Seven Dwarfs Exercise

Memory Overview
 How well did you do? What made
the task difficult for some?
• Connections: Memory is the persistence of
learning over time…
1. Difficulty of Task
• Culturally Bound
• Story vs. Inconsequential Information
• Too long since information was introduced
• Environmental Distractions
 What processes did you go
through?

• Information Processing: Encoding (Get it into

the Brain), Storage (Retain), Retrieval (Get it
back out)
 Information Processing
• Memory research examines factors that
influence those processes:

• Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon: Failure of Retrieval:

(Students describe a word that they almost got…parts of
it…what it started with, etc.)
• Organization of Memory by Sound, Letter, and Meaning:
• -Wrong guesses (Lazy, Clumsy, Droopy, Grouchy)
• -Runs…one item triggers a sequence
 Recall vs. Recognition
• Recall vs. Recognition:
• -How many people would do better with a list
in front of you?
• -Recall=2 stages (Creation of possible targets +
identification of correct ones)
• -Recognition= Only first stage
 
 Answers
• Most to Least Likely Recalled: Sleepy, Grumpy,
Dopey, Sneezy, Happy, Doc, Bashful
• Names that end in same sound most recalled: RUN
• Bashful…absence of meaning
 STM vs. LTM
• Short vs. Long Term Memory: Turn Paper over and
recall again…better?
• STM (5-9 items) More with chunking
• LTM (Limitless)
 
Memory: The Computer Analogy

Accuracy?
Stages of Memory

Keyboard Disk Monitor

(Encoding) (Storage) (Retrieval)
Sequential Process
 Differences Between Brains and
Computers
• Although the brain-computer metaphor has
served cognitive psychology well, research in
cognitive neuroscience has revealed many
important differences between brains and
computers. Appreciating these differences
may be crucial to understanding the
mechanisms of neural information
processing, and ultimately for the creation of
artificial intelligence.
 Difference #1
• Brains=Analog
• Computers=Digital

• Many processes in the brain are non-linear.

 Difference #2
• Content addressable memory- Your brain can
make associations between concepts whereas
a computer simply pulls a specific address.
You have a “built-in Google”.
 Difference #3
• The brain is a massively parallel machine while
a computer is serial and modular.
 Difference #4
• Processing speed varies in the brain, while it is
fixed in a computer.
 Difference #5
• RAM (Working memory) and Short Term
Memory have some major differences:
- The capacity of short term memory can vary
based on processing speed.
- Short Term Memory information holds only
small clues as to what is in Long Term
Memory.
 Difference #6
• Processing and memory are performed by the
same components of the brain…as we are
retrieving information, we are slightly altering it.
 Difference #7
• The brain is a self-organizing system. It is
constantly morphing as a result of its own
processes.
 Difference #8
• Brains have bodies: Your brain will offload
responsibility to parts of your body…why
remember where objects in your environment
are when you have a perfectly good pair of
eyes?
 Difference #9
• The brain is much, much bigger
than any current computer.
- Accurate biological models of the
brain 225 million billion interactions
between neural cells, and that
doesn't include the approximately 1
trillion glial cells which may or may
not be important for neural
information processing.
 Clive Wearing BBC Clip
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDNDRDJ
y-vo
 Mnemonic Devices

• Use meaning, organization, and imagery to

successfully encode information.
 History of the Mnemonic
• Greek poet Simonides ~500
BC…
• Olympic games recitation
where the banquet hall gave
way leaving the bodies of the
guests mutilated and
unrecognizable.
• By remembering where most
of the guests had been sitting,
Simonides could identify the
victims.
 Method of Loci
• Visualize a familiar room and place the items that need to be
memorized in different locations.

• Used by Cicero and other famous orators.

 Other Mnemonics
• http://www.mindtools.com/memory.html

- Link/Story Method
- Number/Rhyme or Shape
- Alphabet
- Journey
- Roman Room
- Major System
 Using the Journey Method
• You may, as a simple example,
want to remember something
mundane like this shopping list:
Coffee, salad, vegetables, bread,
kitchen paper, fish, chicken
breasts, pork chops, soup, fruit,
bath tub cleaner.
• You could associate this list with
a journey to a supermarket.
 Mnemonic Image #1
• Front Door: Spilled coffee grinds on the doormat.
 Mnemonic Image #2
• Rose bush in front garden: growing lettuce leaves and tomatoes
around the roses
 Mnemonic #3
• Car: with potatoes, onions and cauliflower on the driver's seat
 And So On…
• End of the road: an arch of French bread over
the road
• Past garage: with its sign wrapped in kitchen
roll
• Under railway bridge: from which haddock
and cod are dangling by their tails
• Traffic lights: chickens squawking and flapping
on top of lights
 And So On…
• Past church: in front of which a pig is doing
karate, breaking boards
• Under office block: with a soup slick underneath:
my car tires send up jets of tomato soup as I
drive through it
• Past car park: with apples and oranges tumbling
from the top level
• Supermarket car park: a filthy bath tub is parked
in the space next to my car!
 Flashbulb Memories Exercise
• Write down in a sentence or two your three
most vivid memories.
 Events
• Car Accident (85)
• Meeting Best Friend (82)
• Graduations (81)
• Prom/Dance (78)
• Early Romantic Experience (77)]
• Speaking in front of an Audience (72)
• First Date (57)
• Night of 2000 presidential election (52)
 Events
• First flight (40)
• SAT (33)
• 16th Birthday (30)
• The last holiday dinner at home (23)
• First high school class (21)
• First time parents left you alone (19)
• Thirteenth birthday (12)
 Flashbulb Memories
• Novel + Biologically Significant
• Accompanying Strong Emotions
• “Now Store”=Permanent Memory
• Recall usually includes aspects that are
unrelated to meaningfulness of event itself…
where you were when Kennedy was shot.