Lecture 4 Memory

Memory is the process by which we take something we have observed (encountered), and
convert it into a form we can store, retrieve and use.

Processes of memory:
- Encoding
- Storage
- Retrieval

Mental representations
A mental model of a stimulus or category of stimuli
- Sensory representations (e.g. visual image of a dog or sound of a gunshot)
- Verbal representations (e.g. information stored in words -concept of ‘freedom’)
- Motoric representations (e.g. memories of motor actions- swinging a tennis racket),
least studied

For information to come back to mind after it is no longer present, it has to be represented.
Sensory representations store information in a sensory mode; verbal representations store
information in words. People also store knowledge about actions as motoric
representations.

Sensory registers
Hold information about a perceived stimulus for a fraction of a second after the stimulus
disappears
One sensory register for every sensory system
― Iconic storage: momentary storage of visual information
― Echoic storage: momentary storage of auditory information

Its capacity is unlimited but the duration is limited because the duration recorded and
remembered is only half a second.
Short-term memory
• Information from the sensory registers that is attended to moves into STM
• Holds a small amount of information (limited capacity of approximately 7 items) for
a short period of time (limited duration of approximately 20–30 seconds)
• If material is rehearsed then it can be maintained in STM for a longer period
(e.g., chanting a phone number until it is dialled = maintenance rehearsal)

Elaborative rehearsal, which involves actually thinking about the material while committing
it to memory, is more useful for long-term than for short-term storage.

For example, remembering the words to a poem or remembering the content for an exam is
much easier if the person really understands what it is about, rather than just committing
each word to memory by rote.

Long-term memory
• The representations of facts, images, actions and skills that may persist over a
lifetime (potentially limitless duration)
• LTM is theoretically limitless in capacity
• Extracting information from the LTM is called retrieval
• Research demonstrating the Serial Position Curve supports the existence of STM
versus LTM
• Primacy effect reflects LTM
• Recency effect reflects STM

If you did not pay attention during encoding, and did not do encoding well, might have
difficulty retrieving it well in the LTM.

It is a tendency to remember information towards the beginning and end of a list rather
than in the middle

Primacy reflects LTM resulting in heightened recall as because they are earlier in the lists,
there are a lot of opportunities for rehearsal and moving into LTM

Recency is still in the STM as they are in the later part of the lists thus, they are heightened
in the possibility of recall subsequently
Evolution of the memory model
• Memory is no longer thought of in terms of a serial processing model
• Memory is now thought to be comprised of a number of modules which are discrete
but interdependent (parallel processing)
• It is recognised that remembering is not always conscious or retroactive
• Memory is no longer likened to the processing of a computer

We recognised that remembering is unconscious because we simply know how to tie our
shoes.

Information processing model of memory

Working memory refers to the temporary storage and processing of information that can be
used to solve problems, respond to environmental demands or achieve goals.

Central executive: controls the flow and processing of information (limited capacity)

Visual memory store (visuospatial sketchpad)

• A temporary image (20–30 seconds) that stores information about the
location and nature of objects

Verbal memory store (phonological loop)

• Involves storage of verbal items (equates to STM). It has limited capacity.

Neuropsychology of working memory

• Working memory is thought to be directed by the prefrontal cortex
• Verbal and visual working memory activate different cortical regions of the brain.
This demonstrates the independence of different components of working memory.

Verbal activated the temporal part of the brain

Visual activated the occipital and parietal part of the brain
Working memory and LTM
Evidence supporting a distinction between working memory and LTM:
- Working memory is easily accessed, but is limited in capacity
- LTM deficit: person shows normal working memory, but cannot transfer information
to LTM (For example, knowing how to solve the problem and having conversation
but forget about it the next day)
- Working memory deficit: person has a memory span of 2 digits, but normal LTM (For
example, they only have memory span of 2 digits, but they can still remember it the
next day)

Chunking
The use of knowledge from LTM to increase the capacity of working memory
LOLROFLYOLOBFF -> LOL*ROFL*YOLO*BFF

Varieties of long-term memory

People store two types of information

Declarative memory: memory for facts and events which can be stated or declared
- Semantic: general world knowledge or facts (Knowing LHL is our PM or NaCl is the
chemical formula for table salt)
- Episodic: memories of specific events which is autobiographical in nature, allows
people to travel mentally through time, to remember thoughts and feelings from the
recent or distant past or to imagine the future (recalling personal events from past)

Procedural memory: memory for the ‘how to’ of skills or procedures (swimming)
People express knowledge in two ways
- Explicit memory: memory that is expressed through conscious recollection
(e.g., remembering telephone numbers)
- Implicit memory: memory that is expressed in behaviour but does not require
conscious recollection (e.g., driving a car, typing a shoelace)

For example, when you play a piano for the first time, it will be an explicit memory first and
then when you become an expert, it will be implicit memory.

The declarative-procedural dichotomy refers more to the type of knowledge that is stored
(facts versus skills), whereas the explicit-implicit distinction refers more to the way this
knowledge is retrieved and expressed (with or without conscious awareness).

People’s knowledge of facts (declarative knowledge) is often expressed without awareness

(implicitly).

Explicit memory
Involves the conscious retrieval of information
- Recall is the spontaneous conscious recollection of information from LTM. For
example, responding to an open-ended question in an exam situation.
- Recognition is the identification of something previously seen or learned. For
example, responding to a multiple-choice question in an exam situation.

When efforts at recall fail, people sometimes experience the tip-of-the-tongue

phenomenon, in which the person knows the information is ‘in there’ but is not quite able
to retrieve it.
The hippocampus will consolidate all the memory and goes back up to cerebral cortex for
storage

The storage depends on the information that you consolidate

E.g. Name of animal giraffe consolidate by the hippocampus, and then store in cerebral
cortex in the temporal lobe for language

E.g. Use of hammer consolidate by the hippocampus, and then store in parietal lobe for
actions

Everyday memory
Laboratory memory studies can be artificial (timing, what is memorised, when it is
recollected).

Studies of everyday memory examine:

• The function of memory and our intent as we learn information
• The emotional significance of memory
• Prospective aspect of memory (memory for things that need to be done in
the future such as picking up some items at the corner shop after work) (Two
components: remembering to remember (be sure to stop at the corner shop
after work) & remembering what to remember (e.g. a loaf of bread and milk)
• Retrospective aspect of memory (memory for things in the past, for example,
lists or telephone numbers).

Memory is functional. Of all the things we could commit to memory over the course of a
day, we tend to remember those that affects our needs and interests.
Encoding in long-term memory
• The storage of information in LTM requires that it be cast into a representational
form (encoded)
• The type and level of encoding influences the accessibility of information
• Levels of processing
• Shallow processing: focus on the physical characteristics of the stimulus
• Deep processing: focus on the meaning of the stimulus

Shallow processing is just like reading the textbook like your storybook and not engaging
with it, but deep processing is like learning 2 things at different times and able to make that
link and connection together.

Encoding specificity principle

The ease of retrieval of a memory depends on a match between the way information was
encoded and how it is later retrieved.
• There is poor recall if shallow learning is examined using a deep processing
technique.
• Student who reads multiple choice items in textbook and then takes an essay
exam will not do very well.

Context and retrieval

• Context dependent memory
• Information is easier to recall when it is encoded and retrieved in the same
context

• Mood (state) congruent memory

• Information is easier to recall when it is encoded and retrieved in the same
emotional state
• The same context or emotional state provides retrieval cues which facilitate
recollection.

Context dependent memory

For example, scuba divers are given a list to memorise different words, those that encoded
under water will retrieve the memory well under water but for those above water that
encoded will retrieve the memory well above water

Mood congruent memory

For example, if you are happily encoding the list of words given and you are happily
retrieving the words, it will facilitate better recollection

For example, you might have experience a breakup before, you will be sad and overtime you
get better and suppose you watch a sad movie where a dog died and it puts you back into
the sad stage, you will likely to remember things when you are sad before and you
remember your ex-partner
Spacing effect
Superiority of memory for information rehearsed over longer intervals

What do you think are the implication of this study for your own study strategies?
It is more effective when you study 1 hour every day before exam instead of just cramming
8 hours a day before your exam.

Spacing affects retention of information, learning other language.

Representational modes and encoding

Storing a memory in multiple representational modes – such as words, images and sounds –
provides more retrieval cues to bring it back to mind.

Mnemonic devices add additional cues for retrieval to enhance memory

- Method of Loci: uses visual imagery as a memory aid
Things in our bedroom: pillow, wardrobe, top of your dresser, under the bed
Run the following errands: pick up vitamin C, buy milk, return a book to the library

Example: vitamin C pills as spilled all over your pillows, a bottom of milk poured over the
best outfit in your wardrobe, book lying on top of your dresser

Often the most ridiculous the image, the easier it is to remember.

- SQ4R Method: a method specifically designed to help students remember

information in textbooks
• Survey, question, read, recite and review, and write.

E.g. Read: As you read, try to answer the questions you posed.
E.g. Write: As you read or listen to lectures, actively write answers to questions and take
notes.
Networks of association
• LTM is organised in clusters of information that are related in meaning
• The network is composed of interconnected nodes
• A node may contain thoughts, images, smells, emotions or any other
information
• Mnemonic devices allow one to add concepts to existing networks

Schemas (a mental concept that informs a person about what to expect from a variety of
experiences and situations)
Schemas affect the way people remember in two ways:
• By influencing the way information is encoded
• By shaping the way information is reconstructed
Across and within cultures, people tend to remember information that matters to them, and
they organise information in memory to match the demands of their environment. Shared
culture concepts, or cultural models, also shape the way people think and remember.

‘Seven sins of memory’

• Transience: memories fade with time (breakup with your partner, no longer hangout,
the association weaken and the memories fade with time)

• Absent-mindedness: need to pay attention to remember (the failure to remember

something when attention is elsewhere like maybe you are taking your exams but
you are already dreaming about your vacation)

• Misattribution: source amnesia (misremembering the source of a memory – when

you are telling the joke from your memory, but you forget where you got the joke
from)

• Suggestibility: thinking we remember (an event that someone actually implanted in

our minds)

• Bias: distortions in recall (events that often tell the story in a way we would rather
remember it)

• Persistence: recurring memories (memories we wish we could get rid of, but which
keep coming back – those with post-traumatic stress disorder)

• Forgetting: inability to remember

Accuracy of long-term memory

• Memory is subject to errors and biases
• Memory can be primed
• Memory is altered by emotional factors
• Eyewitness testimony
• Recall of events can be manipulated by asking leading questions
• For example: Did you see a/the broken
tail light?
• Flashbulb memory – vivid memories of exciting or highly consequential events – are
sometime extremely accurate but sometime completely mistaken
Forgetting
• The inability to recall previously learned information
• Ebbinghaus documented the rate of forgetting of information.

Theories of forgetting

• Decay theory: memory is like a fading neural trace that is weakened with disuse
E.g. Disuse of information leads to a gradual decrease in the strength of neural connections

• Interference theory: conflict between new and old memories

• Proactive: old interferes with new
E.g. Old information like the name of your previous girlfriend and the new information of
the name of your new girlfriend, end result if you are calling out the wrong name

• Retroactive: new interferes with old

E.g. You might have a new phone number and because it interference with the old, you
can’t remember your old number

• Motivated forgetting implies that forgetting can avoid painful memories. (Forgetting
for a reason)
E.g. If you don’t like seeing a dentist, you might forget or overlook a dentist’s appointment.