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Psychology
Memory
by
Cynthia K. Shinabarger Reed
& butchered by Professor Carney
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Reflect on your own Personal Beliefs
Regarding Memory
What does it mean to say you
"remember" or "can't remember"?
Where do memories go when you can’t
remember something?
How do they reappear?
Why is it that we have so few memories
before about the age of 3 years?
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Do we register every single thing we come
into contact with?
Memories like videos?
If yes, then why can't we remember all of these
things?
Accurate reflections of reality?
Reflect on your own Personal
Beliefs regarding Memory Cont.
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Memory & the Law by British
Psychological Society 2008 (book)
Guidelines for legal system
Memories of witnesses are flawed
Marred by gaps or imagination
Should not be relied upon in court
Memories are record of people’s
experiences of events
Not a video of those events
5. ‘People “remember” events that they
have not in reality experienced &
such recollections could – if heavily
relied upon – lead to wrongful
convictions.’
Recommends
Courts use memory experts to help
juries to evaluate memory-based
evidence where, for instance, given by a
child or elderly person.
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Memory & the Law by British
Psychological Society 2008 (book)
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“Older adults are more prone to false
memories because of an overreliance on the
gist of an event.”
Witnesses’ memories of events might be
influenced by the way they were questioned
Memory & the Law by British
Psychological Society 2008 (book)
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You Can’t Trust A Witness’s Memory,
Experts Tell Courts
7/11/08, Cont.
Memories dating from below age of 7
cannot be relied upon without
independent evidence.
Memories of specific events after the
age of 10 can be
Highly accurate
Highly inaccurate
Wholly false
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Memory
The ability to retain & retrieve what you
have learned.
Brain's capacity to remember
One of the least understood areas of science.
Memory is a process that occurs constantly
& in varying stages.
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Initial Studies
Ebbinghaus
Hermann
Ebbinghaus
German
Pioneering
research on
memory 1879
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Ebbinghaus
Major Contributions
Developed 1st scientific approach
Study of process of memory
1st to use nonsense syllables
1st to describe “learning curve”
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Initial Studies
Ebbinghaus
Serial learning (ordered recall)
Learning in which material that has been
learned must be repeated in the order in which
it was presented.
Cat, dog, mouse, elephant, hamster, frog
Nonsense syllables
No meaning
How associations between stimuli formed?
Example: DAX, BOK & YAT
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Initial Studies
Ebbinghaus
Serial position effect
Tendency for items at beginning & end of a list
to be learned better than items in the middle.
Cat, dog, mouse, elephant, hamster, frog
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Free Recall
Material that has been learned may be repeated
in any order.
Free Recall test:
http://www.dushkin.com/connectext/psy/ch07/fr
eerec.mhtml
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Paired-associate Learning
Items to be recalled are learned in pairs.
Cloud-Nep
Bag-Llue
Door-aley
During recall, 1 of pair is presented
Other is to be recalled.
Cloud?
Nep
Learn foreign language
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Paired-associate Learning
Conclusion
Learners remember the word pair as a unit
More affective, not as a stimulus that leads to
response.
Learn
Cloud-Nep together
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Initial Studies
Important finding of Ebbinghaus’s
research is the curve of forgetting.
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Initial Studies
Recognition test
Pick out items previously viewed
Longer list also contains unfamiliar items.
Test my brain
http://www.testmybrain.org/
20. Recognition Test
Which words from the previous list do you
remember?
Baby
Home
Chair
Purse
File
Rat
Mouse
Bowl
Cabinet
Clock
Tub
Boss
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Initial Studies
Relearning test
Test of retention
Compares time or trials required to
learn material a 2nd time with time or
trials required to learn material the 1st
time.
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Ebbinghaus
Practical Application to Studying
Make information meaningful to you
Easier to memorize material
Learning curve
Increasing amount of material to be
learned
Dramatically increases time it takes to learn it.
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Ebbinghaus
Practical Application to Studying
Relearning easier than initial learning
It takes longer to forget material after each
subsequent re-learning.
24. Ebbinghaus
Practical Application to Studying
Learning is more effective when it is spaced
out over time rather than crammed into a
single marathon study session.
Forgetting happens most rapidly right after
learning occurs & slows down over time
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3 Stages of Memory
1. Input or encoding stage
2. Storage stage
3. Retrieval stage
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Stages of Memory
Encoding
Getting information into your brain from your
sensory receptors.
Storing
Retaining the information in your brain.
Retrieval
Getting information back out of your brain.
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1. Encoding stage
Getting information into your brain
Can occur through automatic processing.
Effortless
Read a word and you already know what it means.
Effortful Processing
Encoding that requires effort & conscious
processing.
Calculus homework
Stuff information into your brain.
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1. Encoding stage
Number of ways to encode (stuff
information into your brain)
Rehearsal
Repeating the information.
Visualizing
Imagery
Making a mental picture
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1. Encoding stage
Socks
monster
Encode
Toilet
Jargon
Toes
Believe
Easier to remember
You can form a mental
picture of them.
Abstract
You can’t form a
mental image.
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1. Encoding stage
Must organize information to make it easier
for your memory to hang onto it.
You can organize encoded information by
chunking it.
Chunking
Organizing material into familiar manageable units.
Business phone numbers
1-800-the-law2
Easier to remember than a string of numbers
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1. Encoding stage
Hierarchy
Like an outline
Organize
Understand
Recall information
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2. Storage Stage
Encoded information must be stored in the
memory system if we plan to retain it for
any length of time or use it more than once.
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3. Retrieval Stage
When we recall or bring a memory into
consciousness, we have retrieved it.
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Models of Memory Eidetic
Imagery
Photographic memory
Can look at a written page, person, slide, or
drawing & then later mentally see that
image.
Appears to be rare
Images last for up to 4 minutes
Once image has faded the memory seems no
better than others memories.
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Models of Memory Stages-of-
Memory Model
Also called traditional model
Memory can be processed in different ways.
There are 3 types of memory: sensory, short-term,
and long-term.
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Models of Memory
Sensory memory
Very brief
Lasting 1/2 to 1 second
Extensive memory for sensory events.
Short-term memory (STM)
Limited in capacity compared to sensory
memory
Lasts longer (10 to 20 seconds).
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Models of Memory
The initial 10- to 20-second STM period
often leads to a second phase, working
memory, during which attention and
conscious effort are brought to bear on the
material at hand.
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Long-term Memory
(LTM) is the memory
stage that has a very
large capacity & the
capability to store
information relatively
permanently.
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Models of Memory
The stages-of-memory model stresses the
importance of rehearsal or practice in this
transfer.
Items that are rehearsed seem more likely
to be transferred than unrehearsed items.
Memories may not be retrievable from
LTM because they have faded or because of
interference by other memories.
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Models of Memory
We use maintenance rehearsal when we
want to save or maintain a memory for a
short period.
Participants who are instructed to
remember a list use elaborative rehearsal,
which adds meaning to material that we
want to remember.
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Models of Memory
Proactive interference occurs when old
material interferes with the retrieval of
material learned more recently.
.
42. Models of Memory
Retroactive interference occurs when
recently learned material interferes with the
retrieval of material learned earlier
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Other Approaches To Memory
The tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon is a
condition of being almost, but not quite, able to
remember something; used to investigate the nature
of semantic memory.
Episodic memory is memory of one’s personal
experiences.
Flashbulb memories are detailed memories of
situations that are very arousing, surprising, or
emotional.
The study of flashbulb memories has provided
information about episodic memory.
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Techniques for Improving Memory
Mnemonic devices
Procedures for associating new information
with previously stored memories.
If you create and use mental pictures or
images of the items you are studying, you
will remember them better.
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Techniques for Improving Memory
Since the time of the 1st experiment on
grouping, psychologists have consistently
found that we tend to group or chunk items
when we recall them.
Items that are not very meaningful or
relevant to the learner are not learned as
well or as easily as more meaningful or
relevant items.
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Techniques for Improving Memory
During Reading
Predicting
Predict what will happen next in reading
material, etc.
Ask questions based on titles to improve
comprehension.
Example
Pink Collar Jobs
What is a pink collar job?
Do I know anyone that has a pink collar job?
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Techniques for Improving Memory
Create special codes to help learn material
that lacks relevance.
Code less relevant material in a meaningful
form & then remember the coded items.
Acronyms & acrostics are 2 popular coding
techniques.
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Techniques for Improving Memory
An acronym is a word formed by the initial
letter(s) of the items to be remembered.
Acrostic
Verse or saying (often unusual or humorous) in
which the first letter(s) of each word stands for
a bit of information.
Humor has a tendency to stick in people’s mind
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Acrostic Example Using the Word
Peace
People need love care and friendship.
Every word that we let slip.
All the prayers that come from our heart
Could be the sign for peace to start
Everyone must play their part .