Chapter 8MEMORY

No painful recollections so they won’t have anger

possible positive characteristic of no memory

Persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information

MEMORY

Dad could not lay down new memories but had a large ability to remember

David Myers father and son

After seeing faces for 10 seconds we are able to recognize 90% later

Haber’s study

Unconscious recognition

This is an elephant. You would no for sure if you had seen the full figure earlier because you would remember the similar shape

Processing of information into the memory system

Encoding

Retention of encoded information over time

Storage

Process of getting information out of memory storage

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retrieval

Sensory memory Short-term memory Long-term memory

Atkinson and Schiffrin

Immediate very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

Sensory memory

Momentary photographic memory When George Sperling flashed a group of letters similar to this for one-twentieth of a second, people could recall only about half of the letters. But when signaled to recall a particular row immediately after the letters had disappeared, they could do so with near-perfect accuracy.

activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten

short-term memory

the relatively permanent and limitless store-house of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences

long-term memory

Unconscious encoding of incidental information (space, time, frequency) and of well-learned information (word meaning)

automatic processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

effortful processing

The conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it unconsciously or to encode it for storage

rehearsal

The more he practiced nonsense syllables on day one , the less he needed to learn on day 2

The more time we spend learning novel information, the more we retain

Ebbinghaus’ study

The tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice

spacing effect

They will be able to retain more information due to the spacing effect

Why is giving a student 4-5 days to study important?

Repeatedly being tested –more learning than practice

Testing effect

Space out your study to retain more information

Self-assessment

beat cramming

Our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

serial position effect

They should put the hardest words first The next difficult words at the end The easiest words in the middle

advice to Spanish teacher

Last items are still in working memory, and people briefly recall them especially quickly and well

recency

After a delay, recall is best for the first items

primary effect

Encoding of picture images

visual encoding

Encoding of sound (especially words)

acoustic encoding

Encoding of meaning (including the meaning of words)

semantic encoding

The time you spend thinking about material, reading, and relating it to previously stored material

Wickelgren

Relating new information to previously stored material or experiences

self reference effect

Mental pictures; powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with semantic encoding

imagery

It allows us to remember it longer because instead of thinking about it we know exactly what it looks like

Imagery in visual encoding

People tend to recall events more positively than they judged them at the time

rosy retrospection

You will most likely just remember the high points

Why might a vacation you did not like seem better now than before?

Memory aids; especially these techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

mnemonic device

Memorized jingly so you can count by peg words. We are able to visually associate other things with peg words

peg-word system

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units, often occurs automatically

EXAMPLES: chess master (recall positions quickly)

chunking

Creating a word (a form of chunking) to learn it better

How is chunking applied

ROY G BIV

ENCODING

Organization helps to recall time and accuracy

Bower

Momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli, photographic/picture; image memory lasts no more than a few tenths of a second

iconic memory

Showed all available for recall but only for a couple seconds. Tone sound for which line to read but if delayed recall less.

Sperling’s

Momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds

echoic memory

Kids can recall the last few words because they were unconsciously listening

How can a teacher can get tricked?

After 3 seconds only recalled half of the time after 12 seconds they seldom recalled any of it

Peterson and Peterson

STM can usually store 7 pieces of information (give of take 2)

George Miller’s 7 plus or minus 2

No, because it is out of the number of short term memory (10 numbers instead of 9)

Could people my age remember phone numbers with area codes prior to cell phones?

Repeat 50 random digits backward Could recite pi with prompt of 10 numbers

Rajan Madhevan’s memory

Memories are not stored in only one spot

Lashley

serotonin

What neurotransmitter is released when learning occurs?

Increase the synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation

Long Term Potentiation

They are trying to develop drugs that boost glutamate and CREB to increase long term potentiation/connections to it

Expanding memory = MORE MONEY

Drug companies

No because working memory had no time to consolidate the information into long term memory before lights went out

Do football players and boxers remember when they have concussions?

Clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

flashbulb memory

It is a flashbulb memory We will never be able to forget it

Where were you on 9/11

hippocampus

Brain structure on memories

Loss of memory

amnesia

Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and “declare” (a declarative memory)

explicit memory

Retention independent of conscious recollection

implicit memory

FIGURE 8.14

Neural center located in limbic system and helps process explicit memories for storage

hippocampus

Extends from rear of brainstem, keep role in forming and storing implicit memory created by classical conditioning

cerebellum

Recall nothing (explicitly) from first three years

infantile amnesia

Measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier as on a fill-in-the-blank test

recall

Memory measure that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material the second time

relearning

Measure of meaning in which a person needs only identity other previously learned (multiple choice test)

recognition

Anchor points used to access target memories later

retrieval cues

Activation (often unconsciously) of particular associations in memory

EXAMPLE: rabbit- hare

priming

Context effect-words heard under water will be remembered better under water

context effect

Eerie sense that you’ve been here before cues from current situation may sub consciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience

Déjà vu

Remember things by going back to where it happened (alcohol disrupts storage but may remember if drunk again

Bower

Alcohol disrupts storage but the memories may come back the next time they are drunk

When it comes to alcohol, when does the view work and when does it not?

Tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with ones current mood

mood congruent memories

The traumatic event would be what was remembered because that mood would travel with them during exams

Traumatic before exams?

FORGETTING absent-mindedness Transience BlockingDISTROTION Misattribution Suggestibility BiasINTRUSION Persistence

Daniel Schacter’s 7 sins of forgetting

Oops! Forgot my wallet!

Inattention to details leads to encoding failure

Mind is elsewhere as we lay down car keys

Absent-mindedness

Storage decay overtime After we part ways with classmates unused

information fades

transience

Inaccessibility of stored information

blocking

Confusing source of info

misattribution

Lingering effects of misinformation

Suggestibility

Belief-colored recollections (current feeling vs. initial)

Bias

Unwanted memories

Persistence

USE IT OR LOSE IT

what does this tell you about what you will remember from high school?

Forgetting Retrieval issues

tip of the tongue forgetting

Disruptive effect of prior learning on recall of new information

example: new lock combination is forgotten because original code is stuck in head

Proactive interference

Disruptive effect of new learning on recall of old information

One can’t remember old locker combination because new one is too prominent in their head

retroroactive interference

Old information facilitates learning of new information

Latin may help learn French

positive transfer

He thought he wanted to go and his mom wanted him to stay but really it was the other way around

Haber

We repress painful memories

Freud on self concepts

Basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety, arouses thoughts, feelings, memories from consciousness

repression

They block it out

Explain how memory construction applies to car accidents

Incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event

Yield vs. stop signs Hammers vs. screw drivers coke can vs. peanut can

misinformation effect

Imagining things More likely to think they were actually done

imagination inflation

Attributing to the wrong source an event which we had experienced heard about, read about, or imagined

source amnesia

They could be talking about the wrong person

Source amnesia gets kids in trouble

If quest landed with neutral words provide accurate recall

Children’s eyewitness recall

Falsely recall experiences Remember the false thing Describe the non-existent scenario Construct false memories

false memories of childhood trauma

Study repeatedly Make the material meaningful Activate retrieval cues Use mnemonic devices Minimize interference Sleep more Test your own knowledge to rehear it and to

determine what you don’t know

7 tips of how to improve memory

Chapter 9THINKING

AND LANGUAGE

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

cognition

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

concepts

a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories

prototype

What people categorize the face as

Olivier Corneille

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier—but also more error-prone—use of heuristics

algorithm

a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.

heuristic

a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.

insight

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Ex: women get pulled over by police more than men

Confirmation bias

the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.

Fixation

a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.

Mental set

judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.

Representativeness heuristic

SMART

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common.

Availability heuristic

the tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

overconfidence

clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

Belief perseverance

Still killing America

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.

intuition

the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

framing

Spoken, written, or signed words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning

language

“the jewel in the crown of cognition”

Pinker and Language cognition

You will learn the information and hear it

Listen to teachers

Get people’s attention Get people to go things Maintain relationships

3 reasons people make sounds

Transfer meaning from one mind to another

Language allows us to…

Smallest distinctive sound unit (letters) Basic set of sounds

Definition of phonemes

Sign language has phoneme like building blocks

Bellugi on sign language

The smallest unit of language that carries meaning

Examples: bat, -ed, I, a, yes

morpheme

System of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others

grammar

Rules we use to order words into sentences

syntax

Set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language

The study of meaning

semantics

This is true because some people without educations may say “ain’t got none” which is a double negative when the correct way to say it is “doesn’t have any”

Less educated speak ungrammatically

The small sounds of the phonemes combines with the prefixes and suffixes of morphemes create words

Phonemes+morphemes=words

You know about 60,000-80,000 words but don’t use them all

You use about 150

how many words do you know

Discriminate speech sounds Read lips

At four months old

Ability to comprehend speech

Receptive language

Segmenting spoken sounds in other languages into words

At 7 months old

fidichs

Ability to produce words

Productive language

4 months, spontaneously utters various sounds

Unrelated to anything

Babbling stage

The child begins to babble sounds that sound more like the home language such as “mama”

At 10 months

MOMMADADA

1-2, speaks in single word phrases

One word stage

Uses mostly noun sound verbs Age 2, 2 word statements

Telegraphic stage/2-word stage

Language development

Modeling and copying

imitation

Positive/negative Congratulations (hug) when correct

reinforcement

Paring sights with sounds of words

association

We are the same as animals in terms of operant conditioning

Skinner

Chomsky believes that development is not all about experiences as a child and some is biological

Chomsky thinks of Skinner

Prewired language “switchbox”

Language acquisition device

Same grammar or building blocks as other countries

Universal Grammar

childhood is good time to master aspects of language

Critical period

Nature VIA nurture Important to learn new language during

childhood

Mayberry

Learning language

Impaired use of language

aphasia

Language expression, directs muscles involved in speech

Broca’s area

Language reception, comprehension, expression

Wernicke’s area

Reading aloud

Angular gyrus

Language processing areas

Brain activity

The prime years to learn new things is during early childhood or early teen years

Process language and information

Your brain processes language by dividing its functions into sub functions, same for everything

As you read

Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think

Linguistic determination

They have no past tense They can’t think in the past

Hopi indian

When asked to describe self in different language

Self-discrimination went with language

Ross, Xun, and Wilson

There are hand signals for strike outs A hand signal for a foul in basketball

Sports sign language

Thinking about it stimulated the brain

Liu Chi Kung

imagination

Beginning to study sooner, spent more time at it, and beat the others

Process simulation

Thinking and language

Baboons know every troop member’s voice Pigeons can sort objects

Smart animals

Apes exhibit foresight by storing tool to use for food next day

foresight

They are natural tool users

Chimpanzee

Cultural transmission

Chimp bests humans

Comprehension of numbers to 6, they speak a number of objects, sort and announce sums

Monkey communication

Apes gain the vocabulary with difficulty Other animals do same for rewards People see what they want to see Different meaning may not be different to

chimps

Ape communication

Different alarm cries for different predators

Gestures enable communication

Trained adopted baby Other people that signed said it worked

Washoe

90%

What percentage of people who sign understand chimps?

Early life is good to learn language

critical period applies to pygmy chimps