Memory
Information processing
Encoding - Getting information in
Storage - Retaining information
Retrieval - Getting information out
Automatic & Effortful processing
Encoding - Getting information in
Types on Encoding
Visual - Images are more easily remembered
than abstract concepts
Acoustic - Sounds (hearing the word)
Songs
Semantic - Meaning - (for words)
Self-reference effect
You remember items that refer to yourself
Rehearsal (continuous repetition)
Spacing Effect
Ebbinghaus’s retention
curve
We retain information
better when study time is
spaced out
Spaced study beats
cramming - E.g. 12 - 5
minute segments beat
one hour of study
Instant encoding & storage
Flashbulb memories
9-11
Titanic
President Kennedy
Space Shuttle Challenger
Serial Position Effect
We remember the first and last items better
than ones in the middle.
Mnemonics - Encoding Imagery
Mnemonics (Greek for memory)
Method of Loci
Chunking
License plate
Phone #
Words
Association
E.g. Grocery list
Mnemonics (cont.)
“Peg word” system
Numbers into pictures
1 = Bun
2 = Shoe
3 = Tree
4 = Door
5 = Hive
6 = Sticks
7 = Heaven
8 = Gate
9 = Swine
10 = Hen
Attach items to be
remembered to the pictures
Storage - Retaining information
Iconic (sensory) memory - Movie frames
Tenths of a second
Short term memory - Phone #
Few minutes
Long term memory - Experiences
Years
Long term memories
Test
Trip to Egypt
Bike riding
Something was fun
Memory decay
Brain (synaptic) changes
Long-term potentiation (LTP)
Stimulating neurons increased efficiency
Sending neuron released its neurotransmitter more easily
Receptor sights may increase.
May explain why experience and repetition can increase
memory.
Retrieval - (Remembering)
Retrieval cues
Priming
Memories are held by a web of associations identify one strand and it leads to others
Associations
E.g. Wedding song
Retrieval cues can be sights, sounds, smells and tastes
Forgetting
Encoding failure
You did not learn it
Names are forgotten because they were never
encoded.
Storage decay
Penny example
Retrieval Failure
You can not remember it
Proactive (forward-acting) interference
Earlier learning reduces later learning
Retroactive (backward-acting) interference
Later learning reduces earlier learning
Retrieval Failure (Cont.)
Retrieval Failure (Cont.)
Memory Construction
Misinformation effect
Given misinformation about an event someone
experienced, they misremember the event.
Source amnesia
(Source misattribution)
You remember something as real, but forget the
source of the memory (e.g. a movie).
E.g. After repeatedly hearing false detailed accounts
of an accident you were in, you begin to mistakenly
“remember” that these events actually occurred.
(You forgot that they were told to you)
Repressed or constructed memories
Therapeutic techniques such as guided imagery can
easily encourage construction of false memories.
Memories “recovered” under hypnosis or drugs are
particularly unreliable.
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