Slide 1

PSYC 1315 I ntroduction to Psychology

Chapter 4:
Memory
PSYC 1315 I ntroduction to Psychology
Chapter 4:
Memory

PSYC 1315 Introduction to
Psychology
Chapter 4: Memory
In the last chapter, we discussed
learning. Now we turn to
memory. In many ways, learning
and memory are closely related.
Labeling a behavior based on
past experience is somewhat
arbitrary. For example, if you are
told that your friends phone
number is 272 2772, and the
next day you correctly dial the
number without having to look it
up, did you learn it, or remember
it? If a rat experiences a strong
shock in the white compartment
of a box, which is divided into
white and black compartments,
and the next day spends time
only in the black compartment,
did the rat learn that the white
compartment is where shocks
occur? Or did the rat remember
that it received a shock in the
white compartment? If you are
like most people, you probably
said that the phone number was
remembered, but the shock was
learned. However, the
terminology may just reflect our
human bias to attribute more
cognitive capacity to our own
species and less to non-human
species. Since we think of
memory as representing a fairly
cognitive capacity, we adjust our
description of the two examples
accordingly.

Slide 2
What is Memory? What is Memory?
Core Concept
Human memory is an information
processing systemthat works
constructively to encode, store, and
retrieve information
Core Concept
Human memory is an information
processing systemthat works
constructively to encode, store, and
retrieve information
Key Question Key Question

(Read slide) This is the
fundamental definition of
memory that researchers
embrace. The information
processing view that memory is
constructed via three processes:
encoding the memory, storing
the memory in the brain, and
retrieving the memory at a later
time. But one question about
memory is not addressed.

Slide 3
Why Do We Have Memory? Why Do We Have Memory?
The Clarks nutcracker, a corvid species
Stores (caches) pine nuts at high altitude
Recovery during the winter and spring
Spatial memory for 6,000 locations
Memory as an adaptation
The Clarks nutcracker, a corvid species
Stores (caches) pine nuts at high altitude
Recovery during the winter and spring
Spatial memory for 6,000 locations
Memory as an adaptation

The unasked question is WHY
do we have memory. Perhaps
the usefulness of being able to
remember things is so obvious
that the question doesnt need to
be asked. On the other hand, if
being able to remember things is
so useful, why does memory
sometimes fail? Even important
memories sometimes fail. Here
is the example of the Clarks
nutcracker, a member of the bird
family of corvids. Most of you
know the blue jay, also in the
corvid family. The Clarks
nutcracker lives at high
elevations of 10,000 feet or so,
year-round in the Rocky
Mountains. In order to survive
the winter, the nutcracker stores
pine nuts during the fall and
recovers them during the winter
and spring in order to survive.
The nuts are hidden in many
locations, so that if another
animal discovers a nut, it
wouldnt be a great loss. But if
the nutcracker hid his nuts in one
place, another animal
discovering the cache would be
a disaster for the nutcracker.
For this reason, the nutcracker
produces about 6,000 storage
locations for its nuts. You might
think that he would use some
kind of rule to make things easy
to remember, like hiding nuts in
the crevices of the branch
pointing east, 10 to 12 feet off
the ground. The nutcracker
doesnt do it this way. Research
has shown that the hiding places
are simply remembered by the
bird as individual locations. This
is an amazing accomplishment.
If a human had to remember
6,000 locations of food to survive
winter, they would probably
starve to death by J anuary. Its
pretty obvious that the Clarks
nutcrackers memory for spatial
location is an adaptation shaped
by natural selection. Research
has shown that it is a memory
that is content-specific. That is,
the Clarks Nutcrackers superior
memory is for spatial location.
When tested for its ability to
remember other things, like the
color or shapes of objects, it
comes up very average, about
like a blue jay. So, what does
this example tell us about human
memory? It shows that memory
can be shaped by evolution and
natural selection. Is it possible
that our memory might also be
specialized due to evolution and
tuned to specific situations?
This is a question that doesnt
get asked very often, but some
researchers have begun thinking
along these lines with some
interesting results.

Slide 4
Human Memory is Good at: Human Memory is Good at:
Information on which attention
is focused
Information in which we are interested
Information that arouses us emotionally
Information that fits with our previous
experiences
Information that we rehearse
Information that is important for
evolution
Information on which attention
is focused
Information in which we are interested
Information that arouses us emotionally
Information that fits with our previous
experiences
Information that we rehearse
Information that is important for
evolution

Memory is not the same for all
the things we encounter, and
some of the factors that make
memory better seem fairly
obvious. Attention, interest,
emotional arousal, consistency
with previous experiences, and
rehearsing something we are
trying to remember are all fairly
standard factors in human
memory research. Evidence has
only recently appeared pointing
to another factor relevant to
memory. Research suggests that
information relevant to evolution
will enhance the memory for
specific information. This
evidence was obtained in a
levels-of-processing experiment.
The next slide will outline the
idea of levels of processing and
how thinking about survival, a
fundamental part of evolution,
can have a strong influence on
memory.

Slide 5
Levels of Processing Levels of Processing
Working Memory
More connections equals better
memory
Letters, rhymes, or meaning of
the work
Shallow vs. Deep processing
Working Memory
More connections equals better
memory
Letters, rhymes, or meaning of
the work
Shallow vs. Deep processing

Fergus Craik and Endel Tulving
provide an experiment that
illustrates the levels of
processing phenomenon. They
asked a subject to look at a long
list of words, one at a time. For
some words, such as BEAR, the
subject was asked Is it in capital
letters? This is a superficial
question resulting in a shallow
level of processing. Alternatively
the subject might be asked,
Does it rhyme with chair? This
is a somewhat deeper level of
processing. Asking the subject,
Is it an animal? is deeper yet.
After going through the list,
subjects were then asked to pick
out the words they had
previously seen from a much
longer list. This is called a
recognition memory test,
because they had only to
recognize the word, not produce
it. When you take quizzes and
tests in this class, the multiple
choice questions you are asked
represent a recognition memory
test, by the way.

Slide 6
Results: Results:

The results support the idea that
the deeper the level of
processing, the better
recognition memory is. Many
different techniques have been
used to vary the depth of
processing. For example, rating
words for their pleasantness on
a 1 to 5 scale increases depth of
processing. In a series of
experiments by J ames Nairne
and his associates, the subjects
were asked to rate objects on a
1 to 5 scale, for how useful the
objects would be if the subjects
were marooned on an island. So
in essence, the subjects were
asked to process the words with
respect to their survival value,
something fundamental to
evolutionary success. If memory
is tied to our evolutionary history,
we would expect the level of
processing to be the deepest
possible for this condition.
Indeed, what the researchers
report is that the survival
scenario resulted in significantly
better memory for those words,
as compared to all other
techniques known to increase
the depth of processing. This
occurred in a variety of
background conditions.

Slide 7
Memorys Three Basic Tasks Memorys Three Basic Tasks
Encoding Encoding Encoding Storage Storage Storage
Access and
Retrieval
Access and Access and
Retrieval Retrieval

The basic tasks of memory are
to encode information. This is
often done automatically without
effort, but sometimes it does
require effort. This is called
elaboration. Storage is the
process of making what was
encoded into a more permanent
record. This record is often
referred to as an engram. (EN-
gram) (Gram as in a weight
rather than graham as in a
cracker) Finally, our memory
must be retrieved from its
storage spot to be remembered.
In an interesting case study,
William Penfield, a
neurosurgeon, reported
operating on a woman with a
brain tumor, using only local
anesthesia. During the
operation, he applied mild
electrical current to various parts
of her cortex, and she reported
having memories of events from
her early childhood that under
normal conditions, were not
remembered. One conclusion
that might be drawn from this
observation is that memories are
permanently stored, but
forgetting is caused by a failure
of retrieval. The patients
memories were in her brain, but
under normal circumstances she
couldnt retrieve them. However,
the electrical stimulation
delivered by Dr. Penfield
released the memory. This is a
theory that requires more
evidence.

Slide 8
Sensory
Memory
Sensory Sensory
Memory Memory
Working
Memory
Working Working
Memory Memory
Long-term
Memory
Long Long- -term term
Memory Memory
The Three Stages of Memory The Three Stages of Memory

It is customary to divide memory
into stages, based on the timing
of when something is
encountered and when it is
functional. Sensory memory is
the fleeting image of an event
that is recorded by our sensory
systems such as vision, auditory,
tactile, and so on. The sensory
system transfers the information
into working memory. If the
information is important, it may
then be transferred into long-
term memory, making it a
permanent part of our memory
system.

Slide 9
How Do We Form Memories? How Do We Form Memories?
Core Concept
Each of the three memory stages
encodes and stores memories in a
different way, but they work together
to transformsensory experience into
a lasting record that has a pattern of
meaning
Core Concept
Each of the three memory stages
encodes and stores memories in a
different way, but they work together
to transformsensory experience into
a lasting record that has a pattern of
meaning
Key Question Key Question

Memory researchers p
that we are not camcorders
when it comes to forming
memories. We transform
sensory experiences in
lasting record. The emphasis is
on the word transform, since
our memories are influenced by
a variety of factors such as the
context, our expectations, and
past experiences. The
term of importance is that the
lasting record has a pattern o
meaning. Again, this is
understood that memories are
oint out
our
to a


other
f
best

not photographs of the world, b
are the constructions of our
minds. This is why two peop
who shared an experience can
have different memories of that
experience. You may have had
this experience yourself,
disagreeing with a friend a
some event you both witnessed.

ut
le
bout

Slide 10
Semantic memory
Includes memory
for:
language, facts
general knowledge
Semantic memory
Includes memory
for:
language, facts
general knowledge
Episodic memory
Includes memory
for:
events, personal
experiences
Episodic memory
Includes memory
for:
events, personal
experiences
Includes memory
for:
motor skills,
operant and
classical
conditioning
Includes memory
for:
motor skills,
operant and
classical
conditioning
Long-termmemory Long-termmemory
Declarative memory Declarative memory Procedural memory Procedural memory

Once memories are transformed
into the long-term store, they can
be distinguished based on their
content. The most basic division
is between declarative
memories, which represent facts
of various sorts; and procedural
memories, which represent how
the world works. Declarative
memory is further divided
between semantic memory and
episodic memory. Semantic
memory represents general facts
and knowledge that you and
many other people would share.
An example of this would be that
the capital of the State of Texas
is Austin. Episodic memory
represents your personal
knowledge from past
experiences. The content of
episodic memories include
WHAT happened, WHEN it
happened and WHERE it
happened. Your episodic
memory might consist of a trip
taken to Colorado to go skiing
last J anuary.

Slide 11
Is Episodic Memory Uniquely Human? Is Episodic Memory Uniquely Human?
Nicole Claytons experiment with food
storing birds
Store seeds or meal worms in distinct
locations
Recover stored food after 6 hours
or 72 hours
Search for meal worms at 6 hours,
seeds at 72 hours
Nicole Claytons experiment with food
storing birds
Store seeds or meal worms in distinct
locations
Recover stored food after 6 hours
or 72 hours
Search for meal worms at 6 hours,
seeds at 72 hours

Nicole Clayton and Tony
Dickenson did an experiment
that challenges the claim made
by most memory theorists that
episodic memory is a uniquely
human ability. They allowed
their food-storing birds to cache
meal worms, a preferred food for
the birds, in a distinctive tray
located in one part of the
experimental arena. The birds
were also allowed to store seeds
in another tray in a different area
of the arena. The birds were
allowed back in the arena when
they were hungry, either 6 hours
after they stored the two types of
food, or 72 hours after storing it.
The important thing to know is
that after 72 hours, the meal
worms are dead and dried out,
not fit to eat, but after 6 hours,
they will still be good to eat.
Since the birds prefer the meal
worms to the seeds, if they
remember only where they
stored the meal worms, we
would expect them to search that
location first. But if they also
remember when they stored the
two foods, then after 6 hours
they should search the area
where they stored the meal
worms. After 72 hours they
should search for the seeds.
This is exactly what they did,
showing the what, where, and
when knowledge required for
episodic memory.

Slide 12
Is Episodic Memory Unitary? Is Episodic Memory Unitary?
The content of a memory may
make it special
Social knowledge
Spatial knowledge
Other specialized memories?
The content of a memory may
make it special
Social knowledge
Spatial knowledge
Other specialized memories?

Some of our memories may
occupy special parts of our brain
because they were fundamental
to our successful functioning in
our evolutionary past. We are a
highly social species. So our
knowledge of other people and
our relationships with them may
occupy a special place in our
brain. Some evidence for this
comes from a condition known
as propagnosia. This is the
deficit mentioned earlier, where
a small part of a persons
temporal lobe of the brain was
damaged. This person was
unable to recognize peoples
faces. Spatial knowledge may
also occupy a special part of the
brain. In birds, for example, the
degree to which they rely on
storing and retrieving food for
their survival correlates directly
with the size of their brain
structure that is analogous to the
hippocampus in our brain.
Memory theorists disagree as to
how specialized episodic
memory may turn out to be, and
further research will decide the
issue.

Slide 13
How Do We Retrieve Memories? How Do We Retrieve Memories?
Core Concept
Whether memories are implicit or
explicit, successful retrieval depends
on how they were encoded and how
they are cued
Core Concept
Whether memories are implicit or
explicit, successful retrieval depends
on how they were encoded and how
they are cued
Key Question Key Question

Some things can be
remembered without any
prompting, but other memories
only can be retrieved by
reinstating some of the cues that
were present when the memory
was formed. For example, in the
area of psychopharmacology
there is a phenomenon known
as state dependent learning. A
rat is given training in a T maze
where, if it turns to the left it gets
a reward. If it turns to the right, it
gets nothing. The training is
carried out while the rat has
been injected with a drug. Later
when the drug has cleared the
rats system, it is tested again in
the T maze, and shows little
benefit from the previous training
under the influence of the drug.
However, if the drug is once
again injected, the rat turns to
the left when re-tested in the T
maze. The idea is that the drug
state is part of the original
training, and it serves as a
retrieval cue for the memory of
that training when its present at
later testing, but when its absent
during later testing, the memory
for the prior training is not
retrieved. In general, retrieval
cues can take many forms.
Some are due to the person
deliberately establishing retrieval
cues, and others are incidental
to the memory, such as a
distinctive smell that was present
at the time the memory was
formed.

Slide 14
Factors Affecting Retrieval Factors Affecting Retrieval
Encoding specificity principle
The more closely the retrieval clues
match the formin which the
information was encoded, the better
the information will be remembered
Encoding specificity principle
The more closely the retrieval clues
match the formin which the
information was encoded, the better
the information will be remembered

One of the overlooked retrieval
cues is the general context that
is present when a memory is
formed. In one experiment,
students in an introductory
psychology course, like
yourselves, studied for a mid-
term exam for two sessions each
lasting 1 hours. These
sessions were held in three
locations. One group studied in
the classroom, another group
studied in a different room in the
same building as the classroom,
and a third group studied in their
room, the library, or wherever
they wanted. The students who
studied in the actual classroom
scored 6% higher on the mid-
term than the other two groups,
who didnt differ from each other.
The interpretation of the result is
that the classroom itself provided
a retrieval cue for the material
studied in that context, resulting
in better exam performance for
that group. You might want to
consider this effect in your own
studying.

Slide 15
Memorys Seven Sins Memorys Seven Sins
Transience Transience
Absent-
Mindedness
Absent-
Mindedness
Blocking Blocking
Misattribution Misattribution Suggestibility Suggestibility
Bias Bias Persistence Persistence

Daniel Schacter describes how
by-products of otherwise
adaptive features of memory
may be classified as sins of
memory. Transience is
forgetting over time or with
interference. Absent-
mindedness is due to shifts in
attention. Blocking is where
something is on the tip of the
tongue. Misattribution is where
memories are in the wrong
context. Suggestibility is where
memories are distorted by the
input of others. Bias is where
pre-existing beliefs, attitudes and
opinions distort memories.
Persistence is where we cant
forget things that are better
forgotten.

Slide 16
Using Psychology to Learn Psychology Using Psychology to Learn Psychology
Make the material meaningful
Spread learning over time
Minimize interference
Review and elaborate material
Test yourself with retrieval cues
Make the material meaningful
Spread learning over time
Minimize interference
Review and elaborate material
Test yourself with retrieval cues

This list of suggestions for being
able to remember what youve
studied may seem obvious, but if
you apply these suggestions it
should improve your ability to
remember. Spreading learning
over time is one suggestion that
students often violate.
Cramming, as its called, is not
the best way to get and
remember information.
Spreading things out for study is
a much better way of
proceeding. Mnemonic devices
are also a useful method for
increasing the ability to recall
information. Use everything you
can to improve your memory.