Chapter 6 - MemoryMemory is the system by which we retain information and bring it to mind. It is an active system that receives information from the senses puts that information into

usable form, and then is able to retrieve it when needed.Without memory, experience would leave no mark on

our behavior.

Memory – An Information Processing System

Without memory, we would be unable to retain the information and skills we acquire through experience.

Memory involves three basic processes: __________, storage, and ___________. The three processes allows you to take information from the world around you, encode it in a form that can be stored in memory, and later retrieve it when it is needed.

Information comes to us through our senses. This information must be encoded or converted into a form we can store in memory, this is called__________________________.

Models of Memory The three popular models of memory are: 1) Information-processing model; 2) Levels-of-processing model; and

3) Parallel distributed processing model. Information-processing model assumes the processing of information

for memory storage occurs in three stages, similar to the way a computer processes memory.

2) The level-of-processing model argues that information that is processed according to its meaning rather than just the sound or physical characteristics of the word will be remembered more efficiently and for a longer period of time.

3) The parallel distributed processing model states that the creation an storage of memories takes place across a series of mental networks that are stretched across the brain.

Three Stages of Memory Three-stage model – this model proposes three distinct

stages of memory that vary with the length of time information is stored: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Sensory memory – is the first stage of memory, the point at which information enters the nervous system through the sensory systems – eyes, ears, etc. Information is encoded into sensory memory as neural messages in the nervous system. Sensory stimuli constantly strike your sensory receptors, forming impressions you briefly hold in sensory memory in a kind of temporary storage device called a sensory register. This information lasts in memory for perhaps a fraction of a second to as long as three or four seconds.

Two Kinds of Sensory Memory: Iconic (Visual) and Echoic (Hearing)

Iconic memory is a sensory store for holding a mental representation of a visual image for a fraction of a second. The visual image held in iconic memory is so clear and accurate that people can report exact details of the image.

The function of Iconic memory is two-fold: 1) To help the visual system to view surroundings as continuous and stable in spite of saccadic movements, and 2) It allows enough time for the brain stem to decide if the information is important enough to be brought into consciousness.

Echoic Sensory Memory is the brief memory of something a person has just heard. Its’ memory’s capacity is limited to what can be heard at any one moment and it lasts about 2 - 4 seconds.

Short-Term Memory: The Mind’s Blackboard

**Short-term memory (STM) is a storage system that permits you to retain and process sensory information for a maximum of about ____________. STM relies on both visual and acoustic coding, but mostly on acoustic coding/auditory form.

Working memory is an active system that processes the information present in short-term memory. **It is the memory system that enables you to hold and manipulate information in your mind for brief periods of time. It is thought to consist of three interrelated systems: a central executive, a visual sketchpad, and a kind of auditory recorder.

The Central Executive **The central executive is the control unit of working

memory. It doesn’t store information. Rather, it receives input from the other two components and coordinates the working memory system. It also receives and processes information from long term memory and filters out distracting thoughts so we can focus our attention on information we hold in mind at any given moment.

**The Visual sketchpad is a storage buffer for visual and spatial material. It is a kind of drawing pad in the brain. You engage your visuospatial sketchpad whenever you picture in your mind an object, pattern, or image.

The Auditory Recorder **The auditory recorder or phonological loop

is the speech-based, or verbal, part of working memory. It is a storage device or buffer that holds numbers and words we rehearse or mull over in our minds at any given moment. It plays the dialogue in the person’s head.

The Capacity of Short-Term Memory

Working memory – is the memory system that enables you to hold and manipulate information in your mind for brief periods of time. Psychologist George Miller argued that the average person can keep up to 7 digits in their short-term memory.

4 9 1 3 5 2 7 6 1 8 2 0 4 9 5 3 7 2 5

Chunking Chunking is a way of holding more information in Short

Term Memory than is usual. ** It is the process of enhancing retention of a large amount of information by breaking it down into smaller, more easily recalled chunks. 618 204 953 725

Most information that passes through short-term memory fades away after a few seconds or is transferred to long-term memory. You can extend short-term memory beyond thirty seconds by engaging in ________________________________, which is the conscious rehearsal of information by _____________ it over and over again in your mind.

How Long is Short-Term Memory?

Research suggests that short-term memory lasts from about _____ to ________ seconds without rehearsal. After that, the memory seems to rapidly _____________.

**The process of extending retention of information held in short-term memory by consciously repeating the information is called __________________.

The process of transferring information from STM into LTM by making that information meaningful in some way is called_____________________.

Long-Term Memory **Long-term memory (LTM) is a storage system that allows

you to retain information for periods of time beyond the capacity of short-term memory. It is where information is placed to be kept more or less _______________. It is virtually limitless.

The two types of Long Term Memory (LTM) are Procedural LTM and Declarative LTM.

**Procedural LTM involves memory of how to do things that require habits, conditioned responses, motor or performance skills. Procedural Memory is often called implicit memory. Implicit memory is memory that is not easily brought into conscious awareness. Anterograde amnesia is the loss of memory from the point of injury or trauma forward, or the inability to form new long-term memories. P

What types of memories are stored in long-term memory?

Declarative memory is memory of facts and personal information that requires a conscious effort to bring to mind; information that make up knowledge.

Declarative memory can be grouped into two general categories: (1) semantic memory and (2) episodic memory.

Semantic memory is memory of facts, general knowledge, and beliefs.

Episodic memory is memory of personal experiences that constitute the story of your life; information that is not readily available to others.

Explicit memory Episodic and semantic memories are forms of explicit

memory, memories that are easily made conscious and brought from long-term storage into short-term memory.

The Organizational Structure of Long Term Memory: Long-term memory can be divided into declarative memories, which are factual and typically conscious (explicit) memories, and procedural memory (nondeclarative) memories, which are skills, habits, and conditioned responses that are typically unconscious (implicit). Declarative memories are further divided into episodic memories (personal experiences) and semantic memories (general knowledge, facts).

The Semantic Network Model The semantic network model of memory

organization suggests that information is stored in the brain in a connected fashion, with concepts that are related stored physically closer to each other than concepts that are not highly related;** that information in long-term memory is held in networks of interlinking concepts.

Retrieval cues Retrieval cue is a stimulus for remembering. The tendency for memory of information to be improved if

related information (surroundings) that is available when the memory is first formed is also available when the memory is being retrieved is called _________________________ .

The memories formed during a particular physiological or psychological state will be easier to remember while in a similar state is called _____________________.

There are two kinds of retrieval of memories, recall and recognition. Recall is when the information to be retrieved must be pulled from memory with limited external cues, while Recognition is matching information to a stored fact.

Factors that help to minimize Interference:1) Sleep on it.2) Rehearse fresh memories – Overlearn it3) Give yourself a break4) Avoid sequential study of similar materialSerial position effect- is the tendency to recall items at

the beginning or end of a list better than items in the middle of a list.

Primacy effect is the tendency to recall items better when they are learned first.

Recency effect is the tendency to recall items better when they are learned last.

The error of recognition in which people think that they recognize some stimulus that is not actually in memory is called ______________.

Automatic encoding is the tendency of certain kinds of information to enter long-term memory with little or no effortful encoding.

Flashbulb memories are enduring memories of emotionally charged events that seem permanently seared into the brain.

Referring to the retrieval of memories in which those memories are altered, revised, or influenced by newer information is called _____________________.

The tendency of misleading information presented after an event to alter the memories of the event itself is called misinformation effect. This affects the eyewitness testimony.

What people see and hear about an event after the fact can easily affect the accuracy of their memories of that event.

Theories of forgetting Decay theory – is a theory of____________ that posits that

memories consist of ___________ laid down in the brain that gradually deteriorate and fade away over time. Forgetting occurs rapidly in the first few hours after learning and then gradually declines.

Curve of forgetting - is a graph showing a distinct pattern in which forgetting is very fast within the first hour after learning a list and then tapers off gradually.

Distributed practice vs. Massed practice is the tendency for retention of learned material to be greater with spaced practice (spacing the study of material) than with massed practice.

Hermann Ebbinghaus is one of the first researchers to study forgetting. He studied the retention of meaningless syllables.

The failure to process information into memory is called ____________________.

A memory retrieval problem in which material learned earlier interferes with the retention of newly acquired information is called ____________________.

A memory retrieval problem that occurs when newer information prevents or interferes with the retrieval of older information is called _______________________.

The accuracy of eyewitness testimony also involves the following factors:

1) Ease of recall2) Degree of confidence3) Having knowledge about a subject4) Ethnic/racial identification5) Types of questions (Suggestive or Leading

questions)6) Facial characteristics

Interference theory – is the belief that forgetting is the result of the interference of memories with each other.

Retroactive interference- is when newly acquired information interferes with retention of material learned earlier.

Proactive interference is when material learned earlier interferes with retention of newly acquired information.

Recency effect is the tendency to recall items better when they are learned last.

Retrieval theory is the belief that forgetting is the result of a failure to access stored memories. Two principal ways in which the retrieval process can break down, encoding failure and lack of retrieval cues.

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon- an experience in which people are sure they know something but can’t seem to bring it to mind.

Motivated Forgetting (Repression) - according to Freud, this is a psychological defense mechanism that protects the self from awareness of threatening material.

Recall task – is requiring retrieval of stored information with minimal cues available.

Recognition task – is requiring retrieval of stored information from among a range of alternative answers.

Amnesia is a loss of memory. Retrograde amnesia is a loss of memory of events occurring

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Childhood amnesia refers to the normal occurrence of amnesia for events occurring during infancy and early childhood. Before the age of three, most people can recall virtually no memories. Reasons: (1) preverbal memories are not well organized in the brain and (2) the brain structures needed to form lasting memories do not mature until a child is about 2 or 3 years of age, thereby making memory consolidation difficult to form.

Memory consolidation is the process of converting ________________, short-term memories into stable and enduring ones.

The changes that take place in the structure and functioning of neurons when an engram is formed is called ________________________.

Dissociative amnesia is a psychologically based form of amnesia involving the splitting off from memory of traumatic or troubling experiences. Memories of a traumatic experience may become dissociated (split off) from consciousness, producing a form of amnesia for events occurring during a specific time.

The Biology of Memory Engram – is Psychologist Karl Lashley’s term for the physical

trace or etching in the brain where he believed a memory is stored. He never found evidence of such a trace.

Neuronal networks refers to memory circuits in the brain that consist of complicated networks of nerve cells. *The biochemical bases for how these circuits create memories are beyond our present understanding.

The Hippocampus, is a structure in the brain’s limbic system, that plays a key role in turning short-term memories into long-term declarative memories (memories of facts and personal information). However, it appears to be a temporary storage bin for holding new memories, perhaps for weeks or even months, before they are transferred for long-term storage to the cerebral cortex and other parts of the brain.

Memory also depends on other brain structures, including the thalamus and the amygdala, especially during emotionally charged experiences, helping to strengthen and preserve memories of meaningful events.

Nobel Prize winner Erik Kandel had shown that memory formation involves biochemical changes occurring at the synaptic level. The long-term strengthening of neural connections as the result of repeated stimulation is called long-term potentiation (LTP). Strengthened synaptic connections are more efficient in transmitting messages between neurons.

Genetic Bases of Memory The transformation of short-term memory to

long-term memory depends on the production of certain proteins. The production of these brain proteins is regulated by certain genes.

Mnemonic- refers to a device for improving memory, e.g., using an acronym or acrostic.

General Suggestions for Improving Memory

1) Pay attention – being in an area conducive to studying. 2) Practice to the third power 3) Use External Memory Aids 4) Enhance Context-Dependent Memory Effects 5) Control stress 6) Adopt Healthy Habit 7) Link Time-Based Tasks to External Cues 8) Mentally Rehearse What You Intend to Do

The EndSTUDY STUDY STUDY

Elaborative Rehearsal Elaborative rehearsal is a method of rehearsal in

which you focus on the meaning of the material. Levels-of-processing theory holds that the level at

which information is encoded or processed determines how well or how long information is stored in memory.

Semantic network model- argues that information is held in networks of interlinking concepts.

Summation: Memory depends on underlying processes (encoding, storage, retrieval) that proceed through a series of stages (sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory).

Racial Biases in Memory Schemas Because negative stereotyping can influence

perceptions and attitudes of people, based on the memory schemas of the dominant culture, members of that culture often perceive African Americans with darker skin tones more negatively-as less intelligent, less attractive, and less successful- than African Americans with lighter skin tones.

Memory schema – is an organized knowledge structure, such as a set of beliefs, that reflects one’s past experiences, expectations, and knowledge about the world.