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Human memory is an information processing
system that works constructively to encode,
store, and retrieve information
What is Memory?
What is Memory?
Memory: Any system (human, animal, or machine) that encodes, stores, and retrieves information
Human Memory is Good at:
Information on which attention is focused
Information in which we are interested Information that arouses us
emotionally Information that fits with our previous
experiences Information that we rehearse
EncodingEncoding Storage Retrieval
Involves modification of information to fit the preferred format of the memory system
Elaboration – Deliberate encoding in which you connect a new concept with existing information
Memory’s Three Basic Functions
Encoding StorageStorage Retrieval
Involves retention of encoded material over time
Memory’s Three Basic Functions
Encoding Storage RetrievalRetrieval
Involves the location and recovery of information from memory
Memory’s Three Basic Functions
Think About It
Do you consider yourself to have a good memory?
What are your strengths? Weaknesses? What is the worst memory failure you’ve had?
Test, name, appointment, birthday, etc? Do you use any tricks/hooks to improve your
memory? What is your 1st memory?
Each of the three memory stages encodes and stores memories in a different way,
but they work together to transform sensory experience into a lasting record that has a
pattern of meaning
Chapter 7: CognitionHow Do We Form Memories?
The Three Stages of MemorySensory Sensory MemoryMemory
Working Memory
Long-term Memory
Preserves brief sensory impressions of stimuli
The First Stage: Sensory Memory
Sensory register: maintain info; temp storage bins; each of the senses
Echoic Memory: auditory sensory memory (1-4 s)
Iconic Memory: visual sensory memory (1/4 s)
On the next slide, you will see a series of letters for less than one second. Try to remember as many letters as you can.
The First Stage: Sensory Memory
The actual capacity of sensory memory can be twelve or more items.
All but three or four items disappear before they can enter consciousness.
The Three Stages of MemorySensory Memory
Short-term Short-term MemoryMemory
Long-term Memory
Preserves recently perceived events or experiences for less than a minute (20 s) without rehearsal, also called working memory
The Second Stage: STM
Digit Activity STM: stores limited amounts of info for a
limited amount of time (7+/-2) Smallest capacity of 3 stages (bottleneck) STM consists of
A central executive – directs attentionA phonological loop – temp storage of soundsThe sketchpad – temp storage of visuals
Encoding and Storage in Working Memory
Three Lists Activity… Chunking: Organizing pieces of information
into a smaller number of meaningful units Maintenance rehearsal: Process in which
information is repeated or reviewed to keep it from fading while in working memory
Elaborative rehearsal: Process in which information is actively reviewed and related to information already in LTM
Encoding and Storage in Working Memory
Popular Song Activity… Word List Activity… Primacy effect: first info remembered Recency effect: latest info remembered
Serial-position effect Memory Test Activity… Levels-of-processing theory: Explanation for
the fact that information that is more thoroughly connected to meaningful terms in LTM will be better remembered
The Three Stages of MemorySensory Memory
Working Memory
Long-term Long-term MemoryMemory
Stores material organized according to meaning, also called LTM
The Third Stage: Long-Term Memory
Limitless in capacity and duration Semantic encoding: ignore details; encode
general, underlying meaning (Sachs ‘67)Can be detrimental in court, etc…Counterfeiting
Visual better than verbal
The Third Stage: Long-Term Memory Procedural memory: Division of LTM that
stores memories for how things are done Declarative memory: Division of LTM that
stores explicit information (aka fact memory)Semantic memory: Subdivision of declarative
memory that stores general knowledge, including meanings of words and concepts
Episodic memory: Subdivision of declarative memory that stores memories for personal events, or “episodes”
Semantic memory
Includes memory for: language, factsgeneral knowledge
Episodic memory
Includes memory for: events, personal experiences
Includes memory for: motor skills, classicalconditioning
Long-term memory
Declarative memory Procedural memory
How Do We Retrieve Memories?
Whether memories are implicit or explicit, successful
retrieval depends on how they were encoded and how
they are cued
How Do We Retrieve Memories? Encoding Activity Implicit memory: Memory that was not deliberately
learned or of which you have no conscious awareness (procedural)
Explicit memory: Memory that has been processed with attention and can be consciously recalled (declarative – semantic and episodic)
Retrieval Cues
Retrieval cues: Stimuli that are used to bring a memory to consciousness
Priming: Technique for retrieving memories by providing cues that stimulate a memory.
Disney Activity…
Recall and Recognition Recall: Technique for retrieving explicit
memories in which one must reproduce previously presented informationFRQ
Recognition: Technique for retrieving explicit memories in which one must identify present stimuli as having been previously presentedMultiple choice
Other Factors Affecting Retrieval
Encoding specificity principle: The more closely the retrieval clues match the form in which the information was encoded, the better the information will be remembered
Mood-congruent memory Context-dependent memory State-dependent memory TOT (tip of the tongue) phenomenon: The inability to
recall a word, while knowing that it is in memory
Why Does Memory Sometimes Fail Us?
Most of our memory problems arise from
memory’s “seven sins” – which are really by-products
of otherwise adaptive features of human memory
TransienceTransience Absent-Absent-MindednessMindedness BlockingBlocking
MisattributionMisattribution SuggestibilitySuggestibility
BiasBias PersistencePersistence
Memory’s “Seven Sins”
Transience
The impermanence of a long-term memory; based on the idea that long-term memories gradually fade in strength over timeForgetting curve: A graph plotting the amount of
retention and forgetting over time for a certain batch of material
Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
Recall decreases rapidly, then reaches a plateau, after which little more is forgotten
Pe
rce
nt r
eta
ined
60
50
40
30
20
10
0Days
5 10 15 20 25 30
Absent-Mindedness
Forgetting caused by lapses in attention
Forgetting that occurs when an item in memory cannot be accessed or retrievedProactive interference (new is blocked)Retroactive interference (old is blocked)Tip-of-the-tongue
Blocking
Misattribution
Memory fault that occurs when memories are retrieved, but they are associated with the wrong time, place, or person
Process of memory distortion as a result of deliberate or inadvertent suggestion
Suggestibility/Misinformation Effect
Bias
An attitude, belief, emotion, or experience that distorts memoriesExpectancy bias: A tendency to distort recalled
events to make them fit one’s expectationsSelf-consistency bias: Idea that we are more
consistent than we actually are
Memory problem in which unwanted memories cannot be put out of mind
Persistence
Improving Memory with Mnemonics
Mnemonics: Techniques for improving memory, especially by making connections between new material and information already in long-term memory
Mnemonic strategies includeMethod of lociAcronymsNatural language mediators
The Advantages of the “Seven Sins” of Memory
Despite the grief they cause us, the “seven sins” may actually be by-products of adaptive features of memoryFor example, absent-mindedness is the by-
product of the useful ability to shift our attention
Misattributions, biases, and suggestibility result from a memory system built to deal with meaning
How Do ChildrenAcquire Language?
Infants and children face an especially important
developmental task with the acquisition of language.
Group Discussion Questions
1. What is communication?
2. What is speech?
3. What is language?
4. Why are these things important?
How Children Acquire Language
Language: Symbols & set of rules that provide a vehicle for communication
Innateness theory of language: Children learn language mainly by following an inborn program for acquiring vocabulary and grammarLanguage acquisition device (LAD): Structure in
the brain innately programmed with some of the fundamental rules of grammar (Noam Chomsky)
How Children Acquire Language
Early stages of language acquisition include the following:The babbling stageThe one-word stage; the naming explosionThe two-word stage
Telegraphic speech (short, simple sentences)
Components of Language
Grammar: rules of a languageSyntax: rules of grammarPhoneme: smallest distinctive unit of soundMorphemes: smallest unit that carries meaningOverregularization: Applying a grammatical rule
too widely and thereby creating incorrect forms(e.g. using “hitted” and “feets”)
How Children Acquire Language
Other language skillsSocial rules of conversationAbstract words (e.g. hope, truth)
Thinking is a cognitive process in which the brain uses
information from the senses, emotions, and memory to
create and manipulate mental representations, such as
concepts, images, schemas, and scripts
What Are theComponents of Thought?
Concepts Metacognition: Thinking about thinking Concepts: Mental representations of
categories of items or ideas, based on experienceNatural concepts represent objects and eventsArtificial concepts are defined by rules
We organize much of our declarative memories into concept hierarchiesSuperordinate v. subordinate (vehicle, convertible)
Animal
FishBird
SalmonSharkOstrichCanary
Has skinEats
Breathes
Has finsCan swimHas gills
Has wingsCan fly
Has feathers
Can singIs yellow
Can’t flyIs tall
Can biteIs dangerous
Is pinkIs edible
Thought and the Brain
Event-related potentials: Brain waves shown on an EEG in response to stimulation
Schemas and Scripts Help you Know What to Expect
Schema: A knowledge cluster or general framework that provides expectations about topics, events, objects, people, and situations in one’s life
Script: A cluster of knowledge about sequences of events and actions expected to occur in particular settings
Good thinkers not only have a repertoire of effective
algorithms and heuristics, they know how to avoid the
common impediments to problem solving and decision
making
What Abilities Do GoodThinkers Possess?
Problem Solving
Metacognition: thinking about thinking Good problem solvers are skilled at
Identifying the problemPossessing requisite knowledge neededSelecting a strategy…dog problem
Selecting a Strategy Algorithms: Problem-solving
procedures or formulas that guarantee a correct outcome if correctly applied
Heuristics: Cognitive strategies used as shortcuts to solve complex mental tasks; they do not guarantee a correct solution
Heuristics
Useful heuristics include:Working backwardSearching for analogiesBreaking a big problem into smaller problems
Unscramble these words…
Obstacles to Problem Solving
Mental set: Tendency to respond to a new problem in the manner used for a previous problem
Functional fixedness: Inability to perceive a new use for an object associated with a different purpose
Obstacles to Problem Solving
Other obstacles include:Self-imposed limitationsLack of interestFatigueDrugs (legal and illegal)
Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation BiasConfirmation Bias
Hindsight BiasHindsight Bias
Anchoring BiasAnchoring Bias
Representativeness Representativeness BiasBias
Availability BiasAvailability Bias
Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation BiasConfirmation Bias
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability Bias
Ignoring or finding fault with information that does not fit our opinions, and seeking information with which we agree
Judging and Making DecisionsConfirmation Bias
Hindsight BiasHindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability Bias
Tendency, after learning about an event, to believe that one could have predicted the event in advance
Judging and Making DecisionsConfirmation Bias
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring BiasAnchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability Bias
Faulty heuristic caused by basing (anchoring) an estimate on a completely unrelated quantity
Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation Bias
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Representativeness BiasBias
Availability Bias
Faulty heuristic strategy based on presumption that, once a person or event is categorized, it shares all features of other members in that category (prototype)
Judging and Making DecisionsConfirmation Bias
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability BiasAvailability Bias
Faulty heuristic strategy that estimates probabilities based on information that can be recalled from personal experience
The Biological Basis of Long-Term Memory
Engram: The physical trace of memory Anterograde amnesia: Inability to form
memories for new information Retrograde amnesia: Inability to
remember information previously stored in memory
Consolidation: The process by which short-term memories are changed to long-term memories
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