Sarah Grison • Todd Heatherton • Michael Gazzaniga ...richardtheadjunct.angelfire.com/PSYLIFE_Lecture_PPT_Ch7.pdf · 7.1 How Do We Acquire Memories? •Memory –The nervous system’s

Chapter 7

Memory

© 2014 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Sarah Grison • Todd Heatherton • Michael Gazzaniga

Psychology in Your Life

FIRST EDITION

Section 7.1

How Do We Acquire Memories?

7.1 How Do We Acquire

Memories?

• Memory

– The nervous system’s capacity to acquire

and retain skills and knowledge for later

retrieval

We Acquire Memories by

Processing Information

• Encoding

– The processing of information so that it can

be stored

• Storage

– The retention of encoded representations

over time

• Retrieval

– The act of recalling or remembering stored

information when it is needed

• See figure 7.2 next slide

Attention Allows Us to Encode a

Memory

• Attention

– Focusing mental resources on information;

allows further processing for perception,

memory, and response

Attention Allows Us to Encode a

Memory

• Visual attention

– We automatically pay attention to and

recognize basic visual features in an

environment, including color, shape, size,

orientation, and movement

• Auditory attention

– Selective-listening studies examine what we

do with auditory information that is not

attended to

• See figures 7.3, 7.4 next slide

Selective Attention Allows Us

to Filter Unwanted Information

• Filter theory

– Filter theory attempts to explain how we

selectively attend to the most important

information

• Change blindness

– An individual’s failure to notice large visual

changes in the environment

Section 7.2

How Do We Maintain Memories

over Time?

7.2 How Do We Maintain

Memories over Time?

• Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin proposed

that we have three different types of

memory stores: sensory storage, short-

term storage, and long-term storage

• Each of these memory stores retains

different encoded input, and each has the

capacity to maintain information for a

certain length of time

• See figure 7.5 and table 7.1 next slide

Sensory Storage Allows Us to

Maintain Information Very Briefly

• Five types of sensory stores

– Sensory storage: A memory storage system

that very briefly holds a vast amount of

information from the five senses in close to

their original sensory formats

– One type of sensory storage very briefly

maintains visual input. Four other types of

sensory stores maintain all the other sensory

input: auditory, smell, taste, and touch

Sensory Storage Allows Us to

Maintain Information Very Briefly

• Duration and capacity of sensory storage

– Sperling concluded that participants

maintained many of the 12 items in sensory

storage for about one-third of a second

– By maintaining a large amount of information

for a fraction of a second, sensory storage

enables us to experience the world as a

continuous stream of information rather than

as discrete sensations


Working Memory Allows Us to Actively

Maintain Information in Short-Term

Storage • Short-term storage

– A memory storage system that briefly holds a

limited amount of information in awareness

• Working memory

– An active processing system that allows

manipulation of different types of information

to keep it available for current use



Storage • Duration of short-term storage

– Short-term storage may be a “location” for

maintaining memories. Working memory

allows for manipulation of sounds, images,

and ideas for longer maintenance in short-

term storage



Storage • Capacity of short-term storage

– George Miller noted that the capacity limit of

short-term storage is generally seven items

(plus or minus two), which is referred to as the

memory span

– Chunking: Using working memory to

organize information into meaningful units to

make it easier to remember


Long-Term Storage Allows Us to

Maintain Memories Relatively

Permanently • Long-term storage

– A memory storage system that allows

relatively permanent storage, of a probably

unlimited amount of information



Permanently • Encoding for long-term storage

– Maintenance rehearsal: Using working

memory processes to repeat information

based on how it sounds (auditory

information); provides only shallow encoding

of information



Permanently • Encoding for long-term storage

– Elaborative rehearsal: Using working

memory processes to think about how new

information relates to ourselves or our prior

knowledge (semantic information); provides

deeper encoding of information for more

successful long-term storage




Permanently • Long-term storage versus short-term

storage

– Long-term storage lasts longer, has a far

greater capacity, and depends on deep

encoding of information



Permanently • Long-term storage versus short-term

storage

– The primacy effect refers to the better

memory people have for items presented at

the beginning of the list

– The recency effect refers to the better

memory people have for the most recent

items, the ones at the end of the list


Our Long-Term Storage Is Organized

Based on Meaning

• Schemas

– Decisions about how to chunk information

depend on schemas, ways of structuring

memories in long-term storage that help us

perceive, organize, process, and use

information

Our Long-Term Storage Is Organized

Based on Meaning

• Association networks

– Meaning of information is organized in long-

term storage based on networks of

associations

– Spreading activation models of memory.

According to these models, information that is

heard or seen activates specific nodes for

memories in long-term storage


Section 7.3

What Are Our Different Long-Term

Storage Systems?

7.3 What Are Our Different

Long-Term Storage Systems?

• Henry Molaison (H.M.)

• Retrograde amnesia

– A condition in which people lose the ability to

access memories they had before a brain

injury

7.3 What Are Our Different

Long-Term Storage Systems?

• Anterograde amnesia

– A condition in which people lose the ability to

form new memories after experiencing a brain

injury

• See figures, 7.12, 7.13, 7.14a and 7.14b

next slide

Our Explicit Memories Involve

Conscious Effort

• After the surgery, H.M. could not encode

new memories in long-term storage


Conscious Effort

• Amnesia and explicit memory

– Explicit memory: The system for long-term

storage of conscious memories that can be

verbally described


Conscious Effort

• Episodic and semantic memory

– Episodic memory: A type of explicit memory

that includes personal experiences

– Semantic memory: A type of explicit memory

that includes knowledge about the world

Our Implicit Memories Function

Without Conscious Effort

• Implicit memory and amnesia

– Implicit memory: The system for long-term

storage of unconscious memories that cannot

be verbally described

Our Implicit Memories Function

Without Conscious Effort

• Classical conditioning and procedural

memory

– Classical conditioning employs implicit

memory

– Procedural memory: A type of implicit

memory that involves motor skills and

behavioral habits


Prospective Memory Lets Us

Remember to Do Something

• Prospective memory

– Remembering to do something at some future

time

– Remembering to do something takes up

valuable cognitive resources


Memory Is Processed by Several

Regions of Our Brains

• Memory’s physical location

– Not all brain areas are equally involved in

memory; a great deal of specialization occurs

• Consolidation of memories

– Consolidation: A process by which

immediate memories become lasting through

long-term storage

• See figures 7.19, 7.20 next slide



• Reconsolidation of memories

– Once memories are activated, they need to

be consolidated again for long-term storage;

this process is known as reconsolidation

– Retrieved memories can be affected by new

circumstances, so reconsolidated memories

may differ from their original versions



• Reconsolidation of memories

– Researchers have shown that using the

classical conditioning technique of extinction

during the period when memories are

susceptible to reconsolidation can be an

effective method for altering bad memories

Section 7.4

How Do We Access Our

Memories?

7.4 How Do We Access Our

Memories?

Retrieval Cues Help Us Access

Our Memories

• Retrieval cue

– Anything that helps a person access

information in long-term storage

• Context and state aid retrieval

– Context-dependent memory effect

– State-dependent memory


Retrieval Cues Help Us Access

Our Memories

• Mnemonics aid retrieval

– Mnemonics are learning aids or strategies

that use retrieval cues to improve access to

memory

– Method of loci

We Forget Some of Our

Memories

• Forgetting

– The inability to access a memory from long-

term storage

– Hermann Ebbinghaus examined how long it

took him to relearn lists of unfamiliar

nonsense syllables and used these data to

develop the forgetting curve



Memories

• Interference

– Retroactive interference: When access to

older memories is impaired by newer

memories

– Proactive interference: When access to

newer memories is impaired by older

memories

• See figures 7.24a, 7.24b next slide


Memories

• Blocking

– Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

– Blocking often occurs because of interference

from words that are similar in some way, such

as in sound or meaning, and that are

repeatedly experienced


Memories

• Absentmindedness

– Absentmindedness is the inattentive or

shallow encoding of events. The major cause

of absentmindedness is failing to pay

attention

Our Unwanted Memories May

Persist

• Persistence

– The continual recurrence of unwanted

memories from long-term storage

– Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

– Erasing memories leads to many ethical

questions

Our Memories Can Be Distorted

• Distortion

– Human memory is not a perfectly accurate

representation of the past; it is flawed

• Memory bias

– Memory bias is the changing of memories

over time so that they become consistent with

our current beliefs or attitudes


• Flashbulb memories

– These vivid memories seem like a flash

photo, capturing the circumstances in which

we first learned of a surprising and

consequential or emotionally arousing event

• See figures 7.26a and 7.26b next slide


• Misattribution

– Misattribution occurs when we misremember

the time, place, person, or circumstances

involved with a memory

– In cryptomnesia, we think we have come up

with a new idea but really have retrieved an

old idea from memory and failed to attribute

the idea to its proper source



• Suggestibility

– When people are given misleading

information, this information affects their

memory for an event

Documents

Sarah Grison • Todd Heatherton • Michael Gazzaniga ...richardtheadjunct.angelfire.com/PSYLIFE_Lecture_PPT_Ch7.pdf · 7.1 How Do We Acquire Memories? •Memory –The nervous system’s