414 Exam 4 flashcards
Long term memory
extensive storage capacity
lasts an extremely long time
LTM visual memories example
remembering what your childhood pet looks like
STM visual memories
remembering the image of an arrow you just saw
LTM auditory memories example
remembering that annoying song that was popular a few years ago
STM auditory memories example
remembering the sentence someone just said
LTM semantic memories example
remembering the plot of harry potter
STM semantic memories example
categorizing a set of words you just heard
Henry Molaison
temporal lobe removed (hippocampus)
no longer able to form long term memories (only able to remember 30 seconds)
STM and pre surgery mems stayed intact
Clive Wearing
medial temporal lobe removed
could not form new memories but piano playing intact
KF
digit span reduced to 2
LTM unaffected; could
remember old mems and still form new ones
Hippocampus
fMRI evidence shows it is also involved STM
Explicit/ declarative
things you can actually remember, say, describe
Explicit memory examples
trip to the zoo
math facts
the difference btwn cat and mouse
Implicit/ No declarative memories
skills or unconscious
processes affecting behavior
Implicit memory examples
Priming
Knowing how to ride a bike
salivating when someone mentions food
Episodic memory
“episode’
specific events that occurred at a particular time and place
based on personal experience
single exposure
semantic memory
‘knowing’ something
memory for facts
abstract, formal, organized
repeated exposure
Kent Chochrane
damaged hippocampus
no episodic memory (cannot relive anything from past)
semantic memory intact (facts are fine but cannot remember doing something)
Italian woman
encephalitis
impaired semantic memory (could not recognize familiar people)
episodic memory intact (could picture past life events)
Episodic can…
fade into only semantic
Memories start as…
episodic but end up as semantic
Consolidation
transform new memories from a temporary state to something more permanent
Synaptic consolidation
happens at the synapse level
called long term potentiation
quick process
Systems consolidation
involved strengthening connections between various areas of the brain
slower process
requires actual reorganization of neural circuits (takes place over months or years)
draws heavily on the hippocampus
Hebb (1948)
learning and memory occur because of physical changes (synapses store memory)
Long term potentiation
enhanced firing of neurons after repeated stimulation
neurons actually change structure to increase their responsiveness
Standard model of consolidation
hippocampus repeatedly replays neural activity to ‘store’ memory by connecting different areas
anterograde amnesia
inability to form new long term memories (HM and Clive)
old events preserved in memory
new memories cannot be formed
Retrograde amnesia
(head injuries) events close to time of accident are often forgotten, more distant events are preserved
Power law of learning
acquisition of memory generally follows a particular pattern
initially rapid, negatively accelerating
Levels of processing theory
memory depends on how info is encoded
Shallow processing
little attention to meaning
focus on physical features
poor memory
Deep processing
close attention to meaning
better memory
The more processing…
the better people’s memory is
What helps memory encoding?
adding more cues to the memory will lead to better encoding
Elaboration
more detailed or elaborate memories will be better encoded
Generating
the info yourself
Organizing
to be re-remembered info
Elaboration visual imagery
Condition 1: repeat word pairs to yourself
Condition 2: turn word pairs into a picture
Elaboration self reference
Condition 1: which words are emotions
Condition 2: rate how much words relate to you
Elaboration survival value
Condition 1: count the vowels in each word
Condition 2: which would be more useful on a desert island
Self generation
words or memory items generated by yourself are easier to remember
Paired associates test
Condition 1: memorize word pairs
Condition 2: generate word pairs (remember this better because you came up with this)
Organizing info
structured info is easier to remember than unstructured
Elaboration vs strength
elaboration: how many additional records are linked to that specific memory record
strength: how solidly encoding a specific memory record
Importance of elaboration
without elab: mozart made a long journey from munich to paris
with elab: mozart made a long journey from munich to paris to avoid a romantic entanglement
How to measure memory
recall: the ability to bring info to mind
recognition: the ability to identify whether some info had been previously encountered
LTM is associative
LTM can be conceptualized as a set of interconnected pieces of info (nodes)
Associative priming
the tendency for a cue to make associated info more available
chunking is associative
people chunk pieces of info together differently but their exact chunk influenced priming patterns
Expertise is associative
as you gain more knowledge about a particular topic, those associations move around to reflect a deeper understanding of how things are related to one another
LTM retention function
how memory performance deteriorates over time
(like learning, shows negative acceleration)
Practice and rentention
more initial practice means more retention (the more you start out with, the more you end with)
Causes of forgetting from LTM
decay: loss due to time
intervention: loss due to conflicting info
Spacing effect
massed practice: studying all at once
spaced (distributed) practice: studying spread out over time
Massed practice can…
lead to higher initial retention
Spaced practice can…
lead to more retention after delay (memory is best when study intervals match rentention intervals)
New theory of disuse
suggests that every memory has a storage strength and a retrieval strength
Storage strength
how well learned a piece of info is (how strongly it is stamped into memory)
Retrieval strength
how easily a piece of info is brought to mind
Strengths are related but not the same
storage strength of info increases its retrieval strength after practice and decreases the loss of retrieval strength and time
the lower a piece of info’s retrieval strength, the more storage strength is gained from practicing// relearning that info
Interference
the negative relationship between memory for 2+ pieces of info
Negative transfer
previously learned info slows down learning of newly learned info
Proactive interference
previously leanred info increases forgetting of newly learned info
Retroactive interference
newly learned info increases forgetting of previously learned info
Fan effect
recognition time for info increases as more associated info is learned (but only if that associated info doesn’t help to elaborate the to be remembered info
LTM cue based retrieval
the process of getting info out of long term memory
Retrieval cue
a piece of info (prompt, hint, etc) that can help retrieve a specific memory
More cues = better recall
the more cues that a person has attached to a piece of info, the more likely they are to be able to recall that info
Encoding specificity effect
states that retrieval is more likely to be successful if the conditions at recall are similar to those that occurred at learning
External conditions of encoding
context dependent memory
memory is better when recall takes place in the same place as learning
Internal condition of encoding
state dependent memory
memory is better when a person’s internal state matches bwtn learning and recall
Mental processes of encoding
transfer appropriate processing
memory is better when the processes that are occurring at learning match the processes that are occurring at recal
Doorway effect
memory declines when passing through a doorway moving from one location to another
Mood congruence effects
retrieval performance better when mood at recall matches mood at learning
Testing effect
memory is better for info that you practice by testing yourself instead of restudying, prior to later recall
memory is especially good when the type of test you use when practicing is the same as the type of test used at recall
Cues are critical
the number of cues attached to a piece of info makes that info more easily retrievable to LTM
the amount of overlap in cues bwtn learning and recall makes info more easily retrievable from LTM
Forgetting as ‘retrieval failure’
forgetting something is often not a matter of not having that info in LTM, but rather an inability to retrieve info from LTM (cues present during recall don’t overlap with the cues at learning or we are using the wrong cues)
TIp of the tongue phenomenon
failure to recall a piece of info, but knowing that you know info (and would be able to recognize it)
Reconstruction
whenever we try to remember a specific event or set of info, we are often only able to remember parts of those things
we often use interfernece (educated guesses) about the info that we are missing based on the info that we have
Reconstructive memory
people’s ability to recreate their memories from interferences based on what element that they can recall
False memories
sometimes those interferences lead us to remember events incorrectly
almost entirely false memories can be created
Misinformation effect
when a person’s recall of info or an event (particularly episodic memories) becomes less accurate after being provided with additional info afterwards
Source monitoring error
when the original source (situation or person) of a piece of information is confused for another
Reconsolidation
when a memory is retrieved, it becomes suseptible to modification prior to reconsolidation
this can mean that inferences of info that were not present during the original event can be added to that memory (can lead us to misremembering or misinterpreting prior events)
