Memory Memory is

any
indication
that learning
has persisted
over time. It
is our ability
to store and
retrieve
information.

The persistence of learning over

time through the storage and
retrieval of information.
 Take out a piece of paper…..
• Name the seven
dwarves…..

Now name them…..

 Was it easy or hard?
• It depends on several
things….
• If you like Disney
movies?
• When was the last
time you have seen
the movie?
• Are people around you
being loud pain in the
butts so you cannot
Dopey, Grumpy, Doc, Bashful, Sleepy, concentrate?
Sneezy, and Happy
 Recall Versus Recognition
Recall Recognition
• you must retrieve the • you must identify the
information from your target from possible
memory targets
• fill-in-the blank or essay • multiple-choice tests
tests
 Studying Memory:
Information Processing Models

Keyboard Disk Monitor

(Encoding) (Storage) (Retrieval)
Sequential Process 5
 The Memory Process
Three step process….

1. Encoding: The processing

of information into the
memory system.

2. Storage: The retention of

encoded material over
time.

3. Retrieval: The process of

getting the information
out of memory storage.
Three Box Model of Memory
 Sensory Memory
• A split second
holding tank for ALL
sensory information.
• Sperling’s research
on Iconic Memory
• Echoic Memory
 Sensory Memories
The duration of sensory memory varies for the
different senses.

Iconic
0.5 sec. long

Echoic
3-4 sec. long

Hepatic
< 1 sec. long
Encoding: Getting Information In
How We Encode

1. Some information (route to your school) is

automatically processed.

2. However, new or unusual information

(friend’s new cell-phone number) requires
attention and effort.
 Automatic Processing
We process an enormous amount of information
effortlessly, such as the following:

1. Space: While reading a textbook, you

automatically encode the place of a picture
on a page.
2. Time: We unintentionally note the events
that take place in a day.
3. Frequency: You effortlessly keep track of
things that happen to you.
Take out a piece of paper and name all the
Presidents…
 Encoding Information

• Serial Positioning
Effect

• Primacy Effect

• Recency Effect
Working (Short Term )Memory
• The stuff we encode
from the sensory goes
to STM.
• Events are encoded
visually, acoustically or
semantically.
• Holds about 7 (plus or
minus 2) items for
about 20 seconds.
• We recall digits
better than letters.
Short Term Memory Activity
 Capacity
The Magical Number Seven, Plus or
Minus Two: Some Limits on Our
Capacity for Processing Information
(1956).

Ready?

MUTGIKTLRSYP

You should be able to

recall 7±2 letters.
George Miller
Ways to remember things in STM…so
they go to LTM
• Chunking: Organizing
items into familiar,
manageable units. 1-4-9-2-1-7-7-6-1-8-1-2-1-9-4-1

• Mnemonic devices
"Mary Very Easily Makes Jam Saturday Unless
• Rehearsal No Plums."
 Chunking
The capacity of the working memory may be
increased by “chunking.”

F-B-I-T-W-A-C-I-A-I-B-M

FBI TWA CIA IBM

4 chunks
Working Memory Duration
 Spacing Effect

• DO NOT CRAM!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve

 Encoding Exercise

The Ways we can encode…

• Visual Encoding: the
encoding of picture
images.
• Acoustic Encoding:
the encoding of
sound, especially the
sounds of words.
• Semantic Encoding:
the encoding of
meaning.
 Storage: Retaining Information
Storage is at the heart of memory. Three
stores of memory are shown below:

Sensory Working Long-term

Memory Memory Memory

Encoding

Events
Encoding Retrieval

Retrieval
Long Term Memory
• Unlimited
storehouse of
information.
• Explicit (declarative)
memories
• Implicit (non-
declarative)
memories
 Hippocampus
Hippocampus – a neural center in the limbic
system that processes explicit memories.

Weidenfield & Nicolson archives

 Explicit Memories
• Episodic Memories

• Semantic Memories
Implicit Memories

• Procedural Memories

• Conditioned Memories
 Retrieval Cues
Memories are held in storage by a web of
associations. These associations are like anchors
that help retrieve memory.

water
smell
hose
Fire Truck
fire

smoke truck
heat
red
The Context Matters!!!
• Flashbulb Memories

• Mood Congruent
Memory

• State Dependent
Memory
 Moods and Memories
We usually recall experiences that are consistent
with our current mood (state-dependent
memory). Emotions, or moods, serve as retrieval
cues. Our memories are mood-congruent.

Jorgen Schytte/ Still Pictures

 Priming
To retrieve a specific memory from the web of
associations, you must first activate one of the
strands that leads to it. This process is called
priming.
 Stress Hormones & Memory
Heightened emotions (stress-related or
otherwise) make for stronger memories.
Flashbulb memories are clear memories of
emotionally significant moments or events

Scott Barbour/ Getty Images

 Synaptic Changes
Long-Term Potentiation

Both Photos: From N. Toni et al., Nature, 402, Nov. 25 1999. Courtesy of Dominique Muller
(LTP) refers to synaptic
enhancement after
learning (Lynch, 2002).
An increase in
neurotransmitter release
or receptors on the
receiving neuron
indicates strengthening
of synapses.
Storing Memories
Long Term-Potentiation
• long-lasting
enhancement in signal
transmission between
two neurons that
results from stimulating
them synchronously.
• In other words…they
learn to fire together
and get better at
it…creating a memory.
 Forgetting Getting a new bus
number and
forgetting old bus
number.

• Retroactive
Interference: new
information blocks
out old information.

• Proactive
Interference: old
information blocks
out new information.

Calling your new girlfriend by old

girlfriends name.
 Motivated Forgetting
Motivated Forgetting:
People unknowingly
revise their memories.

Repression: A defense
mechanism that banishes
anxiety-arousing
thoughts, feelings, and
memories from

Culver Pictures
consciousness.
Sigmund Freud
 Constructive Memory
• Memories are not always what they
seem.
• Elizabeth Loftus
• A constructed memory is a created
memory.
• Misinformation effect
 Memory Construction

While tapping our memories, we filter or fill in

missing pieces of information to make our
recall more coherent.

Misinformation Effect: Incorporating

misleading information into one's memory of
an event.
An inability to retrieve information due
Forgetting
to poor encoding, storage, or retrieval.
 Encoding Failure
We cannot remember what we do not
encode.
 Retrieval Failure
Although the information is retained in the
memory store, it cannot be accessed.

Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) is a retrieval failure

phenomenon. Given a cue (What makes blood cells
red?) the subject says the word begins with an H
(hemoglobin).