Chapter 7 - ENCODING, Retrieval, and Consolidation Flashcards
Encoding
acquiring information and transforming it into memory
Retrieval
transferring information from LTM to working memory
-Maintenance rehearsal
- repetition of stimuli that maintains information but does not transfer it to the LTM
- results in poor memory
-Elaborative rehearsal
- using meanings and connections to help transfers information to LTM
- results in better memory
Coding refers to the
Form in which information is presented
Encoding refers to the
Process in which to get information into LTM
Levels of Processing Theory
- memory depends on how information encoded
- memory depends on the depth of processing that an item receives
Shallow processing
Involves little attention to meaning, focuses on physical features and is retained poorly in memory
Deep processing
Involves close attention and elaborative rehearsal that focuses on an item’s meaning and its relationship to something else, leads to better retention
- Craik and Tulving (1975)
- Three processing (orientating) tasks
- Three processing (orientating) tasks
- Case (physical): capital letters? Bird
- Rhyme (phonetic): rhyme with train? Pain
- Sentence (semantic): fit in sentence: he saw a “ “ on the street? Car
- Measured recognition performance
- Incidental memory task
- not told to recognize
-fill in the blanks showed deepest processing while physical features was the shallowest
Paired-associate learning
Bower and Winzenz (1970)
A list of word pairs is presented, later the first word is presented and the presented are asked to remember the word that was paired with it
-members who had created metal images of the words remembered more than twice than those who just repeated words
Self-reference effect -
Leshikar and coworkers (2015)
Memory is better of you are asked to relate a word to yourself
Beware of Circular Reasoning
- which task cause deeper processing?
- using a word in a sentence
- deciding how useful an object might be on a desert island
- Can empirically measure the memory trace in each condition
- conclude that stronger memory trace must have been caused by deeper processing
- But depth of processing has not been defined independently of memory performance
- therefore, this is circular reasoning
Generation effect
Generating Material yourself, rather than passively receiving it, enhances learning
Generation effect, Slameka and Graf (1978)
- Study phase
- reading group: read these pairs of related words
- King-crown, horse-saddle, lamp-shade
- Generate group: fill in the blank with a word that is related to the first word
- Test phase
- Result: the generate group learned 28% more word pair than the reading group
- reading group: read these pairs of related words
Organization, Comprehension and Memory
-Bransford and Johnson (1972)
- Presented participants with difficult-to-comprehend information
- experimental group 1 first saw a picture that helped explain the information
- experimental group 2 saw the picture after reading the passage
- control group did not see the picture
- Group 1 outperformed the others
- having a mental framework of comprehension aided memory encoding and retrieval
Retrieval cue
A word or other stimulus that helps a person remember info stored in memory
Organizing material to be remembered results in
Substantially better recall
Retrieval Practice Effect
-Karpicke and Roediger (2008)
study and test experiment with word pairs
- Group 1: studied and tested all words/all sessions
- Group 2: studied only words missed in previous tests; tested on all words
- Group 3: studied all words: tested only on words missed in previous tests
- Group 3 later performance < than groups 1 and 2
- shows testing memory retrieval can improve memory
Survival processing
Is a powerful tool for encoding items into memory
-but there is some conflicting information
James Nairne
Retrieval practice effect
Practicing retrieval improves memory
The testing effect
Enhanced performance due to retrieval practice
Organization can also help
Reduce the load on your memory
The spacing effect
The advantage of studying in shorter sessions, taking breaks, shorter sessions help you retain the information better than a long session
cued-recall:
cue presented to aid recall
- increased performance over free-recall - retrieval cues most effective when created by the person who uses them
Free recall
Participant simply asked to recall stimuli
Encoding Specificity
-we learn information together with its context
-Baddeley’s (1975) “driving experiment”
-best recall occurred when encoding and retrieval occurred at the same location
State-Dependant Learning
- learning is associated with a particular internal state such as mood or state of awareness
- better memory is person’s mood at encoding matches mood during retrieval
What did Donald Morris and his team (1977) showed in their retrieval and encoding experiment?
that the the same cognitive tasks are involved during both
transfer-appropriate processing
better performance when the type of processing matches encoding and retrieval (rhyming etc.)
- demonstrates that matching conditions during encoding and retrieval improves memory
- implication for the levels of processing theory - deeper processing does not always mean better retrieval (rhyming was better and not that “deep”)
Consolidation
- transforms new memories from fragile state in which they can be disrupted, to a more permanent state, in which they are resistant to disruption
- synaptic consolidation occurs at synapses, happens rapidly
- systems consolidation involves gradual reorganisation of circuits in brain
Alfons Pilzecker (1900)
- demonstrated that new memories are fragile and can be disrupted
- longer delays lead to better recall between lists
Synaptic consolidation
take place in mins or hours, involves structural change at the synapse, structural change at the synapse
Systems consolidation
takes place over months or years, involves the gradual reorganization of neural circuits within the brain
how should we think about synaptic and systems consolidation ?
as two systems working a different speeds, but at the same time, and at different levels of the nervous system
Information Storage at the Synapse
-Hebb (1948)
- learning and memory represented in the brain be physiological changes at the synapse
- neural record of experience
- Long-term potentiation
- enhanced firing of neurons after repeated stimulation
- structural changes and enhanced responding
Long-term potentiation
enhanced firing of neurons after repeated stimulation, after structure change at the synapse - enhances nerve firing and creates memories according the Hebb
Standard model of consolidation
poses that memory unfolds according the sequence of steps, in which the hippocampus is involved in encoding new memories and makes the connections with higher cortical areas
over time the connections between the hippocampus and cortical regions weaken and others strengthen and eventually the HC is no longer used for memory
reactivation
helps form a direct connections between the various cortical areas
the hippocampus can be thought of as the
“glue” that binds together the representations of memory from different cortical areas but then becomes unnecessary once the cortical representations are formed
retrograde amnesia
can extend back mins or hours or even years depending on the injury
graded amnesia
tends to be more severe for the events that happened just before the injury and to become less severe for earlier events
the connections were not as strong for earlier events than present
Systems Consolidation
- multiple trace model of consolidation
- Hippocampus is activated during retrieval of both recent and remote EVENT (episodic) memories (Gilboa and coworkers, 2004)
- Responses of the hippocampus can change over time (Viskontas and coworkers, 2009)
multiple trace model of consolidation
proposes that early in consolidation, the hippocampus communicates with cortical areas. In contrast to the standard model, this model proposes that the hippocampus remains in active communication with the cortical areas even for remote memories
“know” represents
semantic memory
“remember” represents
episodic memory
Mulitvoxel pattern analysis
it determines pattern of voxel activation within various structures
what did Bonnoci find?
more information about remote memories compared to recent memories in the prefrontal cortex
both recent and remote memories was presented throughout the hippocampus and the posterior hippocampus containing more info about remote memories
sleep and memory indicate that
sleep reduces forgetting and improves recall
sleep eliminates environmental stimuli that can can interrupt consolidation and is enhanced during sleep
re-consolidation
is the idea that when memory is retrieved (remembered), it becomes fragile, like it was when it was originally formed and in that state, needs to be consolidated again and can be modified to meet new criteria
-we can either forget or edit the memory
Are Memories Ever “Permanent?”
- reactivation and reconsolidation evidence from research on animals
- occurs under certain conditions
- Human memory is a “work in progress”
the ideas that memories can be changed has helped treat
PTSD
Why is memory a work in progress?
it is constantly being constructed and remodelled in response to new learning and changing conditions
Temporal context model (TCM)
does not involve re-consolidation
information is associated together and therefore explains why information can be mixed during recall
new memories can be associated with old memories
