MemoryStorage: Retaining Information

Sensory Memory

• Sensory memory retention is only fleeting and momentary

• Sensory memory retention allows us to remember small, quick bits of information for a very short period of time

Sensory Memory

G Z E P

R K O D

B T X F

Sensory Memory

• How many letters can you recall?

• Most people can recall four or five letters in that short of a time span, but know that there were more.

Sensory Memory

• Sensory memory retention is what is used when you are reading a sentence in a book….you only remember the last word you read until you have read the next few words on the line

• You’re flipping through the phone book looking for a number, and though you recognize that some numbers are not the correct one, you don’t recall what they actually were.

Sensory Memory

• Sensory memory retention is what is used when you see a face in the crowd for a split second….you recognize features quickly, determine she/he was cute, but then you can’t remember any details of their face

Sensory Memory

• Was he/she cute?• What was he/she wearing? What color was

it?

• What color was his/her hair? How long was it?

• What color was her lipstick?

• What was his/her facial expression?

• What color were his/her eyes?

Short-Term Memory or Short-Term Memory or Working MemoryWorking Memory

• The ability to hold and manipulate The ability to hold and manipulate information over a brief period of information over a brief period of

time. Forgetting can occur rapidly, time. Forgetting can occur rapidly, especially if distractedespecially if distracted

Short-Term Memory or Working Memory

• Short-term memory has two important characteristics. – First, short-term memory can contain at

any one time sevenseven, plus or minus , plus or minus twotwo, "chunks" of information.

– Second, items remain in short-term memory around twenty to thirty twenty to thirty seconds.seconds.

Short-Term Memory• This type of

memory increases as children get

older…

…but decreases in old age

Short-Term Memory

• Look at the pictures on the next slide

• Write down all the objects you can remember

• How many objects did you remember?

Short-Term Memory• We can only consciously process a very limited amount of information in

our short-term memory.

• Overload your short-term memory? You might forget what you read, ask

yourself where you put your briefcase, and ask your phone partner the same thing twice.

Long-Term Memory• A system in the brain that can

store vast amounts of information on a relatively enduring basis

• The information can be facts you learned a few minutes ago, personal memories that are decades old, or skills learned with practice.

Long-Term Memory

• The average adult has more than a billion bits of information in

memory

• Storage capacity of long-term memories has been estimated at million times that (1,000,000 X

1,000,000,000)

Storing Memories in the Brain• Complex memories do not reside in single specific spots

• Karl Lashley – trained rats to solve a maze, then cut out pieces of the rat’s cortexes and retested their memory of the maze. No matter what small cortex section he removed, the rats retained at least a partial memory of how to solve the maze

Storing Memories in the Brain• Richard Thompson resumed Lashley’s search

• Tone, Puff, Blink –Classical Conditioning/reflex

• Activity was found localized in the Cerebellum

• The Verdict – Complex memories are distributed while many simple, reflex memories

are localized

Storing Memories in the Brain• Are memories stored in the electrical currents of the

brain, in addition to (or instead of?) the physical cortexes?

• Ralph Gerard – trained hamsters to turn right or left to get food, and then lowered their body temps until the brain’s electrical activity ceased. He revived them, re-tested them, and they remembered which way to turn.

• Conclusion: Memories are electrical and physical.

Important Brain Storage Areas• The hippocampus

functions as a memory "gateway" through which new memories must pass before entering permanent storage in the brain. It holds your short term memory.

Important Brain Storage Areas

• The amygdala stores many memories tied to emotions.

• It is responsible for emotional content of your memories

Explicit Memory

• the conscious, intentional recollection of previous experiences and information.

• We use explicit memory throughout the day, We use explicit memory throughout the day, such as remembering the time of an such as remembering the time of an

appointment or recollecting an event from appointment or recollecting an event from years ago.years ago.

Implicit Memory

• Implicit Memory is remembering something without being aware that you are remembering it.

• It is an automatic or an unconscious form of memory. (Schacter, 1987)

• Implicit memory is special because most amnesiacs still have implicit memory skills even if they don't realize it.

• Motor or muscle memory is implicit

MemoryRetrieval: Getting Information Out

Retrieval

• Retrieval is the process of getting information out of memory storage

IE. The Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. The directions to Mom’s house are to make a left on Main Street, a right on Elk Street, etc.

IE. In a group of people you can’t remember names, but you can remember if you’ve met before.

Retrieval• Recall – memory is the ability to

retrieve exact information learned at an earlier time– IE. Fill in the blank test.

– IE. Columbus sailed in the year ________. 6 x 6 = _____. Define retrieval ______. My Social Security number is _______.

Retrieval• Recognition – a measure of memory

in which a person only needs to identify items previously learned– IE. A multiple-choice test.

Retrieval• Relearning – the principle that if you’ve

learned something and forgot it, you probably will learn the material more easily the second time – therefore, retrieval is easier and quicker as well– IE. Learned to play the guitar and played for

five years. Haven’t played in 10 years, but you pick up a guitar and play a few tunes, and with a few lessons you play as well as you did before.

Retrieval

• Retrieval CuesRetrieval Cues – clues that provide reminders of information that otherwise would be more difficult to remember;

• If you think of memories as a powder keg, a retrieval clue is the initial match that lights the trail of gunpowder leading to the keg

Retrieval Cues• PrimingPriming – the activation of particular

associations in memory; this may be done consciously or unconsciously, purposefully or incidentally

– IE. Mnemonic clues (Roy G Biv) are primers that allow you to remember information many types of factual information

– IE. A “Missing Child” poster makes you think about your own abduction as a child

– IE. The color red prompts memories of days on your grandfathers farm, with its big red barn

– IE. The first letter of each vocabulary word is provided on your test.

Retrieval Cues• Context EffectsContext Effects – the tendency to

remember information better and more accurately when you are in a physical setting that is similar to the one that you learned the information in the first place

Retrieval Cues

• Mood-CongruentMood-Congruent –our moods bias our memories also – what we learned in one mood, we remember better when in the same mood– IE. You go to a funeral and are sad, all

day long you keep remembering other sad things that you hadn’t thought of in a long time…

Retrieval Cues

• State-Dependent TheoryState-Dependent Theory – what we learn in one physical state – such as drunk or sober – is sometimes more easily recalled when we are again in that same state.

• i.e. – where did put those car keys last night…?

Retrieval Cues• déjà vu – “Already Seen”

(French)– The eerie sense that “I’ve been

in this exact situation before”

– Memory Explanation – If a situation is loaded with clues that are similar to ones already in memory, your brain makes similar associations between them

MemoryForgetting, Memory Construction,

and Improving Memory

Forgetting• Absent-MindednessAbsent-Mindedness – inattention to

detail leads to poor encoding, trivial storage, and often failed retrieval

Forgetting• Decay TheoryDecay Theory – forgetting is

due to normal metabolic processes that occur in the brain over time; also, if memories are unused over a long period of time, they begin to naturally fade away

Forgetting• IE. Within 3 years of IE. Within 3 years of

graduation you will graduation you will probably forget more probably forget more that half of what you that half of what you learned. But, after learned. But, after three years your three years your forgetfulness will forgetfulness will level off and you will level off and you will retain some of that retain some of that Spanish for 25 years Spanish for 25 years or more, without or more, without having used it or having used it or relearned it.relearned it.

Hermann Ebbinghaus

P.O.R.N.

Retrieval Failures

• Pro-active Interference – occurs when something you learned earlier

(an old memory) disrupts your ability to create a new memory–IE. You buy a new car and want to

switch on the headlights, but instead you keep turning on the windshield wipers.

Retrieval Failures

•Retro-active Interference –

occurs when New information makers it harder to recall something you learned earlier–IE. Your new phone number

interferes with remembering your old phone number.

P.O.R.N.

• P = Proactive

• O = Remember the old, forget the new

• R = retroactive

• N = remember the new, can’t remember the old

Retrieval Failures

• Repression - a basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

• People can knowingly, or unknowingly, revise their own histories

Retrieval Failures

Tip-Of-The-Tip-Of-The-Tongue Tongue

ExperienceExperience – – the inability to the inability to

get a bit of get a bit of information information that you’re that you’re absolutely absolutely certain is certain is

stored in your stored in your memory – the memory – the information is information is

very close, very close, but just out of but just out of

reachreach

Medical Memory LossMedical Memory Loss• Amnesia – severe memory loss

– RetrogradeRetrograde – forget things from the past

– AnterogradeAnterograde – inability to form new memories but remember the past

• AlzheimersAlzheimers – as plaques build in the brain and interfere with neural transmissions, memories cannot be formed or retrieved

False Memories• Source ConfusionSource Confusion – arises when the true

source of a memory is forgotten, so you create details to fill in the gaps– You actually saw that on tv…

• Misinformation EffectMisinformation Effect – a person’s existing memories can be altered if the person is exposed to misleading information– Eyewitness Testimony…How

reliable is it?

Elizabeth Loftus

How To Make Memories Last?A Few Suggestions

• FocusFocus your attention

• OrganizeOrganize the information

• CommitCommit the necessary time

• Elaborate Elaborate on the material

• SpaceSpace your study sessions

How To Make Memories Last?A Few Suggestions

• Use visual imagery and other mnemonics

• Explain it to a friend• Reduce Interferences• Since we usually remember the early part

and the last part, spend extra time on the middle (the serial position effect, primacy and recency)

• Use contextual clues to jog memory