Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
MEMORY
Outline
• Remembering– Memory Stages– The content of Long-term memory– Reliably of Long-term memory
• Forgetting– Theories about why we forget– Measuring what we can remember– Memory loss– Memory problems and medical conditions
• Powering up your memory
Memory
• Practically all of our daily activities (talking, understanding, reading, socializing) depend on our capacity to receive and stored information from our environment.
• Allows us to retrieve events from the distant past or from moments ago.
• Enables us to learn new skills and to form habits.
• Without the ability to access past experiences or information, we would be unable to comprehend language, recognize our friends and family members, find our way home, or even tie a shoe.
• Life would be a series of disconnected experiences, each one new and unfamiliar.
Memory
• Processes by which we encode, store, and retrieve information.
– Encoding:• the initial perception and registration of information.
– Storage: • the retention of encoded information over time.
– Retrieval:• the processes involved in using stored information.
• Whenever we successfully recall a prior experience, we must have encoded, stored, and retrieved information about the experience.
The Basic Process of Memory
InformationEncodingStorageRetrival
Memory Encoding
• We encode information in different ways:– Acoustically (coded by sound)– Visually (coded by mental pictures)– Semantically (coded by meaning)
Memory Storage Three-stage model
• Sensory Memory – Retains an exact copy of what is seen (iconic) or heard (echoic). – It only lasts for a few seconds. – Information is lost or transferred to STM.
• Short-Term Memory (STM)– Store 7 + or – 2 bits of information for about 20-30 sec.– Information need to be rehearsed.– Information is transferred to LTM or will be lost.
• Long-Term Memory (LTM)– Relatively permanent storage. – Information is stored on the basis of meaning and importance.
Memory Storage Process
• After entering sensory memory, a limited amount of information is transferred into short-term memory.
• Within STM, there are three basic operations:
– Iconic memory - The ability to hold visual images.
– Acoustic memory - The ability to hold sounds.
– Working memory - An active process to keep information until it is put to use (a phone number you'll repeat to yourself until you can dial it on the phone).
Memory Retrieval
• Some memories are retrieved effortless but others depend on the availability of:– Retrieval Cues.
• Cues associated with the original learning that facilitate the retrieval of memories.
• Context-dependent memory effect– Tendency for information to be better recalled
in the same context in which it was originally learned.
Information Processing Model
Content of LTM• Procedural Memory
– Memory of how to do things.
• Declarative Memory or Explicit Memory – Memory of fact and personal information.– Require conscious effort to bring it back to mind.– Examples:
• We know that there are 50 States• We know that we attend MSC
– Divide into:• Semantic Memory (memory of facts)• Episodic Memory (memory of personal experiences)
– Can be:• Retrospective (memory of past experience) • Prospective (remembering to do something in the future)
Content of LTM
LTM: Preserving the Past
• Consolidation– Process of converting STM into LTM
• Elaborative Rehearsal– Process of transferring information from STM
to LTM by consciously focusing on the meaning if the information.
Semantic Network Model
• Information in LTM is stored in interrelated networks of schemas.
• These form intricate knowledge structures.
• Related schemas are linked together, and information that activates one schema also activates others that are closely linked.
• This is how we recall relevant knowledge when similar information is presented.
Characteristics of LTM
• LTM provides the framework to which we attach new knowledge.
• The knowledge we store in LTM affects our perceptions of the world, and influences what information in the environment we attend to.
• Our expectations regarding a particular experience influence how we interpret it. This is how we develop bias.
Reliability of LTM
• Constructionist Theory– Memory is not a replica of the past, but a
reconstruction of the past.
• Memory Schema– Organized knowledge such as a set of beliefs
that reflects our past experiences and expectations of the future.
Confabulations
• Also known as False Memory
• Rely on Reconstruction Theory– Confusion of imagination with memory.– Confusion of true memories with false
memories.
Flashbulb Memories
• Memories of extremely stressful or emotionally arousing personal or historical events.
• May leave lasting and vivid memories.
• May have inaccuracies or distortions.
Emotions and Memory
• PTSD : Memories that won’t go away
• Depression: Recall mainly negative events
• Anxiety: negatively affect memory in general
• Stress: negatively affect memory in general
Theories of Forgetting• Decay Theory
– Gradual fading of memories as a function of time.
• Interference Theory– Disruption of memory caused by interference of previously learned
material or newly learned material.
• Retrieval Theory– Failure to access material stored in memory because of encoding failure
or lack of retrieval cues.
• Repression Theory– Motivated forgetting of anxiety-provoking material.
Measuring Memory
• Recall Tasks– Test of the ability to reproduce information held in
memory with only minimal cues available• Remembering the phone number of a friend• Remembering the names of the 50 States
• Recognition Tasks– Test of ability to recognize material held in memory
• Recognizing the correct answer in a multiple choice test
Amnesia:The partial or complete loss of memory due to
physiological or psychological causes
• Retrograde Amnesia– Lost of memory of past events
• For example:– Unable to remember details of car accident.
• Anterogade Amnesia– Loss or impairment of the ability to form or store new
memories.• Usually due to brain disorder person is unable to retain new
information.
Psychogenic Amnesia
• Results from a psychological cause as opposed to direct damage to the brain:– Dissociative Amnesia
• inability to recall information, usually about stressful or traumatic events, such as a violent attack or rape.
– Fuge/Dissociative Fugue• caused by psychological trauma and is usually temporary
– Lacunar Amnesia• loss of memory about one specific event
– Childhood Amnesia/Infantile Amnesia• inability to remember events from one's own childhood
Medical Conditions and Memory Problems
• Hormonal imbalances– Thyroid disease – Cushing disease (overproduction of hormones by the
adrenal gland)
• Infectious diseases – AIDS – Neurosyphilis – Chronic meningitis – Tuberculosis
Medical Conditions and Memory Problems
• Vitamin deficiencies (vitamin B1)– Korsakoff’s Syndrome due to:
• Chronic alcoholism• Severe malnutrition
• Traumatic Brain Injury/Brain Trauma
• Neuro-degenerative Diseases– Alzheimer's Disease– Parkinson's Disease– Dementia
Medical Conditions and Memory Problems
• Tumors of the frontal or temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex
• Subdural hematoma (blood between the skull and the brain)
• Hydrocephalia (excess fluid in the brain)
Powering up your Memory
• Mnemonics (devises to improve memory)– Chunking– Acronyms– Rhymes– Visual imagery
• Associating information with striking visual images.– Link system– Method of Loci
Practice: Chunking
C N N C I A J F K I B M D N A
CNN CIA JFK IBM DNA
Mnemonic: Acronyms
• Rainbow Colors: Roy G. Biv – Red– Orange– Yellow– Green– Blue– Indigo– Violet
Mnemonic: Acronyms
• Homes– Huron– Ontario– Michigan– Erie– Superior
Mnemonic: Acronyms
• Depression Symptoms: BAD CRISES
Behavioral change (slowing down or agitation)Appetite change (weight loss or weight gain)Depressed look (looking down)
Concentration decreaseRuminations (constant negative thoughts & hopelessness)Interest (reduced interest in what is normally pleasurable)Sleep change (insomnia or hypersomnia)Energy change (fatigue)Suicidal ideations
Mnemonic: Rhymes
Thirty days has November,
April, June, and September,
Of twenty-eight only but one,
And all the remaining thirty-one.
Mnemonic: Link System
– Remembering a list based by creating associations between elements of that list.
– Remembering the following grocery list:• Milk: Picture a stream of milk being fired from a water gun • Eggs: Picture an egg wearing shoes • Butter: Picture sticks of butter growing from a tree • Bread: Picture a door made from bread • Catsup: Picture bees flying from a catsup bottle • Toilet paper: Imagine a roll of TP with angel wings • Soap: Picture a bar of soap on a plate• Batteries: Picture a mechanical hen that runs on batteries
Mnemonic: Method of Loci (Journey method)
– Use to remember long list of items– Remembering based on physical locations– Familiar large places– Should be well lit– Should be set out in particular order – The more architectural elaboration the better– You can group items in a particular place
Preserving INFORMATION
• Repetition or rehearsal
• Organization– headings and subheadings– use of outlines to organize information
• Meaningfulness – easier to remember things that are relevant to us
• Imagery – visualizing or making a mental picture of the information
Strategies to Improve your Memory
• Tell yourself, “pay attention; focus”• Take notes • Highlight the information that seems most important• Organize the information into natural groups • Create association links to information that you already know • Generate your own examples• Create visual images of the new information • Create diagrams or flow charts of the information • Think about how you might apply this information • Repeat the information • Summarize and review the information• Speak the information out loud • Tell or explain it to some other person • Test yourself on the information • Take in reasonably small amounts of information at a time
