7: Long Term Memory Flashcards
Description
Edridge-Green: “Memory is the most important function of the brain; knowledge is based on memory.”
Encoding- acquiring information.
Maintenance- holding acquired information.
Retrieval- bringing back and making use of information.
Divisions and sub-divisions:
Duration- potentially a lifetime.
Encoding- access through encoding strategies; transfer information from working memory.
Encoding: Levels of processing
Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)- thought rehearsal was key.
Craik & Lockhard (1972)- repetition isn’t enough; needs more in depth processing.
The way we process information, and the levels of processing impact how well it’s retained; deeper levels of processing produces elaborate, longer lasting memories.
Craik & Tulvig (1975):
Findings- surprise memory test; semantic encoding produced higher recall.
Evaluation- difficult to assess how deeply info has been processed; under estimated importance of retrieval environment; didn’t explain why deep processing is so effective.
Encoding: Elaborative rehearsal
Self recognition effect:
Rogers, Kuiper & Kirker- processing information in relation to self concept, improves LTM performance.
D’ydewalle, Delhaye & Goesses- lists of words presented to remember; asked “have you ever used this product?”; greater recall found even when semantic encoding was used.
Method of Loci:
Form of memory elaboration.
Locating items in a scene and mentally walking through it; locations prompt recall process.
Encoding: Meaning, organisation & categorisation
Meaning & organisation:
Connecting pieces of information gives more retrieval cues.
LTM is highly organised.
More association, the easier it is to access information.
Relational processing & categorisation:
Relational processing- how items to be learned are related to each other (Hunt & Einstein).
Must discover relationships between items; usually through categorisation.
Tulvig & Pearlstone (1966)- categorisation experiment; 48 words came from several categories appeared in random order; during recall participants clustered related items.
Maintaining information
Declarative (explicit):
Memories we can consciously recall and describe.
Episodic memory- events and episodes in life.
Semantic memory- general knowledge, facts etc.
Non-Declarative (Implicit):
Memories we aren’t conscious of; happens without conscious awareness.
Repetition priming- phenomena of automatically improving at processing a stimulus the second time you encounter it; occurs rapidly.
Procedural memory- skills and motor plans; can generalise to other stimuli.
Evidence for multiple LTM systems:
Anterograde amnesia- impaired ability to remember new information learned after onset.
Retrograde amnesia- problems with remembering events prior to onset.
HM- removed part of hippocampus to relieve epileptic seizures; developed anterograde amnesia (impaired ability to form new declarative memories); able to form new procedural memories.
KC- motorcycle accident; combination of anterograde (unable to form new memories after onset) and retrograde amnesia (semantic memory still intact, unable to remember episodes).
Retrieving information
Encoding specificity:
Tulvig- remembering involves activating same cues used at encoding stage.
Light & Carter-Sobell- presented cue and target words; had to recognise if target word had appeared during learning; accuracy better when presented with original cue then when it changed.
Environmental context:
Context of learning serves as a retrieval cue at time of testing.
Smith, Glenberg & Bjork- learn a list of words in a room; recall in either same or different room; accuracy higher in same room.
Godden & Baddeley- list of words learned either under water or on land; recall tested in both conditions; performance better when learning and test context the same.
Psychological context (state-dependent learning): Eich- demonstrated with alcohol and marijuana; information learned in a sober state better retained when sober; vice versa.
