PsychologyMay 2015

The process of storage & retrieval of what is learned or experienced is called Memory.

Encoding – Transforming information so that the nervous system can process it.

Storage – Process by which information is maintained over time.

Retrieval – Occurs when information is brought to mind from storage.

Neuroscientist have discovered that there are more storage areas that we originally thought.

Today we know of five (5) memory lanes in specific brain areas – think of them as supermarket isles or filing cabinets

These memory lanes contain the files in which memory is stored, but the memories are not in these specific areas, but these areas are where each memory is labeled.

The labeling process makes the difference in how quickly we store & retrieve information.

Sensory Memory – Retaining information long enough for it to be perceived & potentially processed. Iconic – Visual Sensory Memory ~ SnapshotAcoustic – Auditory Sensory Memory ~ Brief

Echo

IconicAcoustic

Sensory Memory:Sensory Memory:

The older we are, the more short-term space we have

Limited Span – Information is gone after 15-20 seconds unless it has been Rehearsed

Contains what you are thinking about RIGHT NOW!

15+ year olds can hold up to 7 items in S-T Memory

At the age of 3, a child has one memory space and every year they get another or so until they reach 7

Located in our Prefrontal Cortex Can be used for hours It gives us the ability to form more long-

term memories

Danger – Danger – DangerCramming – Many have used it in both

high school & college – It is effective for a moment but it does not provide meaningful information that remains in the brain to which connections can be made.

Rehearsal – Temporary retaining information in STM or processing it for permanent LTM storage.Simplest form is Repetition – Say it over & over

to yourselfElaborative – Adding meaning, visualizing,

organizing or otherwise enhancing the information ~ Mnemonic Devices Using SQ4R works as well

ROY G BIVRed, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo,

Violet Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction

Every Good Boys Does FineMusical notation to remember treble clef

notes on the lines My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us

Nine PicklesPlanets –

King Phillip Cuts Open Five Green Snakes Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family,

Genus, Species Thirty days hath September

Remember the months Two Old Angels Skipped Over Heaven

Carrying Ancient Harps Remember the equations for Tangent, Sine,

and Cosine. O stands for opposite, A stands for adjacent, and H stands for hypotenuse.

HOMES Great Lakes

OIL RIG Oxidation It Loses (electrons) Reduction it

Gains (electrons)

Permanent Memory; barring some kind of physical damage.LTM starts where STM endsLasts for Life Intermediate period of up to :30-minutesCapacity – Unlimited ~ Your brain never

gets fullEncoding can be either Acoustic or Iconic

Visual Information – Stored in Occipital Lobe

Auditory – Processed & Stored in Temporal Lobe

Kinesthetic – Stored at the top of the brain in the motor-cortex until completely learned and then permanently stored in the cerebellum Each of these has an Association Cortex

that holds the information until it is disposed of (forgotten), sent to working memory or to long-term storage

1. Semantic – Holds information learned from Words – textbooks and lecturesFrom Brain Stem to Thalamus to

Hippocampus which stores Factual Memories

Some of this information is processed while we sleep

This lane is difficult to use as it takes several repetitions to learn this kind of material.

Easier to access than Semantic Called Contextual or Spatial Memory Link – You are always somewhere when

you learn something – so you can easily associate the learning with the locationStudents who learn information in one room

and test in another consistently underperform

Easily contaminated though – you’ve had so many experiences in a ‘given’ room that you can become confused

Known as “Muscle Memory” Information that deals with Processes

that the body does & remembers – Ability to ride a bike, skip rope, roller skate, ski & drive a car

Information goes into your cerebellum when it becomes routine.

This type of memory gives us the ability to do two things at once

Also called Conditioned Response Memory

Certain stimuli automatically trigger the memory or information

Stored: The Alphabet, Multiplication Tables, Your ability to read

Anything you learned that is automatic – Go, Stop, Up, Down, In Out

Found in your cerebellum

Opened through your Amygdala (a-mig-da-la), located in the forebrain next to the hippocampus

All sorts of experiences that made you Happy, Sad or any other feeling you have

**Emotional Memory takes precedence over any other kind

It can be triggered by another type of memory, but it will then take over and could block other memory processes.

Two ways to retrieve information and one problem:Recognition – Memory retrieval in

which a person identifies an object, idea or situation as one they have or have not experienced before. {M/C, T/F, Matching}

Recall – Memory retrieval in which a person reconstructs previously learned material. {Completion, Essays, Diagrams}

When you need something from memory, the Penguin goes over to the appropriate bag and opens it up….

…At that point you have Recall

Taught to Mr. Chmiola in the Spring of 1986 by a Psychology Professor

Everyone experiences a failure of memory from time to time.

Over time some memories fade away or Decay.

Interference – Blockage of a memory by previous (Proactive) or Subsequent (Retroactive) memory.

Loss of Memory – Amnesia

Retrograde – A person’s pre-existing memories are lost to conscious recollection (memories of their past)

Anterograde – Ability to memorize new things is impaired or lost50 First Dates

Our memories affect our decisions, they influence us and clue us in

They help us make decisions, affect our actions and reactions and determine our course in life.

When the brain stores memories in more than one memory lane, then the more memory lanes we use, the more powerful the learning becomes.