Psychology 110

Neil Lutsky, Carleton College
November 6, 2002

Class Outline: What was today's topic?

I. Introduction to memory and memory processes.

  1. Memory in psychology.
  2. The personal meaning of memory: CSIKSZENTMIHALYI!

II. How accurate is memory?

  1. The taperecorder vs. the literary theory of memory.
    1. Milan Kundera: Films or photographs?
    2. John Wideman: The purposes of the present.
  2. Pennies from heaven?
  3. Loftus studies of reconstructive memory.
  4. Where is the deficit?

III. Encoding memories.

  1. Organize, organize, think, organize.
    1. Limits in active memory.
    2. Chunking.
  2. Rehearsal strategies.
    1. Ebbinghaus studies.
    2. Distributed vs. massed training.
    3. Overlearning.
  3. The effects of attention.
    1. Primacy effects.
    2. Transition phase effects.
    3. Flashbulb memories.

IV. Retrieving memories.

  1. Schema-driven remembering.
  2. The role of retrieval cues.
    1. The role of retrieval cues.
    2. The repression of repressed childhood memories?
    3. Mnemonic devices and exceptional memories.
  3. State dependent memory: Mood and memory.
  4. Theories of forgetting.