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
Semantic memory involves
Accessing knowledge about the world that does not have to be ties to remembering a personal experience
-Declarative: conscious recollection of events experienced and fact learned
- Episodic: memory for personal events
- e.g., my parent drove me top kindergarten and took pictures with me on my first day
- Semantic: facts and knowledge
- IO took Kindergarten in Brander Gardens
Neuropsychological evidence - semantic memory
- damage to hippocampus, retains semantic
- encephalitis damaged the brain and led to poor semantic memory but episodic remained
Neurophysiology evidence - episodic memory
- damage to the hippocampus, no longer access episodic
- encephalitis damaged the brain and led to poor semantic memory but episodic remained
What does Brain imaging show for retrieving episodic and semantic memory
- evidence from brain-imaging experiments that retrieving experiments that retrieving episodic and semantic memories activate different areas of the brain
- participants listened to their own diaries or general knowledge (Levine et al., 2004)
-there is some overlap, but also clear distinctions in areas of the brain, semantic is more frontal, central and close to rear,
while episodic is middle-left-right, middle central and middle rear
Overlap at central-middle
Why are double dissociations tricky?
Because the extent of brain damage often differs from patient to patient
How does knowledge effect experience
How we see something may effect our experience, someone who knows the rules of a game will expect a certain outcome or understand what is going on much better than someone who doesn’t. Different experiences
How does autobiographical memory have both semantic and episodic components
Sitting in a coffee shop - met with someone at time and place (episodic), where and what is was, what we sat at (semantic)
Personal semantic memories
Facts that are associated with personal experience
Remember/know procedure
Presented with stimuli that have encountered before
- remember if a stimulus is a familiar and the circumstances under which it was encountered
- know if the stimulus is familiar but don’t remember experiencing it earlier
- Don’t remember the stimulus at all
What can happen with episodic and semantic memories
- Episodic can be lost, leaving only semantic
- Acquiring knowledge may start as episodic but then “fade” to semantic
Semanticization of remote memories
Loss of episodic detail for memories of long ago events
Memory and the Future
-Addis (2007)
-Constructive episodic simulation hypothesis
- Constructive episodic simulation hypothesis
- Episodic memories are extracted and recombined to create simulations of future events
- helps us to anticipate future needs and guide future behaviours
- adaptive function similar to mind wandering
-those who had issue remembering past events also have problems imagining future events
-Implicit – memory that unconsciously influences behaviour
- Repetition priming
- Procedural memory
- Classical conditioning
-Implicit/non-declarative: unconscious memory
- Procedural (skill) memory
- Priming: previous experience changes response without conscious awareness
Constructive episodic simulation hypothesis
States that episodic memories are extracted and recombined to construct simulations of future events
Explicit memories
Are memories we are aware of - semantic, episodic
Implicit memories
Memories we are not aware of - procedural (skill), priming
Procedural memory
Also called skill memory because it is memory for doing things that involve learned skills
Why is procedural memory implicit?
- People with brain damage, amnesia etc, can still master skills even if they can’t remember doing so
- People cannot form new memories but can still learn new skills
- Amnesia patients typically retain skills
Procedural memory and attention
-piano players report that the less they think about their fingers, the better they can play
Expert-induced amnesia
The fact that well learned procedural memories do not require attention
-so well practiced at a task, it becomes automatic
What is priming
Priming occurs when the presentation of one stimulus (the priming stimulus) changes the way a person responds to another stimulus (the test stimulus)
Repetition priming
Occurs when the test stimulus is the same as or resembles the priming stimulus
- Graf and coworkers (1985)
- Rating a list of words (like or not)
- tested explicit memory (recall) and implicit memory (word completion)
- Tested three groups
- Amnesia patients with Korsakoff’s syndrome (AMN)
- Patients without amnesia being treated for alcoholism (ALC)
- Patients without amnesia who had no history of alcoholism (INPT)
COGLAB: Implicit Learning
- On each trial, you saw a dot appear in one of four locations and were asked to press one of four keys on the keyboard to indicate the dot’s location. You were asked to respond as quickly and as accurately as you could.
- The independent variable is whether the dots follow a pattern or not. In the “Random” condition, the dots never follow a pattern. In the “Pattern” condition, the dots followed a pattern on all blocks except for block 10. The dependent variable was response time for correct responses.
- What do we predict participants will do? Why?
- You should find that your mean RT decreases with each block for both conditions but that the decrease should be much greater for the pattern condition than for the random condition. In the pattern condition, on Block 10, you should find a sudden increase in mean RT because that block uses a different pattern. Block 11 goes back to the first pattern. You should try to write down the pattern that determined the order of the locations. Then, compare your “rule” with the one provided below. You should find that your “rule” is incorrect even though your RTs show that you learned the rule!
Implicit Memory in Everyday Experience
- Perfect and Askew (1994)
- Propaganda effect: more likely to rate statements read or heard before as being true
- Implications of advertisements
- Propaganda effect: more likely to rate statements read or heard before as being true
How to avoid explicit memory in priming
Present the stimulus in a way that the participant does not know it is part of the memory task
Propaganda effect
Participants are more likely to rate statements they have read or heard before as being true, simply because they have been exposed to them in the past
Classical conditioning
Pairing a previously neutral stimulus with a conditioned stimulus that elicits a response
auditory coding is the predominant type of coding in
STM
semantic coding is the predominant type of coding in
LTM
recollection is associated with
episodic memory
familiarity is associated with
semantic
