MEMORY
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Where was your first assigned seat in this class?
1. Memory is the brain's capacity to reconstruct and
re-experience versions of past occurrences.
2. Selection pressures resulting in our memory
system were probably related to the need to
recall environment the immediate past.
3. Short-term memory
3. Short-term memory [on Activity #10 handout . . . ]
Brian Brushwood: False memory & Eyewitness Testimony https://youtu.be/bfhIuaD183I
[9:00, start 1:30-7:55]
Peter Doolittle: Working Memory
https://youtu.be/UWKvpFZJwcE
[9:30, ? start at 5:16]
3. Working (or short-term) memory--remembering a
few items for a short period of time; this is
susceptible to disruptions.
e.g “the doorway effect”
4. Working memory strategies:
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process information in the moment
talk to others about it
associate information with images
connect the old knowledge to the new
make meaning of the memory
use support—charts, thinking maps, diagrams
Part 2: Long-term memory
5. Long term memory is constructed in the brain,
influenced by perception, attention, and
emotional state.
BBC documentary: Clive Wearing - The man with no short-term memory
https://youtu.be/Vwigmktix2Y
[3:00]
6. Memories are susceptible to distortions, including:
a) sharpening: exaggerating, or embellishing selected
characteristics of a memory
b) leveling: Weakening or downplaying details or
selected characteristics of a memory.
c) confabulation: combining details from many
memories, or making up entirely false memories that
are recalled and experienced as real.
e.g. the “Bugs Bunny effect”
Psychology professor Elizabeth Loftus, “The Bunny Effect” https://youtu.be/eZlPzSeUDDw [1:08]
6. Memory is an "unreliable reporter" when it comes to
recalling past events & experiences.
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Events never occur exactly the way we remember them.
e.g. 9/11 memories
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REALITY: "Everything you remember is made up."
Feats of Memory: https://youtu.be/99pOB6tV96U
[20:00]
Memory & Experience
Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memory
http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_e
xperience_vs_memory.html [20:00]
Eyewitness testimony part 1
[13:00]
[13:00, stop at 6:30]