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Chapter 8 – Memory Information Processing Encoding – the act of acquiring information and putting it into memory. Storage – retaining information in memory over time. Retrieval - recovering information from memory storage. Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Three-stage Processing Model of Memory
1. Sensory memory – short lived memory process; all the information coming into your body, very short lived. If you pay attention to it… 2. Short-Term and Working Memory – Short-term memory – receives information that was perceived in sensory memory Working memory - part of the memory system that allows us to mentally manipulate information being held in short term memory 3. Long-Term Memory - a relatively long lasting stage of memory whose capacity is believe to be unlimited Encoding: Getting Information In How We Encode Some information we process automatically, with little to no effort. Other information is more difficult. Effortful processing – encoding that requires attention and conscious effort. One way to encode the information in this chapter is rehearsal – conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage. Ex. Pick something up at walmart, keep repeating milk, butter and eggs, milk butter and eggs etc. Just remember the limitations of rehearsal. Serial position effect – U-shaped pattern of performance on a free recall task when recall is plotted as a function of word position. Free recall task : participants are given a list of 20 or more words, one at a time, and then asked to recall the entire list after the last word has been presented -probably remember first words & last words better than those in the middle
Primacy effect - relatively good recall of the first items or primary items on the list; more time to rehearse that information Recency effect - relatively good recall of the last items or most recent items on the list; items are easily retrieved from short-term store What We Encode Memory codes – mental representations of physical stimuli; how brain interprets physical stimuli Acoustic encoding – mental representation of sound; storing sounds Ex. Billboard said “eat at joes” Visual encoding – mental representation of sights; images Ex. Billboard reads “eat at joes” Semantic encoding – mental representation of meaning; storing meaning Ex. Billboard says eat at joes, maybe I should. Organizing Information for Encoding Information will be easier to encode if we can organize it meaningfully. For example, chunking – organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often based on meaning Storage: Retaining Information Sensory Memory - Almost a direct representation of actual sensory attributes of the stimulus. Buffer for all incoming info coming into body; direct representation of what the stimulus was; an image – a picture, a sound – a tape recording of what you just heard Made up of : Iconic memory - visual memory; lasts about 200-300 milliseconds; if you don’t notice it, it’s gone Echoic memory - auditory memory; lasts at least 1-2 seconds, though some research suggests it may last up to 5 seconds Working/Short-term Memory - limited capacity. Miller's Magic 7+ 2 - People can process about 7 units of information in their short-term memory at a time (with a range of 5 to 9). Short-term memory also has a limited duration - it lasts about 30 seconds. -if you think about it long enough, it might move to your….long term memory
Brenda Milner studied the now famous case of patient H.M., a young man who had severe, uncontrollable epileptic seizures. The seizures became life-threatening, and as a last resort, surgeons removed most of the afflicted area of his brain – his hippocampus. The hippocampus is involved with getting information from working memory into long- term memory. The surgery greatly reduced the frequency and the severity of the seizures, but it left behind a new problem – H.M. could no longer form new memories. He could read the same magazine day after day and not recall ever having seen it before. He could meet someone again and again, and each time it was as if he were meeting the person for the first time. Old memories were intact: He could remember things that he had learned long before the operation, but he could not learn anything new. Or so it seemed…. -tracing a star by looking in a mirror; procedural -milner was able to prove he was still able to form procedural memories -she would greet him with a handshake; with a pin in hand – emotional -after a few times, he wouldn’t shake her hand; couldn’t explain why, but he did form a emotional reaction to shaking her hand Retrieval: Getting Information Out Recall, Recognition, and Relearning Recall – a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier. Ex. Retrieval without much help, such as on an essay or fill-in-the-blank question Recognition – a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned. Ex. A multiple choice exam; the answers there, you just have to recognize it Relearning – a memory measure that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time. Ex. Very much like the concept of reconditioning in chapter 7 Retrieval Cues and Encoding Specificity Retrieval cues - stimuli that aid the recall or recognition of information stored in memory; anything that helps jog your memory Ex. Try to get you to remember an actors name – call out movies with a specific actor in it; can you name the actor?
Encoding specificity principle – ability of a cue to aid retrieval depends on the degree to which it taps into information that was encoded at the time of original learning; if the way information is encoded and the way it is retrieved are similar, remembering the information will be easier Context and State Dependence Context-dependent memory – memory that can be helped or hindered by similarities or differences between the context in which it is learned and the context in which it is recalled. -How you learn the material and the physical way that you remember it -Physical environment acts as a retrieval cue Ex. Heard some gossip in the quad; you go back to your dorm and you can’t remember it; go back to the quad, most likely will remember it State-dependent memory – memory that is aided or impeded by a person’s internal state at encoding and retrieval. -your psychological state acts as a retrieval cue Ex. When you stay up and study and drink a lot of coffee, it would be best to do the same right before you take the test Mood congruence effects – memory is helped or hindered by the match between your mood at the time of encoding and at the time of retrieval Forgetting and Memory Construction Theories of Forgetting Encoding failure - If perceived information is not successfully encoded by working memory for entry into long-term memory, the information will be lost. -insufficient time to encode, inattention or lack of rehearsal, or distraction/ interruption Storage decay - forgetting is caused by physical changes in a memory trace that weaken it or reduce the amount of information that is stored in it. Retrieval Failure Theory - forgetting occurs when the correct retrieval cues are not produced to get at the contents of memory. The clearest sign of this type of forgetting is the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: where subjects know that they know a word, can even describe it or ‘see it’ but cannot correctly produce it at the proper time
A closed head injury: skull remains intact; impact causes delicate brain tissue to hit inner surface of the skull A penetrating head injury : skull is breached/cracked, or something actually penetrates the skull into the brain -usually results in more damage; bone fragments, foreign material or dirt can get into brain, damage brain tissue and cause infection. Amnesia – loss of memory as a result of brain injury or trauma or any sort of disease that leads to memory loss Anterograde amnesia – inability to remember ongoing events after incidence of trauma or onset of the disease; can’t remember anything that happens after amnesia Retrograde amnesia – inability to remember events that occurred before trauma/disease; *could have one or the other, both, could lose that information for good, could get it back…we don’t really know. Dementia - describes a group of symptoms that are caused by changes in brain function. Dementia symptoms may include asking the same questions repeatedly; becoming lost in familiar places; being unable to follow directions; getting disoriented about time, people, and places; and neglecting personal safety, hygiene, and nutrition. People with dementia lose their abilities at different rates. *MILD; BE LOST IN THEIR OWN TOWN, SEVERE; BE LOST IN THEIR OWN HOME…ETC. Dementia is caused by many conditions. Some conditions that cause dementia can be reversed, and others cannot. The two most common forms of dementia in older people are Alzheimer's disease and multi-infarct dementia (sometimes called vascular dementia). These types of dementia are irreversible, which means they cannot be cured. *have medicines that can slow down progression of these diseases, but can’t be cured Reversible conditions with symptoms of dementia can be caused by a high fever, dehydration, vitamin deficiency and poor nutrition, bad reactions to medicines, problems with the thyroid gland, or a minor head injury. Medical conditions like these can be serious and should be treated by a doctor as soon as possible. Sometimes older people have emotional problems that can be mistaken for dementia. Alzheimer Disease - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia (a brain disorder that seriously affects a person's ability to carry out daily activities) among older people. It involves the parts of the brain that control thought,
memory, and language. Every day scientists learn more, but right now the causes of AD are still unknown, and there is no cure. AD is named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German doctor. In 1906, Dr. Alzheimer noticed changes in the brain tissue of a woman who had died of an unusual mental illness. Amyloid plaques – abnormal clumps Neurofibrillary tangles - tangled bundles of fibers *loss of nerves cells in areas of brain vital to memory; neurotransmitter deficiencies; approx. 4 million Americans have AD Scientists also have found other brain changes in people with AD. There is a loss of nerve cells in areas of the brain that are vital to memory and other mental abilities. There also are lower levels of chemicals in the brain that carry complex messages back and forth between nerve cells. AD may disrupt normal thinking and memory by blocking these messages between nerve cells. *usually begins after age 60 – risk increases with age Constructive Processes in Memory Failures Constructive process – organizing and shaping of information during encoding and retrieval that may cause memory errors and distortions. -stored memories can change over time and some may not be remembered at all A lot of people think we can store an event in our memory and it will always be there; and that if we forget it, the exact memory is still there, but we just can't retrieve it at the moment. According to research, however, this is not the case. In fact, our stored memories can change over time, and some may not be remembered at all. When we are trying to remember an event, we are not necessarily remembering accurately, we are re- constructing it based on whatever fragments of our memory are left of that particular event. Because we don’t record an exact version of what happened in long-term memory, we tend to make some common memory mistakes: Source amnesia – aka source confusion or source misattribution – inability to recall the source of information experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined Sleeper effect – tendency to initially discount information from an unreliable source; later, we consider it more trustworthy because the source is forgotten -how rumors turn into facts in our head
