Thinking and Memory - An introduction for High School Psychology.

1. COGNITION

2. Information Processing
 Information processing enables memory.
 We rely on memory all the time, and not just for the details of
our daily lives. I need to remember who I am and what I stand
for.
 Three steps of Information Processing:
1. Encoding
2. Storage
3. Retrieval

4. ENCODING
 Encoding is the process in which you move
information—the raw material, the “stuff” that you
will remember—into your memory system.
 Good students are invariably good encoders of
information.

5. ENCODING-Automatic Processing and Effortful
Processing
 Thanks to automatic processing, this
student may be able to remember
where in his textbook he found the
information he needs to study with
no effort. But he will have to pay
attention and use effortful
processing to encode the
information he’s trying to learn from
the book.

6. Automatic Processing and Effortful Processing
 HERMANN EBBINGHAUS (1850–1909) German philosopher who conducted
pioneering memory studies.
TWO TYPES OF ENCODING:
 effortful processing: Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.
 automatic processing: The unconscious and effortless process of encoding
information such as space, time, and frequency.

7. ENCODING
 Serial Position Effect
 Spacing of Rehearsal
 Encoding Meaning
 Encoding Imagery
 Mnemonic Devices
 Organizing Information

8. STORAGE
 Storage is the retention of information.
 Humans have three distinct storage
systems:
 sensory memory
 short-term/working memory
 long-term memory

9. STORAGE
Sensory Memory
 Brief, initial coding of sensory information in the memory system.
 Consider how many objects are in view right now. - visual input.
 iconic store : visual information in sensory memory remains less
than half a second.
 What can you hear right now?
 echoic store : auditory/sound, information in sensory memory
stored for perhaps 3 or 4 seconds. Think of the word echo to
remember that echoic is acoustic.
Have you ever been spacing off in class and had a teacher ask, with an irritated tone, “What did I just
say?” Did you notice that you can generally retrieve that information, even though you truly weren’t
paying attention? Thank your echoic store for this ability.

10. STORAGE
 Short-Term/Working Memory:
 The part of your memory system that contains information you are
consciously aware of before it is stored more permanently or forgotten.
 As compare to Sensory memory, Short-term memory is far more limited
because our consciousness itself is limited—we can attend to only a few
things at one time.
 How many things can we attend to according to George Miller?
 The capacity of short-term/working memory is a limited number
of chunks.
 What is an example of chunks from your everyday learning?
 How long can we retain information in this portion of our memory?
 What are the results of Peterson & Peterson experiment?

11. As this graph shows, when people are not allowed to rehearse, short-term memory decays rapidly.
Within a few seconds, most people are unable to recall three consonants. By the time 20 seconds
have passed, nearly everybody has lost their memory of the three consonants.
Data from
Peterson & Peterson

12. STORAGE
 Long-Term Memory:
 The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system.
 It can hold memories without conscious effort.
 Name of your 2nd Grade Teacher, your zip code (when was the last retrieval of these
pieces of information?)
 Individual differences in the capabilities of long-term memory.
 What type of memory loss patient H.M suffered ?

13. Retrieval
 Recall is the type of retrieval we usually think of as “memory”—searching
for information that was previously stored.
 Recognition is a type of retrieval in which you must identify items you
previously learned.
 Memories weave a web of neural pathways inside the brain.
 Have you ever noticed that the more you know about a subject, the easier it
is to learn even more about it?

14. A Hare-Raising Experience If you show people a picture, you can activate certain associations
in their memory pathways—a process known as priming. When you later ask them to spell a word that
can be spelled in two ways (hare or hair), their response may reflect the content of the picture. Thus, a
picture of a rabbit is likely to activate the spelling h-a-r-e. A picture of a barber at work is likely to
activate the spelling h-a-i-r.

15. Context
 Context is the environment in which you encode or retrieve information.
 context effect: The enhanced ability to retrieve information when you are in
an environment similar to the one in which you encoded the information.
 Godden & Baddeley Experiment- Learning Above and underwater.

16. Results of Recall Context

17. State Dependency
 state-dependent memory: The enhanced ability to retrieve information
when you are in the same physical and emotional state you were in when
you encoded the information.
 The retrieval of memories also depends on your mood.
 If you’re happy when you encode, you’ll retrieve better when you’re
happy. But if you’ve been somewhat depressed as you worked your way
through a particular unit in a class, you’ll probably test better when
depressed.

18. Review for Exam
 What are the factors that allow us to effectively encode information into
our memory system?
 Describe sensory, short-term/working, and long-term memories?
 What factors influence what we can remember and what we forget?

19. FORGETTING
 Forgetting as Encoding Failure

20. FORGETTING
 Forgetting as Storage Failure -
Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve
Permastore Memory

21. FORGETTING
 Forgetting as Retrieval Failure
Interference
proactive interference: When an older
memory disrupts the recall of a newer
memory.
retroactive interference: When a more
recent memory disrupts the recall of an
older memory.
 Motivated Forgetting

22. MEMORY CONSTRUCTION
 How does memory construction contribute
to inaccurate memories?
 Memory is less like a DVD or a computer
hard drive than like a jigsaw puzzle with
missing pieces. Your brain “manufactures”
new pieces to fill the holes and construct a
complete memory.
 misinformation effect: Incorporating
misleading information into a memory of an
event.