Ch 6 Outline Memory What is memory Receives information form the senses 2 Organizes alters and stores that information 3 Retrieves the information from storage What are the processes involved in memory o Encoding conversion of information into a form that is usable in the brain s storage systems o Storage holding onto information for some period of time o Retrieval getting information that is in storage into a form that can be used What are some of the models of memory o Information processing model assumes that the processing of information for memory storage is similar to the way a computer processes memory in a series of three stages sensory short term and long term o Levels of processing model information more deeply processed processed according to meaning rather than sound or physical characteristics will be remembered more efficiently and for a longer period of time o Parallel distributed processing What is sensory memory First stage of memory information enters the nervous system through the sensory systems Iconic memory Visual sensory memory lasting only a fraction of a second Capacity everything that can be seen at one time Eidetic memory The rare ability to access a visual memory for thirty seconds or more Echoic memory The brief memory of something a person has just heard Capacity limited to what can be heard at any one moment and smaller than the capacity of iconic memory Duration What are the limits of each Short Term Memory What is short term memory Information held for brief periods of time while being used o Selective attention the ability to focus on only one stimulus from among all sensory input XXXX name color of visual stimuli Red Green o Digit span test memory test in which a series of numbers is read and the subject then recall the numbers in order magical number 7 or 2 In actuality 4 or 1 o Chunking bits of information are combined into meaningful units or chunks o Rehearsal Working Memory Long Term Memory What is working memory Ability to hold and manipulate information in a short term storage system Size judgment span task NOT THE SAME AS SHORT TERM MEMORY Far more complex Ability to How do we test it What is long term memory The system of memory into which all the information is placed to be kept more or less permanently o Elaborative rehearsal a method of transferring information from STM to LTM by making that information meaningful in some way What is procedural memory Memory for skills procedures habits and conditioned responses These memories are not conscious but their existence is implied because they affect conscious behavior AKA non declarative and implicit memory o Anterior grade amnesia loss of memory from the point of injury or trauma forward the inability to form new long term memories Usually does not affect procedural LTM o Tower of Hanoi What is declarative memory Type of long term memory containing information that is conscious and known memory for facts aka explicit o Semantic type of declarative memory containing general knowledge such as knowledge of language and information learned in formal education o Episodic type of declarative memory containing personal information not readily available to others such as daily activities and events What is amnesia and what are the different types of amnesia Retrograde amnesia loss of memory from the point of some injury or trauma backwards loss of memory for the past Anterograde amnesia loss of memory from the point of injury or trauma forward the inability to form new long term memories What is Alzheimer s disease Primarily causes anterograde amnesia although retrograde amnesia can also occur as the disease progresses Retrieval How do we retrieve memories o Retrieval cue a stimulus for remembering o Encoding specificity you know things better when you have same surroundings o State dependent learning o Context Effect How do we test memory o What is recall The information to be retrieved must be pulled from memory with very few external cues Free and cued o Retrieval failure recall has failed at least temporarily o Serial position effect tendency of information at the beginning and end of a body of information to be remembered more accurately than information in the middle of the body of information o Primacy effect remembers information at the beginning better o Recency effect remembers information at the end better What is recognition The ability to match a piece of information or a stimulus to a stored image or fact o False positive error of recognition in which people think that they recognize some stimulus that is not actually in memory o Eyewitness testimony is not always reliable What people see and hear about an event after the fact can easily affect the accuracy of their memories of that event Encoding How do we encode memories o Automatic encoding tendency of certain kinds of information to enter long term memory with little or no effortful encoding o Flashbulb memories type of automatic encoding that occurs because an unexpected event has strong emotional associations for the person remembering it o Encoding specificity memory of information is improved if the related information such as surroundings or physiological state from when the memory is first formed is also available when the memory is being retrieved o State dependent learning memories formed during a particular physiological or psychological state will be easier to recall while in a similar state What are some of the things that can go wrong with our memories o Hindsight bias the tendency to falsely believe that one could have correctly predicted the outcome of an event o Misinformation effect the tendency of misleading information presented after an event to alter the memories of the event itself Why do we forget o Curve of forgetting forgetting is very fast within the first hour after learning a list and then tapers off gradually Distributed practice produces better retrieval than massed practice o Encoding failure o Proactive memory retrieval problem that occurs when older information prevents or interferes with the retrieval of newer information Retroactive interference memory retrieval problem that occurs when newer information prevents or interferes with the retrieval of older information