Memory

Amygdala: emotional memory and memory consolidation Basal ganglia & cerebellum: memory for skills, habits and CC responses Hippocampus: memory recognition, spatial, episodic memory, laying down new declarative long-term memories Thalamus, formation of new memories and working memories Cortical Areas: encoding of factual memories, storage of episodic and semantic memories, skill learning, priming.

What is MEMORY?
Memory

internal record of some prior event or experience; a set of mental processes that receives, encodes, stores, organizes, alters, and retrieves information over time

 Memory:

The storage and retrieval of what has been learned or experienced. psychology, memory is an organism's mental ability to store, retain, and recall information. it has become one of the principal pillars of a branch of science called cognitive neuroscience, an interdisciplinary link between cognitive psychology and neuroscience.

In

Overview of Memory Model

STAGES AND TYPES.

Encoding

or registration (receiving, processing and combining of received information) The transforming of information so the nervous system can process it.
Basically, you use your senses - Hearing, Sight, Touch, Taste, Temperature, and others to encode and establish a memory.

 After

the information is encoded, it goes through the second memory process Storage (creation of a permanent record of the encoded information) The process by which information is maintained over a period of time.
How much information is stored depends on how much effort was put into encoding the information and its importance. Information can be stored for a few seconds or for much longer.

 The

third process of memory is called retrieval! Re trieval, recall or recollection (calling back the stored information in response to some cue for use in a process or activity) The process of obtaining information that has been stored in memory.

Sensory memory
Sensory

memory corresponds approximately to the initial 200 - 500 milliseconds after an item is perceived. The ability to look at an item, and remember what it looked like with just a second of observation, it degraded very quickly (within a few hundred milliseconds). This type of memory cannot be prolonged via rehearsal.

Short-term

Short-term memory allows recall for a period of several seconds to a minute without rehearsal. Its capacity is also very limitedShort-Term Memory does not necessarily involve paying close attention.
Example: You have probably had the experience of listening to someone only partially and having that person accuse you of not paying attention. You deny it, and to prove your innocence, you repeat, word for word, the last words he or she said. You can do this because you are holding onto the words in your short-term memory!

Short-term memory, sometimes referred to as "primary," "working," or "active" memory, is said to hold a small amount of information for about 20 to 30 seconds.

Sperlings Experiment

Maintenance Rehearsal! To keep information in short-term memory for

more than a few seconds, you usually have to repeat the information to your self or out loud. This is what psychologists mean when they mention maintenance rehearsal. A system for remembering that involves repeating information to oneself without attempting to find meaning in it.

 When

you look up a telephone number, you can remember the seven digits long enough to dial them if you repeat them several times. If you are distracted or make a mistake in dialing, the chances are that you will have to look up the number again. It has been lost from your short-term memory! By using maintenance rehearsal (repeating the telephone number over and over again), you can keep the information longer in your short term memory.

Long-Term Memory! Long term memory refers to the storage of information over extended periods of time. Information is not stored like a piece of paper in a cabinet; it is stored according to categories or features. When you say a friend has a good memory, you probably mean that he or she can recall a wide variety of information accurately. The capacity of long term memory appears to be limitless.

The 4 Types of Long-Term Memory

1.

Semantic Memory: Knowledge of language, including its rules, words, and meanings. 2. Episodic Memory: Memory of ones life, including time of occurrence. 3. Declarative Memory: Memory of knowledge that can be called forth consciously as needed. 4. Procedural Memory: Memory of learned skills that does not require conscious recollection.

Overview of LTM

Varieties of LTM
Two

types of LTM

Semantic memory refers to factual information Episodic memory refers to autobiographical information as to where and when an event happened

Retrieving Information

The problem of memory is to store many thousands of items in such a way that you can find the one you need when you need it. The solution to retrieval is organization. Because human memory is extraordinarily efficient, it must be extremely well organized. Psychologists do not yet know how it is organized, but they are studying the process of retrieval for clues.

Recognition

The process of recognition provides insight into ho Recognition w information is stored in memory. We can recognize the sound of a particular musical instrument no matter what tune is being played on it. This pattern of recognition indicates that a single item of information may be indexed under several headings so that it can be reached in many ways. Recognition: Memory retrieval in which a person identifies an object, idea, or situation as one he or she has experienced before.

Recall

Memory retrieval in which a person reconstructs previously learned material. Recall involves more than searching for and finding pieces of information. It involves a persons knowledge, attitudes, and expectations. Schemas: Conceptual frameworks a person uses to make sense of the world.
In other words, they are sets of expectations about something that is based on our past experience

Photographic Memory

About 5 percent of all children do not seem to reconstruct memories actively. They have what is called eidetic memory! Eidetic memory: The ability to remember with great accuracy visual information on the basis of short term exposure.
This is a form of photographic memory is shared by few adults. Children with this memory can recall very specific details from a picture, a page, or scene that is briefly viewed.

 Photographic

memory in adults is extremely rare. It involves the ability to form sharp visual images after examining a picture or page for a short time and then recalling the entire image later. Many people dispute that Photographic memory in adults even exists. What do you think?

Forgetting

Forgetting (retention loss) refers to the apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in an individual's long term memory. Everyone experiences a failure of memory from time to time. You are sure you have seen that person before but cannot remember exactly where. You have the word on the tip of your tongue, but When information that once entered long-term memory is unable to be retrieved, it is said to be forgotten. The process of forgetting involves decay, interference, or repression.

Some inputs into your memory may fade away, or decay, over time. Decay: Fading away of memory over time. Short-term memory, as we have talked about, can decay quickly in sensory storage if not transferred to long-term memory. It is not certain, however, whether long-term memory can decay. We know that a blow to the head or electrical stimulation to certain parts of the brain can cause the decay or loss of memory, but the memories lost are the most recent ones; older memories seem to remain.

 Yet,

what happens to memories that we lose after time that have not decayed? In other words, what happens to the memories that we seem to losebut eventually get back? Interference or repression causes you to lose track of them! Interference: Blockage of a memory by previous or subsequent memories.

Repression
Intentionally

blocking information with a new, happier, thought in an attempt to block it out.

Forgetting
There

are 2 types of blocking; proactive and retroactive. Proactive Interference: an earlier memory blocks you from remembering related new information. Retroactive Interference: A later memory or new information blocks you from remembering information learned earlier.

Examples

Suppose you move to a new home. You now have to remember a new address and phone number. At first you may have trouble remembering them because the memory of your old address and phone number gets in the way (proactive interference). Later, you know the new information but have trouble remembering the old date (retroactive interference). This can also help to explain how some memories are repressed and some are saved.

Amnesia
Amnesia:

is the loss of memory that may occur after a blow to the head or as a result of brain damage. Amnesia may also be the result of drug use or severe psychological stress.

Ways to Improve Memory

Knowledge of Results: Feedback allowing you to check your progress Recitation: Summarizing aloud while you are rehearsing material Rehearsal: Reviewing information mentally (silently) Selection: Selecting most important concepts to memorize Organization: Organizing difficult items into chunks; a type of reordering

Ways to Improve Memory Continued

Whole

Learning: Studying an entire package of information at once, like a poem Part Learning: Studying subparts of a larger body of information (like text chapters) Progressive Part Learning: Breaking learning task into a series of short sections

Practice Makes Perfect:

Spaced

Practice: Alternating study sessions with brief rest periods Lack of sleep decreases retention; sleep aids consolidation Hunger decreases retention Cognitive Interview: Technique used to improve memories of eyewitnesses

Memory Tricks
Any

kind of memory system or aid

Use mental pictures Make things meaningful Make information familiar Form bizarre, unusual or exaggerated mental associations
Keyword

Method: Memory aid; using a familiar word or image to link two items