apply them to problems Only remember 4+/- 1 or 3-5 chunks Context for conscious thought Brain assembles information to help us understand Alan Baddely’s 3 part model of working memory: 1. Phonological loop Store speech based information about the sounds of language Acoustic code = sounds we heard —> decays in seconds Rehearsal = repeat word in phonological store 2. Visuo-spatial sketchpad Store visual and spatial information like imagery Limited Occipitotemporal regions NOTE: 1 and 2 work independently 1. Central executive Integrated info from 1 and 2 and long term memory  Central in attention, planning and organizing Supervisor that monitors attention Selects strategies to problem solve Limited space Prefrontal cortex plays a role in attention Q: What is long term memory? Long term memory is a permanent type of memory that stores huge amounts of information for a long time HUGE CAPACITY: 2.8x10*20 Memory can be divided into 2 parts: 1. Explicit memory (declarative memory) Conscious recollection of information such as facts and events-can be verbally communicated Barack calls information that lasts PERMASTORE —> portion of original learning that appears destined to stay with the person forever. Episodic: retention of information about the where, when and what of life happenings. Autobiographical Reinstating activity that occurred during the experience Past experiences activate the hippocampus Semantic: persons knowledge about the world Expertise, knowledge Remember who, what, where,when.why 1. Implicit memory(nondeclaritive) Memory in which behaviour is affected by prior experience without a conscious recollection of that experience —> Sports skills, Texting Procedural (skills): memory for skills Unconscious typing Priming: activation of information that people already have in storage to help them remember new information more efficiently Something in the environment evokes a response in memory such as activation of a particular concept. Even subtle primes affect you Works through your natural memory process and associations Classical conditioning: form of learning Liking someone who sits next to you because they always appear when you’re in a good mood. Can heightened accessibility heighten behaviour? Q: How is memory organized? Schemas Pre existing mental concept or framework that helps people organize and interpret information You know exactly how restaurant encounters play out Shema theory: long term memory is not exact We find the memories we want and don't then reconstruct the rest Helps us fill the gap in fragmented memories Script Schema for an event Have information about physical features, people, typical occurrences Waiter hand you a paper —> you know its a bill Connectionist networks Since Chema theory has nothing to say about theory this one was made Connectionism (parallel distributed processing)(PDP): memory is stored thought the brain in connections among neurons, several that may work together to process a single memory Knowledge is electrical impulses organized to the extent that neurons, the connections among them and their activity are organized. Neural activity involving memory —> cerebral cortex —> locations of neural activity (nodes) are interconnected —> node reaches critical level of activation — affect other nodes across synapses Priming a concept (achievement) can influence behaviour’s (performance) Q: Where are memories stored? Neuroscience memory suggests that memories are connections through the brain, states of brain activity recreating the brain's function when experiences first took place. Q: How do neurons relate to memory? Long term potentiation: explains how memory functions at the neuronal level In line with connectionist theory If two neurons are activated at the same time, the connection between them — thus the memory— may be strengthened Memory is seen in different locations in the brain: Explicit memory: Hippocampus Temporal lobes in cerebral cortex Other areas of the limbic system Information from hippocampus —> frontal lobes (retrospective memory(things from the past) and prospective memory (things for the future) Implicit memory: Cerebellum is active for skills Cerebral cortex( temporal lobes and hippocampus) function in priming What is memory retrieval? Memory retrieval takes place when information that was retained in memory comes utilised of storage. With this puzzle you fill in the blanks and missing pieces with imagined and confabulated pieces based on expectation, beliefs, shams logic and intuition  Retrieval depends heavily on the circumstances under which a memory was encoded and the way it was retained. Q: What is the serial position effect? Serial position effect: The tendency to recall the items at the beginning and end of a list more readily than those in the middle. All the stuff in the middle is a blue but your remember the things at the beginning and end Primacy effect: better recall to things at the beginning of the list Remembered because they are rehearsed more Receive more elaborate processing Working memory is empty before these first words so there is no competition for rehearsal time. More likely to enter long term Recency effect: better recall of items at the end Might still be in working memory when recalled The content is still fresh TOGETHER they make the serial position effect. Can affect how we feel about stimuli Q:What are retrieval cues and the retrieval task? Two factors are involved 1. The nature of the cues that can prompt your memory If effective cues do not exist when you are trying to remember something then you need to create them Takes place in working memory We can generate retrieval res and a good strategy to use is subcategories. 2. The retrieval task you set for yourself. May fail you or prevent you from remembering significant details Recall: A memory task in which the individual has to retrieve previously learned information. Recall tests such as essay tests have poor retinal cues Recognition: a memory task in which the individual only has to identify (recognize) learned items as on multiple choice tests. Recognition tests such as MCQ is where you judge whether a stimulus is familiar and to recognize it. Q: What is encoding specificity? Encoding specificity principle: information present at the time of encoding or learning tends to be effective as a retrieval cue. Q: How does context affect encoding retrieval? A consequence of encoding specificity is that a change in context between encoding and retrieval can cause memory to fail. People remember better when they attempt to recall information in the same context in which they learned it.  CONTEXT DEPENDENT MEMORY These later acts as retrieval cues Q: What are special cases of retrieval? When we are searing through our long term memory store house we do not always find the exact book we want. Several pages might be missing that we fill in ourselves Memory is affected by Pattern of information we remember Schemas and scripts Situations we associate with memories Personal or emotional context. Memory may be reconstructive. False memories: people remember an event that never actually happened. So excited to tell someone something that you convince yourself that you already told them. False memories have an error in distinguishing between two kinds of mental contents 1. Internally generated experience: your thoughts about telling your friend 2. Externally generated experiences: actually telling your friend. Words strongly related to a key word can create strong internal activation which can be confused for actually studying the word. Q: What is special about the retrieval of autobiographical memories? Autobiographical memory: a special form of episodic memory is a person's recollections of their life experiences. Reminisce bump: adults remember more events from the second and third decades of life than from other decades May occur during teens and twenties that we are forging a sense of identity Levels of life 1. Level one: Life time periods Remember something about life in high school 2. Level 2: General events A trip you took with your friends after graduating HS 3. Level 3: Most concrete level Composed of event specific knowledge Q: What is different about the retrieval of emotional memories? Memories are wrapped in emotion which affects encoding and storage and shapes the details that are retrieved. Flashbulb memory: emotionally significant events that people recall with more accuracy and vivid imagery than everyday events. People can remember their surroundings and purpose  Part of an adaptive system that fixes in memory the details of an important event. We are more likely to have personal experiences rather than the event itself. HOW DOES TRAUMA AFFECT MEMORY Repressed memory: defence mechanism So traumatic u forget it Psychodynamic theory: protect indv from threatening information Repression is also a case of MOTIVATED FORGETTING Forget because it's so painful, remembering is intolerable Use it to protect themselves Recovered memories are better termed as DISCOVERED MEMORIES because Indvs experience them as real. The truth about eyewitness testimony. Eye witnesses may contain errors Distortion Memory fades over time Altered by new information Bias Ethnic groups Inaccuracy in memory To minimize this psychologists are implementing Double blind: removes bias Present subjects sequentially: reduces erroneous identifications Why do we forget? Most forgetting takes places soon after we learn something There are some factors that influence how well we can receive information from long term memory. Q: What is encoding failure? When you say you forgot something, you may have never really encoded it Encoding failure The information was never entered into long term memory Q: What is retrieval failure? Causes of failure Problems with the info in storage Time Personal reasons Brains condition  Persistently trying to retrieve info is associated with better learning even if those attempts are unsuccessful. Q:What is interference? Interference theory: People forget because other information gets in the way of what they want to remember. Memory for one thing fails because memory for another is in the way Proactive interference Material that was learned before disrupts the recall of material earned later. Pro = forward in time Retroactive interference: Material learned later disrupts retrieval of info learned earlier Retro =backward Decay theory: when we learn something new, a neurochemical memory trace forms but over time this trace disintegrates Passage of time always increases forgetting This theory has holes because under the right retrieval conditions we can recover memories that we seem to have forgotten. Q: What is the tip of the tongue phenomenon? TOT Effortful retrieval Confident we know but can’t quite remember Can retrieve characteristics only Sounds of words are linked in memory even if their meanings are not Q: What is prospective memory? Retrospective = memory from the past Prospective = remembering to do something in the future Memory for intentions Includes timing and content Time based: intention to engage in a given behavior after a specified amount of time has gone by Event based: engage in the intended behaviours when some external event or cue elicits it—> more effective Q: What is amnesia? Amnesia: the loss of memory H.M suffered anterograde amnesia: affects the retention of new information and events (antero= moves forward in time)  H.M still possessed procedural memory skills Retrograde: memory loss for segment of pas events (retro = moves back in time) More common TIPS TO STUDY BETTER AND HAVE BETTER MEMORY(…) How does memory contribute to health and wellness? Autobiographical memories are one of the most important aspects of human life. Learn from experiences Understand yourself and provide sense of identity Indv that describe life experiences that go from bad —> better (redemptive) are more generative —> (they will have a legacy) Contamination stores: good —> bad Q: How do we keep memory sharp and preserve brain function? 1. Lead intellectual lives 2. Mentally engaging tasks Gives cognitive storage — emergency stash of mental capacity