Memory involves three main stages: encoding, storage, and retrieval. During encoding, information is organized and shaped into memories. Memories are not static recordings but can change over time as a constructive process. A traditional model of memory involves sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Short-term memory lasts up to 30 seconds while long-term memory has unlimited capacity but memories must be transferred from short-term through rehearsal. There are two main types of long-term memory: explicit/declarative and implicit/procedural. Factors like encoding specificity and emotional arousal can influence long-term memory formation and retrieval.

1. Memory
Encoding and Beyond
November
20, 2020
1

2. Defining Memory
Memory
- The persistence of
learning over time
- The process by
which information
is encoded, stored,
and retrieved
Constructive Process
Organizing and shaping
information during
encoding, storage, and
retrieval of memories
Memory is not a video recording
or an unchanging library of
experiences. Memories can
change over time.Drive Brain
Power

3. Why is memory important?
 Retain skills, knowledge, and expertise
 Recognize people we know
 Build capacity for language
 Enjoy, share, sustain culture
 Build a sense of self
 Learn from past mistakes
November 20, 20203

4. How Does Memory Work?
An Information-Processing Model
Here is a simplified description of how memory works:
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval

5. Atkinson-Shiffren/Information
Processing Model (1968)
Memory processed like a computer
processes memory
Series of 3 stages
November 20, 20205

6. 2nd Image of Atkinson-Shiffren:
Traditional Three-Stage Memory
Model

7. Updates- Working Memory and
Automatic Processing
 Where we hold memory when currently
using it
 But also where we work with and
manipulate the information
November 20, 20207

8. Sensory Memory
First stage of memory
Storage system for memories of
sensory information. Last only 3-4
seconds
Enters nervous system through
senses
Ears, eyes, nose, etc
November 20, 20208

9. Three Types of Sensory
Information
Iconic (visual)
Echoic (hearing)
Eidetic Memory (also called
photographic memory)
November 20, 20209

10. Capacity of Short-Term Memory
 Digit-span test:
 Numbers read to subjects, must recall in order
 Capacity of STM is 7+/- 2 items

11. Short-Term Memory
STM lasts from about twelve to thirty
seconds without rehearsal.
STM is susceptible to interference.
E.g., if counting is interrupted, one will
have to start over.

12. Short-Term Memory
 Review: What is short term memory?
 STM: Where information is held where it is
conscious and being used
 What test did we do you yesterday that
“tested” the capacity of our STM?
 Digit span test
 How much information is normally held in STM?
 7 +/- 2 chunks of information

13. Long-term Memory
 System where memories kept more or less
permanently are stored
 Deeply processed information
remembered longer
 Unlimited capacity
 Memories available, but might not be
accessible

14. Transferring from STM to LTM
 Can rehearsing information make it into
long-term memory?
 Yes? No?
 Answer is yes. If rehearsed long enough.
 Rote/ Maintenance rehearsal- repeating
over and over
 Elaborative rehearsal – Connect new
information to something that is already
known

15. Types of Long Term Memory
November 20, 202015

16. Types of Long-Term Memory
 Explicit/Declaractive
– Facts/Personal Info
 Knowledge, personal
facts, can be stated
 Implicit/Procedural –
Skills
 Things you just know
how to do, have to
be shown/taught

17. Procedural - Skills
 Emotional associations, habits, and simple
conditioned reflexes that may or may not be in
conscious awareness
 Examples: tying a shoe, riding a bike, etc.
 Similar to implicit memory- because not usually
easily brought to conscious awareness

18. Types of Declarative LTM - Facts
1) Semantic – facts
 Jeopardy, Who Wants to be a
Millionaire
 Words, concepts, objects, math
skills, etc.
2) Episodic – memory
 Autobiographical/Personal memory

19. Priming Memory
Priming
An exposure (often
unconscious) to
previously stored
information that
predisposes (or
primes) one’s
response to related
stimuli.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons,
Inc. All rights reserved.

20. Long-Term Memory
Recall
Retrieving a memory using a
general, nonspecific clue
(e.g., essay test)
Recognition
Retrieving a memory using a
specific cue (e.g., multiple-
choice test)
Retrieval Cue
Prompt or stimulus that
aids recall or retrieval of
a stored piece of
information from long-
term memory
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons,
Inc. All rights reserved.

21. Improving Long-Term Memory
Encoding Specificity
Principle
Retrieval of
information is
improved when
conditions of
recovery are similar
to the conditions
when the
information was
encoded
Mood congruence
Ex: When you are mad at
your partner, you recall
the times s/he made you
mad!
State-dependent memory
Ex: If you learn a joke
while under the influence
of alcohol, you’ll
remember it better in that
state.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons,
Inc. All rights reserved.

22. More About Mnemonics!
Method of loci
Greek and Roman orators
developed the method of loci to
keep track of the many parts of
their long speeches. Orators
would imagine the parts of their
speeches attached to places in a
courtyard. For example, if an
opening point in a speech was
the concept of justice, they
might visualize a courtroom
placed in the first corner of their
garden. As they mentally walked
around their garden during their
speech, they would encounter,
in order, each of the points to be
made.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons,
Inc. All rights reserved.

23. More About Mnemonics!
Acronyms
To use the acronym method,
create a new code word from
the first letters of the items
you want to remember. For
example, to recall the names
of the Great Lakes, think of
HOMES on a great lake
(Huron, Ontario, Michigan,
Erie, Superior). Visualizing
homes on each lake also
helps you remember your
code word “homes.”
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons,
Inc. All rights reserved.

24. Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve

25. Five Theories of Forgetting

26. Two Types of Interference
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights
reserved.

27. Retrieval and LTM
Serial-Position Effect
Information at the
beginning (primacy
effect) and end
(recency effect) of a
list is remembered
better than material
in the middle.

28. Factors in Forgetting
Source Amnesia
Forgetting the true origin of a
memory; sometimes called source
confusing or misattribution
Misinformation Effect
A memory error resulting
from misleading information
presented after an event,
which alters memories of
the event itself
Spacing of Practice
Trying to learn too much at
one time!

29. Memory and Culture
Do children who are
raised in cultures
that have a rich oral
tradition have
better memories for
information related
through stories?

30. Synaptic and
Neurotransmitter Changes
Long-Term Potentiation
Long-lasting increase in
neural sensitivity, which may
be a biological mechanism
for learning and memory
Two Ways
Repeated stimulation of a
synapse can strengthen the
synapse by causing the
dendrites to grow more
spines
Learning results in more
release of
neurotransmitters, which in
turn causes message
transmission to be more
efficient

31. The Brain and Memory
Damage to any one of these areas can affect encoding, storage, and retrieval of
memories. For example, what effect might damage to your amygdala have on
your relationships with others? How might damage to your thalamus affect your
day-to-day functioning?
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights
reserved.

32. Emotional Arousal and Memory
Flashbulb Memory
Vivid, detailed, and
nearly-permanent
memory of an emotionally
significant event
Stress hormones initially
INCREASE memory, but
prolonged or extreme
stress INTERFERES with
memory.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons,
Inc. All rights reserved.

33. Biological Causes of Memory Loss: Traumatic
Brain Injury (TBI)
(a) In retrograde amnesia, the person loses memories of events that occurred before
the accident, yet has no trouble remembering things that happened afterward. Old,
“retro” memories are lost.
(b) In anterograde amnesia, the person cannot form new memories for events that
occur after the accident (new, “antero” memories are lost). Anterograde amnesia also
may result from a surgical injury (as in the case of H.M.) or from diseases, such as
chronic alcoholism.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

34. Biological Causes of Memory
Loss: Alzheimer’s Disease
 Extreme decrease in
explicit/declarative memory
 Retain some
implicit/nondeclarative
memory
Upon autopsy, brains have:
 tangles from degenerating
cell bodies
 plaques from degenerating
axons and dendrites
(left) Note the large amount of red and yellow color
(signs of brain activity) in the positron emission
tomography scans of the normal brain. (right) Now
compare the reduced activity in the brain of the
Alzheimer’s disease patient. The loss is most
significant in the temporal and parietal lobes, which
indicates that these areas are particularly important
for storing memories.

35. Memory and the
Criminal Justice System
 Unreliability of eyewitness
testimony
 Confidence in memory is
not a predictor of accuracy
 Importance of false
memories
 Bitter debate about
repressed memories

36. Understanding and Improving
Eyewitness Testimony

37. False Versus Repressed Memories