AP Memory

What is it?

• The process of storing and retrieving information that has previously been experienced/learned.

• Memory is divided into three steps1. Sensory memory 2. Short-term memory3. Long-term memory

Sensory Memory

• Includes every bit of information that your senses experience

• Most of this level of memory is almost instantly lost

• Key to whether or not this level of information will move to next level : attention

Encoding

• Encoding is the process of forming a memory code that will allow the individual to retrieve the information correctly.

• Selective attention allows for the code to be accurately stored.

• The level of attention necessary to properly store incoming information depends on the complexity of the information (Lavie, 2005 & 2007).

• Contrary to popular belief, humans are poor at multi-tasking.

Types of Encoding

A. Structural: what does it look like?

B. Phonetic: what does it sound like?

C. Semantic: What does it mean?

The deeper the encoding, the better it is stored.

Short-term Memory (STM)

• STM acts as a temporary storage area for new information

• Without further rehearsal, will last no more than 30 seconds

• Interference a major issue with items within STM

• STM storage rather small: Seven items plus/minus two.

STM, cont.

• STM capacity can be increased/lengthened through:

1. Rehearsal

2. Chunking: grouping individual bits of information together

Example: 8003569377 Or (800) FLOWERS

• Primacy-Recency Effect: In STM (and long-term memory). In a list of items, people are more likely to remember (aka recall) those items at the front (primacy) or end (recency) of the list.

• Items in the middle are the most likely to be lost

• Keys to putting information into Long-term Memory: Rehearsal and Relevancy

“Working Memory”

• Proposed by Alan Baddeley (2001)• In Baddeley’s theory, short-term memory has

four components:1. Phonological loop: allows for repetition of

data2. Visuospatial sketchpad: gives a place to

build/hold visual images

Working Memory

3. Central Executive: “Mission Control” that coordinates

4. Temporary Buffer: workspace that allows integration between areas and long-term memory.

Working Memory Capacity: how much information an individual can store/manipulate at active attention.

- Appears to be stable, and hereditary.

Question

• Given the choice, would you rather be Jill Price (remembering everything) or Clive Wearing (remembering virtually nothing). Why?

Long-term Memory

• Also known as permanent memory

• Keys to whether information reaches LTM:

1. Rehearsal

2. Relevancy

Organizing LTM

A. Clustering: putting similar items together

B. Conceptual hierarchies: multilevel division of items

C. Schemas: organized knowledge based on prior experiences/information

D. Semantic networks: knowledge linked together by related concepts

On a separate sheet of paper

• You will be given four minutes

• Come up with as much information as possible about:

a. Peoriab. Chicagoc. Butte, MT

Information Retrieval

Methods:

1. Recognition: the ability to identify known information from unknown

2. Recall: Reconstruct information. Happens through our ability to make sense of the world

a. Eidetic memory/”flashbulb memory”b. State-dependent Learning: a person is more likely to

remember information if they are in the same emotional state/consciousness state as when they learned it

Retrieval, cont.

3. Relearning: Possible examples would be bike riding/roller skating

4. Redintegration: memory of one bit of information triggered by the introduction of a certain stimuli

Example: Hearing a song reminds you of a person (e.g. “Highway to Hell” reminds me of a former girlfriend)

Fresh-cut grass in August reminds me of football double-sessions

Improving Memory

• Elaborative Rehearsal: The more connections you can make to a piece of information, the more likely it will be remembered

• Rest

• Mnemonic devices: aids that help memory through unique associations

Problem: Good for surface knowledge, not so much for in-depth

Systems of Memory

• Traditionally, memory has been studied as a Sensory > STM > LTM process.

• In the last 10-15 years, some research suggests that memory is also a function of what types of memory are taking place.

A. Declarative (fact-based) v. Procedural (skills, emotions)

B. Semantic (general knowledge) v. Episodic (personal memory)

C. Retrospective (past) v. Prospective (future)

Forgetting

• Decay: Loss of information over a period of time. Reason: disuse and/or lack of relevancy

• Interference: blocking of information1. retroactive: later memory blocks earlier2. Proactive: earlier blocks later

Forgetting

• Suppression: active effort to try to forget information

• Repression: subconscious effort to forget information. Linked to tragic/painful memories. Repression has become controversial in prosecution of sex-abuse cases.

• Both repression and suppression part of Freudian theory

Forgetting

• Amnesia: loss of memory due to physical trauma of the brain1. Retrograde: forget past memories2. Anterograde: unable to create new memories (Note: Clive

Wearing has both)Not very common, although dementia related to repeated

exposure to physical trauma (e.g. football, soccer, boxing) does appear to be on the increase. This type of dementia was in the news recently with the suicide of former San Diego Charger Junior Seau. On 1/10/2013, the National Institutes of Health confirmed Seau’s brain showed damage consistent with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.

Alzheimer’s

• Form of dementia. • Dementia is a term that describes diseases that

seriously affect both cognitive and social functioning.

• Estimated that up to 4.5 million people in the United States have Alzheimer’s disease (NIH).

• People with Alzheimer’s have clumps (plaques) and tangles within their brain tissue. Positive ID of Alzheimer’s can only occur through autopsy.

Alzheimer’s

• The disease initially affects areas of the brain that control language, cognition, and memory

• Over time, the disease erases the individual’s personality

• Cause unknown• Drug treatments exist, but only treat symptoms

associated with the disease (anxiety, depression)

Alzheimer’s

• Typical onset of the disease usually occurs after 60• Damage typically occurs in the hippocampus

region of the brain• Estimated that 50% of the population over 85 has

the disease (NIH)

• There is no cure nor method of preventing the disease!

Issues in Memory

• The stress-reducing drug propranolol may help retrain the brain to not react to bad memories (e.g. PTSD) , and to perhaps weaken the bad memory itself (Kindt, University of Amsterdam)

• According to recent research (Salthouse, Uva):1. Peak mental ability is at age 222. Brain speed/puzzle-solving declines at 273. Memory starts to decline at 374. Vocabulary/knowledge base can grow until at least

60