Doreen Pang

Mrs. Trainor

AP Psychology

6 September 2016

Module 24 Outline

Introduction to Memory

Memory is the minds storehouse

Reservoir of your accumulated learning
To a psychologist:
Memory is any indication that learning has persisted

over time
Our ability to store and retrieve information

Memory Loss and Memory Feats

Studying memory extremes has helped researchers understand

how mem. Works

Some studied root and fruits of mem. Loss
Myers grandfather remembered past

but is unable to create new mem.

On the opposite end of spectrum, incredible mem.
Russian journalist Shereshevskii (S) can

remember memorize up to 70 numbers/phrases if they

were said three seconds apart

Is able to recite them

backwards easily
Is able to recite the pattern

years later and describe setting

Our own mem.
If view more than 2500 slides of faces and places 10

seconds each
 Then view 280 of slides at once with others, a

typical person would recognize 90% of the ones seen before

Our own mem. Capacity is apparent in our recall of unique and

highly emotional sit

Myers most vivid mem. Was his only hit during his

little league season

Apparently Myer is not a good baseball

player
People remember what they were doing/their exact

setting during big news after years

Kennedy assassination
Princess Dianas death
9/11
Few young Danish adults displayed knowledge of

Nazi invasion of Denmark

72 y/o Danes remembered
70% of old ppl recalled that days

weather
Flashbulb Memories
The perceived clarity for our memories of surprising,

significant events
Possible for it to be wrong
GDubs false recall of 9/11 news

Information Processing

When forming memories, one must select, process, store and

retreive info
Stupid article analogy
Just think of Inside Out
Our brains our similar to computers
Encoding
Get info. Into our brains
Storage
Retain that info
Retrieval
Get it back out
 Computer translates keystrokes/input into an

electronic language
Brain encode sensory info into a neutral

language
Computer permanently stores casts amount of info

on a disk
LIKE OUR BRAINSSSSSS
Brains process info slower than computer, but process them

parallel (more than one at once)

Psychologists proposed several info-processing models of mem.
Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin:
Classic Three stage processing model of

memory
Suggests that we form

memories through three stages

We first record

to-be-remembered info as a fleeting sensory

memory
Then processed

into a short-term memory bin

Where we

encode it through rehearsal for long-term

memory
The Classic THree Stage processing model is historically

prominent and simple

But is limited, fallible, and too simple
Some info skips the first two steps and becomes a long term

mem. Automatically
Since we are bombarded with so much info at once, and we

cannot focus on everything at once, we shine the flashlight beam of

our attention on certain incoming stimuli

 These incoming stimuli, along with info we retrieve

from our long-term mem, become conscious short-term mem in

a temporary construction zone

This construction zone is where we

rehearse and manipulate info

The content of this working memory fades unless we keep using

or rehearsing it (#repetition is Key)

This is where we actively associate new and old info

and solve problems

Working mem. Includes both auditory and visual-spatial

elements
Both are coordinated by a central executive

processor
Lets us process words and images at the

same time
Why we can talk and drive at

the same time

Why its hard to remember

the tune of one song when listening to another

Working Memory Model