Memory. 7.2 How Are Memories Maintained over Time? Sensory memory is brief Working Memory Is Active Long-Term Memory Is Relatively Permanent

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1 LP 7A encoding 1 Memory 7.1 What Is Memory? Memory Is the Nervous System s Capacity to Retain and Retrieve Skills and Knowledge Memory Is the Processing of Information Memory Is the Result of Brain Activity 7.2 How Are Memories Maintained over Time? Sensory memory is brief Working Memory Is Active Long-Term Memory Is Relatively Permanent 7.3 How Is Information Organized in Long-Term Memory? Long-Term Storage Is Based on Meaning Schemas Provide an Organizational Framework Information Is Stored in Association Networks Retrieval Cues Provide Access to Long-Term Storage 7.4 What Are the Different Long-Term Memory Systems? Explicit Memory Involves Conscious Effort Implicit Memory Occurs without Deliberate Effort Prospective Memory Is Remembering to Do Something 7.5. When Does Memory Fail? Transience Is Caused by Interference Blocking Is Temporary Absentmindedness Results from Shallow Encoding Amnesia Is a Deficit in Long-Term Memory Persistence Is Unwanted Remembering 7.6 How Are Long-Term Memories Distorted? People Reconstruct Events to Be Consistent. Flashbulb Memories Can Be Wrong People Make Source Misattributions People Have False Memories What to Believe? Using Psychological Reasoning Ignoring Evidence (Confirmation Bias): How Accurate Are Eyewitnesses? Repressed Memories Are Controversial Using Psychology in Your Life Can I Ace Exams Without Cramming?

2 LP 7A encoding 2 Memory and Behavior What are persistent gamblers more likely to remember? (a) Instances in which they win. (b) Instances in which they lose. (c) Neither, they remember each one about the same. (d) I am not sure.

3 LP 7A encoding 3 Psychology is sometimes not intuitively obvious It may seem intuitive that persistent gamblers would remember the instances in which they win than the instances in which they lose. However, the opposite tends to occur. Persistent gamblers tend to remember instances in which they lose more than their wins. It is how they remember their losses that make the difference. They create a new category of losses called an almost win and allows them to maintain their belief by distorting their experience. Gambling Outcome 33 instances of wins 66 instances of losses What Non-persistent gamblers remember 4 wins 4 losses What Persistent gamblers remember 4 wins 4 almost wins 4 losses This example illustrates several things about human thinking and memory: The thinking processes involved are not obvious and can be counterintuitive. How you organize in memory can affect your thinking and your behavior. This tends to be an unconscious and automatic process. Persistent gambling requires knowledge of the psychology of learning (schedules of reinforcements) and memory (and perhaps even more). You can apply your knowledge in one area of psychology (memory) to another (social psychology).

4 LP 7A encoding 4 Misunderstandings of behavior, such as persistent gambling, can make difficult to address the problem or make intervention strategies not very effective.

5 Memory as Information Processing Psychologists use the metaphor that the brain is an processor that encodes, stores and retrieves. LP 5A &5B encoding 5 Encodes Stores Retrieves gets it in holds it gets it out A rough analogy is that the brain is like computer processes.

6 Memory as Information Processing LP 5A &5B encoding 6 The computer analogy doesn t capture other features of memory such as that people forget and distort and sometimes remember events in a way that is different than how the event actually occurred. Memory is not like a video tape or movie. We cannot scroll to a particular event and retrieve it as it happened. It is like a jigsaw puzzle where we remember bits and pieces and fill in the blanks with what is reasonable and familiar. Memories are made by combining we already have in our brains with new that come in (page 266). Old memories Current Memories New

7 Memory as Information Processing LP 5A &5B encoding 7 Memories are made by combining we already have in our brains with new that come in. Old memories recall all the rude New Yorkers Current Memories New Yorkers are rude Notice all the rude New Yorkers New Our past affects what we remember and what we pay attention to. What we currently remember and know affects our interpretation and memory of the past. What we know affects what we pay attention to and interpret new. New can change what we currently know. This explains why it is hard to overcome previous knowledge, how memories change and some of The Seven Sins of Memory (see later sections).

8 Attachment Styles and Memory LP 5A &5B encoding 8 In this experiment involving a puppet show, whether you had a secure attachment or insecure-avoidant attachment, the infants saw the same puppet show. However, what you remember about the experiences is affect by attachment style. Attachment style affects what you remember. Secure attachments tend to remember positive events, whereas the insecure avoidant attachments tend to remember negative events. Image source: Schacter, Gilbert and Wegner, 2011, Psychology