Baddeley and Focused Attention

Auditory

rehearsal

Central executive
(focuses
attention)

Visual

spatial
information

Long-Term Memory Store

Function

- organizes and stores information

more passive form of storage than working memory

Unlimited

capacity
Duration - thought by some to be permanent
Maintenance Rehearsal
Sensory
Input

Sensory
Memory

Attention

Encoding
Working or
Long-term
Short-term
memory
Memory Retrieval

Brain structures and memory:

Hippocampus
The

hippocampus is the equivalent of a

save button

Explicit memories of names, images, and

events are laid down by the hippocampus
(Schachter, 1996)

Hippocampus and
frontal lobes
Memories

are not permanently

stored in the hippocampus but
it holds the information to
register the elements of
memory

The feel, smell, sound, location,

etc. before storing elsewhere
(cortex)

Effective Ways to Encode

Actively

question new information

Think about implications
Relate information to things you
already know
Generate your own examples of
concepts
Dont highlight passage as you read
focus instead on the ideas in the text

Brain structures and memory:

Basal Ganglia and Cerebellum
Cerebellum

is important for forming and

storing memories created through classical
conditioning

The

basal ganglia facilitate procedural memory

formation

Emotions and memories

Emotions

persist without conscious

awareness

You may not remember the film that made

you sad but you retain the sadness
(hippocampal damage)

Emotions and memories

Flashbulb memories
A

detailed and
vividmemorythat is stored
on one occasion and
retained for a lifetime.
Usually, suchmemoriesare
associated with important
historical or significant
emotional events

LTP Long Term Potentiation

The

efficacy of a synapse can be changed by

increasing or decreasing the amount of
neurotransmitter presynaptically released
across the synapse

So,

LTP is an increase in a cells firing potential

after brief, rapid stimulation

Thought

to be the neural basis for learning

and memory

LTP Long Term Potentiation

Sea slug experimentation

researchers examined neural
connections before and after
conditioning (gill retraction in
response to water squirt paired with
electrical shock)

Increased serotonin in certain

synapses when learning occurs
These synapses become more efficient

Mutant Mice
Mutant

mice without an
enzyme needed for LTP cant
learn their way out
of a maze
Rats given a drug that
enhances LTP learned a maze
with half the usual number of
mistakes
Injection of a chemical blocking
LTP erased recent learning

Understanding and
Implementing
Memory Strategies

Use the power of the network!

Chunking

Organizing

items into familiar and

manageable units enables us to recall the
information more easily than if we tried to
remember the whole, unsorted set.
This usually occurs naturally and without us
noticing.
Personally meaningful arrangements

Mnemonics

Memory aids, especially those that use vivid

imagery and organizational devices

Think of it as using concrete but easily visualized

words we are very good at remembering images

Ex. Peg-word system: a memory aid that works by

creating mental associations between two
concrete objects in a one-to-one fashion that will
later be applied to to-be-remembered information

 Grocery

list stick the carrots in your

imaginary bun, milk in the shoe, etc.
visualize the associated images and
then you will recall the items in any
order

Why isolate strategies?

Combining

mnemonic and
chunking
strategies give
us

Hierarchies
Experts

not only chunk

information but process them in
hierarchies
Thus

they take broad concepts and

divide (and subdivide) them
This helps to retrieve information
efficiently
Where have you seen them?
How can you use them to your
advantage?

Hierarchies

Distributed Practice
We

keep more of the information that we take

in when we spread our encoding efforts over
time

We

can call this the spacing effect where

you achieve better long term retention than
through massed practice/study

Cramming is in-efficient
Hermann Ebbinghauss research has shown that
what is quickly learned is also quickly forgotten

Distributed Practice
Repeated

self-testing is called the

testing effect by Henry Roediger and
Jeffrey Karpicke (2006)

Retrieving information enhances retention

This

tells us that it is better to practice

retrieval than to simply re-read
information

Verbal
information is
processed at
different levels
Shallow
information is
encoded at a
very basic level
Ex. a words
letters

Processing depth

Deep processing
encodes
semantically
(based on the
meaning of the
words)

Craik and Tulving

(1975)
demonstrated
that deeper,
semantic
processing
contributed to
better
remembering

Processing depth

Sample questions

Word
flashed

Is the word in capital letters?

CHAIR

Yes

No

The words were flashed briefly then

Does the word rhyme with
brain
asked the participants questions
train?
Would the word fit in this
sentence? The girl put the
___________on the table

doll

Meaning Matters
A

passage given without context is difficult to

remember (John Bransford and Marcia Johnson,
1972)

The

procedure is actually quite simple. First you

arrange things into different groups. Of course, one
pile may be sufficient depending on how much there
is to do.After the procedure is complete one
arranges the materials into different groups again.
Then they can be put into their appropriate places.

Retrieval cues
Priming

The activation of particular associations in

memory
More likely to perceive a man talking to a
child as a threat

Context

dependent memory
State-dependent memory

Retrieval cues
Priming
Context

dependent memory

Memory retrieval can be primed by the

context in which the memory was created

State-dependent

memory

Retrieval cues
Priming
Context

dependent memory
State-dependent memory
What we learn in one state is more easily
learned or recalled in that state

Forgetting Theories
Encoding

failure
Role of time (decay)
Interference theories

Forgetting as Encoding Failure

Information

never encoded into LTM

Encoding Failure Demonstrations

What

is on the front of a
penny?

According

to this theory, objects

are seen frequently, but
information is never encoded into
LTM
Selective

attention

Encoding Failure Demonstrations

What

is on the front of a penny?

According

to this theory, objects

are seen frequently, but
information is never encoded into
LTM
Selective

attention

Role of Time : Decay Theory

Memories

fade
away or decay
gradually if unused
Time plays critical
role
Ability to retrieve
info declines with
time after original
encoding

Forgetting as Retrieval Failure

Sometimes

information IS encoded into LTM,

but we cant retrieve it

Interference Theories
Memories

interfering with memories

Forgetting

is NOT caused by the mere

passage of time but caused by one
memory competing with or replacing
another memory

There

are two types of interference

Two Types of Interference

T y p e s o f in t e r f e r e n c e
R e t r o a c t iv e
In te rfe re n c e

P r o a c t iv e
In te rfe re n c e

Retroactive Interference
A

New memory interferes with retrieving old

information

Example: Learning a new language interferes with

ability to remember old language

Proactive Interference
Opposite

of retroactive interference

When

an OLD memory interferes with

remembering NEW information

Example: Previously learned language interferes

with ability to remember newly learned language

Review of Interference Theory

Retroactive

Interference
Learn A Learn B Recall A,
Interference
Learn A Learn B
Recall B,
interferes

B interferes

Proactive

Interference

responses.

reflects competition between

Memory construction
errors
Misinformation

and Imagination
Source Amnesia
True and False memories
Childrens eye-witness recall
Repressed or constructed memories of
abuse

Investigating memory
construction errors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=PB2OegI6wvI

Memory construction
errors
Misinformation

and Imagination

Elizabeth Loftus demonstrated the

misinformation effect

Exposure

to misleading information
leads to misremembering

Memory construction
errors
Misinformation

and Imagination

Imagination inflation we often have high

confidence in false memories
Repeatedly imagining nonexistent actions
and events create false memories

Memory construction
errors
Misinformation

and Imagination
Source Amnesia

Attributing the wrong source of an event,

heard about, read about or imagined

Memory construction
errors
Misinformation

and Imagination
Source Amnesia
True and False memories

Both the misinformation effect and source

amnesia happen outside of our awareness
which makes it nearly impossible to
separate suggested ideas from real
memories
Huge impact on eyewitness testimony!!!!!

Memory construction
errors
Misinformation

and Imagination
Source Amnesia
True and False memories
Childrens eye-witness recall
Interviewing

techniques have a
impact on childrens memories

HUGE

 Repeated

questioning: Think real hard, and

tell me if this ever happened to you. Can
you remember going to the hospital with a
mousetrap on your finger?
Then had children think about several real
and fictional events
Ten weeks later

 Research

with 3year old children

Where did the
doctor touch you?

55% of those who

did not have genital
exams reported
genital or anal
touching

Memory construction
errors
Misinformation and Imagination
Source Amnesia
True and False memories
Childrens eye-witness recall
Repressed or constructed memories of
abuse

Abuse happens but memories are so fragile that

it is imperative to remember that injustice also
happens

Know page 379