Chapter 7 Memory and Learning Note
7.1 Conceptualizing Memory and Learning
o Models of memory originated more thatn60 years ago
o Donald Broadbent speculated hoe humans process information
o Information-processing approach:
Human cognition, emphasizes the basic mental processes involved in
attention, perception, memory and decision making
o Framework 3 memory components:
Sensory Register:
Holds abundant sensory information – sight, sounds, smell, and
more
Short-term memory:
Holds limited amount of information, perhaps only 4 chunks, for
short period of time
Long-term memory:
Believed to be a relatively permanent and seemingly unlimited
store form information
o Encode: the information
Get it into the system
o Consolidation:
Stabilize and organize new information to facilitate its long-term storage
o Synaptic consolidation:
Process by which these connections are strengthened within minutes and
hours after learning to retain a memory of the event or the new
information
o System consolidation:
Occurs over days and years to move memories from the hippocampus into
long-term memory in other regions of the brain
o The processes of consolidation are facilitated by sleep and disrupted by stress
o Consolidation assisted when you can relate new material with prior knowledge
o Storage:
Holding information in a long-term memory store
o Human memory does not record experience as a video camera, rather as an
historian would
o Retrieval:
The process of getting information out when it is needed
o Recognition Memory:
You need not actively retrieve the correct date; you merely need to
recognize it among the options
o Recall Memory:
It requires active retrieval without the aid of clues
, o Cued recall memory:
You would be given a hint or clue to facilitate retrieval
o Working memory:
Short-term memory being used to achieve a goal
o Verbal and visual memories are stored differently
o Central executive:
Directs attention and controls the flow of information, supervisor of
working memory system
o 3 types of short-term memory storage:
Phonological loop
Briefly holds auditory information such as words or music
Visual-spatial sketchpad:
Which holds visual information such as colors and shapes
Episodic Buffer:
Links auditory and visual information
Implicit and Explicit Memory
o Long-term memory store responds differently depending on nature of the task
o Implicit memory: (non-declarative memory)
Involves deliberate, effortful recollection of events
o Semantic memory:
General facts
o Episodic memory:
Specific experiences
o Anterograde amnesia:
No longer able to form new memories, not move information from short-
term to long-term memory, failure of system consolidation
o Many forms of amnesia destroy explicit memory but leave implicit memory
undamaged
o Explicit memory is fallible – subject to forgetting – implicit memory is largely
infallible -remains intact
Neural Bases of Memory
o Hippocampus:
Specific region of the medial temporal lobe
Instrumental in creating new episodic memories
o Entorhinal cortex:
Critical role in connecting the hippocampus to other parts of the brain
o Encephalitis
Inflammation of the brain
o Statistical learning:
Detection of the patterns or regularities helps us learn
o This ability to extract regularities helps us learn efficiently and from predictions
of what to expect
7.1 Conceptualizing Memory and Learning
o Models of memory originated more thatn60 years ago
o Donald Broadbent speculated hoe humans process information
o Information-processing approach:
Human cognition, emphasizes the basic mental processes involved in
attention, perception, memory and decision making
o Framework 3 memory components:
Sensory Register:
Holds abundant sensory information – sight, sounds, smell, and
more
Short-term memory:
Holds limited amount of information, perhaps only 4 chunks, for
short period of time
Long-term memory:
Believed to be a relatively permanent and seemingly unlimited
store form information
o Encode: the information
Get it into the system
o Consolidation:
Stabilize and organize new information to facilitate its long-term storage
o Synaptic consolidation:
Process by which these connections are strengthened within minutes and
hours after learning to retain a memory of the event or the new
information
o System consolidation:
Occurs over days and years to move memories from the hippocampus into
long-term memory in other regions of the brain
o The processes of consolidation are facilitated by sleep and disrupted by stress
o Consolidation assisted when you can relate new material with prior knowledge
o Storage:
Holding information in a long-term memory store
o Human memory does not record experience as a video camera, rather as an
historian would
o Retrieval:
The process of getting information out when it is needed
o Recognition Memory:
You need not actively retrieve the correct date; you merely need to
recognize it among the options
o Recall Memory:
It requires active retrieval without the aid of clues
, o Cued recall memory:
You would be given a hint or clue to facilitate retrieval
o Working memory:
Short-term memory being used to achieve a goal
o Verbal and visual memories are stored differently
o Central executive:
Directs attention and controls the flow of information, supervisor of
working memory system
o 3 types of short-term memory storage:
Phonological loop
Briefly holds auditory information such as words or music
Visual-spatial sketchpad:
Which holds visual information such as colors and shapes
Episodic Buffer:
Links auditory and visual information
Implicit and Explicit Memory
o Long-term memory store responds differently depending on nature of the task
o Implicit memory: (non-declarative memory)
Involves deliberate, effortful recollection of events
o Semantic memory:
General facts
o Episodic memory:
Specific experiences
o Anterograde amnesia:
No longer able to form new memories, not move information from short-
term to long-term memory, failure of system consolidation
o Many forms of amnesia destroy explicit memory but leave implicit memory
undamaged
o Explicit memory is fallible – subject to forgetting – implicit memory is largely
infallible -remains intact
Neural Bases of Memory
o Hippocampus:
Specific region of the medial temporal lobe
Instrumental in creating new episodic memories
o Entorhinal cortex:
Critical role in connecting the hippocampus to other parts of the brain
o Encephalitis
Inflammation of the brain
o Statistical learning:
Detection of the patterns or regularities helps us learn
o This ability to extract regularities helps us learn efficiently and from predictions
of what to expect
