midterm 4
memory illusion
- false but compelling report of an experience that did not happen
- brains go beyond available information to make sense of the world
- may fill in the "gaps" of memories
- prone to error
memory
- the retention of information
- not static and can change over time
memory paradox
- memories can be surprisingly good in some cases and poor in others
remarkable memory capacity - kim peek
- rain man movie
- recall books word for word
- calander calculater
remarakable memory capacity - rajan mahadevan
- memorized 31, 811 digits of pi
remarkable memory capacity - hyperthemestic syndrome
- superior autobiographical memory, memory of personal life
- when, where and what of almost all experiences
- less than 100 people diagnosed
reconstructive memory
- actively reconstruct memories, not passively recalling them
- remembering a walk, saw yourself walking even though its impossible, memort includes manufactured perspective
what are memories shaped from
- top down processing
- hunches, beliefs, moods, expectations and cultural narratives
sensory memory
- each sense has a sensory memory
- maintains our perceptions in a buffer area before passing them to short term memory
- gives our brain extra time to process incoming sensations
iconic memory
- memory for visual stimuli
- last about 1 second
echoic memory
- memory for auditory stimuli
- last 5-10 seconds
sensory memory - george sperling (1960)
- flashed 12 letters, 4 in a row
- recall 4-5 letters but everyone recalled different ones
- usually recalled one row of 4
- only recall 4-5 letters before iconic memory fades
eldetic imagery
- photographic memory
- describe images perfectly
- may make some errors but have excellent recollections
short term memory
- memory system that retains information for 5-20 seconds
short term memory - construction
- sensory memory feed into short term memory and constructs
- after construction gets moved to long term memory or discards
working memory
- ability to hold information were currently thinking about, attending to or actively processing
short term memory - decay
- memories fade over time
short term memory - interference
- loss of information due to competition with other information
short term memory - retroactive interference
- new information interferes with past information
- after learning new chapter, may forget past chapters
- when 2 stimuli are simular
short term memory - proactive interference
- early learning interferes with new learning
- sensation and perception chapter is making it harder to learn about sensory memory
- when 2 stimuli are simular
short term memory - chunking
- the organization of a large body of information into smaller, more meaningful groups
short term memory - rehearsal
- repeating information
- extends the duration of short term memory
short term memory - maintenance rehearsal
- simply repeating the stimuli in the same some
- someone tell you thier phone number and you just repeat the number to yourself
short term memory - elaborative rehearsal
- link stimuli to eachother in a meaningful way
- more effective
short term memory - levels of processing
- our ability to recall information is related to how deeply we process the information
ALL POEPLE CREATE THEIR OWN MEANING OF LIFE
- visual, most shallow, what do the letters look like
- phonological, middle, words sound like
- semantic, deepest, sentance meaning
short term memory - depth processing
- present each word
1. count how many syllabeles in the word (shallow)
2. rate the word as positice/ negative (deep)
- people remember more words with the deeoer positive/ negative ratings
long term memory
- relativeot enduring store of information
- includes facts, experiences and skills over time
long term memory - permastore
- can last decades or a lifetime
long term memory - capacity
- unknown
- assumed to be 500 huge encyclopedias or 1500 pages long worth of information
long term memory - errors
- usually semantic (meaning related)
short term memory - errors
- usually acoustic (sound related)
memory tests, primacy and recency
- most likely to remember first/ last couple of words-
- primacy, remember first stimuli presented
- recency, remember latest presented stimuli
explicit memory
- includes memories we recall intentionally and have conscious awareness of
semantic memory
- general knowledge
- facts
- meanign of words
- memory not tied to a time and place
episodic memory
- recollection of events in our lives
- vivid and detailed
- connected to a time and place
- mental time - travel
implicit memory
- includes memories we dont deliberatelt remember or consciouslt reflect on
implicit memory - procedural
- memory on how to do thinks, including motor skill and habits
- riding a bike, unlocking a door
implicit memory - priming
- our ability to identifiy a stimuli more easily or quickly if we have experienced a simular stimuli
memory prosesses
- sensory, short term and long term are the what of memory
- memory processes are the how of memory
memory prosesses - encoding
- getting information into the memory
- attention maximizes
memory prosesses - storage
- keeping information in memory
memory prosesses - retrieval
- getting information out of memory
mnemonics
- devices that help to learn new information
- involve linking new information to meaningful concepts already stored in the long term memory
mnemonics - acronyms
BEDMAS
- brackets
- exponents
- division
- multiplication
- addititon
- subtraction
mnemonics - rhymes
- thirty days hath september, april, june, and november. all the rest have 31, except for february, which has 28, and you probably think it’s great. or maybe it’s fine, on leap year, it has 29
mnemonics - songs
- alphabet song
- country songs
mnemonics - pegwords
- associate each number in a list with a word that rhymes with a word that rhymes with the number
- one, bun
- two, shoe
- three, tree
- list of concepts, link to pegword
- bread, bun
- apples, tree
- candy, door
mnemonics - method of loci
- linking a list of concepts to landmarks
- grocery list, coffee, bread, candy, apples
- walk from cafe to office
- cafe, eat bread there
- walk past students in lobby, apple phones and laptops
- walk past coffee shop, drink coffee
- walk past vending machine by security, dispense candy
storage
- keeping information in memory
- depending on interpretations and expectations
storage - schemas
- organized knowledge structures ot mental models we have stored in memory
- based on our expectations
- often used to fill in the gaps
- helpful or missleading depending
- offcie schema, may expect to see desk, chair, computers, books and papers
retrieval
- reactivation or reconstruction of experiences from our memory stores
- many types of forgetting are failure of retrieval, which is reconstructive
three R's - recall
- generating previously remembered information
- short answer questions, which area of the brain is involved in fear (amygdala)
- free recall, write down as many words as you can from the list
- serial recall, write down the words in the order they appeared
three R's - recognition
- selecting previously remembered information from an array of options
- multiple choice
- old/ new recognition, on the list or not
recognition - confidence judgement
- definitly old, maybe old, definitely new, maybe new
recognition - alternative forced choice (AFC)
- 2 AFC, 2 alternatives
- 4 AFC, 4 alternatives
three R's - relearning
- we aquire something we learned before much faster
- save time when relearning
- easier to relearn a song on the guitar than to learn it for the first time
relearning - herman ebbinghaus
- tried to memorize many nonsense syllables like ZAK and BOL to test recollection across different intervals
- most forgetting occurs immediatly after learning new material, less forgetting after that
- second time aroud he learned way faster and better
retreieval faliure - tip of the tongue phenomenon
- when we are sure we know information but cant remeber what that information is
- the information can sometimes be retrieved by a related cue or hint of a word that sounds simular
- can usually recall the first letter or the syllabeles but can not spit the word out
law of distributed vs. massed practice
- studying in small increments over a long period of time (distributed) is more effective than large increments in a small amount of time (massed)
- might be good during exam but not for future rememberance
encoding specificity
- more likely to remember something when the conditions of encoding time is present during retrieval
- when the encode and retrevial match
contex dependant learning
- superior retrieval when external encoding contex matches the retrieval context
- students may do better when they write exams in the same classroom where they learned the material
state dependant learning
- superior retrievsl of memories when the organism is in the same physiological or psychological state during encoding
- people who learn a task while drinking, tend to retreive it better while drinking rather than sober
mood dependant learning
- easier to recall happy memories when happy and sad memories when sad
retrospective bias
- our surrent psycological state can distort memories of our past
- indivduals with depression think they were treated more harshly by their parents in childhood than indivuals without depression, only occurs with currently depressed people not people with pass depression
- mood influences memory
biology of memory
- memories of different types of experiences are stored in different brain regions
- memories are spread out across the brain
biology of memory - long term potentiation
- the gradual strengthening of the connections amoung neurons from repetitive stimulation
- neurons that fire together, wire together
- key role in learning
- synapses sends the neurotransmitter glutamate into the synaptic cleft
- enhances the release of glutamate into the synaptic cleft, enhancing learning
biology of memory - hippocampus
- plays a key role in forming memories
amnesia
- when implicit and explicit memories are goverened by different brain stems
- can still speak, walk and drive
- losing all details of their previous life
amnesia - retrograde
- lost of past memory
- rare
amnesia - anterograde
- loss of ability to make new memories
- more common
amnesia - patient H.M
- had radical surgey to treat epilepsy
- removed temopral lobes and hippocampi
- experienced mild retrograde and severe anterograde amnesia, but implicit memory was relatively intact
- couldnt learn new episodic/ semantic information, but could learn some skills like mirror tracing
clive wearing
- hippocampi were destroyed by a virus, resulting in complete anterograde amnesia
- when wife left room, and came back he showed affection like he hasnt seen her in years
emotional memory
- amygdala and hippocampus interact to give us emotional memory
- amygdala helps recall emotions associated with fearful events
-hippocampus helps recall the events themselves
- people with amygdala damage may remeber facts about fearful experiences without feeling fear
- people with hippocampus damage may experience fear reaction but dont remeber facts
erasing memories
- some memories are distressing
- debatable if valuble to erase traumatic memories
erasing memories - emotional arousing
- things tend to be more strongly remebered
- adrenaline and norepinephrine solidifies memories
erasing memories - pharmacological treatments
- during memory recall may affect the emotional value of memory
- drugs luke propranolol that blocks effects of adrenaline may be effective
erasing memories - lawrence cahill and james mcgaugh
- 2 stories to a boys hospital visit
- one was emotionally- neutral
- one was disturbing
- more people recall disturbing story and the boys truama
- people who took propranolol (blocked adrenaline) didnt really remeber the truamatic details
biology of memory deterioration
- memory declines after 65 years of age
alzheimers disease
- most frequent cause of dementia (50-60% of cases)
- involves memory and language losses
- consitant cortical losses
- more active less likely to get
- greater education and intellectual activity is less likley to get
memory over time
- childrens memory increases in sophistication
- memory span increases with age
memory over time - conceptual knowledge
- allows us to connect new information to previously learned information
- CIA meaning isnt relevent unless learnt about central intelligence agency
- develop meta-memory skills
- knowledge of memory limitations, helpful strategies
infantile amnesia
- cant remeber things before ages 2-3
- due to hippocampus not being fully developed
false memories
- our memories are more fallible than most think
false memories - flashbulb memories
- emotional memories that are vivid and feel exceptionsally detailed
- historical events (9/11 attack)
- memories decline over time
false memories - imagination inflation
- imagining an event inflates confidence that the event occured
false memories - source monitoring confusion
- lack of clarity about the orgins of the memory
- real life or imagination or someone else
- causes memory illusions
- cryptomnesia
- accidental plagerism
implanting false memories in the lab - suggestive memory techniques
- procedure that encourages patients to recall memories that may or may not have taken place
- lost in the mall as a child study
implanting false memories in the lab - misinformation effect
- creation of fictitious memories by providing misleading information about an event after it takes place
- smashed or contacted car accident gave different answers
- contacted was a smaller speed
- important for eyewitness testimonies, leading question can lead to inaccurate memories
eyewitness testimonys
- many people have been acquittted of a crime after DNA testign or other evidence emerged due to wrongful eyewitness testimonys
- correlation between confidenct and accuracy
eyewitness testimonies - accurate settings
- lots of time to observe the perpetrator under good lighting conditions
- when the criminal isnt diguised
- identifiying the criminal right after witnessing the crime
eyewitness testimonies non accurate settings
- observing different races
- talking to other witnesses
- only catching a breif glance of the criminal
- stressful circumstances
- focused on the weapon not crimal appearance
false memories in psychotherapy - memory recovery therapists
- claim the patient repress memories of traumatic events
- root of psychological problems
- major impkications of people being seperated from their families or locked up due to recovered memories of abuse
thinking
- any mental activity or processing of information
- includes learning, remebering, perceiving, communication, believing and deciding
thinking - cognitive misers
- our brains
- cognitive economy, invest as little energy as possible in processing
- fast and frugal thinking
- if we quickly analysed everything we would be quickly overwhelmed
thinking - thin slicing
- quick judgement on limited observations
- sometimes can be accurate
- seeing a dorm room
- a profs rating on a small clip
cognitive bias
- a systematic error in thinking
heuristics
- mental shortcuts to increase our thinking effeciency
- simplify what we attend to, minimize the information we need for decision making
heuristics - representativeness
- involves judging the probability of an event by its superficial similarity to a sterotype
- ignores base rate, how common something is in general
heuristics - availability
- involves estimating the liklihood of an occurence based on the ease with whcich it comes to mind
- beer and peanut case
heuristics - hindsight
- our tendenct to overestimate how well we could have predicted something after it has already occurred
- "i knew it all along" effect
- john and janes break up (many signs)