Psychology Around Us:

Chapter 8
Memory
 Learning Objectives (1 of 4)
1. Define the basic activities of memory and describe two major
models of memory.
2. Describe how information is encoded and transferred among
different memory stores and what we can do to enhance
encoding.
 Learning Objectives (2 of 4)
3. Describe how we organize and store information in working
and long-term memory and how we can enhance our long-
term memories.
4. Describe how we retrieve information from memory and how
retrieval cues, priming, context, and emotion can affect
retrieval.
 Learning Objectives (3 of 4)
5. Summarize key theories of why we forget information and
sometimes distort or manufacture memories.
6. Describe how the brain is involved in memory.
 Learning Objectives (4 of 4)
7. Describe the kinds of memories and memory changes that
characterize early life and later life.
8. Describe physical and psychological disorders that disrupt
memory.
 What Is Memory?

Memory is recalling past events and past

learning by means of encoding, storage, and
retrieval.
 Quick poll
• OnlineQuestions.org: Event number [10990]

• What’s something surprising that you

remember from early in your life? i.e. the kind
of thing where you wonder “why do I
remember that?”
 Memory Overview (1 of 2)
• Memory involves three processes:
–Encoding – getting information into memory in the
first place
–Storage – retaining memories for future use
–Retrieval – recapturing memories when we need
them
 Memory Overview (2 of 2)
• Two theories of how memory works:
–Information-Processing Model – information passes
through three memory stores during encoding,
storage, and retrieval
–Parallel Distributed-Processing Model – information
is represented in the brain as a pattern of activation
across entire neural networks
Information Processing Model (1 of 3)

• Memory is similar to a computer

Information Processing Model (2 of 3)

• We are presented with a stimulus and our brain

retains a sensory memory of it for less than a
second
• Sensory memories include:
–What we see (iconic memory)
–What we hear (echoic memory)
Information Processing Model (3 of 3)

If we pay attention, information enters our….

• Working (short-term) memory, which holds information
for 30 seconds; capacity is 5-9 items
If we encode the information, it enters our…
• Long-term memory, which stores information forever
 Parallel Distributed-Processing
(Connectionist) Model
• Memories are stored in a network of associations
throughout our brains
BREAK TIME!
 How Do We Encode Information
into Memory?
• To get information into long-term memory,
you need to pay attention to it and encode it.
 Two Ways to Encode
There are two ways to encode:
• Automatic processing – when you remember
something without much conscious awareness or effort
• Effortful processing – when you remember something
with careful attention and conscious effort
 Transferring from Sensory Memory
into Working Memory (1 of 2)
Sensory Memory – memory involving detailed, brief
sensory images or sounds retained for a brief period
of time:
• a photograph viewed for a brief moment
• a brief glance at a passing car
• random letters examined for less than a second
Demonstration of Sperling’s Test
of Sensory Memory
Demonstration of Sperling’s Test
of Sensory Memory
 Transferring from Sensory Memory
into Working Memory (2 of 2)
Working Memory – a short-term memory store for
information you are thinking about right now, including:
• recalled memories, such as a phone number
• what you are reading
Rehearsal – consciously repeating information to ensure it
is encoded
 Transferring Working Memory into
Long-Term Memory
• Long-term memory – all of the information we have
gathered that is available for use, such as acquired skills,
people we know, and past feelings
• Spaced practice effect – facilitates moving working
memories into long-term memory by rehearsing over time
– Don’t cram! Studying a little bit over a long period of time is
better for memory.
 Types of Encoding
• Phonological – encoding based on sound
• Visual – encoding based on how the information looks
– People with amazing visual encoding skills have eidetic
(photographic) memory
• Semantic – encoding based on the meaning of the
information
Best Methods of Effortful Encoding (1
of 2)
• Understand – we remember things better when we can
understand what it means
• Elaborate – the more we can elaborate (or expand) on the
meaning and make the information personally relevant,
the better we remember it
• Use mnemonic devices – techniques used to increase
meaningfulness of information to make it more
memorable
Best Methods of Effortful Encoding (2 of 2)

• Use chunking – group bits of information together

• Use the PQRST Method – Preview, Question, Read, Self-
Recitation, Test
• Use Schemas – organize new information according to
the categories created by previous experience and
learning
 Storage Limits of Memory
Once information enters working memory, it can be stored
for only a limited period of time. This kind of memory is
either passed on to long-term memory or lost.
• Memory span = max. number of items that can be
recalled in the correct order
 Types of Long-Term Memories
Explicit Memory – memory that a person can
consciously bring to mind (e.g., home address or
date of birth)
Implicit Memory – memory that a person is not
consciously aware of, such as learned motor
behaviours, skills, and habits (e.g., riding a bike)
 Types of Explicit Memories
• Semantic
–Memory of general knowledge of the world
• Episodic
–Memory of personal events or episodes from
one’s life
Types of Long-Term Memories
 How Are Long-Term Memories
Organized?
• This is still not fully understood
• Regardless of their precise organization, pieces of
information stored in long-term memory are linked
to each other, forming a vast network of interwoven
associations
 How Do We Retrieve Memories?
• Mentally search brain for stored information
• If it is located, then it is brought back into
working memory

• Activity: Write down the provincial capitals of

Canada
Serial Position Effect
 What Helps Retrieval? (1 of 2)
• Retrieval cues – words, sights, or other stimuli that
remind us of the information we need to retrieve from our
memory
• Context effects – we can remember things better where
we first learned them
• Encoding specificity principle – the original context
(location or situation), mood, or state in which we learn
material is loaded with retrieval cues, which leads to
memories of the original event
 What Helps Retrieval? (2 of 2)
• Priming – one piece of information helps us
retrieve other related memories
 Recognition and Recall
• Recognition tasks are easier than recall tasks
because of priming.
 State Dependent Memory
You remember things better when you are in the
same state of mind you were in when you first
learned it.
Emotional Arousal and Memory
 Flashbulb Memories
Detailed and near-permanent memories of an
emotionally significant event, or of the
circumstances surrounding the moment we
learned about the event
BREAK TIME!
 Forgetting
The inability to recall information that was previously
encoded into memory
May be due to failure of attention or lack of retrieval
cues
Three Possible Reasons for Retrieval
Failure
• Decay theory
• Interference theory
• Motivated forgetting
 Decay Theory
• Memory traces (physical traces in brain) fade over time if they
are not used
• Forgetting curve – we forget a great deal very rapidly, but the
forgetting levels off and the amount of information we retain
stabilizes
 Interference Theory
Forgetting is influenced by what happens to people before
or after they take information in
• Proactive interference – competing information that is
learned before the forgotten material, preventing its
subsequent recall
• Retroactive interference – learning of new information
disrupts access to previously recalled information
Proactive and Retroactive
Interference
 Motivated Forgetting
We may forget information that is unpleasant,
embarrassing, or painful
• Repression – process in which we unconsciously
prevent some traumatic events from entering our
awareness so that we do not have to experience the
anxiety or blows to our self-concept that the memories
would bring
 Distorted or Manufactured Memories
(1 of 2)
Memories are subject to distortions because we often have
to reconstruct them.
Three factors that contribute to memory distortions are:
• Source misattributions – remembering information, but
not its source, may lead to remembering information from
unreliable sources as true
• Imagination
• Misinformation
 Distorted or Manufactured Memories
(2 of 2)
Three factors that contribute to memory distortions are:
• Source misattributions
• Imagination – memories can be distorted by false
information that comes from within, from our imaginations
• Misinformation – exposure to new information,
particularly misinformation, can also lead to the distortion
or the manufacture of false memories
Distorted or Manufactured Memories—
Misinformation
• Hypnosis and memory
• A police hypnotist uses the procedure to help a woman remember
details of a crime that she witnessed. In fact, hypnosis often
causes people to distort or manufacture memories, rather than
rediscover them.
Inaccurate Eyewitness Testimony
 What Happens in the Brain? (1 of 2)

• The prefrontal cortex is important in working

memory
• The hippocampus is important for the transfer of
memories into long-term memory
 What Happens in the Brain? (2 of 2)

• Memory consolidation – process by which memories

stabilize in the brain
• Potentiation – synchronous networks of cells firing
together
• Long-term potentiation (LTP) – a phenomenon where
repeated stimulation of certain nerve cells in the brain
greatly increases the likelihood that the cells will respond
strongly to future stimulation
 Memory and Age (1 of 2)
• Before four years of age, we have memories of
faces, places, and skills, but not memories of life
events (infantile amnesia)
• The hippocampus develops slowly
• Most early episodic memories are emotional
 Memory and Age (2 of 2)
• Some types of memory decline with age, starting in our
20s
• Prospective memory – ability to remember content in the
future
• Retrospective memory – ability to remember content
from the past
 Organic Memory Disorders:
Amnesiac Disorders (1 of 2)
Amnesic disorders – organic disorders in which
memory loss is
the primary symptom
• Anterograde amnesia – can’t form new
memories
– “Hi. I’m Tom….Hi. I’m Tom”
• Retrograde amnesia – can’t remember things
before amnesia-inducing event
– “Who am I?”
Organic Memory Disorders: Amnesiac
Disorders (2 of 2)
Organic Memory Disorders: Dementia
(1 of 2)
• Dementia – severe memory problems combined
with losses in at least one other cognitive function,
such as abstract thinking or language
 Organic Memory Disorders: Dementia
(2 of 2)
• Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia

PET scans of the brains of a person with Alzheimer’s disease (left) and a person without the
disease (right), taken while the two individuals were performing the same task, reveal how
much less brain activity occurs in the Alzheimer’s patient. Red and yellow colours on PET
scans indicate areas of high brain activity.
Plaques and Tangles of Alzheimer’s
Disease

Both senile plaques (protein fragments that accumulate between neurons) and
neurofibrillary tangles (insoluble fibres that twist together) are thought to damage
neurons in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients (both shown on the left). Plaques and
tangles are absent in the healthy brain (right).
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