Memory Flashcards
hava amina memory
Something happens and imprints on memory and then map it back onto experience to explain to someone what happened
(Experience→ ← Memory)
memory types
Sensory memory, working memory, Long term memory
Sensory memory
Brief memory of what’s happening rn
iconic and echoic
Iconic–
visual (ex: look around and understand what’s happening in room around you)
Echoic–
auditory (ex: helps remembering a sentence from beginning to end)
Working memory–
consciousness, aspect that is currently active
Ex: holding all relative pieces in mind to do a math calculation
Keep a phone number locked in working memory by repeating it a ton of times
George Miller–magical number 7 +- 2
We can remember about 7 letters, digits, objects, or words
Chunking
Chunking
grouping info into one memory; helps expand limits of working memory but working memory is still limited
Long term memory
storage of things in memory for a long time
explicit and implicit
Explicit memory
-things you can verbalize
Semantic
Episodic-
Semantic
–knowledge of facts
episodic
-what people usually mean when they say memory–the actual event
Does overlap with other neural patterns…overlap between firing of neurons–distributed representation
Memory retrieval…
distributed representation
overlap between firing of neurons when u see same x in different y or different y in same x…pattern overlap of neurons when you see things that have similarities
lives in hippocampus
Memory retrieval–
consists of reinstating the distributed representation created at encoding
Retrieval cue–
can serve as seed for such reinstantiation–piece of memory that activates rest of memory pattern
Consequences of distributed representations in memory:
Levels of processing
Encoding specificity
Context dependence
Levels of processing
Deeper encoding=better memory bc wide pattern of neurons–more neurons, more potential retrieval cues
(Craik & Tulving, 1975) Does it rhyme? Sentence? Uppercase and lowercase? Remembering the sentence worked a lot better bc deeper level of processing
Encoding specificity
Memory is better when retrieval cue overlaps with those available during encoding
Do these words rhyme? Are they semantically related? If the question matches the way you memorized answer it’s better (generally association > rhyme tho)
Context dependence
Remember something better if ur in the same context/setting/place/state
Godden & baddeley (scuba test)
Drunk test
Lexical decision test–
identify words as real or not and we respond differently if dr becomes before scalpel as opposed to professor before scalpel bc dr wakes up part of scalpel
hippocampus
–convergence zone for every bit of little events/info brought together and encoded in memory
Without hippocampus, no memories formable
But! Consolidation! Memories don’t stay in hippocampus forever, only as its being encoded, so still can remember past
Consolidation
the process of memories having been encoded are sent elsewhere
Patient HM
–brain injury–from then on anterograde amnesia–
But he can still do completion-
anterograde amnesia
inability to form new memories for events u experience and facts u encounter
completion
-still access parts of memory but not explicit recall system memory
implicit memory
things you hold but don’t verbalize/unconscious
priming
procedural
Priming–
being able to respond based on memory
See HM, priming test
Procedural–
memory of how to perform tasks
HM got better at this repeated task even though he never remembered having done it
patient S
Ability to remember everything would also be bad
Alexander Luria studied S–S remembered everything/inability to forget so every time he had an experience it would activate all the memories of related experiences–drove him crazy
He became a hermit to limit his exposure so he wouldnt remember everything
Everything would be a retrieval cue and u would be overwhelmed with memories
Memory–priority list
seven sins of memory
identifies the way in which memory goes wrong/things we would want to avoid that actually serve purpose for our mind
categories: forgetting, distortion, persistence
forgetting:
(omission) absent mindedness, transience, blocking
Absent mindedness
When u fail to connect sensory and working–dont pay attn to whats coming in so it never passes sensory
Transience
Similar to a-m but breakdown is in working to long term
You kept info in working memory but it decays in a few min
U tried to pay attn but didnt do enough rehearsal and elaboration
Memory process
Sensory (attn)–> working (rehearsal + elaboration) (encoding)–>long term (retrieval cue)–> working
Blocking
Can’t get to info when u need it
Imagine that this pattern of neurons corresponds to “his name is Steve” but there’s going to be a lot of overlap when u think guy’s name is Steve and all those other memories would come back and overwhelm you but if u think ok his name starts with S–a limited retrieval cue
Blocking– activation of a memory inhibits activation of partially overlapping memory representations–as soon as u activate the pattern his name is steve the other neurons right nearby are blocked so you dont go crazy with memory
Tip of tongue phenomenon–if u ask a q that the answer is abstract and then u ask a q that the answer is abdicate u will have tip of tongue moment
blocking=one thing we have in mind blocks other things you have in mind
So patient s didnt do blocking
why is distortion “good”?
the idea is that when our memory system is working properly, our brain tries to fill in information that’s missing in our memory, because that allows us to make sense of things. Without this, we wouldn’t really be able to make sense of our memories. One of the ways our brain does this is by listening to “suggestions,” which is where suggestibility comes from. So being a little bit suggestible is part of the normal system.
why is forgetting “good”?
prevents being overwhelmed
distortion
(commission) (remembering wrong/creating incorrect memory)
bias, misattribution, suggestibility
bias
We fill in gaps like with perception/we make assumptions/our expectation can lead us to remember things that didnt happen
Info that reaches hippocampus is already filtered and preprocessed–some of it happens in prefrontal cortex which contributes to understanding meaning of info
Result of filtering is that hippocampus only stores aspects of experience that other regions determine essential
Bias also happens at time of retrieval, not just encoding
When u try to retrieve memory prefrontal cortex reprocesses info when u go to retrieve it and fill in gaps then
Examples: dieters think they lost more than they did; asked questions of same people twenty years later–people became more conservative as they got older–didnt remember how they felt twenty years ago and assume it was the same
Ask couple what they like about each other after a few weeks and then they break up within year and they ask again and they “hated” what they used to love
Misattribution
Hippocampus doesnt just have to encode memories also has to remember where it came from–did i see it did i imagine it–deciding whether representation has external vs internal origins requires source attribution–what is source of information
We misremember where we learn something
Experiment: people ate peaches, imagined bananas in low detail, apples in high detail
People good at remembering that they ate a peach and that they didnt eat a banana but they thought they ate apples–misattributed memory and thought it came from real experience
Roediger and mcdermott (misattribution of word sweet to having seen all the other sweet-related words)
Donald thompson–arrested for rape of woman he had never seen but she described him perfectly–but at the time the rape happened he was live on 60 min–she had been raped right after 60 min so she associated it with him – misattributed
False fame effect–if people see two lists of famous/non famous people second round they also circle non famous as famous
Ronald reagan told story during his campaign–pilot and wounded gunner stayed together and died and everyone else lived–duplicate of a scene of 1944 movie–remembered the facts of situation as truth
Suggestibility
1986–Gerald something convicted of molesting children and it turns out that he was telling truth and the kids had testified against him–good reason that the kids’ (especially kids) honest testimony can be totally wrong
False confessions – kids were being asked over and over did this happen bc one parent was suspicious and it spread
Asked leading questions
Easier to get this from kids than adults bc children think theyre supposed to say yes and then they start to believe it–led to changes in law about how ur allowed to ask people
Suggestibility–creation of false memory
Simple wording of question influences answer
“Went vs sped” influences answer of 15 mph vs 25 mph or people remembered stop sign when there wasnt one and there was yield sign so if the patterns overlap a lot cue picks up wrong one
Ask kids if they had an experience she knows they didnt have over and over again in addition to ones they really had and eventually they would think it happened
persistence
Want to stop thinking about something but can’t
Donnie Moore pitched really badly and Angels lost entire world series when they were one strike away from winning and he could never play well again and he killed himself and apparently he could never stop thinking about
Event burned so heavily into your brain that everything is a retrieval cue and emotional/traumatic memory gets burned in this way
So many retrieval cues for that one memory that you can’t stop
Maybe drugs help?
why do the seven sins happen
bc of useful things memory does
