Course: Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Bennett
Module: Week 7 of 16 · Fall 2026 · in-person, two 75-minute sessions
Objective covered: Objective 5 — Compare the major models of learning and memory and apply them to everyday behavior (the memory half).

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Module 7 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Welcome Announcement that drips out when the module opens. Dates below assume a Tuesday/Thursday session pattern with Week 7 meeting Tue Oct 13 and Thu Oct 15, and end-of-week work due Sunday Oct 18, 11:59 p.m. Adjust the day-of-week and times to match your section.

(A) Module 7 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Week 7: Memory

This is your home base for the week. Read it first, then work the checklist below from top to bottom. Everything you need is linked inside the module.

Last week we studied learning — how experience changes behavior. This week we study what holds onto all of that: memory. We'll follow a memory from your senses into long-term storage and back out, look at the real reasons we forget, and land on the week's big surprise — that memory doesn't replay the past like a video, it rebuilds it, and a confident, vivid memory can still be wrong. This is the part of the course that changes how you study and how much you trust your own recollections.

One scheduling note up front: this is the last content week before the midterm. Next week (Week 8) is the cumulative midterm over Weeks 1–7 — so the load this week is deliberately light, and you'll find tips below for turning this week's memory science into a study plan for the whole first half of the course.

The week's big question

"If memory feels like replaying a video of what happened, why do confident, vivid memories so often turn out to be wrong?"

By Friday you'll be able to trace a memory through encoding, storage, and retrieval, name the main reasons we forget, and explain why even sincere eyewitnesses — and your own most vivid memories — can be mistaken.

By the end of this week, you can…

Use this as a checklist. If you can do all five out loud, you're ready for the quiz.

• [ ] Name the three processes — encoding (getting it in), storage (keeping it), retrieval (getting it back) — and explain that forgetting is any one of them breaking down.
• [ ] Walk the three-stage model — sensory → short-term (≈7±2 items, ~20–30 sec) → long-term — and explain how working memory (active manipulation) differs from passive short-term holding.
• [ ] Explain what improves encoding — deep/semantic processing beats shallow; elaborative rehearsal, chunking, and the spacing effect beat rote repetition and cramming.
• [ ] Sort memory types — explicit/declarative (episodic events, semantic facts) vs implicit/nondeclarative (procedural skills) — and the forgetting types, including proactive vs retroactive interference.
• [ ] Explain reconstructive memory — why memory is rebuilt (not replayed), how the misinformation effect edits it, and why confidence ≠ accuracy for eyewitnesses and flashbulb memories.

What's due this week, and when

Work these in order — each one gets you ready for the next.

Heads-up on the AI tutorial: you'll use a chatbot to draft and explain, then you judge its work against what we cover in class. Chatbots routinely trip on this week's interference pair — they sometimes reverse proactive and retroactive — and occasionally inflate the capacity/duration of short-term memory. Catching the model is the point.

Late policy reminder: 10% off per day late. If life happens, reach out before the deadline — I'd much rather hear from you early, especially the week before the midterm.

How to succeed this week (and set up the midterm)

• Lead with the idea, not the jargon. Every term this week is a plain-English idea first (a retrieval cue is just a reminder that unlocks a memory; reconstructive just means memory is rebuilt, not replayed). The vocabulary comes after the idea clicks.
• Memorize two tiny hooks. "Encode = get it in · Store = keep it · Retrieve = get it back." And for the pair everyone confuses: "PRoactive = PRior learning blocks the new; Retroactive = Recent learning blocks the old."
• Study the way this week says to. Don't reread — self-test, space your review across days, and process for meaning. The memory science you're learning is the study plan. (This is your best preparation for the Week-8 midterm.)
• Remember the headline lesson: confidence ≠ accuracy. A vivid, certain memory can still be wrong — memory is reconstructive, and a single leading word can edit it (the misinformation effect).
• Treat the chatbot as a smart intern, not an oracle. It drafts; you check — especially on proactive vs. retroactive interference.

You don't need anything from outside class for this week — just your own memory to experiment on. Come ready to be a little unsettled about how much you trust it. See you Tuesday.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Module 7

Release setting: post on the module's start day (offset = 0 days), i.e., Tue Oct 13, 2026 — not before. If your platform won't preserve the scheduled date on import, post this as a draft labeled "Release: Tue Oct 13."

Subject: Week 7 — can you trust your own memory? (and a midterm heads-up) 🧠

Hi everyone,

Quick experiment before class: think of one of your most vivid memories — a first day, where you were during some big news. It feels like a high-definition recording, right? Here's this week's unsettling fact: vividness and confidence are not the same as accuracy. Memory doesn't replay the past like a video — it rebuilds it every time, and that rebuild can be edited, sometimes by a single word.

This week — Memory — we tackle the big question: If memory feels like replaying a video, why do confident, vivid memories so often turn out to be wrong? By Friday you'll trace a memory from your senses into long-term storage and back out, name the real reasons we forget, and understand why even sincere eyewitnesses can be mistaken.

Three things not to miss:
1. Lecture Tutorial 7 — work through the week's ideas with one approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) and submit the share link. Watch it on proactive vs. retroactive interference — models sometimes reverse the two, and catching that is the point. Due Sun Oct 18.
2. Quiz 7, Discussion 7 ("Can You Trust Your Memory?"), and Assignment 7 also close Sun Oct 18 — the discussion is a quick AI dialogue you summarize and post, so start early and leave time to reply to classmates.
3. Heads-up: next week is the midterm. Week 8 is a cumulative midterm over Weeks 1–7, and it comes with a study guide, an exam-prep tutorial, and a practice exam. Good news — this week's material is a study method: self-test, space it out, and study for meaning. Use it on the whole first half. I'll keep this week's load light so you have room to review.

One promise: by Friday you'll know exactly why "I remember it clearly" is not the same as "it happened that way" — and you'll have a better way to study heading into the exam.

Bring your most confident memory (and a little skepticism about it) to class on Tuesday.

See you soon,
Prof. Bennett