General Psychology 202 Psychology of Memory Introduction: What is Memory? • Memory Processes: (encoding, storage and retrieval) The Stage Model of Memory • Sensory memory • Short-term memory (working memory) • Long-term memory • Encoding long-term memory • Types of information in long-term memory • Organization of information in long-term memory Retrieval • Retrieval cues • The encoding specificity principle • Flashbulb memories Reconstructing Memories (sources of potential errors) • Schemas and memory distortions • Source confusion and false memories • Distortions in eyewitness testimonies • Science versus pseudoscience 6.2: remembering past lives Forgetting • Factors that influence forgetting • Critical Thinking 6.2: Recovering “repressed” memories from childhood abuse The Search for the Biological Basis of Memory • The role of neurons in long-term memory • Processing memories in the brain (clues from amnesia) • Brain structures involved in memory Culture and Human Behavior 6.4: Do Cultural Beliefs Affect Memory? Application: Making Those Memories Last

Memory and Behavior What do persistent gamblers remember the most? (a) Instances in which they win. (b) Instances in which they lose. (c) Neither, they remember each one about the same. (d) I am not sure.

Psychology is sometimes not intuitively obvious

This example illustrates several things about human thinking and memory: • The thinking processes involved are not obvious and can be counterintuitive. • How you organize information in memory can affect your thinking and your behavior. • Persistent gambling requires knowledge of the psychology of learning (schedules of reinforcements) and memory (and perhaps even more). Misunderstandings of behavior, such as persistent gambling, can make difficult to address the problem or make intervention strategies not very effective.

Sensory memory: The stage of memory that registers a huge amount of information from the environment (via your sense) and holds it for a very short period of time. Short-term memory (STM): Also known as working memory. The active stage of memory in which about 7 “chunks” of information is stored for about 30 seconds. Long-term memory (LTM): The stage of memory that represents long-term storage of information. It is estimated that the duration of LTM is the lifespan and the capacity is essentially infinite.

Description and function

Sensory Memory

Short-term Memory (STM)

Long-term Memory (LTM)

Approximate capacity

Estimated Duration

LONG-TERM MEMORY

Explicit memory (declarative memory)

Semantic Memory

Episodic Memory

Information that can be consciously recollected. This takes the form of general knowledge such as facts, names, and concepts.

Information that can be consciously recollected about personally experienced events.

§ I know that the meaning of the word semantic is closer to the meaning of the word vocabulary than it is to the word disarmament. § I remember that the chemical formula for water is H2O. § I know that the shortest day of the year is in December. § I know good study skill strategies. § I know that velvet is soft.

§ The telephone rang a short while ago, followed by a thud when the snow fell off the roof. § At Christmas time, I saw Santa Claus whose beard was falling off. § The word dulcimer was on the first list I learned in this experiment. § I was watching the Iran-Contra hearings just before my television broke.

Implicit memory (non-declarative memory) Procedural Memory Information that is usually difficult to recollect such as how to perform different skills, operations and actions. § Your ability to type. § Your ability to drive. § Setting up flow chart. § Cooking (for some people). § Your knowledge of how to play the guitar. § Your knowledge of how to play basketball. § Making a paper airplane. § Your ability to study.

What memories are real? It is very difficult to distinguish between “actual memories” and reconstructed memories. Reconstructed memories are potentially inaccurate. A student example: In middle school I was asked to write a paper on the earliest memory I could recall. I whacked my brain for hours trying to remember something from my early childhood, when suddenly it came to me: I was running along the coast on a very cold and drizzly day, wearing an aqua green quilted jacket, and I could see my long hair escaping on both sides of the hood, flying in the wind.

What is it in this recollection that suggests that this is a reconstructed memory and not an actual memory? What are other issues involve distinguishing between “real” and “constructed” memories?