Chapter 7 - Human Memory

Chapter 7 - Human Memory

1. Encoding: Getting Information into Memory

   • The Role of Attention
     • Attention involves focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events.  Selective attention is critical to everyday functioning.  -Attention is often linked to a filter that screens out most potential stimuli while allowing a select few to pass through into conscious awareness.  -when filtering occurs it is clear that people have difficulty if they attempt to focus their attention on two or more inputs simultaneously.  -
   • Levels of Processing
     • Levels of processing theory proposes that deeper levels of processing result in longer-lasting memory codes. 
   • Enriching Encoding
     • Elaboration is linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding.   Visual Imagery is the creation of visual images to represent the words to be remembered.  It can also be used to enrich encoding.   -You can remember words and related them to photos easier when the word refers to a concrete object.  It is harder to remember or relate words to images that refer to a abstract concept.  -Dual-coding theory holds that memory is enhanced by forming semantic and visual codes, since either can lead to recall -mental imagery can enhance memory in most situations. Self-Referent Encoding involves deciding how or whether information is personally relevant. 

2. Storage: Maintaining Information in Memory

   • -3 Memory stores are not viewed as anatomical structures in the brain, but rather as functionally distinct types of memory
   • Sensory Memory
     • Sensory memory preserves information in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a fraction of a second.  -it allows the sensation of a visual pattern, sound, or touch to linger for a brief moment after the sensory stimulation is over.
   • Short-Term Memory
     • Short-term memory is a limited-capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information up to 20 seconds.  -to store information in short term indefinitely by engaging in rehearsal which is the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about the information. -Durability Storage -short term memory is lost within 20 seconds.  -Capacity of Storage - short term memory is limited to the number of items it can hold.  You can increase the capacity of your short-term memory by combining stimuli into larger, higher order units called chunks. A chunk is a group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit. Short-Term Memory as Working Memory short term memory involves more than a simple rehearsal buffer Working Memory is a limited capacity storage system that temporarily maintains and stores information by providing an interface and stores information by providing an interface between perception, memory, and action. -Baddeley's model of working memory consists of 4 components  1)phonological loop  2)visuospacial sketchpad 3)central executive 4)episodic buffer
   • Long-Term Memory
     • Long Term memory is a unlimited capacity store that can hold information over lengthy periods of time. -LTM can store infromation indefiently Flashbulb memories are unusually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events. 
   • How is Knowledge Represented and Organized in Memory?
     • Clustering and Conceptual Hierarchies  is when people spontaneously organize information into categories for storage in memory.  -Clustering is the tendency to remember similar or related items in groups. -Conceptual hierarchy is a multilevel classification system based on common properties among items  Schemas -A schema is an organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or event abstracted from previous experience with the object or event. Semantic Networks  -A semantic network consists of nodes representing concepts, joined together by pathways that link related concepts  -semantic networks have proven useful in explaining why thinking about one word can make a closely related word easier to remember. Connectionist Networks and Parallel Distributed Processing Models  -connectionist models of memory take their inspiration from how neural networks appear to handle information.  -Human brain appears to depend extensively on parallel distributed processing. 

3. Retrieval: Getting Information Out of Memory

   • -Tulving distinguished between availability and accessibility of information in memory.  You might not be able to answer a question because the information is unavailable or because it is not accessible.
   • Using Cues to Aid Retrieval
     • Tip of the tongue phenomenon is the temporary inability to remember something you know accompanied by a feeling that it's just out of reach. -It is a common experience that is typically triggered by a name one can't remember.   
   • Reinstating the Context of an Event
     • -cues used at retrieval will facilitate recall if and only if the information and their reaction to be remembered information. -context cues often facilitate the retrieval of information have experienced the cues of many occasions.
   • Reconstructing Memories and the Misinformation Effect
     • -when you retrieve information from long term memory you are not able to pull up a mental videotape that provides an exact replay of the past.  To some extent, your memories are sketchy reconstructions of the past that may be distorted and may include details that did not really occur.
   • Source Monitoring and Reality Monitoring
     • -Reality monitoring refers to the process of deciding whether memories are based on external sources or internal sources -Source monitoring involves making attributions about the origins of memories -Source monitoring error occurs when a memory derived from one source is misattributed to another source -Destination memory involves recalling to whom one has told what

4. Forgetting: When Memory Lapse

   • -Forgetting is viewed as a failure, weakness, or deficiency in cognitive processing. 
   • How Quickly We Forget: Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve
     • Forgetting Curve graphs retention and forgetting over time. -most forgetting occurs very rapidly after learning something. 
   • Measures of Forgetting
     • -measures of forgetting inevitably measure retention as well. -Retention refers to the proportion of material retained -Recall measure is a measure of retention which requires subjects to reproduce information on their own without any cues -Recognition measure of retention requires subjects to select previously learned information from an array of options. 
   • Why we Forget?
     • Ineffective Encoding  -Pseudoforgetting is usually due to lack of attention  -even when memory codes are formed for new information subsequent forgetting may be the result of ineffective or inappropriate encoding Decay -Decay theory proposes that forgetting occurs because memory traces fade with time.  -the assumption is that decay occurs in the physiological mechanisms responsible for memories -decay does contribute to the loss of information form the sensory and short-term memory stores.  Interference  Interference theory proposes that people forget information because of competition from other material.  Retrieval Failure  -people are often remember things they were unable to recall at an earlier time.   -a great deal of forgetting may be due to breakdowns in the process of retrieval. 
   • The Repressed Memories Conroversy
     • Support for Recovered Memories  -there is ample evidence that it is common for people to bury traumatic incidents in their unconscious  Skepticism Regarding Recovered Memories -self assessment of personal memory are often distorted and because it is difficult to distinguish between a period when a memory was not accessed versus a period when a memory was not available due to repression
   • Seven Sins of Memory: How Memory Goes Wrong
     • -Memory is a key to understanding who we are and what we do. Memory Sins are  1)transience 2)absentmindedness 3)blocking 4)misattribution 5)suggestibility 6)bias 7)persistence

5. In Search of the Memory Trace: The Physiology of Memory

   • The Neural Circuitry of Memory
     • -one line of research suggests that memory formation results in alterations in synaptic transmissions at specific sites -specific membranes depend on biochemical changes that occur at specific synapses.  Long term potentiation is a long lasting increase in neural excitability at synapses along a specific neural pathway. 
   • The Anatomy of Memory
     • -organic amnesia is extensive memory loss due to head injury. -Retrograde amnesia involves the loss of memories for events that occurred prior to the onset of amnesia -Anterograde amnesia involves the loss of memories for events that occur after the onset of amnesia. -Consolidation is a hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of information into durable memory codes stored in long-term memory.

6. Systems and Types of Memory

   • Implicit versus Exploit Memory
     • -Implicit techniques are used to measure their memory indirectly. -Implicit memory is apparent when retention is exhibited on a task that does not require intentional remembering  -Explicit memory involves intentional recollections of previous experiences 

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