Memory Lecture - Part 1

Summary

This lecture by Josh Levine delves into the complexities of human memory, covering the information processing model, which breaks down the memory process into three phases: encoding, storage, and retrieval. Levine explains the characteristics of different types of memory like sensory, short-term, and long-term, highlighting the nuanced methods of encoding, such as automatic and effortful processing. He further explores storage mechanisms, noting the roles of implicit, explicit, and episodic memories, including the impressive recall of flashbulb memories. Lastly, he details various factors affecting memory retrieval like priming, context, and state-dependent memory, concluding with insights into the serial position effect and the impact of rehearsal on memory retention.

Highlights

• Josh Levine explores the intricacies of memory processing, breaking it into encoding, storage, and retrieval. 🎓
• Learn how different types of memory, such as sensory, short-term, and long-term, function uniquely. 🌀
• Understand the distinction between automatic and effortful processing in encoding memory. 🌟
• Find out how priming and state-dependent memory impact how we retrieve information. 🔄
• Discover the serial position effect and how rehearsal bolsters long-term memory retention. 🔍

Key Takeaways

• Memory consists of three critical stages: encoding, storage, and retrieval. 🧠
• The capacity for long-term memory is infinite, but it needs rehearsal for permanence. 🔁
• Automatic processing lets us remember things unconsciously, like skills or associations. 🤔
• Sensory memory is fleeting, lasting only a few seconds if unattended. ⏱️
• The testing and spacing effects are crucial for effective learning and memory retention. 📚

Overview

In this engaging lecture, Josh Levine masterfully unravels the complexities of human memory, guiding us through the memory maze like a seasoned navigator. The talk kicks off by laying the groundwork with the information processing model, a fascinating yet complex diagram that paints a full picture of how we store and retrieve memories. Levine breaks the model down into three stages: encoding, where information makes its grand entrance; storage, the intricate dance of rehearsing and embedding memories; and retrieval, the moment of truth when memories resurface.

Throughout the lecture, Levine peppers in relatable examples that make these complex processes digestible. He describes sensory memory as the short-lived snapshot we capture and lose, highlighting working memory’s role in juggling new and stored information. The tactics of chunking, and using the spacing effect for effective learning, get the spotlight as Levine emphasizes their potency for long-term memory reinforcement.

The lecture crescendos into the various nuanced factors influencing memory retrieval, such as priming and context-dependent memory. Levine explains how moods can flip our memory's narrative and highlights the power of flashbulb memories—those vivid recollections tied to significant emotional events. Wrapping up, he introduces the serial position effect, a catchy concept showing why we often remember beginnings and endings, leaving us eager for more knowledge nuggets in subsequent sessions.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Information Processing Model The lecture begins with an introduction to the topic of memory, including forgetting and memory construction. The speaker indicates that they will cover the first three sections of the lecture in this recording, leaving the last section for a later time. The first topic discussed is the information processing model, which initially appears complex and intricate.
• 00:30 - 01:30: Phases of Memory: Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval Memory is a process that involves three distinct phases: encoding, storage, and retrieval.
• 01:30 - 02:30: Types of Memory: Sensory, Short-term, Long-term In this chapter, the focus is on different types of memory, namely sensory, short-term, and long-term memory. Sensory memory is described as having the ability to hold 3 to 7 items and lasts for about 3 seconds. The transition from sensory memory to long-term memory involves processes like information practice, which facilitates the encoding of these memories into the long-term store. Retrieval refers to accessing these memories after they have been stored. Each type of memory has distinct characteristics that tailor to their functions and durations.
• 02:30 - 05:00: Encoding: Automatic and Effortful Processing This chapter explores the concepts of automatic and effortful processing in the context of memory encoding. It explains that working memory can hold seven to nine chunks of information for a duration of 5 to 15 seconds, whereas long-term memory has an infinite capacity. The text emphasizes that with sufficient practice and rehearsal, information can remain in long-term memory permanently. The chapter sets the stage for a detailed discussion on encoding mechanisms that help store information in our memory system effectively.
• 05:00 - 08:30: Sensory Memory: Iconic and Echoic This chapter explores the concept of sensory memory, focusing on iconic and echoic memory. It explains how information is encoded in our brain either through automatic processing or effortful processing. Automatic processing involves remembering implicit memories or skills effortlessly, while effortful processing requires conscious effort. The chapter emphasizes the different ways in which sensory memory works and its significance in storing memories.
• 08:30 - 13:30: Short-term Memory and Chunking The chapter discusses the concept of short-term memory and chunking in human cognition. It explains how people often think and process information unconsciously, including the retention of skills and associations. For instance, if a dog attack occurs at a young age, an individual may later experience automatic tension upon seeing a dog, without consciously remembering the initial attack. Moreover, the chapter highlights the automatic processing of spatial information.
• 13:30 - 20:00: Levels of Processing: Shallow and Deep The chapter discusses the 'Levels of Processing' model, which suggests that the depth of processing affects how well information is remembered. Shallow processing involves surface-level comprehension, while deep processing involves meaningful analysis. The chapter highlights examples of how we encode information effortlessly through exposure to events in sequence and frequency, without actively trying to memorize them.
• 20:00 - 25:00: Storage: Explicit, Implicit, and Episodic Memory The chapter discusses different types of memory storage: explicit, implicit, and episodic. It explains how our brain can automatically encode the frequency of events without conscious thought, such as noticing when you've encountered the same person multiple times in a day. This type of memory is contrasted with effortful processing, which requires conscious awareness and effort to encode information, like reading where you need to remember the sounds and structure of words.
• 25:00 - 30:30: Long-term Potentiation and Effects of Rehearsal The chapter discusses the concept of automaticity in learning and memory, using reading as an example. Initially, learning to read requires effort and conscious attention, but with practice, it becomes automatic, requiring no conscious awareness. This automaticity reflects the brain's adaptability and efficiency in processing information. The chapter also touches on the sensory memory as the initial stage of memory that captures sensory information for brief periods.
• 30:30 - 35:30: Retrieval: Recognition, Recall, and Relearning The chapter discusses various aspects of memory, focusing on how we encode and process information through sensory memory. It explains that sensory memory briefly registers images and sounds that our senses perceive without conscious attention. For example, when you glance at a face in a crowd but don't focus on it, the memory of that face fades within seconds because no attention is paid to it. The concept highlights the fleeting nature of sensory memory in the absence of directed attention.
• 35:30 - 40:30: Encoding and Retrieval: Priming, Context, and State Dependency This chapter explores the different types of sensory memory, namely iconic and echoic memory, detailing their roles in recording visual and auditory information respectively.
• 40:30 - 43:50: Serial Position Effect and Conclusion The chapter discusses the concept of sensory memory with a focus on its visual and auditory forms. It explains that visual sensory memory, or iconic memory, allows us to retain an image we see in a split second before it fades away unless it is transferred to short-term memory. Similarly, echoic memory pertains to the auditory sense, allowing us to remember sounds for a brief period. Without attention, these sensory inputs are forgotten and not encoded into long-term memory. This concept is likely part of a broader discussion on memory and cognitive processes.

Memory Lecture - Part 1 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 this is the first part of the lecture that's going to be given on Friday October 13th uh on memory uh as well as forgetting and memory construction uh for this recording I will be doing the first three sections of the lecture but not the last one which will be done at a second time when we talk about memory the first thing we need to talk about is the information processing model which looks really crazy and really complicated but
• 00:30 - 01:00 ultimately this is what really shows the entire process of memory as it occurs in a human being for memory there are three distinct phases encoding storage and retrieval encoding is when the information is put into our brains using our senses storage is when we use various techniques uh to rehearse uh the
• 01:00 - 01:30 information or practice it uh which allows us to keep it into our memory uh especially into our long-term memory and then retrieval uh is when we access that memory later on as far as the memories themselves go uh each one has kind of some distinct characteristics sensory memory can hold three to seven items and will last up to about 3 seconds shortterm memory memory and
• 01:30 - 02:00 working memory and we'll cover working memory a little bit later uh can hold seven to nine chunks uh for about 5 to 15 seconds uh and then our long-term memory our capacity to remember is infinite and with enough practice and enough rehearsal the duration of that information will remain permanent let's start with encoding when we talk about
• 02:00 - 02:30 encoding uh we are talking about the information that we're putting into our brain but this can come into one of two ways automatic processing occurs when we are remembering uh implicit memories or memories of skills additionally automatic processing also means that you are just remembering stuff without any sort of effort without
• 02:30 - 03:00 thinking and you're almost doing it unconsciously uh additionally without the aside from those memories of skills you're also remembering associations so like for example if a dog attacked you when you were really young and you saw a dog later on in your life you might automatically tense up without even thinking about that event in which the dog attacked you uh and finally uh we also automatically process information about about space so for example uh
• 03:00 - 03:30 we'll remember where uh a certain piece of information is but without any sort of effort we'll encode that into our brains without any sort of effort uh time uh if you've forgotten something you can uh go back and through the different events that you've experienced that day uh and to note the sequence of the events uh and then frequency um you
• 03:30 - 04:00 don't even think about it but your brain will automatically encode how many times that you've done a certain task today uh such as this is that second time that I run into that person today during school effortful processing means that you're giving conscious awareness towards the information you're trying to encode uh for example right now reading becomes automatic accessing the memory of what certain sounds are and how to put those
• 04:00 - 04:30 sounds together is automatic and encoding that information is automatic but learning to read wasn't always automatic for you guys um probably when you're very young you work really hard to pick out letters and connect them and to create sounds but through experience and practice it became automatic it became uh something where you don't have to provide conscious awareness as you put that information into your brain sensory memory is the first type of memory that we experience and this
• 04:30 - 05:00 usually happens when we encode something and sensory memory uh is fleeting it's the images and the sounds that our eyes and our ears pick up without any sort of attention being a paid paid to those uh specific areas uh so like for example when you see a face of someone in a large crowd and then you don't pay attention and you don't remember it uh now you remembered it for a couple couple of seconds
• 05:00 - 05:30 because as our as I mentioned before we remember for uh one to three seconds and we can remember um up to about seven to eight items now there are two types of sensory memory there is Iconic and echoic memory iconic memory is the visual form of sensory memory uh it's what uh allows us to record those various things that we see um and then though if we don't pay
• 05:30 - 06:00 any attention to it then that information is lost echoic memory is very similar except it is the auditory version of sensory memory in which we hear a sound uh and we we'll remember it for a couple of seconds but if we're not paying attention to what it is we're hearing we're going to lose all that stuff that was said if you look at these letters here how many letters did you
• 06:00 - 06:30 remember probably it was maybe three or four or five and if you were paying attention maybe you got six or seven but you probably didn't get all nine um and that's because our sensory memory doesn't allow us to record all that information uh if we aren't paying attention we can record it all in our brains but we can only remember five to seven items so when we look at our information processing model we see that sensory memory
• 06:30 - 07:00 is the first thing that happens as we begin to encode information into our brain our short-term memory lasts a little bit longer and our short-term memory is created when we pay attention to those things that we're encoding in as I mentioned before uh our short-term memory can hold anywhere from five to nine chunks chunking is a way of putting more than five to seven to nine
• 07:00 - 07:30 items into our brain for a short-term memory chunking is a way uh to create a meaningful whole out of many different individual Parts uh for example when you see this it's very difficult to chunk it because there's no meaningful connections and yet when you see this you can probably remember all these letters even if I covered it back up because again there are meaningful connections uh a couple other examples of this if
• 07:30 - 08:00 you try to remember all these letters uh for let's say I give you 15 seconds to look at it you're probably not going to remember them but yet if I give you this one now you're going to be able to remember them instead of remembering each letter individually you're remembering them in chunks or in this case words and by remembering each one in chunks we can actually remember every single letter that's in this line uh this can even work on a larger scale as
• 08:00 - 08:30 well if you had this which a whole bunch of nonsensical words obviously uh they're all English words but there's a lot of words there to try to remember uh and yet if you looked at it like this as phrases then you would only need to remember three phrases which would allow you uh to remember um about 16 different words when we are encoding verb
• 08:30 - 09:00 material we it can happen on a shallow way or on a deep way we can process that information and we can encode it into our brains if we only visually encode it we're not going to remember it very much because what occurs at this point is that we are only looking at the symbols and if we have no connection to those symbols like for example if I showed you something if I
• 09:00 - 09:30 showed you a word in another language then you might not be able to remember that word pretty soon afterwards and yet if I said the word you might remember it a little bit better the encoding increases when it's an acoustic encoding when it's the sounds of the word and most of the time this will occur because we're rhyming the word with the with a English word that we might be able to remember so we're developing a connection but the best way to process
• 09:30 - 10:00 the deepest way to process and encode these words is through semantic encoding in which we understand the meaning of the word and if we understand the meaning of the word then remembering the word and recognizing that meaning is going to be uh easier later on when we talk about Storage storage can occur in three different ways and we can create three different types memory from this
• 10:00 - 10:30 explicit memory is something that we would call declarative memory or memory of facts memory of ideas memories that you can declare these are stored in the hippocampus the main Memory Center of the brain and also our frontal lobe our frontal Lo needs to store these memories of facts because without the facts we can't make judgments and we can't evaluate consequences which is one of the key characteristics of the prefrontal cortex implicit memories are memories of skills so this is coordinated abilities
• 10:30 - 11:00 like riding a bicycle or running uh and these are stored in the cerebellum because the cerebellum is the part of the brain in which uh coordinated movement and balance is mainly stored and then finally we have episodic memory episodic memory is memory of events memory of uh key ideas now the facts of those memories might be found in the hippocampus but the emotional connection means that those memories are also going to be stored in the amydala and so when we develop that emotional
• 11:00 - 11:30 connection to those memories uh the amyd amydala plays a big role in those Ro memories themselves now some of our episodic memories are probably not very clear and yet other ones of our episodic memories are going to be very clear and very crisp because these are known as flash bulb memories and these usually occur with major events that take place when within your life or some sort of event that has major purpose or major connection um when we have these really
• 11:30 - 12:00 significant events we remember them really well they stick out in our mind like a flash bulb going off uh and yet if you try to remember what happened the day after that event you probably aren't going to be able to because there's not so much of an emotional connection this was a word I was talking about I misplaced this slide I'm going to change it for the lecture but this was the word I was talking about with the uh Visual and acoustic encoding if you Tred to remember it just as the word it would be very difficult but if you
• 12:00 - 12:30 remember the sounds a little bit better and the meaning even better after that on the synaptic level we can see evidence and biological evidence of memory um with the neurons in our brains and this is what really gives us this evidence and so we look at the rate at which the neurons fire and this shows us in an in a type of event called long-term potentiation in long-term potentiation when we first encode information of something that we haven't accessed
• 12:30 - 13:00 before we see that the neurons fire at a normal rate but with repeated stimulation I.E practice and rehearsal as we begin to store it into our brains when we access it later all of a sudden even just rehearsing it and practicing it even a week later their neurons are going to fire a lot faster um and because they're firing a lot faster we see that this is evidence that the brain is developing a stronger connection with the information that's trying to be
• 13:00 - 13:30 remembered one way of storing a lot of information in our brain is the testing effect uh the testing effect gives us repeated rehearsal uh as we listen to questions and we answer them uh using things like note cards or um having somebody else test you on material demonstrates that you have sto encoded it well stored it well and have the ability to retrieve it well um and not
• 13:30 - 14:00 only that as you access it later on to practice it during this testing effect you are rehearsing even further which allows you to store it more and more complete the spacing effect is another way that we're able to put a lot of information in our brain with space repetition such as five minutes of information uh gathering at a time followed by five minute five minute breaks we're able to transfer that information into to our long-term memory
• 14:00 - 14:30 banks now this is really important because if we try to cram a lot of information into our memory banks as we're going to see when we cover the forgetting part of this section not all the information makes it not all the information it can be stored all at one time so allowing our brains to have that break and really process the information that we've been storing uh makes a really big difference overall the effect of rehearsal can't be overstated uh rehearsal is what really
• 14:30 - 15:00 allows us uh to put uh information from our short-term memory into our long-term memory uh and it's in this way that the encoding process and the storing process work together uh with rehearsal the more we encode it by saying a word and hearing it uh repeating a phone number to oursel over and over again we are not only practicing it and keep getting making sure that those neurons are firing faster but we're ALS also encoding it every single time that we
• 15:00 - 15:30 practice it so we're encoding it over and over and over again constantly paying attention to what we're encoding and moving into our short-term memory banks over and over and over again till ultimately it gets encoded into our long-term memory retrieval is the third stage of memory our long-term memory is infinite and what's really interesting about our long-term memory is that the information is permanent with enough rehearsal working memory is similar to short-term
• 15:30 - 16:00 memory and basically what working memory is when you access information from your long-term memory and you have to remember it to use it in the present moment now as we retrieve it though we are limited in the amount of time that we can remember something uh unless we rehearse it to oursel by saying it over and over again as we retrieve old information U most of the time it's only going to last for about 15 seconds the same as short-term memory but that's
• 16:00 - 16:30 really all we need it for we really only need to access it in that moment have it for about 15 seconds and use it where we need to now if we need to try to access it later on then all of a sudden we're going to have to retrieve more than once or use our working memory uh over and over again um or uh rehearse it uh after we've R accessed that memory and retrieve the information you'll remember that there are two primary types of memory connected to retriever which are recognition and recall memory uh with
• 16:30 - 17:00 recognition memory this is uh accessing information in which Clues are given it becomes very easy to do recall memory on the other hand is accessing information without any sort of Clues without any sort of ideas finally there's relearning now when we learn something the first time we have to remember how to do it and we are encoding all sorts of information into our brain but the more we relearn something even if it's years later it just becomes a form of rehearsal um so
• 17:00 - 17:30 it's a lot easier to retrieve that information even if we haven't done that skill or accessed that memory for a long time uh for example I used to play the piano when I was younger these days my daughter is beginning to learn the piano and as I am trying to help her I actually remember how to do more because basically when I'm relearning it by looking at the notes again and looking at where my fingers are supposed to go it has just become another form of
• 17:30 - 18:00 rehearsal and allows me to retrieve that information faster and then encode it a little bit more so ultimately what we see here is we see the full information processing model stimuli hits our brain sights and sounds uh sensory memory holds it for only a couple of seconds unless we pay attention if we pay attention it goes into our short-term memory which allows us to keep it there for 5 to 15 seconds but we begin to rehearse it and as we rehearse it more and more more we encode it into our long-term memory and then
• 18:00 - 18:30 when we need that information later our working memory retrieves it holds it for about 15 seconds so we can use it in that moment and this is how our memory works now a couple other things about retrieval uh priming is a way to access specific types of information by PR by establishing ideas in a person's brain before you ask them for a specific type of memory so if I asked you to spell the word
• 18:30 - 19:00 hair you might spell it one way and yet if I showed you a picture of a rabbit you might spell it a different way only because seeing that picture of a rabbit primes your brain to remember that there is another spelling of the word hair now you may remember it beforehand but a lot of people don't and yet once they see this picture of the rabbit they definitely do because now their brain has been uh preempted or uh prepared to remember a specific type
• 19:00 - 19:30 of information another way that we can retrieve memory a little bit differently is through context or state dependent memory context dependent memory is when we learn information in a specific environment so let's say like our bedroom or a classroom when we go to access that memory later on we're actually more easily able to remember that information in that environment because of the context so the temperature of the air the uh kind of
• 19:30 - 20:00 background noises uh the lighting that we see all provides context for our brain to access the memory if we learned it in that context before the same thing applies to State dependent memory State dependent memory is all about a person's state of mind um so you may have heard about something like drunk memory where a person uh consumes a large amount of alcohol learn something when they're sober they can't remember and yet when they get drunk again they can because
• 20:00 - 20:30 they learn the information or encoded the information in a specific mental state uh this would allow them to obviously retrieve it while in that state because the brain makes the connection additionally mood congruence is another way that we retrieve information but in that way it can actually uh alter or augment or change the way that we retrieve information uh if we are in a good mood uh and are exper ing good emotions we may we may
• 20:30 - 21:00 remember a specific thing in our life with a positive context and yet if we're in a bad mood we may remember things about our life uh or episodes or events within our life that are more of a negative context ultimately one of the as we try to remember and access information we see that there's two specific effects recency and Primacy which allows us to remember things a little bit better the serial position effect says that recency and Primacy allows us to
• 21:00 - 21:30 remember the things that we learned at the beginning and the things that we learn at the end and all that stuff in the middle is stuff that is forgotten the reason for this is because with recency effects it's the most recent information that you've covered and so your brain doesn't have to go back very far to get it Primacy is it's the first thing that you uh encoded into your brain and because it was the first thing you were probably paying more attention to it um and um it sticks out more because it
• 21:30 - 22:00 was the first thing that you heard but the stuff in the middle are the ones that are the most difficult it's there here where we conclude this portion of the lecture uh we will be doing the last portion next week