Memory: Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval, Slides of Psychology

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Memory: Encoding and

Storage

Learning and Memory

• Evidence of learning:
  • Recall
    • (^) e.g., fill in the blank questions
  • Recognition
    • (^) e.g., multiple choice questions
    • (^) Tend to be better at this than recall
  • Relearning
    • (^) e.g., learn language quicker if learned previously

Sensory Memory

• (^) Momentarily preserves incoming auditory & visuospatial stimuli
  • (^) Iconic memory : Sensory memory of visual stimuli (< .5 sec)
  • (^) Echoic memory : Sensory memory of audio stimuli (< 3-4 sec)
    • (^) “What did I just say?!”  echoic memory to the rescue!
• (^) Masking procedures used to disrupt iconic/echoic memory Sensory Memory

 Attention is crucial in order to encode information on to working memory

 Sensory memory decays quickly

Working Memory

Baddeley & Hitch (1974)

• (^) Originally called short-term memory (Atkinson-Shiffrin, 1968)
• (^) Active processing and manipulation of new info and existing knowledge
  • (^) Analogous to computer RAM  but more limited
  • Capacity is limited
    • (^) 7 pieces of information (± 2)
    • (^) 6 letters/5 words
• (^) Information generally retained for as long as it is actively processed
  • (^) About 15-20 seconds (NOT memory for stuff in recent past)
  • Rehearsal is the primary mechanism for maintaining processing in working memory
• (^) Frontal lobes are instrumental for working memory
  • (^) Working memory associated with overall intellectual capacity and focus Sensory (^) WM ATTN ENCODE

Long-Term Memory

• (^) Preserves and stores information for later retrieval Functionally limitless (e.g., hyperthymesia)
• (^) Long-term and working memory work together
  • (^) Existing knowledge retrieved from long-term provides context for encoding new information
• (^) Explicit memory : Conscious & effortful encoding
  • (^) Semantic  facts/general knowledge
  • (^) Episodic  personally-experienced events
  • (^) The hippocampus helps encode explicit memories for consolidation
    • (^) Temporarily holds information to be stored elsewhere in the brain Sensory Memory Working Memory Long- Term

Automatic Processing

• (^) Implicit memory : Info stored without conscious effort
  • (^) Brain keeps track of:
    • (^) Space: Remember you left your water bottle at the gym…
    • Time: …around 12pm…
    • (^) Frequency: …and have had about 3 cups of water
  • (^) Conditioned associations (cerebellum) : nauseated by food that made you sick
  • (^) Procedural memory (basal ganglia) : Memory for how to perform tasks (ride a bike)
    • Essential for perceptual, cognitive, and motor performance Sensory Memory Working Memory Long-Term Memory [Automatic/Non-conscious Processing]

Retrieval Cues

• (^) Memories are linked through a web of associations
  • (^) Define the word “bark”
• (^) Priming
  • (^) Now define the word “bark”
  • (^) Another EX: crime prime and attentional bias
• (^) Context-dependent memory
  • (^) Taking test in same room/seat
• (^) State-dependent memory
  • When you’re happy, easier to recall happy vs. sad memories
• (^) Serial position effect
  • Primacy effect  more rehearsal
  • (^) Recency effect  info. fresh in our minds (i.e., working memory)

Less Common Memory

Disruptions

• (^) Retrograde amnesia
  • (^) Inability to retrieve information from the past
• (^) Anterograde amnesia :
• (^) Inability to form new memories
• (^) Ex: Korsakoff’s syndrome
• (^) Generally, retain ability to form implicit memories (procedural, conditioned associations)
• (^) Ex: woman shaking hands with doctor

Retrieval Failure

• (^) Proactive interference : When prior learning affects your ability to recall new information - (^) forward -acting - old affects  new - (^) EX: Passwords
• (^) Retroactive interference : When new learning affects what you have previously learned - (^) backward- acting – new affects  old - (^) EX: Studying for two exams

Construction of Explicit Memory

• (^) Explicit memory NOT stored as fixed images or videos
  • (^) Memory is reconstructed with each retrieval
  • Missing information is often “filled in” using our best guess or information available at time of retrieval
  • (^) Reconstructed memory then encoded back into storage
• (^) Through this process ( reconsolidation ), our experience of past events

has potential for considerable change

• (^) Example: Flashbulb memories
  • Perceived as vivid , remember them more, but NOT more accurate than other memories
  • (^) They are subject to change as we retrieve them repeatedly…

Memory Construction Errors

• (^) Source misattribution
  • (^) Forgetting/misremember the source of an event/memory
  • EX: I read “somewhere”…
• (^) Imagination effects
  • (^) Actively imagining similar to actually experiencing event
  • EX: police interviews/interrogations Excerpt from Wee Care Case Interview (Schreiber, 2000)

Consequences of Constructed

Memories

• (^) Vulnerability of memory to misinformation has important implications - (^) Eye-witness testimony - (^) Suggestible interviewing techniques by police officers - (^) Incorporate info. from the media into existing eye-witness memory - Child abuse accusations - (^) McMartin preschool case– accusations of bizarre, satanic ritual abuse of children. Information suggested during interviews and talking with the children lead to constructed memories of abuse. Seven people were charged with 321 counts of sexual abuse.