Remembering and Forgetting Philip Zimbardo Stanford University Tape 9 BF 121 .D57 2001 0: 01:38 - 0:26:20

Serial position effect was discussed (pp. 361-362 in Wade and Tavris, 2006). It has been estimated that we can store one-hundred trillion bits of information. How well we remember, depends upon how much we concentrate, how much we rehearse, the context during learning, the context during recall, motivation, the physiological state, and biological condition.

Hermann Ebbinghaus demonstrated the curve of forgetting as he learned and relearned a list of nonsense syllables. Why is there such a rapid loss of memory? Why does memory fade so quickly? Ebbinghaus had no links, no hooks, no context, no meaningfulness. Memory requires order and sequence.

Today computers permit psychologists to create working models of memory. Encoding, storage, and retrieval of short term (p. 357-359) and long term memory (p. 360) is better understood. Memory is stored in associative networks linked to other networks. Activation of memory occurs across these links to other networks (p. 360).

Short term memory is transient working knowledge, what we are paying attention to right now. Short term memory holds a small amount of information (perhaps 5 to 9 items) and last for a short period of time (perhaps 30 seconds). Short term memory fades as soon as we shift our attention elsewhere. New information always pushes out old information. Information may be held much longer if rehearsal is performed without distraction. Rehearsal and chunking permits the retention in short term memory of much more information.

Gordon Bower (Stanford University) demonstrated peg word mnemonics (p. 368). (One is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree, four is a door, five is a hive). Sigmund Freud alerted psychology to the concept of repression (p. 373).

Memory is a constructive process (p. 354). The central principle of this construction is who you are and what you already know. Schema are the frameworks we used to process memory. Distortion occurs when we try to fit new knowledge into old schemata. Schemata also influence our perceptions.

Brain physiology changes when we encode memories. Encoding occurs in the neurons of the brain. Engrams for procedural knowledge, semantic knowledge, and episodic memories function together (p. 361). Richard Thompson (University of Southern California) has been studying the physiology of memory storage and retrieval through the classical conditioning of the rabbits eyelid response. These memory traces are stored in specific locations. Surgery permanently eliminates these learned responses.

Functional amnesia occurs from severe anxiety and trauma, but can be removed through psychotherapy. Permanent amnesia occurs from senility and alcoholism.