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CHAPtER 7 MeMory
191
whiz Solomon Shereshevsky had merely
Immediate recall:
Percentage 90% last items best to listen while other reporters scribbled
of words 80 (recency effect) notes. Performing in front of a crowd, he
recalled could memorize streams of nonsensical or
70
random information, such as long sections
60 from Dante’s Inferno in Italian — despite
50 not knowing Italian (Johnson, 2017). But his
junk heap of memories dominated his
40
conscious mind (Luria, 1968). He had diffi-
30
culty thinking abstractly — generalizing,
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images 20 Later recall: 10 11 12 organizing, evaluating.
only first items
Jill Price’s incredibly accurate memory
10 recalled well
(primacy effect)
of her life’s events since age 14 has been
0
closely studied. She reports that her
1 23 4 56 78 9
Position of word in list
autobiographical memory,” interferes
FIGURE 7.12 The serial position effect Immediately after Mahershala Ali made his way down the red super- memory, called “highly superior
carpet at the 2019 Academy Awards, he would probably have best recalled the names of the last few people with her life, with one memory cuing
he greeted (recency effect). But later he may only have been able to recall the first few people best (primacy another (McGaugh & LePort, 2014; Parker et al.,
effect). Memory “sags in the middle,” leading us to remember best the first and last people we meet. 2006): “It’s like a running movie that never
stops.” Although their memories are not
et al., 2019). They briefly recalled the last REtRIEVE REMEMBER perfect, people like Price are prone to
items especially quickly and well (a having their mind fill up with informa-
recency effect), perhaps because those ANSWERS IN APPENDIX F tion that, once in memory storage, never
items were still in working memory. 12. What is priming? leaves (Frithsen et al., 2019; Patihis, 2016). In
But after a delay, when their attention 13. When we are tested immediately after such rare individuals — 60 of whom have
viewing a list of words, we tend to recall the
was elsewhere, their recall was best first and last items best. This is known as been identified worldwide — researchers
for the first items (a primacy effect; see the effect. have found enlarged brain areas and
FIGURE 7.12). increased brain activity in memory cen-
ters (Dutton, 2018; Santangelo et al., 2020).
For an 8-minute summary
Information bits More often, however, our quirky mem-
of how we access what’s stored in our brain, ories fail us when we least expect it. My
see the Video: Memory Retrieval. And for a
Sensory memory simulated experiment showing the probability [DM’s] own memory can easily call up such
The senses momentarily register of recalling a specific item from a list, engage episodes as that wonderful first kiss with
amazing detail. the woman I love, or trivial facts like the
online with Concept Practice: The Serial
Position Effect. mileage from Los Angeles to New York. Then
it abandons me when I discover that I have
failed to encode, store, or retrieve a student’s
Forgetting name or the spot where I left my keys.
Working/short-term memory
A few items are both noticed As we process information, we filter,
and encoded. alter, or lose most of it (FIGURE 7.13).
LOQ 7-16 Why do we forget?
f a memory- enhancing pill ever FORGETTING AND THE
Ibecomes available, it had better not TWO- TRACK MIND
be too effective. Indeed, the ability
Long-term storage to forget out- of- date information — For some, memory loss is severe
Some items are altered or lost. and permanent, as it was for Henry
outfits worn last month, an old
phone number, meals prepared and Molaison (H. M.), whom you met earlier
eaten — is surely a blessing (Nørby,
2015). Forgetting unimportant infor- encoding specificity principle the
Retrieval from long-term memory mation helps us remember what idea that cues and contexts specific to a
Depending on interference,
retrieval cues, moods, matters most (Murphy & Castel, 2021). particular memory will be most effective in
and motives, some things So the next time you fret about for- helping us recall it.
get retrieved, some don’t. getting, remember that letting go mood- congruent memory the tendency
of bad memories is good for our mental to recall experiences that are consistent
FIGURE 7.13 When do we forget? with your current good or bad mood.
Forgetting can occur at any memory stage. When well- being (Stramaccia et al., 2021).
we process information, we filter, alter, or lose Yet some people are unable to forget. In serial position effect our tendency to
much of it. the 1920s, Russian journalist and memory recall best the last and first items in a list.

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