PSY1EFP Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Long-Term Memory, Temporal Lobe, Echoic Memory
18 Jun 2018
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EFP Lecture 7 Session 1 - Memory, thinking, language and intelligence (1)
Memory is the processing of Information
Memory: the nervous system’s capacity to retain and retrieve skills and knowledge
-We have multiple memory systems, and each memory system has its own “rules.”
The information processing model compares the working of memory to the actions of a computer.
Memory operates over time in three phases.
-Encoding: the processing of information so that it can be stored
-Storage: the retention of encoded representations over time
-Consolidation: the neural process by which encoded information becomes stored in memory
-Retrieval: the act of recalling or remembering stored information when it is needed
Memory is the Result of Brain Activity
Lashley’s term engram refers to the physical site of memory storage; the place where memory “lives”
-Equipotentiality: the idea that memory is distributed throughout the brain rather than confined to any specific
location
In Hebb’s interpretation, memories are stored in multiple regions of the brain and linked through memory circuits.
Multiple brain regions have been implicated in memory.
Hippocampus Prefrontal cortex Temporal lobe Cerebellum Amygdala
The brain structures involved in perception
Memories Physical Location
Memory involves multiple regions of the brain, but not all brain regions are equally involved. A great deal of neural
specialization occurs.
-The take-home message here is that memory is distributed among different brain regions. Memory does not
“live” in one part of the brain.
-The middle section of the temporal lobes, called the medial temporal lobes, is responsible for the formation of
new memories.
The actual storage occurs in the particular brain regions engaged during the perception, processing, and
analysis of the material being learned.
Reconsolidation of Memories
Reconsolidation: neural processes involved when memories are recalled and then stored again for retrieval
-To understand how reconsolidation works, think of this analogy: a librarian returns a book to a shelf for storage
so that it can be taken out again later
How are memories obtained over time?
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s three-part model
-Sensory memory
-Short-term memory
-Long-term memory
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s model emphasizes that
memory storage varies in duration and capacity.
Sensory memory is brief
Sensory memory: a memory system that very briefly stores sensory information in close to its original sensory form
-Sensory memory consists of brief traces on the nervous system that reflect perceptual processes.
-Visual sensory memory is called iconic memory.
-Auditory sensory memory is called echoic memory.
-Sperling concluded that sensory memory persists for about one-third of a second and then progressively fades.
Sensory memories enable us to experience the world as a continuous stream rather than in discrete sensations, the
way a movie projector plays a series of still pictures.
Working memory is active
Material is passed from sensory memory to short-term memory. More recently, psychologists have come to think of
short-term memory as working memory.
-Short-term memory: a memory storage system that briefly holds a limited amount of information in awareness
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-Working memory: an active processing system that keeps different types of information available for current use
Information remains in working memory for about 20 to 30 seconds unless you actively prevent it from
disappearing by thinking about or rehearsing the information.
-Retrieval, transformation, and substitution make distinct and independent contributions to updating the
contents of working memory.
Memory Span and Chunking
Memory span refers to the amount of information held in working memory
George Miller noted a typical limit of seven plus or minus two items in working memory, although more recent
evidence suggests it may be limited to as few as four items.
-Chunking: organizing information into meaningful units to make it easier to remember
-The more efficiently you chunk information, the more you can remember.
Long-term memory is relatively permanent
Long-term memory: the relatively permanent storage of information
-Long-term memory enables you to remember nursery rhymes from childhood, the meanings and spellings of
words you rarely use, and what you had for lunch yesterday.
Distinguishing long-term memory from working memory
The distinction between working memory and long term memory has been demonstrated by studies that investigated
the serial position effect.
- Serial position effect: the idea that the ability to recall items from a list depends on the order of presentation,
with items presented early or late in the list remembered better than those in the middle.
Primacy effect: better memory for items at the beginning of the list (reflects long-term memory)
Regency effect: better memory for the items at the end of a list(reflects working memory)
What gets into long-term memory?
Information is most likely to be transferred from working memory to long-term memory if it is repeatedly retrieved or
deeply processed, or if it helps us adapt to an environment.
Evolutionary theory helps explain how we decide in advance what information will be useful.
-Animals that can use past experiences to increase their chances of survival have a selective advantage over
animals that fail to learn from past experiences.
Long-term storage is based on meaning
Mental representations are stored by meaning.
Craik and Lockhart’s levels of processing model suggests the more deeply an item is encoded, the more meaning it has
and the better it is remembered.
-Maintenance rehearsal: repeating the item over and over
-Elaborative rehearsal: encodes the information in more meaningful ways
The more an item is elaborated at the time of storage, the richer the later memory will be because more connections
can serve as retrieval cues.
-Brain imaging studies have shown that semantic encoding activates more brain regions than shallow encoding
and this greater brain activity is associated with better memory.
Infantile amnesia
From the ages of 3 to 7 years, adults have fewer memories than would be expected, based on forgetting alone. The
observation is one of the most replicable in the literature: Whether tested in 1893 or 1999, among adults in Western
cultures, the average age of earliest memory is age 3 to 3½ years.
Explanation seems to be accelerated forgetting of events from the early childhood years
Schemas provide an organizational framework
Decisions about how to chunk information depend on schemas.
-Schemas: cognitive structures that help us perceive, organize, process, and use information
Culture shapes our schemas and can lead to biased encoding.
Schemas influence how we encode information in our daily lives.
Information is stored in association networks
Collins and Loftus’s model of networks of associations where each unit of information about an item is a single node in
the network
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Efp lecture 7 session 1 - memory, thinking, language and intelligence (1) Memory: the nervous system"s capacity to retain and retrieve skills and knowledge. We have multiple memory systems, and each memory system has its own rules. The information processing model compares the working of memory to the actions of a computer. Encoding: the processing of information so that it can be stored. Storage: the retention of encoded representations over time. Memory operates over time in three phases. Consolidation: the neural process by which encoded information becomes stored in memory. Retrieval: the act of recalling or remembering stored information when it is needed. Lashley"s term engram refers to the physical site of memory storage; the place where memory lives . Equipotentiality: the idea that memory is distributed throughout the brain rather than confined to any specific location. In hebb"s interpretation, memories are stored in multiple regions of the brain and linked through memory circuits.
