Memory Games

1. Memory Games
Can We Improve Memory?

2. Common Cents
•Only one of the images of a penny on
the following slide is correct.
•Which one is it?

4. What’s Going On?
•If you chose the first penny, you were correct!
•Most people have a hard time making this choice.
•You need to be able to recognize a penny when
you see one.
•You don't need to remember many details to
distinguish a penny from a dime or quarter.
•We're likely to remember only enough about an
object to recognize it in everyday life.

5. What About Faces?
•How do we remember a face?
•The upper part of the face seems to be
more important for recognition than the
lower part.
•The hair is the most important factor,
followed by the eyes, then the nose,
and then to a lesser extent, the mouth
and chin.
•If you're going to rob a bank, wear a
wig, and don't bother with the fake
beard!

6. Impersonating Elvis
•The following pictures are famous
people.
•Each is shown with "The King's"
hair.
•Does the hair make it more
difficult to recognize them?
•Write down your guess for each
figure.

7. 1.
2.
3.

11. What’s Wrong With This Picture?

12. Hair Matters Most!
•The members of this track team all
have the same face.
•Unless we are paying close
attention to facial features, hair
plays a big part in forming an
image of individuals.

13. Thanks for the Memories
•I will slowly read a list of words
out loud.
•Take three minutes to write down
all the words you remember.

14. Now Compare
•sour
•chocolate
•nice
•pie
•candy
•honey
•sugar
•soda
•bitter
•good
•heart
•taste
•cake
•tooth
•tart

15. Let’s Try it Again
•mad
•wrath
•fear
•happy
•hate
•fight
•rage
•hatred
•temper
•mean
•fury
•calm
•ire
•emotion
•enrage

16. What’s Going On?
•Most people falsely remember the word
‘sweet’ on the first list and the word
angry on the second list.
•The words aren't there, but they are
strongly suggested by the words that
are on the list.
•Memory is associative
•Thinking about one thing gets you
thinking related thoughts.

17. Activity One
•On the next slide, there are
pictures of 20 different things.
•Set a timer for two minutes then
proceed to the next slide.
•Look at the pictures for two
minutes.
•After two minutes advance to the
next slide.

19. Instructions
•Now write down as many of the
things as you can remember on
your piece of paper.
•After you've written down as many
things as you can remember,
move to the next slide to check
your list.

20. •How many of the 20 things did you remember?

21. Does Practice Make Perfect?
•In 1927, a scientist tested 187
university students on their ability
to memorize poetry, the meaning
of Turkish words, dates of
historical events, etc.
–Some students practiced memorizing
things.
–Others learned techniques for
remembering things.
–The rest did nothing at all related to
memory.

22. The Results
•The group that had learned
techniques for memorizing things
did much better on the test than
the others.
•The students who had practiced
memorizing things and the
students who had done nothing at
all did about the same on the test
as they did before.

23. Why is This So?
•Repeating the words over and over uses
“working memory”
–This works for some things – like short
term recall of a phone number
–You won’t remember something this way 5
minutes later
•You don't improve memory just by
repeating something over and over.
•Working memory holds a small amount
of information for a short time

24. So What Does Work?
•Elaborative encoding
•Elaborative encoding connects new
information to existing memories
–This helps you remember the new
information.
•It helps move the information out
of working memory and into long-
term memory.

25. Let’s Try It Again!
•As you did before, look at the pictures
on the following slide for two minutes
•After 2 minutes move to the next slide
and write down as many of the things
as you can remember.
•This time, while you are looking at the
pictures, make up a story that has all of
the items in it.
•Try to imagine the story as you tell it to
yourself, picturing each item.
•Here we Go!

27. More Instructions
•Now write down as many of the
things as you can remember on
your piece of paper.
•After you've written down as many
things as you can remember,
move to the next slide to check
your list.

28. •How many did you remember this time?

29. What’s Going On?
•You are connecting the different pictures so
that when you remember one, you remember
the others too.
–It's easier to remember when one item is attached
to others.
–You are making a mental picture that includes all
the different items.
–Making a mental picture helps you remember.
•Making up a story may not help you
remember all of the objects, but it helps you
remember some of the objects a lot longer.
•When you made a mental picture of the
objects, you used your long-term memory.

30. Let’s Try One More Time
•This experiment is a bit harder.
•On the next slide, there are pictures of 10
different objects.
•Think of 10 different places where you could
put something.
•Choose any 10 places you like, but make sure
that you can walk from one to the next easily
and in the same order every time.
•Imagine yourself walking from one place to
another, looking at each one.
•Make sure that you can remember all 10
places.

31. More Instructions
•Move to the next slide and look at the pictures
for two minutes.
•When you look at the pictures, imagine each
object in one of the places you selected.
•The sillier the picture you imagine, the more
likely you are to remember it.
•Do the same thing for every other item on the
list.
•Imagine yourself walking from one place to
another and seeing the things you've
imagined.
•Now try it.

33. What Can You Remember?
•Now write down as many of the
things as you can remember on
your piece of paper.
•How did you do this time?

34. Did you remember all 10?

35. Why it Works
•This trick helps you remember for the same
reasons that telling yourself a story helped
you remember.
•You are connecting these different things
and picturing them in your mind.
•You are also giving yourself a hint that helps
you pull out the memory.
•You can apply these techniques to other
things you want to remember.