Memory and Thought Unit 6 Exploring Psychology John Kingsley came to our attention in a shocking news story about an 83-year-old Alzheimer’s patient.

Memory and Thought

Unit 6

Exploring Psychology

• John Kingsley came to our attention in a shocking news story about an 83-year-old Alzheimer’s patient who was found unattended in his wheelchair at a dog race track outside of Spokane, Washington. Attached to his chair a note misidentifying him. John did not know who he was or how he got to the races. He could not help authorities find his family or his previous caregivers. John Kingsley, like many other patients during advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease, is alive, but without life. Without a memory of his past, or the ability to remember anything new, John’s life is nothing but the existing moment.

-from Psychology: Science, Behavior, and Life by R.H. Ettinger, Robert L. Crooks, and Jean Stein, 1994.

The

• Which would be more frightening to you – not being able to remember the past or not being able to learn anything new? Why?

Ever Had a Day Like This???

•  You get to school and realize you forgot your lunch at home. You take a test and you can't remember half the answers. You see the new kid who just joined your class, and you can't remember his name. Some days, it seems like your brain is taking a holiday--you can't remember anything!

Memory

• The storage and retrieval of what has been learned or experienced.– Who were your friends in eighth grade?– Who sings your favorite song?

The Process of Memory

• Encoding– The transforming of information so the nervous

system can process it.• Acoustic• Visual• Semantic

• Storage– The process by which information is maintained

over a period of time.

• Retrieval– The process of obtaining information that has

been stored in memory.

What do you see?

You will have twenty seconds to look at the picture.

How many items can you name?

What do you hear?

Our Memory Is Like A Filing Cabinet…

Three Stages of Memory

• Sensory– Very brief memory storage immediately following

initial stimulation of a receptor.

• Short-term– Memory that is limited in capacity to about seven items

and in duration by the subject’s active rehearsal.

• Long-term– Memory that is stored over extended periods of time.

Sensory Memory

• Sight and hearing.– Iconic – visual playback– Echoic – auditory playback

• Hold memory for fractions of a second.• If it is not important it will be lost.• Serves three functions:

– Prevents you from being overwhelmed.– Gives you some decision time.– Allows for continuity and stability

Short-Term Memory

• A few things (no more than seven) for a short period.• Maintenance rehearsal

– Keeping information for a short period by repeating it to your self. (example: phone number).

• Chunking– The process of grouping items to make them easier to

remember.

• Kept in short term memory for less than 20 seconds. If it is important it will be transferred to long-term memory. If not, it will be lost.

Find the Real Penny

Chunking

• MTVCIACCCFBIMIALOLBRBONFRWLTBAFYINISNCISTCSUASSCCPWBHS

milk

grapes

cheesebutter

applesfloureggs

shampoo

ground beefbread

catsupcereal

jellygreen beans

(cont.)

• Primacy-recency– Refers to the fact that we are better able to recall

information presented at the beginning and end of a list• Primacy – the first few on the list because of rehearsal time

• Recency – the last few on the list because they are still accessible for short-term memory.

• Working memory (aka short-term)– Short-term memory + information from long-term that

has been recalled for current information.

Long-Term Memory

• Types:– Semantic

• Knowledge of language, including its rules, words, and meaning.– Recalling the first five presidents.

– Episodic• Memory of one’s life, including time of occurrence.

– Recalling where you went on your 13th birthday.

– Declarative• Memory of knowledge that can be called forth consciously as needed.

– Suddenly thinking of a friend’s name without knowing why.

– Procedural• Memory of learned skills that does not require conscious recollection

(swimming, riding a bike, fear of bugs).

Three Systems of Memory

Sensory

Memory

STM

(Working)

LTM

Unattended information is quickly lost

Unrehearsed information is quickly lost

Some information may be lost over time

SensoryInput

Maintenance Rehearsal

Stages of Memory

Sensory

Memory

Short-term

Memory

Long-term

Memory

Capacity Virtually everything you see or hear at one instant

About 7 items in healthy adults

Vast, uncountable

Duration Fraction of a second

Less than 20 seconds if not rehearsed.

Perhaps a lifetime.

Example You see something for an instant, and then someone asks you to recall one detail

You look up a telephone number and remember it long enough to dial it

You remember the house where you lived when you were 7 years old

Retrieving Information

Exploring Psychology

What a Memory!• Rajan Mahadevan stood before the packed house of the International Congress

on Yoga and Meditation. He recieted, from memory, the first 30,000 digits of pi, which is often rounded off to two decimal points, of 3.1Rajan Mahadevan stood before the packed house of the International Congress on Yoga and Meditation. He recieted, from memory, the first 30,000 digits of pi, which is often rounded off to two decimal points, of 3.14. He did not err until the 31,812th digit. This feat took 3 hours and 44 minutes and earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records…

Rajan can repeat a string of 60 numbers after a single hearing, while most of us can repeat and average of about seven random numbers. Rajan is one of only a half-dozen people in the world know to have such gargantuan memory powers.

Despite Rajan’s unbelievable ability to memorize numbers, he seems to be worse than average at recalling faces, and he constantly forgets where he put his keys.

-adapted from Introduction to Psychology by Rod Plotnki, 1996

The Question

• What are your best functions of memory.

• How good are you at names?

• How good are you at faces?

Ever Had Days Like This???

The Key to Memory…

Ways to Retrieve

• Recognition• Can you name the names of all your teachers since

first grade?

• You may not remember the names of your teachers but chances are you would remember it if you heard it.

– Memory retrieval in which a person identifies an object, idea, or situation as one he or she has or has not experienced before.

George Clooney

Nancy Pelosi

Anna Nicole Smith

James Spann

Katie Couric

Bugs Bunny

Captain Kangaroo

• Recall– Memory retrieval in which a person

reconstructs previously learned material.– Remembering is an active process guided by

our experience, knowledge, and cues we receive from the environment.

Recite the Preamble to the Constitution

• We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Types of Recall

• Reconstructive Processes– The alteration of a recalled memory that may be simplified,

enriched, or distorted, depending on an individual’s experiences, attitudes, or inferences.

• Confabulation– The act of filling in memory gaps.

• Schemas– Conceptual frameworks a person uses to make sense of the word.– What does the word flipped mean to you?

• Eidetic Memory– The ability to remember with great accuracy visual information on

the basis of short-term exposure.– Children tend to exhibit this recall more so than adults.

• Both recognition and recall are declarative memory.

• Define it:– Memory of knowledge that can be called forth

consciously as needed.

I Can’t Believe I Forgot!!!

Forgetting is Normal

• It’s called decay.• Interference

– Blockage of a memory by previous or subsequent memories.• Proactive

– An earlier memory blocks you from remembering related new information.

» You’ve moved to a new home and have trouble remembering your new phone number and address because you know your other one.

• Retroactive– A later memory or new information blocks you from remembering

information learned earlier.» You’ve moved to a new home and have learned your new address

and phone number. Now you have trouble recalling your old address and phone number.

A Way to Remember

• Mnemonic devices– Techniques for using

associations to memorize and retrieve information.