Test Your Memory!

1. How often do you fail to recognize places you’ve been before?2. How often do you forget whether you did something, such as lock the door or

turn off the lights or the oven?3. How often do you forget when something happened – wondering whether it

was yesterday or last week?4. How often do you forget where you put items such as house keys or your

wallet?5. How often do you forget something you were told recently and had to be

reminded of it?6. How often are you unable to remember a word or name, even though it’s “on

the tip of your tongue?”7. In conversations, how often do you forget what you were just talking about?

• TOTAL POINTS? • 7-14 = better than average memory• 15-25 = average• 26 or higher = below average

1 = Not within the last six months 4 = About once a week2 = Once or twice in the last six months 5 = Daily3 = About once a month 6 = More than once a day

Popular Memory ComplaintsNames 83%

Where you put things (ex: keys) 60%

Telephone numbers just checked 57%

Specific words 53%

Not recalling that you had already told something to someone 49%

Faces 42%

Directions 41%

Forgetting what you started to do 41%

Forgetting what you were saying 41%

Remembering what you have done (ex: turning off the stove) 38%

Definition of MemoryDefinition of Memory

• the mental processes that the mental processes that enable us to retain and use enable us to retain and use information over time information over time

3 Processes of Memory

1. Encoding - transforming information into a form that you can store in your memory

2. Storage - process of retaining or storing information in memory to use later

3. Retrieval - process of recovering information stored in our memory into our conscious awareness

The Stage Model of Memory

• Sensory Memory – stage of memory that registers info from the environment and holds it for a very brief period of time

• Short-term Memory – active stage of memory in which info is stored for about 30 seconds, also called working memory

• Maintenance Rehearsal – mental or verbal repetition of info in order to maintain it beyond the usual 30-second duration of short-term memory

U V A F C I C R B S A I

P S Y C H I S F U N

• Chunking – increasing the amount of info that can be held in short-term memory by grouping related items together into a single unit, or chunk

• Long-term Memory – stage of memory that represents the long-term storage of info

• Elaborative Rehearsal – involves focusing on the meaning of info to help encode and transfer it to long-term memory

• Declarative (Explicit) Memory – info or knowledge that can be consciously remembered

• Episodic Memory – type of long-term memory that includes memories of particular events (“episodes” of life)

• Semantic Memory – type of long-term memory that includes memories of general knowledge of facts, names, and concepts

• Non-Declarative (Implicit) Memory – info or knowledge that affects behavior or task performance but cannot be consciously remembered, procedural memories

• Recall - producing information by searching memory without help from retrieval cues

• Retrieval Cue – something that helps trigger recall of a piece of info in long-term memory

• Recognition - test of long-term memory that involves identifying something as familiar

Recall vs. Recognition Demo

• Car• Flower• Desk• Key• Video• Carpet• Magnet

• Radio• Ice• Peanut• Bench• Clock• Briefcase• Envelope• Nail

• Serial Position Effect - Tendency to retrieve information the beginning and ending items of a list better than the middle items

• Primacy Effect - Information at the beginning of the sequence is likely to be recalled because it has already been placed in long-term memory

• Recency Effect - Information at the end of a sequence is likely to be recalled because it is still in short-term memory

Encoding Specificity Principle

• Principle that when conditions of when the information was encoded are similar to when the information is retrieved, we are more likely to be able to retrieve the information

• Mood Congruence - Idea that a given mood tends to evoke memories consistent with that mood

• Context Effect - Tendency to remember information more easily if you are in the same setting as when you learned the information

Flashbulb Memories

• The recall of very specific images or details surrounding a vivid, rare, or significant personal event.

Levels of Processing Framework

• The level at which information can be processed determines how well the information will be encoded and later retrieved

• Information processed at a “deeper” level is more likely to be retrieved because the meaning of the information is processed

• Schemas – organized cluster of info about a particular topic

• Encoding Failure - Memory was never put in long-term memory and therefore can not be recalled or recognized

 

If you said ‘A’ you’re right!

• Interference - Memory loss occurs because information stored before or after a given memory makes it hard to remember

• Proactive Interference - When old memories interfere with remembering new memories

• Retroactive Interference - When new memories interfere with remembering old memories

• Consolidation Failure - Loss due to organic disruption while the memory trace is being formed

• Motivated Forgetting - Forgetting through suppression or repression in order to protect your self from material that is too painful

• Tip of the Tongue (TOT) Experience – memory phenomenon that involves the sensation of knowing that specific info is stored in long-term memory, but being temporarily unable to retrieve it.

• Decay Theory - States that memories, if not used, disappear with the passage of time

• False Memories – distorted or inaccurate memory that feels completely real and often has all of the emotional impact of a real memory

Misinformation Effect

• Phenomenon in which people’s existing memories can be altered by exposing them to misleading info

Source Confusion

• Memory distortion that occurs when the true source of the memory is forgotten

• False details provided after the event become confused with the details of the original memory

Schema Distortion

• False memories are caused by the tendency to fill in missing memory details with information that is consistent with existing knowledge about a topic

Imagination Inflation

• Phenomenon in which vividly remembering an event increases our confidence that the event actually occurred

Case of H.M. and Anterograde Amnesia

• inability to learn new memories

• Had surgery to remove portions of the temporal lobes on both sides, including the hippocampus

• Surgery reduced the seizures but H.M. could not remember new memories