Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY

Chapter 9
Memory
Memory
 Memory
 persistence of learning over time
via the storage and retrieval of
information
 Flashbulb Memory
 a clear memory of an
emotionally significant moment
or event
Memory
 Memory as Information Processing
 similar to a computer
 write to file
 save to disk
 read from disk
 Encoding
 the processing of information into the
memory system
 i.e., extracting meaning
Memory
 Storage
 the retention of encoded information
over time
 Retrieval
 process of getting information out of
memory
Memory
 Sensory Memory
 the immediate, initial recording of
sensory information in the memory
system
 Working Memory
 focuses more on the processing of
briefly stored information
Memory
 Short-Term Memory
 activated memory that holds a few
items briefly
 look up a phone number, then quickly
dial before the information is forgotten
 Long-Term Memory
 the relatively permanent and limitless
storehouse of the memory system
A Simplified Memory
Model

Attention to important
Sensory input or novel information

Encoding
External Sensory Short-term Long-term
events memory memory memory
Encoding Retrieving
 Sensory Memory
 Function —process for basic
physical characteristics
 Capacity—large
can hold many items at once
 Duration—very brief retention
Sensory of images
Sensory  .3 sec for visual info
Input  2 sec for auditory info
Memory
 Divided into two types:
iconic memory–visual information
echoic memory– auditory
information
 Attention is needed to transfer
information to working memory
Short-Term Memory

Function—conscious processing of
information
where information is actively worked on
Capacity—limited (holds 7+/-2 items)
Duration—brief storage (about 30
seconds)
Sensory Attention Working or
Sensory
Short-term
Input Memory
Memory
 Long-Term Memory

Once information passes from sensory

to working memory, it can be encoded
into
Maintenance Rehearsal
long-term memory

Encoding
Sensory Attention
Sensory Working or Long-term
Memory Short-term memory
Input
Memory Retrieval
 Long-Term Memory

Function—organizes and stores

information
more passive form of storage than working
memory
Maintenance Rehearsal
Unlimited capacity
Duration—thought by some to be
Sensory permanent
Attention
Encoding
Sensory Working or Long-term
Memory Short-term memory
Input
Memory Retrieval
Types of Long-Term
Memory

Explicit memory—memory with

awareness; information can be
consciously recollected; also called
declarative memory
Implicit memory—memory without
awareness; memory that affects behavior
but cannot consciously be recalled; also
called nondeclarative memory
Explicit Memory

Declarative or conscious memory

Memory consciously recalled or
declared
Can use explicit memory to directly
respond to a question
Two subtypes of explicit memory
Explicit Memory

Episodic information—information
about events or “episodes”
Semantic information—information
about facts, general knowledge,
school work
Episodic Memory

Memory tied to your own personal

experiences
Examples:
What month is your birthday?
Do you like to eat caramel/apples?
Q: Why are these explicit memories?
A: Because you can actively declare
your answers to these questions
Semantic Memory

Memory not tied to personal events

General facts and definitions about
the world
Examples:
How many tires on a car?
What is a cloud?
What color is a banana?
Does NOT depend on tying the item to your
past
Implicit Memory

Nondeclarative memory
Influences your thoughts or
behavior, but does not enter
consciousness
Procedural Memory
Memory that enables you to perform specific
learned skills or habitual responses
Examples:
Riding a bike
Using the shift stick while driving
Tying your shoe laces
Q: Why are these procedural memories
implicit?
A: Don’t have to consciously remember the
steps involved in these actions to perform
them
Try to explain to someone how to tie a shoelace
Encoding: Getting
Information In

Encoding

Effortful Automatic
Encoding
 Automatic Processing
 unconscious encoding of incidental
information
 space
 time
 frequency
 well-learned information
 word meanings
 we can learn automatic processing
 reading backwards
Examples:
What did you eat for breakfast today?
Was the last time you studied during the day or
night?
You know the meanings of these very words you
are reading. Are you actively trying to process the
definition of the words
Encoding
 Effortful Processing
 requires attention and conscious effort
 Rehearsal
 conscious repetition of information
 to maintain it in consciousness
 to encode it for storage
Examples:
Memorizing your notes for your upcoming Introduction
to Psychology exams
Repeating a phone number in your head until
you can write it down
Encoding
 Ebbinghaus used nonsense syllables
 TUV ZOF GEK WAV
 the more times practiced on Day 1,
the fewer repetitions to relearn on
Day 2
 Spacing Effect
 distributed practice yields better long-
term retention than massed practice
Encoding
Time in
minutes 20
taken to
relearn
list on
day 2 15

10

0
8 16 24 32 42 53 64
Number of repetitions of list on day 1
 Encoding: Serial Position
Effect

Percent 90
age of 80
words
70
Serial Position
recalled
Effect--tendency
60
to recall best
50
the last items in
40
a list
30
20
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Position of
word in list
What Do We Encode?
 Semantic Encoding
 encoding of meaning
 including meaning of words
 Acoustic Encoding
 encoding of sound
 especially sound of words
 Visual Encoding
 encoding of picture images
Encoding
Encoding
 Imagery
 mental pictures
 a powerful aid to effortful processing,
especially when combined with semantic
encoding
 Mnemonics
 memory aids
 especially those techniques that use vivid
imagery and organizational devices
Encoding
 Chunking
 organizing items into familiar, manageable
units
 like horizontal organization--1776149218121941
 often occurs automatically
 use of acronyms
 HOMES--Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior
 ARITHMETIC--A Rat In Tom’s House Might Eat
Tom’s Ice Cream
 Encoding: Chunking
 Organized information is more easily recalled
 Encoding
 Hierarchies
 complex information broken down into broad concepts and
further subdivided into categories and subcategories
Encoding
(automatic
or effortful)

Meaning Imagery Organization

(semantic (visual
Encoding) Encoding)

Chunks Hierarchies
Storage:
Retaining Information

 Iconic Memory
 a momentary sensory memory of visual
stimuli
 a photographic or picture image memory
lasting no more that a few tenths of a
second
 Echoic Memory
 momentary sensory memory of auditory
stimuli
 Storage:
Short-Term Memory

Percentage
90
who recalled
consonants 80  Short-Term
Memory
70
60

 limited in
50
40
30
20
duration and
10 capacity
0
3 6 9 12 15 18  “magical”
Time in seconds between presentation number 7+/-2
of contestants and recall request
(no rehearsal allowed)
The Magical Number Seven has become
psychology’s contribution to an intriguing
list of magic sevens— the seven wonders
of the world, the seven seas, the seven
deadly sins, the seven rainbow colors, the
seven musical scale notes, the seven days
of the week—seven magical sevens.
Storage:
Long-Term Memory
 How does storage work?
 Karl Lashley (1950)
 rats learn maze
 lesion cortex
 test memory
 Synaptic changes
 Long-term Potentiation
 increase in synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid
stimulation
 Strong emotions make for stronger memories
 some stress hormones boost learning and retention
Storage:
Long-Term Memory
 Amnesia--the loss of memory
 Explicit Memory
 memory of facts and experiences that one can
consciously know and declare
 also called declarative memory
 hippocampus--neural center in limbic system that
helps process explicit memories for storage
 Implicit Memory
 retention independent of conscious recollection
 also called procedural memory
Storage: Long-Term
Memory Subsystems
Types of
long-term
memories

Explicit Implicit
(declarative) (nondeclarative)
With conscious Without conscious
recall recall

Facts-general Personally Dispositions-

knowledge experienced Skills-motor classical and
(“semantic events and cognitive operant
memory”) (“episodic conditioning
memory”) effects
Storage:
Long-Term Memory
 MRI scan of hippocampus (in red)

Hippocampus
Retrieval: Getting
Information Out
 Recall
 measure of memory in which the
person must retrieve information
learned earlier
 as on a fill-in-the blank test
 Recognition
 Measure of memory in which the
person has only to identify items
previously learned
 as on a multiple-choice test
Retrieval
 Relearning
 memory measure that assesses
the amount of time saved when
learning material a second time
 Priming
 activation, often unconsciously,
of particular associations in
memory
Retrieval Cues
 Deja Vu (French)--already seen
 cues from the current situation may subconsciously
trigger retrieval of an earlier similar experience
 "I've experienced this before."
 Mood-congruent Memory
 tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with
one’s current mood
 memory, emotions, or moods serve as retrieval cues
 State-dependent Memory
 what is learned in one state (while one is high, drunk, or
depressed) can more easily be remembered when in same
state
 Context-dependent Memory
 Putting yourself back in the context where you experienced
something can prime your memory retrieval
Forgetting
 Forgetting as encoding failure
 Information never enters the long-term
memory
Attention

Short- Encoding Long-

External Sensory
term term
events memory Encoding
memory memory

Encoding
failure leads
to forgetting
Forgetting
Percentage of
list retained
when
60
 Ebbinghaus
relearning
50 forgetting
40 curve over
30 days--
30
initially
20 rapid, then
10
levels off
with time
0
12345 10 15 20 25 30

Time in days since learning list

Retrieval
 Forgetting can result from failure to
retrieve information from long-term
memory

Attention
Encoding
External Sensory Short-term Long-term
events memory Encoding memory Retrieval memory

Retrieval failure
leads to forgetting
Forgetting as
Interference
 Learning some items may disrupt
retrieval of other information
 Proactive (forward acting) Interference
 disruptive effect of prior learning on recall
of new information
 Retroactive (backwards acting)
Interference
 disruptive effect of new learning on recall of
old information
Forgetting as
Interference
Forgetting

 Forgetting can
occur at any
memory stage
 As we process
information,
we filter, alter,
or lose much
of it
Forgetting-
Interference

 Motivated Forgetting
 people unknowingly revise memories
 Repression
 defense mechanism that banishes from
consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts,
feelings, and memories
Memory Construction
 We filter information and fill in missing
pieces
 Misinformation Effect
 incorporating misleading information into
one's memory of an event
 Source Amnesia
 attributing to the wrong source an event
that we experienced, heard about, read
about, or imagined (misattribution)
Biological Basis of
Memory

Karl Lashley searched for a localized

memory trace or engram
Found that maze-learning in rats was
distributed throughout the brain
Richard Thompson found that memory for
simple classically conditioned responses was
localized (in the cerebellum)
Amnesia

Amnesia—severe memory loss

Retrograde amnesia—inability to
remember past episodic information;
common after head injury; need for
consolidation
Anterograde amnesia—inability to form
new memories; related to hippocampus
damage
Memory Construction
Depiction of actual accident
 Eyewitnesses
reconstruct
memories when
questioned
Leading question:
“About how fast were the cars
going when they smashed into
each other?”

Memory
construction
Memory Construction
 Memories of Abuse
 Repressed or Constructed?
 Child sexual abuse does occur
 Some adults do actually forget such episodes
 False Memory Syndrome
 condition in which a person’s identity and
relationships center around a false but strongly
believed memory of traumatic experience
 sometimes induced by well-meaning therapists
Memory Construction
 Most people can agree on the following:
 Injustice happens
 Incest happens
 Forgetting happens
 Recovered memories are commonplace
 Memories recovered under hypnosis or drugs
are especially unreliable
 Memories of things happening before age 3
are unreliable
 Memories, whether false or real, are upsetting
Improve Your Memory
 Study repeatedly to boost recall
 Spend more time rehearsing or
actively thinking about the material
 Make material personally meaningful
 Use mnemonic devices
 associate with peg words--something
already stored
 make up story
 chunk--acronyms
Improve Your Memory
 Activate retrieval cues--mentally
recreate situation and mood
 Recall events while they are fresh--
before you encounter misinformation
 Minimize interference
 Test your own knowledge
 rehearse
 determine what you do not yet
know
THE END!