Chapter 7

Human Memory
Figure 7.1 – Nickerson & Adams (1979) –
Which is the correct penny?
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Human Memory: Basic Questions

 How does information get into memory?

 How is information maintained in memory?
 How is information pulled back out of memory?
 Memory timeline
– Short term – recent?
– Long term – remote?
– Operational definitions

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Encoding: Getting Information Into
Memory

 The role of attention

 Focusing awareness
 Selective attention = selection of input
– Filtering: early or late? – F 7.3
 Multitasking – issues of driving performance and cell
phone use – study by Strayer and Johnson (2001) – F
7.4

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Figure 7.4 Divided attention and driving performance – Strayer & Johnson (2001)
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Levels of Processing: Craik and
Lockhart (1972)

 Incoming information processed at different levels:

Figure 7.5
 Deeper processing = longer lasting memory codes
 Encoding levels:
– Structural = shallow
– Phonemic = intermediate
– Semantic = deep
– Study results – Figure 7.6

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XX 7.5

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Figure 7.6 – Retention at three levels of processing
– Craik & Tulving (1975) Table of Contents
 Enriching Encoding: Improving
Memory
 Elaboration = linking a stimulus
to other information at the time of
encoding
– Thinking of examples
 Visual Imagery = creation of
visual images to represent words
to be remembered
– Easier for concrete objects: Dual-
coding theory – Figure 7.7, Paivio et
al. (1968) >>>>>>>>>>>
 Self-Referent Encoding
– Making information personally
meaningful
Figure 7.7

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Storage: Maintaining Information in
Memory
 Analogy: information storage in computers ~ information
storage in human memory
 Information-processing theories – Atkinson & Shiffrin
(1977)
– Subdivide memory into 3 different stores
• Sensory, Short-term, Long-term

xx 7.8

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 Information-Processing Model of Memory

 Computer as a model for our memory

 Three types of memory
– Sensory memory
– Short-term memory (STM)
– Long-term memory (LTM)
• Can hold vast quantities of information for
many years

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 Information-Processing Model of Memory

Retrieval

Attention Encoding
Sensory Short-term Long-term
Stimulus memory memory memory

Forgetting Forgetting Forgetting

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 Sensory Memory
 Stores all the stimuli that register on
the senses
 Lasts up to three seconds
 Two types
– Iconic memory
• Visual
• Usually lasts about 0.3 seconds
• Sperling’s tests (1960s)
Sensory – Echoic memory (we’ll come back to
Sensory this)
Input Memory

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Sensory Memory

 We will take a closer look at the Sperling experiment

 Figure 7.9 summarizes his experiment

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 Sperling’s Experiment
 Presented matrix of letters for 1/20 seconds
– Report as many letters as possible
 Subjects recalled only half of the letters
 Was this because subjects didn’t have enough time to
view entire matrix?
– No
 How did Sperling know this?

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Sperling’s Iconic Memory Experiment

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Sperling’s Iconic Memory Experiment

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Sperling’s Iconic Memory
Experiment

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Sperling’s Iconic Memory Experiment

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 Sperling’s Experiment
 Sounded low, medium or high tone immediately after
matrix disappeared
– Tone signaled 1 row to report
– Recall was almost perfect
 Memory for images fades after 1/3 seconds or so,
making report of entire display hard to do

High
Medium
Low
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 xx 7.9

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We are going to try it on the next
slide….Are you ready

5
4
3
2
1
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 What was the last row…..

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Sensory Memory

 Echoic memory
– Sensory memory for auditory input that lasts only 2 to 3
seconds

 Why do we need sensory memory?

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Short Term Memory (STM)

 Limited capacity – magical number 7 plus or minus

2
 Limited duration – about 20 seconds without
rehearsal
– Peterson and Peterson (1959) – F 7.10
– Rehearsal – the process of repetitively verbalizing or
thinking about the information

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Memorize the following list of numbers:

18121941177614922001

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Write down the numbers in order.

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Now, try again…

1812 1941 1776 1492 2001

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 Short-term Memory
 Limited capacity
– Can hold 7 ± 2 items for about 20 seconds
– Maintenance rehearsal
• The use of repetition to keep info in short-term
memory
 CHUNK
– Meaningful unit of information
– Without rehearsal, we remember 4 ± 2 chunks
– With rehearsal, we remember 7 ± 2 chunks
– Ericsson & Chase (1982)

893194434925021578416685061209488885687727
31418610546297480129497496592280

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xx 7.9

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Short-Term Memory as “Working
Memory”

 STM not limited to phonemic encoding

 Loss of information not only due to decay
 Baddeley (2001) – 4 components of working memory
– F 7.11
– Phonological rehearsal loop
– Visuospatial sketchpad
– Executive control system
– Episodic buffer

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xxx 7.11

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 Long-term Memory

 Once information passes from sensory to short-term memory, it

can be encoded into long-term memory

Retrieval

Attention Encoding
Sensory Working or
Sensory Long-term
Short-term
Memory memory
Input Memory

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 Long-Term Memory: Unlimited
Capacity
 Penfield’s neural
stimulation – p. 284 –
data was reinterpreted
 Permanent storage?
– Flashbulb memories
– Brown and Kulick
(1977) – study of
assassinations
– Talarico & Rubin (2003)
– page 285-286 data in
F 7.12 – 9-11 study
– Recall through
hypnosis
 Debate: are STM and
LTM really different?
– Phonemic vs. Semantic Figure 7.12
encoding
– Decay vs. Interference
based forgetting

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Long-term memory - Encoding
 Elaborative rehearsal
– A technique for transferring information into long-term
memory by thinking about it in a deeper way
 Levels of processing
– Semantic is more effective than visual or acoustic
processing
– Craik & Tulving (1975)
 Self-referent effect
– By viewing new info as relevant to the self, we consider that
info more fully and are better able to recall it

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Long-term memory

 Procedural (Implicit)
– Memories of behaviors, skills, etc.
• Demonstrated through behavior
 Declarative (Explicit)
– Memories of facts
• Episodic – personal experiences tied to places & time
• Semantic – general knowledge
– Semantic network
– Figure 7.14

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How is Knowledge Represented and
Organized in Memory?
 Clustering and Conceptual Hierarchies – F 7.13

 Schemas and Scripts – Shank & Abelson (1977)

 Semantic Networks – Collins & Loftus (1975) – Figure 7.14

 Connectionist Networks and PDP Models – McClelland and

colleagues - pattern of activity – neuron based model
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Figure 7.14 A semantic network..
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Connectionist Networks and PDP
Models

 Parallel distributed processing model

– Assumes cognitive processes depend on patterns of
activation in highly interconnected networks

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Retrieval: Getting Information Out of
Memory
 The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon – a failure in
retrieval
– Retrieval cues – Brown & McNeil (1966) study – resolve block
57% of the time with first letter of failed to retrieve word
 Recalling an event
– Context cues – Godden & Baddeley (1975) – context-
dependent memory study with scuba divers
– Bartlett memory research – War of the Ghosts – F 7.15
 Reconstructing memories – Loftus studies
– Loftus & Palmer (1974) – Figure 7.16 – I: smashed (40.8); collided
(39.3); bumped (38.1); hit (34.0); contacted (31.8) II: smashed (32%) hit (14%) control
(12%) (broken glass?)
– Misinformation effect
• Source monitoring, reality monitoring
• cryptomnesia
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 Retrieval

 Retrieval
– Process that controls flow of information from long-
term to working memory store
 Explicit memory
– The types of memory elicited through the conscious
retrieval of recollections in response to direct
questions
 Implicit memory
– A nonconscious recollection of a prior experience
that is revealed indirectly, by its effects on
performance

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Retrieval – Explicit Memory

 Free-recall test
– A type of explicit memory task in which a person must
reproduce information without the benefit of external cues
 Recognition task
– A form of explicit memory retrieval in which items are
presented to a person who must determine if they were
previously encountered
 Retrieval failure
– Tip-of-the-tongue (Brown & McNeill)

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Forgetting: When Memory Lapses

 Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve – F 7.17

 Retention – the proportion of material retained –
F 7.18
– Recall
– Recognition
– Relearning
 Hill of reminiscence – time frame of remembering

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Seven Sins of Memory – Daniel L.
Schacter
 Transience – loss of
memory over time
 Absent Mindedness –
breakdown of interface
between attention & memory
 Blocking – thwarted search
for information to retrieve
 Bias – influence of current
knowledge and belief on how
we remember our past
 Misattribution – assigning a
memory to the wrong source
 Suggestibility – memories
implanted as a result of leading
questions, comments or
suggestions when a person is
trying to recall a past
experience
 Persistence – repeated recall
of disturbing information or
events that one may want to
forget
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xxx 7.18

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 Why Do We Forget?
 Ineffective Encoding
 Decay theory
 Interference theory
– Type of material
– Figure 7.19
– Proactive
– Retroactive
– Figure 7.20

Figure 7.19 Table of Contents

Forgetting

If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be

as ill off as if we remembered nothing.
William James
 Lack of encoding
– Often, we don’t even encode the features necessary to
‘remember’ an object/event
 Decay
– Memory traces erode with the passage of time
– No longer a valid theory of forgetting
– Jenkins & Dallenbach (1924)

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Interference theory
 Forgetting is a result of some memories
interfering with others
– Proactive interference
• Old memories interfere with ability to
remember new memories
– Retroactive interference
• New memories interfere with ability to
remember old memories
– Interference is stronger when material is
similar

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Retrieval Failure
 Encoding Specificity
 Transfer-Appropriate Processing
 Repression and the memory wards - F 7.21
– Authenticity of repressed memories?
– Memory illusions
– Controversy
 False memories – Roediger & McDermott (1995)
procedure – Figure 7.22
 Loftus & Pickrell’s (1995) lost-in-the-mall study

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Forgetting

 Repression
– There are times when we are unable to
remember painful past events
– While there is no laboratory evidence for
this, case studies suggest that memories
can be repressed for a
number of years and
recovered in therapy

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The Physiology of Memory
 Biochemistry
– Alteration in synaptic transmission
• Hormones modulating neurotransmitter systems
• Protein synthesis
 Neural circuitry
– Localized neural circuits
• Reusable pathways in the brain
• Long-term potentiation – changes in postsynaptic neuron
 Anatomy
– Anterograde and Retrograde Amnesia – F 7.24
– case of H.M. – resection in 1953
– http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7584970
– http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/us/05hm.html
– Clive Wearing
• Figure 7.23 - Cerebral cortex, Prefrontal Cortex, Hippocampus,
• Dentate gyrus, Amygdala, Cerebellum

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xxx 7.24

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Are There Multiple Memory Systems?

 Figure 7.25
 Implicit vs. Explicit
 Declarative vs. Procedural
 Semantic vs. Episodic
 Prospective vs. Retrospective – Figure 7.26

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Figure 7.26 – Retrospective versus prospective memory

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 Improving Everyday Memory
 Engage in adequate rehearsal – overlearning
 Testing effect – F 7.27 – Roediger & Karpick
(2006)
 Serial position effects – F 7.28
 Distribute practice and minimize interference -
F 7.29
 Emphasize deep processing and transfer-
appropriate processing
 Organize information
 Encoding specificity – vary location of studying
 Use verbal mnemonics – narrative stories –
Figure 7.30 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 Use visual mnemonics – method of Loci –
Figure 7.31
 Akira Haraguchi, 60, needed more than
(10/3/2006) 16 hours to recite pi (π) to 100,000
decimal places, breaking his personal best of
83,431 digits set in 2005.

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Improving Memory

 Practice time
– Distribute your studying over time
 Depth of processing
– Spend ‘quality’ time studying
 Verbal mnemonics
– Use rhyming or acronyms to reduce the amount of info
to be stored

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Improving Memory
 Method of loci
– Items to be recalled are mentally placed in familiar
locations
 Interference
– Study right before sleeping & review all the material
right before the exam
– Allocate an uninterrupted chunk of time to one course
 Context reinstatement
– Try to study in the same environment & mood in which
you will be taking the exam

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Eyewitness Accounts

 Use of Eyewitness in court cases – Cutler & Penrod

(1995), Loftus (1993)
 What did Jennifer See?
 Post information distortion
 Source confusion
 Hindsight bias
 Overconfidence

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Your Homework

 Read the Chapter

 Do the quizzes online
 Make sure you are doing you “Dream Blog”
– 5 dreams with interpretations
 Work on your “Dream Collage”
 Chapter 7 Vocab Cards
 Remember that Chapter 7 Test is on Monday(1st
period) and Tuesday(4th period).
 If you have questions, please post them on
– ORHS AP Psychology

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