Hippocampus, amygdala, and thalamus- Formation of new memories

Cerebral Cortex- Storage of Memories  

Process of codung and putting information into memory

(Process which we transform what we perceive, think, or feel into memory)  

The process of actively relating new information to knowledge that is already in memory

Participants who made sematic judgments (Think about the meaning of the word "Is HAT a type of clothing?") had better memory then those who just though about how the word sounded or looked. 

The proces of storing new information by converting it into mental pictures

Works Better 

Grocery Shopping need Coke, popcorn, and cheese dip

imagine each room of your house is filled with these items and walk through each room. room filled with coke, one with cheese dip and one with popcorn 

Momentary memory of visual information

King showed flag on screen, stared at it he turned it off and we got negative image of flag on screen, also known as sensory register  

Short Term Memory

(working memory) 

Brief store of information

Either processed or forgotten 

An item can last about 20 seconds in STM unless rehearsed

lasts longer than iconic memory 

STM can hold about 5-9 units of meaningful information

Magic Number 7±2

Vast storage of memory

Allows us to proccess huge amounts of information

Memories are in synapse, between neurons  

Enhanced neural processing that results from the strengthening of synaptic connections

It occurs in several pathways within the hippocampus, it can be induced rapidly, and it can last for a long time  

A hippocampal receptor site that influences the flow of information from one neuron to another across the synapse by controlling the initiation of long term potentiation

For receptors to become active glutamate (major exictory neurotransmitter) which attaches to the receiving nueron, excitation takes place in postsynaptic neuron

The collection of past personal experiences that ocurred at a particular time and place.

Important events in your life  

When past experiences influence later behavior and performance, even though people are not trying to recollect them and are not aware that they are remembering them

Ex. Greg ( stuck in the 70’s) persistent sadness after dad’s death even though he has no conscious knowledge of the event

Consciously or intentionally retrieving past experiences

Ex. Remembering last summer's vacation or remembering facts from a test 

The gradual acquistion of skills as a result of practice or "knowing how" to do thing,

Ex. How to shift gears in a car, the things you remeber are automatically translated into actions, you just have to will the actions

Recall

Recognition 

Generation information and recognize information as correct

Essay Exam, giving a decription of a guy who robbed a liquor store  

Recognize correct information

Multiple Choice Exam 

The tendency for information to be better recalled when the person is in the same state during encoding and retrieval

Ex. If you study for a test drunk, you will perform better on the test drunk 

 Memory is likely to transfer from one situation to another when we process information in a way that is appropriate to the retrieval cues that will be available later 

Recall is good for items which appear at the first of a list --> LTM

Advertisement, bring viewer in immediately

 Remember the first part of your dream and the last part of your dream

Recall is good for items which appear at the last of a list --> STM

Last part of your dream, last part of vocab list  

Seemingly frozen memory of an important event

Remember exactly what you where doing, and where you were when the World Trade centers went down

Emotion of the event- the more emotional the more you will remember it

Rehearsal  

Knowledge that the even is historically significant  

Capacity to store mental images for longer than average periods of time

Vivid recall of eidetic image

Most eidetikers are children, when they become adults they lose ability, only 1 in 10 maintains this ability  

Memorists

(expert memory) 

Someone with exceptional retrieval skills

Larger digit span than normal STM span of 7±2

Faster and more effiecient retrieval than average person

Mnemonic Device  

Memory aid based on vivid imagery and organization

Have to work on it very hard

Guy memorized first 40,000 digits of Pi 

Nonsense Syllables

Consonant-vowel-consonant combinations with no previous meaning

Memorized long lists of them then put away in drawer, came back a couple weeks later and saw how many he could remember

Rapid forgetting after first hour of learning, but forgetting eventually slows and levels out

Ebbinghaus 

Transience

Memory Decay 

Method of Serial Reproduction

Bartlett 

The tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal experiences

Elizabeth Loftus  

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

  Subjects air force pilots, real good at estimating speed, showed them film of head on collision, then asked “how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?”, with other subjects they asked “How fast were the cars going when they bumped into each other?” , people who heard smashed gave higher estimates than people who heard bumped

Then asked how much windshield glass did you see on the pavement, people remembered a lot, but there was none 

“Leading Questions”

Organic Amnesia

Anterograde Amnesia

Retrograde Amnesia  

Inability to remember information after a trauma --> encoding failure

Hint: Begins with A, After trauma, After shock

 More common than Retrograde