Memory

The persistence of
learning over time
through the storage and
retrieval of information.

https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=5E90ZAyYmDU
 Biological Bases for Memory
Hippocampus
✗ Formation and processing of
explicit memory
Frontal Lobes
✗ Working memory
Basal Ganglia
✗ Procedural memory
Amygdala
✗ Emotion and memory
•LTP- Long Term Potentiation- a lasting Cerebellum
strengthening of synapses that increase ✗ Implicit memory
neurotransmissions of memory

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Forgetting as encoding failure
• Info never encoded into LTM (Long Term Memory)
• Retrograde Amnesia- forget events before injury
occurred
• Anterograde Amnesia- cannot create new memories

Short-term X
Encoding Long-term
memory memory

Encoding failure
leads to forgetting
Why? Info is unimportant, unnecessary,
decrease in brain's ability to encode
 Cognitive Processing
Effortful Processing Automatic Processing
• Encoding that requires • The brain's ability to
attention and conscious handle several stimuli at
effort one

• Ex) recall multiplication • Ex) BB player at the free

facts throw line…brain
processing body
processes, noise of
crowd, anxiety,
concentration of making
basket
 Cognitive Processing

Deep Processing Shallow Processing

• Elaborative rehearsal as • Trying to learn on a
well as meaningful superficial level
analysis of the ideas and (memorizing)
words being learned
• Ex) mind mapping, how • Tend to forget quickly
does this new info relate • Elaborate Rehearsal- STM
to old info I already know,
relatable images to LTM by make it
meaningful (telling
someone your #)
Cognitive Processing
Selective Attention Divided Attention
• Focusing on a portion of our • Divided attention could be
sensory input while ignoring defined as our brain's ability
other inputs to attend to two different
• Ex)not noticing your mom is stimuli at the same time,
talking to you because you and respond to the multiple
are reading something on demands of your
your phone (selective surroundings.
hearing)
• Ex) Being able to understand
what the teacher is saying
while reading the board and
taking notes are tasks that
are essential to successful
learning.
MetaCognition
awareness of our own
thinking processes
 Psychological and
Physiological
Systems of Memory

• Short Term Memory

(STM)
• The stuff we
encode from the
sensory goes to
STM.
• Events are
encoded visually,
acoustically or
semantically.
• 7 +/- 2 for 30 seconds
 Memory Researchers
•George Miller
•“The Magic Number
Seven, Plus or Minus
Two”
•The amount of
meaningful info one can
hold in STM
•7 +/- 2
 Encoding to STM
• Structural Encoding:
focus on what word or “see”
object looks like
• Phonetic Encoding:
focus on how the word or “hear”
objects sounds
• Semantic Encoding: info
processed for meaning
into STM and LTM. *Most “make
effective meaning”
Psychological and Physiological
Systems of Memory
• Long Term Memory
• Relatively permanent and unlimited capacity
memory system into which information from
STM may pass
• Unlimited
Psychological and Physiological Systems
of Memory
•Implicit Memory- memory we
retain without conscious effort and
often with awareness
• Procedural Memories- once
learned it becomes automatic
• Riding a bike
• Driving a car
• Primed Memories- Clues we
use to activate memory
• Scary Movies
Psychological and Physiological
Systems of Memory
•Explicit Memory- past knowledge that is
consciously brought to the mind
• LTM of facts and experiences we consciously know and
can verbalize
•Episodic Memory- Personal memory
•What is your fav family vacation?
• Semantic Memory- Facts learned
•Who is the first president of USA?
 Long
Term
Memory

Explicit memory- things Implicit Memory- things

you know through you know from automatic
effortful processing that processing that you can
you can tell others show by doing

Episodic: Semantic: Priming: Procedural:

Personal Facts Awakening Learned
memory learned associations skills
 Sensory Memory
• Iconic Memory • Echoic Memory
• Visual sensory memory • Auditory sensory memory
• 1-20 seconds • 3-4 seconds
 Memory Researchers
•Hermann Ebbinghaus
(1850-1909)
•German philosopher
who did early memory
studies with nonsense
syllables
•Developed the
Ebbinghaus Forgetting
Curve, also called the
“retention curve”
 Ebbinghaus’
Forgetting Curve

• Ebbinghaus found
that the more times
he practiced a list
of nonsense
syllables on day 1,
the fewer
repetitions he
required to relearn
it on day 2.
• The more time we
rehearse new
information, the
more we retain.
 Decay Theories
• Memories Decay- 10
memories will 0%
Average
fade if not percentage of
information
rehearsed over retained
time
• Time plays critical
role
• Ability to retrieve
info declines with
20 1 8 24 2 6 31
time after original mins hr hrs hrs days days days
encoding Interval between original learning of
nonsense syllables and memory test
 Memory Researchers
•Elizabeth Loftus
•Misinformation Effect- Incorporating
misleading information into one’s memory of
an event
• Example- Could have damaging effect on
eyewitness testimony
•Source Amnesia- inability to remember
the source of the information.

•Explains the Mandela Effect

 Loftus Experiment
• Subjects shown video of an
Accident
accident between two cars
• Some subjects asked: How
fast were the cars going
when they smashed into
each other?
Leading question:
• Others asked: How fast were “About how fast were the cars going
the cars going when they hit when they smashed into each other?”
Memory construction
each other?
Loftus Results

Word Used Average

in Question Speed Estimate

smashed 41 m.p.h.
collided 39 m.p.h.
bumped 38 m.p.h.
hit 34 m.p.h.
contacted 32 m.p.h.
 Memory Reconstruction
•Scripts—type of •Schema
schema • Basic ideas and preconceptions
• Mental organization of about people, objects, and
events in time events based on past experience
in LTM
• Example of a
classroom script: • Explains interference especially
Come into class, sit when the information learned is
down, talk to friends, inconsistent with a previously
bell rings, instructor learned schema
begins to speak, take
notes, bell rings again,
leave class, etc.
Ex) What’s your schema for a dog?
 Memory Reconstruction
• Memory Distortion
• Giving misleading information after an event causes a
subject to unknowingly distort their memories to
incorporate the new misleading information.
• Example- How do politicians do this?
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpXUgdwhr4c
 Ways to remember…
• Chunking: Organizing items into
familiar, manageable units.
• Phone #
• Social Security #
• Mnemonic devices
• Using the first letter of a group of words
to create a memorable phrase
• Never Eat Sour Watermelon
• Method of Loci
• Using visualizations with the use of spatial
memory, familiar information about one's
environment, to quickly and efficiently recall
information
• Maintenance Rehearsal
• Repeated over and over as a way of
remembering
• Flashcards
 Serial Position Effect
• The tendency to remember items at the beginning and
end of a list better than items in the middle.
• Experiment
 The list of items
1. apples
2. oranges
3. bread
4. chicken
5. salad
6. bagels
7. marshmallows
8. dish soap
9. candy
10. monster
Storage – Three-stage model

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 The Memory Process
Information Processing
Model….

1. Encoding: The processing

of converting information
into some form that enables
it to be stored in our
memory system.

2. Storage: The retention of

encoded material over time.

3. Retrieval: The process of

getting the information out
of memory storage.
 Recall Versus Recognition
Recall Recognition
• Retrieve info learned • Identify the learned info.
earlier. • Example: Multiple choice
• Examples: Fill-in-the-blank tests
test; essay exams
Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon
•TOT—involves the sensation
of knowing that specific
information is stored in
long-term memory but being
unable to retrieve it
•Can’t retrieve info that you
absolutely know is stored in
your LTM
Context-dependent memory
•Improved ability to remember if tested in the
same environment as the original learning
environment
• Better recall if tested in classroom where you
initially learned info than if moved to a new
classroom
• If learning room smells of chocolate, people will
recall more info if tested in room with the same
smell
State dependent memory
•Recall improved if internal physiological
or emotional state is the same during
testing and initial encoding
• If you are in an altered state of
consciousness you will be more likely to
remember things you learned or did when
in that state again.
Mood Congruence

•Mood tends to evoke memories of

when you were in that same mood.
•Positive mood will likely cause you to
remember other times you were
positive.
Flashbulb Memories
•Ability to recall very specific images or
details of a significant, rare, or vivid
event.
• Accuracy declines over time even though
it feels extremely accurate
• JFK? Challenger? 9/11? Sandy Hook?
Memory Reconstruction
•Two general areas that errors occur in
memory reconstruction
1. Interference from old memories hinders
making new memories- Proactive
Interference
Ex) Call your new girlfriend by old girlfriends
name!

2. Interference from new memories hinders

remembering old memories- Retroactive
Interference
Ex) Get a new address, can’t remember the old
 Repression
Freudian terms which means to
unconsciously block unpleasant emotions,
impulses, memories and thoughts from
your conscious mind.

How would this affect someone

with an autobiographical memory?
 Memory Issues
Alzheimer Disease Infantile Amnesia
Most common The inability to
type of dementia form memories
which includes loss before the age of
of thought, 3 yo due to lack
memory, or of developed
language hippocampus
What is thought?
• There are basically two
types of thought…
1. Concepts (mental
groupings of similar
things)
2. Prototypes (mental
images you associate with
a specific category)
Algorithms
• A problem solving strategy that
involves slow, step-by-step procedures
that guarantees the right solution to a
problem.
• Usually by using a formula.
• They work but are sometimes
impractical.
 Heuristics
• A problem solving strategy
used as a mental shortcut to
quickly simplify and solve a
problem, but it does don’t
guarantee the solution will
be correct
• It is fast, but is…
• Prone to errors
• Two major types of
heuristics….
Representativeness Heuristic
Who went to Harvard?
Michael Dell is a smart, • Tendency to judge
successful guy…he the likelihood of
dropped out of college things according to
(UT) at 19 to start Dell
how they relate to a
prototype
• The prejudgment of
people
• Like thinking
everyone from Texas
is a cowboy, or
•Sonia Dara is a Sports Illustrated swimsuit someone with glasses
model, you would make certain quick is nerdy, or a blonde
judgments (heuristics) about her…like about is not smart.
her interests or intelligence.
•She is an economics major at Harvard
University.
 Availability Heuristic
Which place would you be more scared of
• A tendency to getting mugged or even murdered?

estimate the
probability of certain
events in terms of
how readily they
come to mind
• Vivid examples in the The Bronx, NY
news often cause an
availability heuristic.

The crime rate of Gary, Indiana is MUCH higher

than the Bronx. But when you think of crime,
which town comes to mind?
Gary, Indiana
 Heuristics can lead to…
• Overconfidence Bias- the tendency to
overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs
and judgements which can hinder
problem solving
• Our confidence is not a good
indicator of how right we are.
• Belief Perseverance- maintaining a
belief even after it has been proven
wrong.
• Belief Bias- People will tend to accept
any and all conclusions that fit in with
their systems of belief, without
challenge or any deep consideration of
what they are actually agreeing with.
Example of Belief Perseverance and
Confirmation Bias (people's tendency to process information by looking
for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with their existing beliefs)

• UT Austin Study: You can’t trust yourself to discern

what’s true and what’s not when you’re on social
media. (used EEGs to track brain activity)
• “We all believe that we are better than the average
person at detecting fake news, but that’s simply not
possible.” Patricia Moravec, assistant professor of
information, risk and operations management.
• Results- 44% correct- overwhelmingly selecting
headlines that aligned with their own political
beliefs as true
 • a.k.a. rigidity
•Solving a
problem in a way
that has worked
in the past rather
than trying new
strategies

Mental set
 Functional Fixedness
The inability to see a new use for an object because we are
fixated on its intended use
 Confirmation Bias
FBI reports increase in homicides, violent
crimes by Washington Post
• A tendency to search
for and use VS.

information that What Caused the Great Crime Decline in

supports our the U.S.? By The Atlantic.com
preconceptions and
ignore information
that refutes our Both are legit news
stories but depending on
ideas who they interviewed
and the data they used
they made the story
biased in the direction
they wanted.
 Fallacies to decision making
Gambler’s Fallacy Sunk Cost Fallacy
Occurs when someone Occurs when someone is
believes that certain unwilling to abandoned
random events is less or an idea or strategy
more likely to happen based because they have
on previous events. invested heavily in it.
Ex)flip a coin 10x’s and it Ex) continuing to watch a
lands on head…bet the terrible movie because
next flip will be heads you paid for it
Ever wonder why people believe
in conspiracy theories?
The answer has to do with Confirmation Bias!
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-some-peopl
e-believe-in-conspiracy-theories/
Framing
• Refers to the way an
use is stated. How an
issue is framed can
significantly affect
people’s perceptions,
decisions, and
judgments.

• “90% of the population

will be saved with this
medication” vs. “10% of
the population will die
despite this medication”

• “You should drink no

more than 2 drinks a
day” vs. “you should drink
no more than 730 drinks
a year”
 •Suddenly
seeing the
solution
•“Aha”
moment
• Wolfgang
Kohler-
Chimpanzees
• https://www.yo
utube.com/wat
ch?v=fPz6uvIb
Insight WZE
CREATIVITY
• The ability to generate
ideas and solutions that are
original, novel, and useful
• Little correlation between
creativity and intelligence.
• Convergent Thinking versus
Divergent Thinking
Convergent vs. Divergent

• Convergent Thinking • Divergent Thinking

• Conventional thinking; • Thinking that produces
• Thinking directed many alternatives or
toward a single correct ideas
solution • Creative thinking