Remembering and Judging


• Memories as Types and Stages• How We Remember: Cues to Improving Memory• Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Memory and Cognition


• The ability to store and retrieve information over time

• The processes of acquiring and using knowledge

Memory Cognition


• The cognitive approach became dominant in psychology in the 1960s.– Psychology has remained largely cognitive ever since.

• The cognitive approach was fueled by the advent of electronic computers.– While there are many differences between computers and the human brain, the

computer has provided a useful model for understanding the brain.

Memories as Types and Stages


• Learning Objectives1. Compare and contrast explicit and implicit memory, identifying the features that

define each.2. Explain the function and duration of eidetic and echoic memories.3. Summarize the capacities of short-term memory, and explain how working

memory is used to process information in it.

Explicit and Implicit Memory

Stages of Memory: Sensory, Short-Term, and Long-Term Memory

Stages of Memory: Sensory, Short-Term, and Long-Term Memory

• the brief storage of sensory information• gives the brain time to process incoming sensations

sensory memory

• the place where small amounts of information can be kept for 20-30s

short-term memory

• memory storage that can hold information for days, months, and years

long-term memory

Sensory Memory

• Visual sensory memory• Duration is less than one second

• Auditory sensory memory• Duration is several seconds

Iconic Memory Echoic Memory

Sensory Memory

• Sperling (1960) showed participants letter displays for 1/20th of a second.

• When he cued participants to report one of the three rows of letters, they could do it, even if the cue was given shortly after the display had been removed.

• The research demonstrated the existence of iconic memory.

Short-Term Memory

• short-term memory – the place where small amounts of information can be kept for more than a few seconds, but less than one minute– working memory – the processes we use to make sense of, modify, interpret,

and store information in STM• central executive – the part of working memory that directs attention and

processing

Short-Term Memory

• About 20 seconds• The decay of information in STM can

be prevented by rehearsal.– maintenance rehearsal –

repeating information mentally or out loud with the goal of keeping it in memory

• “Seven plus or minus two” pieces of information

• STM capacity can be expanded by chunking.– chunking – organizing items into

groupings

Duration Capacity


• Key Takeaways– Memory refers to the ability to store and retrieve information over time.– For some things our memory is very good, but our active cognitive processing of

information assures that memory is never an exact replica of what we have experienced.

– Explicit memory refers to experiences that can be intentionally and consciously remembered, and it is measured using recall, recognition, and relearning. Explicit memory includes episodic and semantic memories.

– Measures of relearning assess how much more quickly information is learned when it is studied again after it has already been learned but then forgotten.


• Key Takeaways, continued– Implicit memory refers to the influence of experience on behavior, even if the

individual is not aware of those influences. Implicit memory includes procedural memory and priming.

– Information processing begins in sensory memory, moves to short-term memory, and eventually moves to long-term memory.

– Maintenance rehearsal and chunking are used to keep information in short-term memory.

– The capacity of long-term memory is large, and there is no known limit to what we can remember.

HOW WE REMEMBERCues to Improving Memory

How We Remember

• Learning Objectives:1. Label and review the principles of encoding, storage, and retrieval.2. Summarize the types of amnesia and their effects on memory.3. Describe how the context in which we learn information can influence our

memory of that information.

OPERANT CONDITIONING

encoding

storage

retrieval

How We Remember

Encoding and Storage: How Our Perceptions Become memories

• Elaborative encoding– Processing new information in ways that make it more meaningful or relevant

• self-reference effect– Relating material to oneself or one’s experiences improves memory.

Elaboration and Memory

• Participants recalled the same words significantly better when they were processed in relation to the self than when they were processed in other ways.

Using the Contributions of Hermann Ebbinghaus to Improve Your Memory

• Hermann Ebbinghaus found that memory for information drops off rapidly at first but then levels off after time.

• You should try to review the material that you have already studied right before you take an exam – that way, you will be more likely to remember the material during the exam.

Using the Contributions of Hermann Ebbinghaus to Improve Your Memory

• Ebbinghaus also examined the spacing effect and overlearning.– spacing effect – Learning is better when the same amount of study is spread out

over periods of time (spaced practice) than when it occurs close together or at the same time (massed practice).

– overlearning – continuing to study and practice even when one believes one has mastered the material• Overlearning improves memory performance.

Retrieval

• Retrieval– The process of reactivating information that has been stored in memory

• tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon – we are certain that we know something we are trying to recall, but we cannot quite come up with it; illustrates retrieval failure

Retrieval

• An increase in retrieval when the external situation in which information is learned matches the situation in which it is remembered

• Superior retrieval of memories when the individual is in the same physiological or psychological state as during encoding

Context-Dependent Learning State-Dependent Learning

• Godden and Baddeley (1975) tested the memory of scuba divers to learn and retrieve information in different contexts.

• They found strong evidence for context-dependent learning.

• serial position effect – People better retrieve items at the beginning and end of a list than items in the middle.

• primacy effect – People better retrieve beginning items.

• recency effect – People better retrieve end items.

Retrieval

retroactive interference• Learning

something new impairs retrieval of information learned earlier.

proactive interference• Earlier

earning impairs encoding of information we try to learn later.

The Structure of LTM: Categories, Prototypes, and Schemas

• Networks of associated memories that have features in common– Associated concepts in a category

are connected through spreading activation.

• Some categories have defining features true of all category members.

• The prototype is the most typical category member.

• Patterns of knowledge in long-term memory that help us organize information– Stereotypes are schemas about

social groups.

Categories Schemas

The Biology of Memory

• long-term potentiation (LTP)– the strengthening of synaptic connections between neurons as a result of

frequent stimulation– consolidation – the period of time in which LTP occurs and in which memories are

stored


retrograde amnesia• an

inability to retrieve events that occurred before a given time

anterograde amnesia• the inability

to transfer information from short-term into long-term memory

• New memories cannot be formed.

How We Remember

• Key Takeaways– Information is better remembered when it is meaningfully elaborated.– Hermann Ebbinghaus made important contributions to the study of learning,

including modeling the forgetting curve, and studying the spacing effect and the benefits of overlearning.

– Context- and state-dependent learning, as well as primacy and recency effects, influence long-term memory.

– Memories are stored in connected synapses through the process of long-term potentiation (LTP). In addition to the cortex, other parts of the brain, including the hippocampus, cerebellum, and the amygdala, are also important in memory.

How We Remember

• Key Takeaways, continued– Damage to the brain may result in retrograde amnesia or anterograde amnesia.

Case studies of patients with amnesia can provide information about the brain structures involved in different types of memory.

– Memory is influenced by chemicals including glutamate, serotonin, epinephrine, and estrogen.

– Studies comparing memory enhancers with placebo drugs find very little evidence for their effectiveness.

ACCURACY AND INACCURACY IN MEMORY AND COGNITION

Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Memory and Cognition

• Learning Objectives:1. Outline the variables that can influence the accuracy of our memory for events.2. Explain how schemas can distort our memories.3. Describe the representativeness heuristic and the availability heuristic and

explain how they may lead to errors in judgment.

Schematic Processing: Distortions Based on Expectations

• Functional fixedness– Schemas prevent people from

using an object in new and nontraditional ways.

• In the candle/tack-box problem, functional fixedness may lead us to see the box as only a box, not a potential candleholder.

Misinformation Effects: How Information That Comes Later Can Distort Memory

• Misinformation effect– errors in memory that occur when new information influences existing memories

• Misinformation may not only distort our memories of events that actually occurred, but lead us to falsely remember events that never happened.

• Claims of ‘recovered’ memories of traumatic events (e.g., sexual abuse) may reflect the implantation of false memories by therapists.

Misinformation Effects: How Information That Comes Later Can Distort Memory

• Loftus and Palmer’s (1974) participants viewed a film of a traffic accident and then answered a question about the accident.

• The verb in the question was “hit,” “smashed,” or “contacted.”. The wording of the question influenced the participants’ memory of the accident.

Overconfidence

• Overconfidence– the tendency for people to be too certain about their ability to remember events

and make judgments• Eyewitnesses to crimes are often overconfident.

– There is a very small correlation between an eyewitness’ confidence and the accuracy of the eyewitness’ memory.

• Flashbulb memory– a vivid and emotional memory of an event that people believe they remember

very well• an example might be one’s memory of the 9/11 attacks

– Flashbulb memories are less accurate than we believe them to be.

Heuristic Processing: Availability and Representativeness

• Availability heuristic– The tendency to make judgments

concerning an event’s frequency or likelihood on the basis of the ease with which the event can be retrieved from memory

• Representativeness heuristic– We base judgments on

information that seems to match our expectations, and ignore potentially more relevant statistical information.

Availability Representativeness

Salience and Cognitive Accessibility

• Things that are salient attract our attention, and may be better remembered than things that are less salient.– One example is a weapon in a

crime scene.

• Knowledge that is activated in memory is accessible and is more likely to drive cognition and behavior than is less accessible knowledge.

Salience Cognitive Accessibility

Counterfactual Thinking

• Counterfactual thinking– The tendency to think about and experience events according to “what might

have been”• Silver medalists in the 1992 Summer Olympics were less happy than were

the bronze medalists because the silver medalists could imagine easily ‘what might have been’ – winning the gold (Gilovich, 1995).


• Key Takeaways– Our memories fail in part due to inadequate encoding and storage, and in part

due to the inability to accurately retrieve stored information.– The human brain is wired to develop and make use of social categories and

schemas. Schemas help us remember new information but may also lead us to falsely remember things that never happened to us and to distort or misremember things that did.

– A variety of cognitive biases influence the accuracy of our judgments.

Remembering and Judging

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