Introduction to Psychology Suzy Scherf Lecture 9: How Do We Know? Memory.

Introduction to PsychologySuzy Scherf

Lecture 9: How Do We Know?

Memory

Memory - What’s it for?

Why don’t we remember everything about all our past experiences?

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Memory - What’s it for?

Why don’t we remember everything about all our past experiences?

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Memory - What’s it for?

For our memory systems to function efficiently we have to forget much of our experience or ignore it all together (ie. never encode it).

Change Blindness - What’s Important for Us to Remember?

How is the Mind Organized to Think?Cognitive Processes

• Memory• Language• Categorization• Recognition• Object knowledge• Thinking about Minds

• Learning• Reading• Problem Solving• Cognitive Heuristics• Mathematics

Information Processing: Bottom-Up Influences

Bottom-Up Influences Example

What’s the Mind Designed to Do?

• Too general a problem -

Information Processing: Top-Down Influences

Top-Down Influences Example

Top-Down Influences Example

Top-Down Influences Example

Top-Down Influences Example:Change Blindness

• If cognition were only influenced by bottom-up processes, -

• How much of the physical stimulus do we actually encode and remember?

• What kind of information is important for us to hold on to for future reference?

Change Blindness - What’s Important for Us to Remember?

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The Organization of Cognition

• Cognitive Modules designed by Evolution =

• Triggered and influenced by environmental input =

Facts about Memory

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• “Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action.” - Luis Bunuel

Facts about Memory

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Memory Modules

Short-Term/Working Memory (15-30 sec)

No Rehearsal

Long-Term Memory (years)

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1 2 5 10 15 25 35 50

Years since learning

Percentage Retention

Long-Term Memory (years)

Implicit Memory

• Being influenced by a memory -

• Priming:

ch _ _ mu _ _ _ og _ y _ _ _ _ v _ c _ do o _ t _ _ us

Implicit Memory

• Being influenced by a memory of a prior experience without having conscious memory of the experience.

• Procedural:

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Explicit Memory

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Explicit Memory

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• Episodic:

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Explicit Memory

• Memory for facts and events that is available to conscious recall

• Semantic:

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Implicit vs. Explicit Memories

Memory Performance

Practice effect -

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Retention effect -

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Memory Performance

Retention Effect

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Memory as a Designed Cognitive Module

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Modularity within the Memory Module

• Memory for food vs. memory for water

• Memory on a short-term basis vs. memory on a long-term basis

• Memory for how to do things vs. memory for facts and events

Working Memory Deficits -

Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain

• Lesions to -

• ADHD?

D’Esposito, et al. 2000

Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain

Mammillary bodies

Hippocampus

Fornix

Mammillary bodies - Fornix - Hippocampus

Antegrade Amnesia -

Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain

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Korsakof’s - can’t form new memories

Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain

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• Oliver Sack’s patient Mr. Thompson

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Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain

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Retrograde Amnesia -

Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain

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• Usually impairment in __________ memory

• A different pathology effects _________ memory

Alzheimer’s Disease -

Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain

Semantic Dementia -

Impairments in implicit memory:

Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain

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• Involves damage to the ___________

Impairments in implicit memory:

Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain

Striatum = ________ + _________

Parkinson’s Disease -

Memory Modularity Reflected in the Brain

Huntington’s Disease -

Memory Modularity

Even though there are separate memory modules designed to solve problems that reflect real-world occurrences of events..

Memory Modules also interact: