1. The Process of MemoryA. Memory – the storage and retrieval of what has been learned or experienced. B. First Memory Process is Encoding – the transformation of information so the

nervous system can process iti. Use your senses of hearing, sight, touch, taste, temperature etc to encode

and establish a memoryii. Acoustic codes are when you attempt to memorize by saying something out

loud or to yourself repeatedlyiii. Visual codes are when you attempt to memorize by keeping mental pictures

of the object, etc.iv. Semantic codes are when you attempt to memorize by making sense of the

object, etc.

C. Second Memory Process is Storage – the process by which information is maintained over a period of timei. How much is stored is dependent upon the effort in encoding the material.

(100 trillion bits or more/11.5 tb BUT doesn’t represent all capacity)ii. Information can be stored for seconds or foreveriii. Like a filing cabinet

Dr. Zimbardo Video #9

D. Third Memory Process is Retrieval – the process of obtaining information that has been stored in memory

i. How quickly and easily is dependent upon how efficiently it was encoded and stored (as well as genetics etc.)

2. Three Stages of Memory(Figure 10.2)A. Sensory Memory – very brief memory storage immediately following initial

stimulation of a receptor i. Senses of sight and hearing hold information/input for a fraction of a second

before it disappears a. Example of a movie or TV where one doesn’t see the blank spaces or

gaps between framesii. Visual Memory = Iconic Memory, duration 1 seciii. Auditory Memory = Echoic Memory, duration 1 to 2 seciv. Serves 3 functions

a. Keeps the person from being overwhelmed with informationa) Billions of senses felt every day, many a one time

b. Gives a person decision timea) Can decide whether or not to pay attention

c. Allows for continuity and stability

B. Short-Term Memory – memory that is limited in capacity to about 7 items and in duration by the subjects active rehearsal (20 secs without rehearsal)

i. Maintenance Rehearsal – system for remembering that involves repeating information to oneself without attempting to find meaning in ita. Helps keep information in short-term memory longer

ii. Chunking – grouping items to make them easier to remembera. Seven items of any kindb. Chunk items as fast as they come

iii. The Primary-Recency Effect – we are better able to recall information presented at the beginning and end of a lista. Forgetting things in the middle.

iv. Working Memorya. Short term memory is also know as this b. Serves as a system for processing and working with current information

C. Long-Term Memory – Storage of information over an extended period of timei. Capacity is seemingly endlessii. Contains representations of countless faces, experiences and sensationsiii. In the process of long term memory, the least important information is

dropped and the most important is retained to long-term memoryiv. Types of Long-Term Memory

a. Semantic Memory – knowledge of language including its rules, words and meanings.

b. Episodic Memory – memory of one’s life, including the time of occurrence

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

d. Procedural Memory – memory of learned skills that does not require conscious recollection

Write Figure 10.2 (Page 275) on board

3. Memory and the Braina. What happens to the brain when something is stored in long-term memory?

i. A change in neuronal structure of nervesii. Molecular or chemical changes in the brain

Video – PBS: The Mind and the Brain: Learning and Memory

Section 1 Review

Up and to the Left Indicates: Visually Constructed Images (Vc)If you asked someone to "Imagine a purple buffalo", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they "Visually Constructed" a purple buffalo in their mind.

Up and to the Right Indicates: Visually Remembered Images (Vr)If you asked someone to "What color was the first house you lived in?", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they "Visually Remembered" the color of their childhood home.

To the Left Indicates: Auditory Constructed (Ac)If you asked someone to "Try and create the highest the sound of the pitch possible in your head", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they "Auditorily Constructed" this sound that they have never heard of.

To the Right Indicates: Auditory Remembered (Ar)If you asked someone to "Remember what their mother's voice sounds like", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they "Auditorily Remembered" this sound.

Down and to the Left Indicates: Feeling / Kinesthetic (F)If you asked someone to "Can you remember the smell of a campfire?", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they used recalled a smell, feeling, or taste.

Down and To the Right Indicates: Internal Dialog (Ai)This is the direction of someone eyes as they "talk to themselves".

The problem of memory is to store many thousands of items in such a way that you can find the one you need when you need it.

The solution to retrieval is organization

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

A. You may not be able to remember a particular person, but if their name is said, you will recognize the name

B. We can recognize the sound of a particular instrument no matter what tune is being played on it. We can also recognize a tune, no matter what instrument it is being played on.i. Shows that information may be indexed under several headings so that it

can be reached in a variety of waysii. The more categories the features are filed in, the more easily they can be

retrieved

2. Recall – memory retrieval in which a person reconstructs previously learned materialA. Involves a person’s knowledge, attitudes and expectationsB. Reconstructive Process – the alteration of memories that may be simplified,

enriched or distorted depending on an individual’s experiences, attitudes or inferencesi. Confabulation – the act of filling in memory gaps

a) Remembering information that was never there in the first placeC. Schemas – conceptual frameworks a person uses to make sense of the world

i. Sets of expectations about something that is based upon on past experiences

D. Eidetic Memory – the ability to remember with great accuracy visual information on the basis of short-term exposurei. Photographic memoryii. Extremely rare

E. State-Dependent Learning – occurs when you recall information easily when you are in the same physiological or emotional state or setting as you were when you originally encoded the information

3. RelearningA. Measure of both declarative and procedural memoryB. You will relearn material you have “forgotten” with fewer repetitions than

someone learning the information the first time

4. ForgettingA. May involve decay, interference or repressionB. Decay – fading away of memories over time

i. Items quickly decay in sensory storage and short-term memoryii. Not certain if long-term memories ever decayiii. Some “forgotten” memories can be recovered through meditation, hypnosis

or brain stimulation

C. Interference – blockage of a memory by previous or subsequent memoriesi. Proactive Interference – An earlier memory blocks you from remembering related new

informationa. Move into a new home and new phone number but your old address or phone

number gets in the wayii. Retroactive Interference – A later memory or new information blocks you from

remembering information learned earliera. The new information is remembered but having trouble remembering the old data

iii. 2 separate concepts, one doesn’t necessarily cause the otheriv. Repression - a person may subconsciously block memories of an embarrassing or

frightening experience

D. Amnesia – loss of memory caused by a blow to the head, the result of brain damage, drug abuse or severe psychological stress

i. Infant amnesia – relative lack of early declarative memoriesa. We don’t remember earlier than 2 or 3 years old

5. Improving MemoryA. Meaningfulness and Association

i. Elaborative Rehearsal – the linking of new information to material that is already known.a. remembering the letters DFIRNE by the word FRIEND

ii. You will remember more vividly information that you associate with things already stored in memory or with a strong emotional experience

iii. The more categories that information is indexed under, the more accessible it is

iv. Overlearn informationv. Space out learning vi. Study a little at a time

A. Mnemonic Devices – techniques for using associations to memorize and retrieve informationi. Using rhymes or other verbal clues

a. Thirty days has Septemberb. My dear aunt Sallyc. Every good boy does fined. Roy G. Biv

ii. Forming Mental Picture

Section 2 Review

Chapter 10 Review

Video - PBS: The Mind and the Brain: Thinking

1. Thinking – changing and reorganizing information stored in memory to create new informationA. Units of Thought

i. Image – a visual, mental representation of an event or objecta. Only highlights of the original b. An effect way of thinking about concepts

ii. Symbol – an abstract unit of thought that represents an object or qualitya. A sound, object or designb. Words, stand for something other than itselfc. Where an image represents a specific sight or sound, a symbol may have

numerous meaningsd. Numbers, letters, punctuation marks and icons

iii. Concept – a label for a class of objects or events that have a least one attribute in commona. Animals, music, liquid, beautiful peopleb. Enables us to chunk large amounts of information

iv. Prototype – a representative example of a concepta. Has most the characteristics of the particular concept

v. Rule – a statement of relation between conceptsa. Complex unit of thoughtb. A person can’t be in 2 places at one time; mass remains constant despite

changes in appearance

B. Kinds of Thinkingi. Directed Thinking – a systematic and logic approach/attempt to reach a

specific goal or answera. The solution to a problemb. Also know as convergent thinkingc. Depends on symbols, concepts and rulesd. Deliberate and purposefule. Solve problems, formulate and follow rules and set, work toward and

achieve goalsii. Non-Directed Thinking – consists of a free flow of thoughts with no

particular plan and depends more on imagesa. Rich in imagery and feelings such as daydreams, fantasies and

reveriesb. When relaxing or escaping from boredom or worryc. Also known as divergent thinking d. May provide unexpected insights into one’s goals and beliefs

iii. Metacognition – the awareness of one’s own cognitive processa. Thinking about thinkingb. Thinking about a strategy may cause one to change to another strategy

2. Problem SolvingA. One of the main functions of directed thinking is to solve problems, bridge the

gap mentally between the present situation and a desired goali. Strategies – specific methods for approaching problemsii. Break down a complex problem into smaller, more easily solved, subgoalsiii. Work backward from the goal you have setiv. Use strategies you have used before

i. We tend to shy away from new situations that require new strategiesii. The more unusual the problem, the more difficult it is to devise a

strategy for dealing with itv. Algorithm – a fixed set of procedures that will lead to a solution if followed

correctlyi. Mathematical and scientific formulasii. Playing chess or checkers

vi. Heuristics – experimental strategies, or rules of thumbBasically shortcutsLead to quick decisions that can result in bad decisions

3. Obstacles to Problem SolvingA. Mental Set – when a particular strategy becomes a habit

i. Starting tic-tac-toe in the middle box, always attempt to control a position of a chess board

ii. Rigidity – when a set interferes with problem solvinga. Reading “read” for “red”b. Functional Fixedness – the inability to imagine new functions for

familiar objectsc. Making a wrong assumption about a problemd. Many people look for direct methods to solve problems and don’t see

solutions that require several immediate stepse. Can be overcome

Thinking and Problem Solving Pages (Activity)

4. Creativity – the ability to use information in such a way that the result is somehow new, original and meaningful

i. Flexibility – the ability to overcome rigiditya. Imagining many different uses for a single object

ii. Recombination – rearranging the elements of a problem to arrive at an original solutiona. Football and Basketball, there are no new moves, just a recombination of

old onesb. Using the discoveries and formulas of other to develop new scientific and

mathematical formulas and ideasiii. Insight – the apparent sudden realization of the solution to a problem

a. A continuation of a subconscious processb. The “aha” experience

Section 1 Review

Dr. Zimbardo Video #6

1. The Structure of Languagei. Language – the expression of ideas through symbols and sounds that are

arranged according to rulesa. Allows us to communicateb. The study of meaning (semantics) is the most complex aspect of language

ii. Phonemes – an individual sound that is the basic structural element of languagea. Represented by a letter or combination of lettersb. We can produce about 100 different, recognizable soundsc. English uses 43, some 15 and others up to 85

iii. Morphemes – the smallest unit of meaning in a given languagea. A words, letter, prefix or suffix

iv. Syntax – language rules that govern how words can be combined to form meaningful phrases and sentencesa. Ex. Placing adjectives in front of nounsb. Rules differ from language to language

v. Semantics – the study of the meaning in languageA word being both a noun and a verb

2. Language Developmenti. BF Skinner – children learn language through operant conditioningii. Other Psychologists – children learn language through observation, exploration

and imitationiii. Noam Chomsky – children inherit a mental program that enables them to learn

grammara. Reinforcement and imitation contribute to language development as well

3. How Language Developsi. Birth – crying and sounds indicating distressii. 2 months – cooing, “ooooh” and “eeeeh”iii. 4 months – babbling, “dadada” and “bababa”iv. 9 months – learn to control vocal chords, make/change/repeat/imitate sounds of

parentsv. 12 months – uttering single words (objects/people), “dada” or “doggie”

a. Single words can describe longer thoughtsvi. 24 months – 2 words together to express an idea, “milk gone”, “me play”

a. Learning rule of grammar, 50 - 100 wordsvii. 2-3 years – form sentences of several words

a. Telegraphic speech – leaving out article such as “the’, prepositions such as “with” and parts of verbs

viii. 5 years – language development is largely completeVocabulary and sentence complexity continue to develop

5. Gender and Cultural Differencesi. Language affects our basic perceptions of the physical worldii. Linguistic Relativity – idea of language influencing thoughts

a. Inuit have many words for snow, where we have but 1iii. Words also create gender stereotypes

4. Do Animals Learn Languagei. In a word, no!ii. Animals tend to communicate as a response to a stimuli (fear, hunger), not to

share ideas, communicate information, solve problems, express dreams or goals, or even for fun

iii. Some primates though are thought to be able to obtain the basics of communication, the greatest example being Koko the Gorilla who learned over 1000 American Sign Language Signs, using them to express not just needs, but to ask questions and express emotions

iv. One last thing to think about, animals can not or do not use their communication methods to deceive or lie (outside of primates)

Section 2 Review

Chapters 10 and 11 Study GuideChapters 10 and 11 Test