Chapter 6 Memory

Yonghui Wang School of Psychology

Shaanxi Normal University 2010.10.16

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Chapter 6 MemoryOur goals: Elucidate the definition of memory. Explain the characteristics of different kinds of

memory. Discuss various explanations for forgetting. Discuss how and why memories change over

time. Describe and explain the brain structures and

regions that are the bases for memory. Explain the special types of memory:

autobiographical memory, flashbulb memories, eyewitness testimony.

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Chapter 6 Outline

What is memory?

How do we form memories?

How do we retrieve memories?

Why does memory sometimes fail us?

Memory

The three systems of memory

Recalling long-term memories

Forgetting

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What is memory ?

Memory: any system—human, animal, or machine—that encodes, stores, and retrieves information.

Each of the three parts of this definition represents a different process.

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What is memory ?

The process of memory Encoding（编码） : involving the

modification of information to fit the preferred format for the memory system.

Storage（存储） : involving the retention of encoded material over time.

Retrieval（提取） : involving the location and recovery of information from memory.

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The three systems of memory

The Sensory Registers（感觉登记） Preserving brief sensory impressions of

stimuli. Short-Term Memory（短时记忆）

Preserving recently perceived events or experiences for less than a minute without rehearsal, most limited in capacity.

Long-Term Memory（长时记忆） Store material organized according to

meaning, with the largest capacity and longest duration.

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attention

The three systems of memory

pattern recognition

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The Sensory Registers Function:

briefly holds information awaiting entry into STM.

Encoding: sensory images: no meaningful encoding.

Storage capacity: 12~16 items.

Duration: about ¼ second.

Structure: a separate sensory register for each sense.

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The Sensory Registers

Types of sensory Iconic memory（图像记忆，余象记忆） :

information from the visual system. Echoic memory（声象记忆，余音记忆） : stores

auditory information from the ears.

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Storage capabilities Storage capabilities

George Sperling (1960) Display a series of 12 letters like this

Hearing a high, medium, or low tone Recall the letters

Recall the letters in the first line if a high tone sounded, the middle line if a medium tone occurred, or the third line if a low tone

Result: participant had stored all the letters in sensory memory.

D J B W X H G N C L Y K

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Short-Term Memory Function:

involved in control of attention; attaches meaning to stimulation; makes associations among ideas and events.

Encoding: encodes information to make it acceptable

for long-term storage. Storage capacity:

7±2 chunks.

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Short-Term Memory

Duration: about 20~30 second.

Structure: central executive; phonological loop;

sketchpad (Working memory)

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Short-Term Memory

How can we improve our short-memory?

MEMORY SHORT

M O M E R Y H S O R T

Chunk（组块） : any pattern or meaningful unit of information. Chunking（组块过程） : organizing pieces of information into a small number of meaningful units—a process that frees up space.

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Working Memory

Definition A set of temporary memory stores

that actively manipulate and rehearse information.

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Working Memory

The Model of Working Memory Central executive（中央执行器） :

involved in reasoning and decision making.

Sketchpad（视觉空间画板） : store and manipulate visual images.

Phonological loop（语音回路） : temporarily stores sounds.

Episodic buffer（情景缓冲器）

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Working Memory

Central executive

Sketchpad Phonological loop

Episodic buffer

Visual store(visual and spatial material)

Verbal store(speech, words, numbers)

Episodes or occurrences

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Rehearsal—from STM to LTM Rehearsal（复述）

Repetition of information that has entered short-term memory.

i.e. Remember strange phone number Elaborative rehearsal （精细复述）

Expanding the information to make it fit into a logical framework, linking it to another memory, turning it into an image, or transforming it in some other way.

How could we remember psychological theories efficiently?

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Long-Term Memory Function:

storage of information Encoding:

stores information in meaningful mental categories.

Storage capacity: unlimited

Duration: unlimited

Structure: procedural memory and declarative memory

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Long-term memory modules

Long-term memory

Declarative memory Procedural memory

Semantic memory Episodic memory

I know what a guitar is.I remember buying my first guitar.

I remember how to play a guitar.

Language, FactsGeneral knowledgeconcepts

Events ,personal experiences

Motor skillsOperant conditioningClassical conditioning

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Long-Term Memory

Serial position effect（系列位置效应）

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Biological bases of long-term memory

Hippocampus海马Amygdala杏仁核

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Associative modules of memory（记忆的联想模块） Theory that memory consists of mental

representations of interconnected information.

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Associative Models of memory

Associate memory models help account for priming（启动） . A phenomenon in which exposure to a word

or concept (called a prime) later makes it easier to recall related information, even when there is no conscious memory of the word or concept.

A technique for cuing implicit memories by providing cues that stimulate a memory without awareness of the connection.

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Associative Models of memory

Explicit memory （外显记忆） : Intentional or conscious recollection of

information. Process with attention, intentional memory.

Implicit memory （内隐记忆） : Memories of which people are not

consciously aware, but which can affect subsequent performance and behavior.

Not deliberately learned, unintentional memory.

The connectionist Approach to Long-Term memory

According to the connectionist approach（联结主义取向） , the activation of one cue leads to the activation of other, related concepts.

Connectionism（联结主义） is a model of the nervous system based on networks that link together individual units.

Connectionism is also known as the parallel distributed processing approach（平行分布加工取向） or the PDP approach.

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Recalling long-term memories

Have you ever tried to remember someone’s name, convinced that you knew it, but were unable to recall it no matter how hard you tried?

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon （舌尖现象） The inability to recall information that one

realizes one knows—a result of the difficulty of retrieving information from long-term memory.

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Recalling long-term memories

Retrieval cues The “search terms” used to active a

memory Maybe a word, an emotion, or a sound.

Levels-of-processing theory The theory of memory that emphasizes

the degree to which new materials is mentally analyzed.

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Recalling long-term memories

Flashbulb memories（闪光灯记忆） Memories centered on a specific,

important, or surprising event that are so vivid it is as if they represented a snapshot of the event.

Constructive process （记忆的建构过程） Processes in which memories are

influenced by the meaning we give to events.

Schemas（图式）

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Recalling long-term memories Memory in the courtroom

Are the eyewitness believable? Repressed memories（被压抑的记忆）

Truth or fiction? The psychodynamic explanation, repression,

has met with skepticism among psychological scientists, who consider it vague and unverified.

Autobiographical memory （自传记忆） Our recollections of circumstances and

episodes from our own lives.

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Forgetting

Ebbinghaus Meaningless

letters

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Several reasons for Forgetting Information in sensory and short-term memory

appears to decay if it does not receive further processing.

New information may "erase" old information in long-term memory. Proactive and retroactive interference may take place.

Cue-dependent forgetting may occur when retrieval cues are inadequate.

Some lapses in memory may be due to psychogenic amnesia（心因性遗忘） the forgetting of disturbing or shocking events psychologists are divided about why this

occurs.

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Proactive and Retroactive interference

Study French

StudyEnglish

Take Englishtest

Study French

StudyEnglish

Take Frenchtest

Time

Proactive interference

Retroactiveinterference

前摄干扰

倒摄干扰

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Proactive interference

Proactive interference: Current (new) information is lost because it

is mixed up with previously learned, similar information.

Examples I have trouble recalling my new phone

number, because I get it mixed up with my old number.

A student finds a new concept to be hard to understand because she confuses it with similar ideas she has already learned.

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Retroactive interference Retroactive Interference

Previously learned information is lost because it is mixed up with new and somewhat similar information.

Example I have trouble recalling my old phone

number, because I get it mixed up with my new number.

A student understood a concept last week but can no longer discuss the concept correctly, because he confuses it with other concepts studied since that time.

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Memory Dysfunctions Self learning after class

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In 1974, Baddeley and Hitch proposed a three-component model of working memory. Over the years, this has been successful in giving an integrated account not only of data from normal adults, but also neuropsychological, developmental and neuroimaging data. There are, however, a number of phenomena that are not readily captured by the original model. These are outlined here and a fourth component to the model, the episodic buffer, is proposed. It comprises a limited capacity system that provides temporary storage of information held in a multimodal code, which is capable of binding information from the subsidiary systems, and from long-term memory, into a unitary episodic representation. Conscious awareness is assumed to be the principal mode of retrieval from the buffer. The revised model differs from the old principally in focussing attention on the processes of integrating information, rather than on the isolation of the subsystems. In doing so, it provides a better basis for tackling the more complex aspects of executive control in working memory.