Human Memory

Human Memory

1. Memory

   • Encoding
     • How memorys are formed
   • Storage
     • How memories are kept
       • over time
   • Retrieval
     • How memories are recovered
       • and translated into performance

2. The Role of Attention

   • Attention
     • Focusing awareness on a
       • narrowed range of stimuli or events
   • Effortful Processing
     • Intentionally listening to remember
       • information.
   • Automatic Processing
     • Remembering something without
       • intending to.

3. Levels of Processing

   • Levels of Processing Theory
     • Deeper levels of processing result in
       • being able to remember something longer.
   • Structural Encoding
     • Shallow processing
   • Phonemic Encoding
     • Intermediate processing
   • Semantic Encoding
     • Deep processing

4. Enriching Encoding

   • Elaboration
     • Linking the to be remembered information
       • to some other information at the time of encoding.
   • Visual Imagery
     • Creating mental pictures to represent
       • the information you want to remember
   • Dual Coding Theory
     • Memory is enhanced by forming
       • semantic and visual codes since
         • either can lead to reacll
   • Self- Referent Encoding
     • Involves deciding how or wether

5. Storage

   • Maintaining​ information in memory
     • Sensory Memory
       • Capacity to preserve sensory information in its original form for ¼ of a second
     • Short-term memory (STM)
       • Limited-capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information  for up to 20 seconds.
     • Short-Term Memory Capacity
       • George Miller (1956)  Number of items that can be recalled from short-term memory, in order, on half of the tested memory trials is about 7 plus or minus 2 items
     • Chunking
       • Storing information into meaningful or familiar units
     • Rehearsal
       • repeating words over and over or thinking about the information
     • Maintenance rehearsal
       • – just done to keep it in memory
     • Elaborative rehearsal
       • think more about it so you are more likely to remember it later
     • Long Term Memory
       • Unlimited capacity store that can hold information for days, weeks or years.
     • Flashbulb memories
       •  vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events

6. How is Knowledge Represented and Organized in Memory?

   • Cluster
     • Remembering similar items in groups
   • Conceptual Hierarchies
     • Multilevel classification system
   • Schemas
     • An organised cluster of knowledge
       • about a particular object or event
   • Semantic Networks
   • Connectionist Networks and PDP Networks

7. Retrieval

   • Tip of tongue Phenomenon
     • Temporary inability to remember something
       • you know, accompanied by a feeling that is just out of reach
   • Encoding Specificity Principal
     • Various pieces of information stored at the same
       • time or in the same type of situation, mood, or place.
   • Source Monitoring and Reality Monitoring
     • Marcia Johnson has researched source
       • monitoring which refers to making decisions
         • about the origins of memories.
   • Destination Monitoring
     • To whom did you tell something
   • Recall
     • Requires subjects to reproduce
       • information on their own without any cues
   • Recognition
     • Requires the subject to select previously learned
       • information from a number of options.
   • Relearning
     • Requires a subject to memorize information
       • a second time to determine how much time or effort
         • is saved by having learned it before.
   • Why we Forget
     • The problem with forgetting, can be with the
       • encoding, storage, or retrieval or with combination
         • of these.
   • Ineffective Coding
     • Called pseudo forgetting and it usually
       • happens due to lack of attention
   • Decay
     • Proposes that forgetting occurs
       • because memory traces fade with time.
   • Interference
     • If the subject tries to remember
       • something but then has to remember
         • some other information in the meanwhile
           • the new information can interfere with remembering
             • the original information
   • Retrieval Failure
     • This is shown when we remember something
       • later that we couldn't think of earlier.
   • Motivated Forgetting
     • Comes from Freud's ideas and refers
       • to forgetting things you don't want to think about
   • Repressed Memories
     • People under hypnosis are easily suggestible
       • and may come to believe things are true
         • that are only suggested to them by the hypnothearapist
   • Hypnotic Pseudomemory
     • Implanted memories in people under
       • hypnosis and found that they were highly
         • susceptible to hypnosis.

8. The Physiology of Memory

   • Neural Circuits
     • Specific memories may depend on
       • localized neural circuits in the brain.
   • Long term Potentiation
     • Long lasting increases in neural excitability
       • atsynapses along a specific neural pathway

9. The Anatomy of Memory

   • Organic Amnesia
     • Extensive memory loss due
       • head injury.
   • Retrograde Amnesia
     • Loss of memory for events that occurred
       • before the injury or onset of amnesia.

10. Systems and Types of Memory

    • Implicit Memory
      • Remembering something you did not intend
        • to memorize
    • Explicit Memory
      • Intentionally remembering something
    • Declarative Memory System
      • Handles factual information like definitions
        • of words, math concepts, faces, dates.
    • Procedural Memory System
      • Memory for actions, skills, and conditioned responses

11. Parts of the Declarative Memory

    • Semantic
      • General facts
    • Episodic
      • Personal facts and experiences
    • Prospective Memory
      • Recalling something you must
        • do in the future
    • Retrospective Memory
      • Refers to remembering the past events or facts

12. Improving Memory

    • Mneumonic Systems
      • Methods to increase the recall of information
    • Overlearning
      • continuing to rehearse and learn
        • information you thing you already know