Ch 7 & 8 Flashcards
What are the encoding processes and the research studies of their effectiveness? (Placeholder)
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Maintenance Rehearsal (Shallow Processing)
- Rote repetition
- Keeps info in STM/WM
- Can encode into LTM, but not well
- not thinking about meaning at all worst method of encoding
- If not encoded well cannot retrieve it
- Processing of physical features
Rote learning
The method rests on the premise that the recall of repeated material becomes faster the more one repeats it.
Elaborative Rehearsal (Deep processing)
- processes meaning of info, connects to other info already in LTM
- Focuses on the meaning of the words and relationships between concepts
- Depth of processing promotes recall by facilitating later retrieval
– Consider learning as a way to establish indexing, a pathway to the information that you can use later
– Connecting new info to old info, or making connections amongst new pieces of info, gives you more pathways/cues for later retrieval
Levels of Processing Theory
Memory performance (retrieval) is dependent upon how well information in encoded
What about motivation versus encoding process/strategy?
Motivation does not make the performance any better. Attaching meaning to what you are studying makes a huge difference however
Organization (placeholder)
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Mnemonics
Blueprint/structure/strategy for memorizing new list of things
Pegword Method
- 1 is a bun, 2 is a shoe, etc…
Method of Loci (Memory Palace)
Imagine a place you know extremely well (your house) and store memories there for ex: a grocery list [this also works with semantic memories
Effects of Encoding Organization
Helps both encoding and retrieval
Retrieval Cues
A cue is like a clue
- A stimulus in WM that can help you retrieve a target place of info from LTM
The more strongly associated the cue is to target, the more effective it will be
Everyday stimuli can sometimes be powerful cues for even very old memories
Cues you make yourself can be more powerful
- to do notes
- prospective memory - Remembering to do something future. Imagine something you’ll encounter as a cue ( your friend), and associate that with target information (giving them a book)
Encoding and Retrieval
Factors that affect encoding into LTM
Encoding Strategies , Mnemonics
- imagery
- Deep processing, meaning, organize, elaborate, relate
Testing Effect (retrieval practice)
- the act of retrieving strengthens memory
Spacing Effect
- distributed practice is better than massed
Generation Effect
Actively generating words improves encoding and thus later retrieval more than passively reading words
[Closely related to the Testing Effect retrieval practice]
The Testing Effect (Retrieval Practice)
Practice retrieving (not just practice encoding) is important too!
Self Reference Effect
Does this work describe you? (Deep processing, self-reference)
- Linking stimuli to your mental representation
Spacing Effect
Distributed practice is better than mass
- spacing out study sessions is better than mushing everything together at the same time
Retention Interval
Between the process of coding and retrieval the passage of time in between is the retention interval
Familiarity Effect
Thinking if something sounds familiar you know it (you don’t you actually need to practice retrieving the information)
Study Techniques
Generate and Test- Make your own situations in which you must retrieve the information (generation effect and testing effect)
Elaborative Rehearsal- Attach meaning to what you are studying. Have it interact with something using imagery
Match your conditions- match your retrieval process with your encoding process (transfer appropriate processing)
Organize- converting small elements into larger more meaningful ones (chunking)
Space- Space out your study times
SLEEP
Encoding Situation
At the time of retrieval, there are also internal and external aspects of experience
Retrieval Situation
Is facilitated by the extent to which the encoding situation and retrieval situation are similar
Encoding specificity
Retrieval cues are most effective to the extent that they are similar to conditions of encoding
Context dependence
Overlap of external state (e.g, location) at encoding & retrieval
- Retrieval best when context is identical at study and test
State dependence
Overlap of internal state (mood, drugs) at encoding & retrieval
Transfer Appropriate Processing
Memory performance is dependent to the amount of overlap of cognitive processes at encoding and retrieval
- Performance is best when type of processing was similar at encoding and retrieval
Scuba Diving Study (Godden & Baddeley 1975)
Context Dependent Memory: Location Study
Associative Network
Each of a bunch of nodes is actually probably a particular pattern of a bunch of neurons firing
Spreading Activation
Travels from one node to another in a network, via the associative links
State-Dependent Memory Mood Test (Eich and Metcalfe 1989)
Memory is improved if the person’s internal state (mood) when retrieving information corresponds to the person’s mood when encoding
Consolidation
New memories are fragile, vulnerable to distraction, interference
- Transforms new memories from fragile state to more permanent state
- Where/how?
– synapses: long-term potentiation
– system (network of connections) gradual reorganization of connections
– Hippocampus plays major role, probably
Two levels are hippocampus and time (sleep, relaxed wakefulness, rehearsal)
Sleep
Helps to consolidate information
- less interference
Reconsolidation
- New memories are fragile and need to be reconsolidated
- When you retrieve and old memory it becomes fragile again. It has to be re-consolidated
- Allows us to update memories
- Also means memories are vulnerable to distortion
Long-term potentiation
The strengthening of connections amongst neurons
Autobiographical Memory (What is it?)
Memory for your own life
- episodic: your experiences
- semantic: facts about yourself
Multidimensional
- all of perception! vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell
- spatial: a scene or arrangement in 3D space
- thoughts
- emotions
Autobiographical Memory (Purpose/What is it for?)
Episodic memory allows us to predict the future. The fact that we can remember the past might be a bi-product if that ability to imagine the future and choose better behaviors
Autobiographical Memory (How is it organized?)
Directive- Using past experiences to solve current problems
Social- Develops and maintains social bonds
Self-representative- Create and maintain a coherent self-identity
Adaptive?- Internal regulation of mood
The experiencing self
- Working memory
Life as a sequence of many moments
- us in the moment but its gone in an instant
- mostly lost without a trace
- experiencing self barely has time to exist
The remembering self
Long term memory
- life is a tale of representative moments
Emotions & Memory
Emotions- biologically based responses to events or situations that are seen as personally relevant
- usually involves in physiology [e.g., heart rate], expressive behavior [e.g., smiling, screaming], and subjective experience [feeling happy, afraid, etc.]
- Amygdala involved in encoding emotionally arousing events
- Emotional arousal (cortisol) -> better encoding
- Emotional stimuli -> better remembered
State Dependent Memory: retrieval is better when mood (emotion) is similar at encoding and retrieval
Lifespan (Placeholder)
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Childhood Amnesia (Infantile Amnesia)
As adults we can’t really retrieve anything from our first few years of life
Our oldest memories tend to be from when we were 2-4 years old
Aging
Babies remember for longer as they age
Reminiscence Bump Theories
Self image
- Identity Formation occurs in young adulthood
- Memory is better for crucial self-defining events
Cognitive
Encoding- is best during periods of rapid change followed by stability
Cultural Life Script
- Memory is better for events that fit into the expectations of a culture
Normal Aging
Working memory goes down a bit
Vocabulary goes up your entire life
Your semantic memory goes up
Fluid intelligence
your ability to learn new stuff rapidly goes down just a bit when you get older
Crystallized intelligence
Involves knowledge that comes from prior learning and past experiences
Alzheimer’s
A type of dementia
Progressive neurodegenerative disease
- Neurons damaged, lose connections, and die
- Gets worse and worse
- No cure. No effective treatments yet
Pathology
Causes- Neuron death starts in hippocampus, entorhinal cortex (interface between hippocampus and cortex). Later spreads all over the cortex
- Amyloid plaques between neurons
- Tau protein tangles in neurons
Dementia
deterioation of memory and other cogntive functions
- bad enough to interfere with life
- usually gradual and inexorable
Cause: damage to brain cells
– Lewy Body, vascular (stroke), Parkinson’s, etc.
–Alzheimer’s disease (AD): most common form of dementia (60-70%)
Involuntary Memory [Placeholder]
Odor & Music
Normal aging vs dementia
Normal
Forgetting what you were about to say
Misplacing your glasses now and then
You are worried about your memory but your relatives are not
Dementia
Forgetting how to do a common task
Misplacing glasses frequently, perhaps even forgetting you need glasses
Your relatives are worried about your memory, but you are not aware of any problems
Involuntary Memory
Smell
Flavor= taste + smell
Smell is the oldest sense
neural pathway bypasses thalamus, straight to limbic system (amygdala & hippocampus) {emotion & memory}
odor stimuli are usually close to you in space. Response is more urgent (friend, foe, food, fire?)
odors are complex and distinctive
Music
Activates emotion
- Emotion can enhance memory
Music can take us back to a different time and place
- especially the reminiscence bump period
Music activates many brain regions at once
- can especially help when some regions have been damaged
Music has helped Alzheimer’s patients “come alive” retrieve autobiographical memories
Source Monitoring Errors
When something feels familiar, but we don’t remember the source
Illusory Truth
familiarity of statements increases their credibility
“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth
- Do not expose yourself to bad sources of information
Constructive Nature of Memory
Memory retrieval is an active reconstructive process. Often we are inferring what probably happened
Schemas
A generalized outline or framework of typical expected scenarios (top down processing)
Schemas
A generalized outline or framework of typical expected scenarios (top down processing)
Completeness vs Accuracy
Completeness - how much of what happened do you remember?
Accuracy- How much of what you remember actually happen the way you remember it? Or were there errors or distortions
The Room Study
Student entered a grad students room walked out into another room and had to take a recall test on what was in the room. They made false memories of there being books and didn’t really catch the skull in the room since they had a schema of what the room should be like
Pragmatic Inference
We making inferences based on our knowledge of he world that helps us both encode and retrieve. We do not remember the exact wording of things but the meaning (the gist). The meaning is interpreted
- Hungry Python test… It caught the mouse but you mind fills in the blank and says it ate it.
DRM (Deese, Roediger, McDermott) False Memories
Study list of words highly related to a missing critical word
People often falsely remember the critical word
Warning people doesn’t eliminate errors
Hybrid lists [phonological & semantic associates] really bring out the error
Spreading activation can help contribute to memory errors
Misinformation Effect
The way people suggest things influence our memory
Repressed Childhood Memories (Who cares)
meh
Flashbulb Memories
Strong emotional memories from a long time ago
