Chapter 5 - Long-term Memory Flashcards
What did Craik and Lockhart propose in the levels or processing approach?
How we process information during learning depends on how well we remember in the long-term. The greater the extent to which meaning is processed, the deeper the level of processing
What did they disagree with, and what did they assume in this approach?
Disagreed with Shriffin’s memory model about how rehearsal always led to long-term memory.
Assumed that level of depth of processing has a large effect on memorability and that deeper levels of analysis produce more elaborate, longer lasting and stronger memory traces than shallow levels of analysis.
What kinds of processing tasks did they carry out?
Structural processing task - deals with appearance
Phonemic processing task - deals with sound
Semantic processing task - deals with meaning
Give an example of each of these tasks.
Structural processing task: Shallow grapheme task -> decide whether each word is upper or lower case
Phonemic processing task: Intermediate phoneme task -> decide whether each word rhymes with a target word
Semantic processing task: deep semantic: decide whether each word fits a sentence containing a blank
- 2 conditions: simple and complex sentences.
Found that cued recall was twice as high for words accompanying complex sentences, showing that memory is better following more elaborate processing.g
If you were to present 2 types of similes to a participant, he would recall the greatly elaborated simile more than the minimally elaborated one? True or false?
False. would remember the minimally elaborated one instead because it’s much more distinctive. rmb less is more.
What is the self-reference effect?
Enhanced LTM for information if it is related to the self at the time of learning.
Define distinctiveness
A characteristic that defines memory traces that are distinct or different from other memory traces stored in long-term memory. Leads to enhanced memory.
How are some stimuli more distinctive than others?
Some words are spelt in an unusual manner and resemble few words in English. Eg onyx, yacht
Nouns that aren’t pronounced in line with the rules of pronunciation -> found when studying long-term memory for distinctive memory traces receiving only shallow processing.
Uncommon first names more easily remembered than common ones. (eg Oswald vs John)
Why is distinctive information remembered more easily than other stimuli?
They are dissimilar to other memory traces and are therefore less susceptible to interference.
How can the notion that deep processing always enhances long-term memory be disproved? What does doing so prove?
Get participants to answer deep semantic or shallow rhyming questions for lists of words.
- Tested their memory using standard recognition test (selecting list words and avoiding non-list words) or rhyming recognition test (selecting words that rhyme with list words)
- would be more useful to process words at a shallow rhyming level if you are in the 2nd condition, there isn’t a need to process it semantically so there isn’t the typical superiority of deep over shallow processing.
Shows that memory depends very much on the relevance of our stored information to the requirements of the memory test.
What concept does Morris’ experiment illustrate processing?
Transfer-appropriate processing: the notion that long-term memory will be greatest when the processing at the time of retrieval is very similar to the processing at the time of learning.
Meaning, what we have learned leads to good performance on a subsequent memory test depends on the relevance of that information and its associated processing to the memory test.
Does the levels-of-processing approach encompass implicit memory?
no. effects of depth of processing are typically much less with implicit memory.
Give an example of an implicit memory task, and how it measures implicit memory.
Word fragment task.
- participants originally presented with a list of words.
- later asked to complete word fragments with the first word that comes to mind.
EG: shows you cake, stapler, human
later: fill in these: c__e, __pler, _u__n
Implicit memory was assessed by the tendency to fill up word fragments with words present in the list.
What do explicit memory tasks and implicit memory tasks differ in?
Strong effect of processing depth of performance on all explicit memory tasks, with performance being the best in the self-reference condition.
in contrast, no such effect about processing depth on word-fragment task.
What is the testing effect?
The finding that long-term memory is enhanced when some of the learning period is devoted to retrieving the to-be remembered information.
If you want to cram before an exam, what do you do?
If you want the information to be retained in your long-term memory, what do you do?
After reading a chapter, go back and restudy it or parts of it.
After reading a chapter, test yourself about the content without consulting it.
What is the difference between repeated study, single test and repeated test conditions in Roediger’s experiments?
Repeated study: Read the passage 4 times.
- Most effective strategy when the final test was given 5 minutes after learning. But when the final test was conduted a week later, participants performed relatively worse as compared to those who did it 5 minutes after learning. Illustrates a very strong testing effect as average recall was 50% higher in the repeated test condition than the repeated study condition.
Single test: Read 3 times, followed by a single test.
Repeated test: Read once, test 3 times.
What misjudgment did participants in the repeated study condition make?
Predicted that they would recall more of the prose passage than did those in the repeated test condition. Explains why many students mistakenly devote little to no time in testing themselves when preparing themselves for an examination.
While many people do feel reassured if they find it easy to retrieve material they have been learning, what condition(s) must be met before retrieval can improve long-term memory?
Retrieval process must be effortful and demanding.
What kind of test fosters better long-term retention of information?
SAQ > MCQ, provided feedback was given.
Suppose you have PL3233 lessons in LT9. Would it be better for the prof to hold examinations in LT9 or in MPSH? Explain this using transfer-appropriate processing.
Transfer-appropriate processing refers to the notion that LTM will be greatest when the processing at the time of retrieval is very similar to the processing at the time of learning.
So you have lessons at LT9, and you encode information about PL3233 at LT9. So the location LT9 acts as a cue for you to retrieve knowledge.
Define explicit and implicit learning:
Explicit: conscious, intentional learning
Implicit: when you learn without being aware that learning has taken place.
What criteria must be met to show implicit learning?
1) information criterion: the information participants are asked to provide on the awareness test much be the information responsible for the improved level of performance.
2) sensitivity criterion: the test of awareness must be sensitive to all the relevant knowledge acquired by learners. People may be more consciously aware of more task-relevant knowledge than appears on an insensitive awareness test, which may lead us to underestimate their consciously unaware knowledge.
How do you assess implicit learning?
Serial Reaction Time Task
1) stimuli will appear at different locations, and subjects press different buttons corresponding to these locations.
2) unknown to subjects, the locations of dots appearing is not random - there is actually a complex repeating sequence over trials.
3) however, towards the end of the experiment, participants actually do learn the sequence. this is evidenced from how they are now faster in responding to previously presented sequences, compared to novel sequences. suggests that you have learned what the sequences are but you cannot verbalise it.
- actually exhibit some conscious awareness of what they are learning.
Is there a possibility that there might actually be some conscious awareness and some explicit knowledge might be acquired in the serial reaction time task? Provide evidence.
Yes, considering that they’ve learned the sequence over time, it is possible that they have some conscious awareness of it.
Test the possibility of explicit learning by getting participants to either guess the next sequence (inclusion condition) or avoid predicting the next sequence (exclusion condition).
- performance was better in the inclusion condition.
List 5 factors in which implicit learning might differ from explicit learning.
1) Robustness
- Implicit learning is relatively unaffected by disorders.
2) Age independence
- Implicit learning is less affected by age or developmental level.
3) Low variability
- There are smaller individual differences in implicit learning than in explicit learning.
4) IQ independence
- Performance on implicit tasks is less affected by IQ than is performance on explicit tasks
5) Commonality of process
- Implicit systems are common to most species whereas explicit systems are not.
Is there any evidence to support how performance on explicit and implicit tasks can be affected by IQ and age?
1) IQ
- Provide instructions for implicit learning task. You give either standard implicit instructions or with explicit instructions indicating that the rules were to be discovered.
- Intelligence was positively associated with performance when explicit instructions were given but not when implicit instructions were given.
2) Age
- Implicit Task: Serial Reaction Time Task where you press a button corresponding to the location of a stimulus. Both young and older adults showed comparable learning of the repeating sequence.
- Explicit Task: predict the next pattern. Younger adults better than older ones by a significant margin.
The basal ganglia is more important in ________ learning. The __________ is more important in explicit learning.
implicit.
medial temporal lobes.
Findings from brain-damaged patients are reasonably consistent with notion that IL and EL got important distinction.
What kind of learning is impaired in amnesiacs? Provide evidence using the artificial grammar learning task.
explicit learning
Performed as well as normal subjects on the artificial grammar learning task, little difficulty with it. However, they did much worse than normal subjects when both groups were asked to recall the specific letter strings presented during the learning phase.
When imaging explicit and implicit learning, which areas are activated for each type of learning?
Explicit: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate.
Implicit: striatum, basal ganglia
Distinguish between declarative and nondeclarative memory.
declarative: reflects memory performance that involves conscious recollection of previous experiences.
eg: “what is the capital of USA?”
non-declarative: revealed when performance on a task is facilitated in the absence of conscious recollection.
you will have no idea that you are recollecting.
declarative: conscious, non-declarative: unconscious.
List some examples of declarative memory and define them.
Episodic memory
Semantic memory
Autobiographical memory.
Define episodic memory.
Concerned with personal experiences or episodes occurring at a given time in a given place. Refers to storage and retrieval of specific events or episodes occurring in a particular place at a particular time. tends to be concerned with more trivial events as compared to autobiographical memory.
Why is our episodic memory so prone to error?
1) We experience thousands of events every single day. It would require an incredible amount of processing to produce a SEMIPERMANENT record of our experiences,.
2) Imagining possible future events and scenarios is important to us for various reasons. Some of the constructive processes involved in episodic memory are also used to manage the future. Individuals with poor episodic memory have impaired ability to improve future events.
When asking amnesiacs and healthy controls to imagine future events, what was found?
Amnesic patients produced imaginary experiences consisting of isolated fragments of information that lack the richness and spatial coherence exhibited by healthy control participants.
What are the brain areas activated during elaboration of past and future events?
Left anterior temporal cortex and left frontopolar cortex.
Right frontopolar cortex for future.
We can assess episodic memory by using a test of __________. What is the meaning of __________?
Recognition memory: deciding whether a given stimulus was encountered previously.
What are the 2 ways that recognition memory can occur?
1) Familiarity
2) Recollection - involves the ability to retrieve contextual information and familiarity.
