Chapter 6 - Long term memory (Midterm 2) Flashcards
Long-Term Memory
- holds information fro long periods of time
- “Archive” of information about past events and knowledge learned
- Works closely with working memory, we need to consider how the information we have is utilized
- Storage stretches back from a few moments ago to as far back as one can remember
- More recent memories are more detailed
Serial position curve
Is created presenting a list of words to a participant, one after another. After the last word, the participants writes down.all the words they remember, in any order
-Indicates that memory is better for words at the beginning and at the end of the list than words in the middle
Primacy effect
More likely to remember words presented at the beginning of a sequence
-possible explanation is that participants had time to rehearse these words transferring them to LTM
Recency effect
Better memory for the stimuli presented at the end of a sequence
-explanation id that the most recently presented words are still in STM
Randus vs Murdoch
-ask participants to repeat aloud during the interval between two items (1 word every 5 seconds)
Serial Position Curve
- Same as above, however
- So, if some delay between the test and the study, the recency effect will be eliminated
How could you change the primacy effect
To increase, present the stimuli more slowly, so there is more time for rehearsal
How could you change the recency effect
To decrease, test after eating 30 seconds after the end of the list, so information is lost from STM
Coding
Coding refers to the form in which stimuli are represented
How can we distinguish between STM and LTM
Comparing the way information is coded by the two systems
Visual coding in LTM and STM
STM is used when remembering a pattern while doing an experiment or playing a game
LTM is used when remembering a person’s face from the past
Auditory coding in STM and LTM
STM is illustrated by Conrad’s demonstration of the phonological similarity effect which shows that people often misidentify target letters as another letter than sounds like the target
LTM coding occurs when you “play” a song in your head
Semantic coding in STM and LTM
STM
-proactive inference - the decrease in memory that occurs when previously learned information interferes with learning new information. Words presented in the same category were easier to remember rather than words form different categories. We groups can be attributed to meanings of the words
Release from proactive inference
-increases in performance based on the grouping of words in a sequence
in STM, this release from proactive inference can reduce memory in STM. This interruption from the “groups” in a memory sequence show that STM better remembers when all items are in the same group and if disrupted, they are lost
Sachs experiment
Demonstrates coding in the LTM (semantic) - measured recognition memory to determine whether they remembered the exact wording of sentences in the passage or just the general meaning
- participants chose the sentences that were similar but not identical
- exact words are forgotten, but the meaning is remembered
Recognition memory
Is the identification of a stimulus that was encountered earlier
HM’s surgery to help with his seizures removed what and what happened
- removed both sides of his hippocampus, relieved seizures but he lost the ability to form new LTMs
- short term memory remained intact
KF suffered damage to his parietal lobe and what happened ?
-lead to poor STM, serial curve was reduced
Double Dissociation
- Functioning STM but cannot form new LTMs
- Clive Wearing (damaged hippocampus)
- H.M. (lost hippocampus, can do memory span)
- Poor STM but functioning LTM
- K.F. (memory span is 2 but can form new memories)
The hippocampus, other than LTM, also
-helps maintain novel information in memory during short delays
-Explicit/declarative: conscious memory
- Episodic: personal events/episodes
- Semantic: facts, knowledge
-Implicit-declarative: unconscious memory
- Procedural
- Priming: previous experience changes response without conscious awareness
Episodic memory’s defining property is
Mental time travel - the experience of traveling through back in time to reconnect with events that happened in the past.
-Self-knowing or remembering