U3A PSYCHOLOGY. How Memory works January 2019

Transcription

1 U3A PSYCHOLOGY How Memory works January 2019

2 How memory works This session will cover: A definition of memory Different types of memory Some theories of memory Why we forget How to improve your memory?

3 Introduction

4 Memory It is memory that defines us. It is the core of our identity and plays a central role in every aspect of our lives. It informs who we have been and what we want to become. Memory is the basis of Love, Friendship, Thinking, Learning and Creating. A life without memory is merely an existence.

5 Two definitions of memory The faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information. I ve a great memory for faces. Something remembered from the past. One of my earliest memories is of sitting on his knee. My memory of the events is faint. Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things Cicero, a Roman politician

6 Psychological definitions of memory The mental processes used to encode, store and retrieve information. David Statt A student s dictionary of psychology 2003 Memory is the mental function of retaining information about stimuli, events, images, ideas and so on, after the original stimuli are no longer present. Oxford dictionary of psychology 2005 Most definitions of memory include the processes of encoding, storage and retrieval.

7 What is memory? A memory is formed when a group of neurons in the brain fire in a specific pattern in response to a new experience- these neural connections can then re-fire in order to reconstruct that experience as a memory.

8 Types of memory

9 Types of memory Memories can be categorised into at least 5 types. Episodic memory Semantic memory Procedural memory Explicit memory Working memory

10 Episodic memory This can also be called autobiographical memory. We cannot remember much from before our 6 th birthday This may be because the neural pathways between the hippocampus( where memories are consolidated) and the rest of the brain are not yet fully developed. Also, children don t tend to remember an event until they have learned the words to describe it.

11 Autobiographical memory We are more likely to remember events from the end of young adulthood than from any other period in our lives. This may be because our brains may feel emotions more keenly during this period and memories linked to intense feelings remain in the mind for longer. Or, possibly it is simply because many important landmarks in our lives tend to fall within this period.

12 Semantic memory This is the memory for facts, such as the name of a capital city Can you name these capital cities?

13 Procedural memory This is memory that is concerned with motor skills; how to do things. It is the type of memory most resistant to forgetting in cases of brain damage.

14 Explicit / Implicit memories Consciously recalled events of pieces of information are known as explicit memories, whereas implicit memory refers to experiences that influence your behaviour, feelings or thoughts without you actively recollecting the events or facts.

15 Working memory

16 Short term memory STM is closely linked to working memory, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. There is a difference, however: Stm refers to the passive storage and recall of information from the immediate past, whereas working memory refers to the active processes involved in manipulating this information.

17 How memories form The process of laying down (encoding) a memory depends on many factors. 1. Attention 5.Consolidation 2a. Emotion 2b.Sensation 3.Working memory 4. Processing

18 Areas of the brain used in memory Many areas of the brain work together to store memories. Memories are encoded as patterns of connections between neurons in these two areas.

19 Cross section of the brain

20 Lobes of the brain

21 The hippocampus

22 The Cortex In humans this part of the brain is enormous In order to fit such a large surface area into the confines of the skull, the cortex had to fold up. These folds form distinct lobes separated by deep fissures This folded pattern gives the human brain its characteristic wrinkly appearance.

23 The cortex A close up of a human brain s cerebral cortex. In this photo, the protective membrane has been removed to reveal the detail of the bulges and grooves that account for the increased surface area in humans.

24 Theories of memory The Multistore model. This is concerned with identifying different memory stores. Atkinson and Shriffren in 1968 proposed an influential multi store model, which suggested that there are three types of memory store.

25 The Multistore Model Initially, information is stored for a fraction of a second at the sensory organs in a sensory register. Information that is attended to from this, passes on to short term memory (STM) which holds a few items and lasts a few seconds. Material that is rehearsed in STM is subsequently passed on to long term memory (LTM)

26 Short term memory

27 Short term memory When you hold a restaurant s phone number in your mind as you dial the number, you rely on your short term memory. This store is capable of holding roughly 7 items of information for approx. 15 to 20 seconds. Actively rehearsing the information by repeating it several times can help you to retain it for a longer time.

28 Short term memory STM seems to store verbal and visuospatial information in different places in the brain. Verbal short term memories seem to be stored in acoustic form.

29 Long term memory Particularly salient information gets transferred to the brain s long term storage facility, where it can remain for years or even decades. Your date of birth Phone number Car registration Mother s maiden name are all held here. Unlike STM, with it s acoustic representations, long term memory seems to be stored by its meaning.

30 The levels of processing approach This was put forward by Craik and Lockhart in They focused on the different ways that information can be processed. Information that is deeply processed is more likely to be remembered.

31 Levels of processing(cont) Craik andlockhart consider that there are three levels of processing: Structural ( information about what things look like) Phonetic( Information about what something sounds like) Semantic( Information about what something means) Semantic processing is the deepest form of information processing: it involves the most cognitive work. Material that is semantically processed is likely to be best remembered. Structural processing is the shallowest form of information processing and is likely to result in the least material being remembered.

32 Reconstructive memory F.C. Barlett Memory is reconstructive and schemas influence recall Barlett(1932) suggested that memory was more of an imaginative reconstruction of past events, influenced by our attitudes and our responses to those events at the time that they occurred. Retrieval of stored memories thus involves an active process of reconstruction. Whenever we try to recall an event, we actively piece it together using a range of information.