Memory
Interesting Video
 Color
Changing Card Trick
Information Processing
 Encoding:
The first stage of information processing.
Receiving information through the senses
EX: Typing into a computer
 Storage: the second stage of IP. Storing and sorting
information in the brain
EX: Pressing the SAVE button
 Retrieval: the final stage of IP. Acting on the basis of
information
EX: Finding and opening up your document
Encoding
You are constantly bombarded with information from
all your senses. You must narrow this down!
 Selective Attention: focusing one’s awareness on a
limited segment of the total amount of sensory input
EX: Color changing card trick
 Feature Extraction: Identification and analysis of
specific elements
EX: What parts of a conversation you remember
Selective Attention Test
Storage
There are 3 stages of memory storage:
 Sensory Storage: very brief (0-1 sec) memory
storage immediately following initial reception of a
stimulus
 Echoic: sensory memory for sound (about 1 sec)
 Iconic: sensory memory for vision (fraction of a
sec)
Storage
 Short-Term
Memory: memory that is limited in
capacity to about 7 items and in duration by the
subject’s active rehearsal
 Rehearsal: repeating items in short-term memory
over and over to move it to long-term
EX: Repeating vocab words
 Chunking: organizing items into familiar,
manageable units. Often occurs automatically
EX: Combining numbers in a phone number or
social security number
Chunking
10 Seconds to remember all the numbers:
1-4-9-2-1-7-7-6-1-8-1-2-1-9-4-1
Chunking
10 Seconds to remember all the numbers:
1492, 1776, 1812, 1941
Storage
 Long-Term
Memory: information storage that has
unlimited capacity and often may last indefinitely
 With rehearsal and practice, we can store things
in long-term memory
 The more we put into our long-term memory, the
easier it gets to put things there!!! (Like a muscle)
 Implicit: procedural and conditioned memories
 Writing, riding a bike, fear responses
 Explicit: declarative, semantic memories
 The pledge, dates, famous people, sports stats
Retrieving Information
Memories need to be “retrieved.” But there
are a few different methods of doing it:
 Recognition: type of memory retrieval in
which a person is required to identify an
object, idea, or situation as one he or she
has or has not experienced before
Retrieving Information
 Recall:
type of memory retrieval in which a
person reconstructs previously learned
material
 Relearning: it is easier to learn things a
second time and requires less rehearsal
 Forgetting: when interference makes it
difficult to retrieve long-term memories.
WE NEVER LOSE LONG-TERM MEMORIES!!!
Memory Video
Memory Video
Thinking
Changing and reorganizing the information
stored in memory in order to create new
information. 4 Units of Thought:
Thinking
Image: a mental representation of
specific events or objects
1.


Most simple unit
Highlights of the original
Thinking
Symbol: an abstract unit of thought that
represents an object, event, or quality
2.


Most common are words
Stands for something other than itself
Thinking
Concept: A label for a class of objects or
events that share common attributes
3.


Enables us to chunk large amounts of
information
Animal, liquid, music
Thinking
Rule: A statement of the relationship
between concepts
4.


EX: cannot be in two places at once
Most complex unit of thought
Lateral Thinking Questions