Chapter 7 - Human Memory Flashcards
What is the tip of tongue phenomena?
- Tip-of-the tongue phenomenon - the temporary inability to remember something you know accompanied by a feeling that it’s just out of reach.
What are the three probing questions psychologists ask about working memory?
- encoded into memory?
- stored in memory?
- retrieved from memory?
What encoding memory?
- Encoding into memory - involves forming memory code. ex. when you form a memory code for a word, you might emphasize how it looks, how it sounds, or what it means. Requires attention.
What is attention? What is selective attention?
◦ Attention = focusing awareness on a narrowed set of stimuli
◦ selective attention = selection of input (critical to everyday functioning)
‣ Attentions is often likened to a filter that screens out most potential stimuli while allowing a select few to pass through into conscious awareness.
What is stimulus? How is it processed?
◦ stimulus (someone says hi) -> sensory detection -> recognition of meaning -> response selection -> response
What are early and late selection models like?
‣ Early = ignore surrounding conversations, no access to their meaning
‣ Late = cocktail party phenomenon, hear the name despite ignoring surrouding conversations
What do we know how about the levels of processing?
◦ Deeper processing=longer lasting memory codes (Craik+Lockhart)
* deeper processing should produce better memory results!
* not the strongest theory
There are three levels of processing: shallow, intermediate and deep
What is shallow processing?
‣ shallow processing (structural encoding, emphasizes the physical structure of the stimulus) ex. is the word written in capital letters?
What is intermediate processing?
‣ intermediate processing - (phonemic encoding, emphasizes what a word sounds like) ex. does the word rhyme with weight?
What is deep processing?
‣ deep processing - (semantic encoding, emphasizes the meaning of verbal input) ex. can it fit in the sentence?
What are four ways to enrich encoding?
◦ Elaboration - linking a stimulus to other information at encoding
◦ Self-reference encoding = make it personally meaningful (if you relate it to something yourself you are much more likely to remember)
‣ Visual imagery = creation of visual images to represent words to be remembered
‣ eidetic - incredibly rare - photographic memory - visual imagery in crisp detail.
‣ S used a formula that described the formula - could remember it years later!
What did Paivio and his collegues discover?
‣ high-imagery vs low imagery words
* some words like jugglers you could easily thing of an image. But a word like duty - we don’t think of an image.
* The higher the imagery words the more you will recall!
* Duel coding theory - holds that memory is enhanced by forming semantic and visual codes, since either can lead to recall.
What does Atkinson’s model present?
◦ Model - atkinson model - three different stores
‣ sensory - external world information, everything is temporarily encoded –>
‣ short-term memory - rehearsal could help maintain it, if you don’t you could lose it, if you elaborate and use that information you can store it in —->
‣ long term memory
What is sensory memory? What are the two types?
brief presentation of information in original sensory form.
‣ Iconic - visual 1/4 second - all available for short period and fades away.
‣ Echoic memory - auditory - originally said 4-5 second - it’s probably closer to 1-2 seconds.
* sperling’s classic experiment on visual sensory store
◦ if you played the tone really soon - they could report it
◦ even about half a second it becomes very difficult - to repeat the number
* **For a short period of time we have access to everything
What is short term memory?
‣ Limited-capacity store that can maintain unrehersed information for up to about 20 seconds
‣ limited duration - about 20 seconds without rehearsal
* rehearsal - process of repetitively verbalizing/thinking about information.
* how do we know we only have about 20 seconds? Peterson & peterson (1959)
◦ count backwards from 3 while maintaining CJL
How long can we remember things? How many at once?
◦ limited capacity - magical number 7 plus or minus 2
◦ recent view of short term memory - limited to as few as 4 items (+/- 1)
◦ it depends on the person!
◦ Chunking - grouping familiar stimuli for storage as a single unit (makes it easier!)
What is another view on short term memory?
Baddeley (1986)
‣ short-term memory as “working memory”
What are the four component’s of Baddeley/s “working memory model”
- phonological rehearsal loop* - repeating it to yourself! Recitation to remember.
* executive control system* - Controls development of attention, delegates information - has control over how things are stored.
* Episodic buffer* - A temporary limited capacity store that allows the various components of working memory to integrate informaiton and serves as an interface between wokring and long term memory. Pulling up long term information. Allows us to access LT information
* visuospatial sketchpad* - permits people to temporarily hold and manipulate visual images. This element is at work when you try to mentally rearrange the furniture in your bedroom or map out a complicated route you need to follow to travel somewhere.
What is long term memory?
‣ unlimited capacity store that holds information for a long time
‣ Permanent storage?
* flashbulb memories - thought be unusually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous moments, provide an example of how seemingly permanent storage is. (bad memories - what stands out?). But we found these are neither as accurate nor as special as we thought. Like other memories they become less detailed and complete with time and are often inaccurate.
* hypnosis
What are some ways knowledge is represented and organized in memory?
- clustering - tendency to remeber similar or related items in groups. (organizing helps!)
* conceptual hierarchies - is a multilevel classification system based on common properties among items. (ex. minerals and minerals help out to remember)
* Semantic network - consists of nodes representing concepts, joined together by links between concepts. Information is connected to one and another.
* Schemas - organized cluster of knowledge about an object/event abstracted from previous experience with the object or event. (organized cluster of knowledge about. ex. what would you expect in this type of office)
* Scripts - special type of schema
What is an example of a retrieval failure?
- Tip of the tongue - about to say something and you lose it, can’t think of it. It’s a retrieval failure. It’s in memory but we can’t get it out.
What are some retrieval cues?
- Retrieval cues - stimuli that help gain access to memories (ex. last birthday, thing about things related to your birthday to help you remember)
◦ Specific type of retrieval cue: Recalling an event - use context cues (context of the last place you used that item. ex. lost keys think about what you were wearing, were they in that pocket?)
How can there be errors in memories? What are some examples?
- Memories are reconstructed, which often leads to errors (uses schema of doctors office)
◦ examples:
‣ War of ghosts (read story twice in a row, then explain what happened. People had the just of the story and sometimes inserted new information)
‣ Elizabeth Loftus - misinformation effect
What is Elizabeth Loftus’s “misinformation effect”?
when participants’ recall of an event occurs when participants’ recall of an event they witnessed is altered by introducing misleading post-event information.
* Post-event information disrupts memory
* Participation watched a video of a car hitting another car. Asked about what they saw in two different ways. Hit - said glass on 14%. Smashed - said 32% glass. Saw the same thing, asked different question and interpret experience in a whole different way. We don’t want to bias things with questions.
What is source monitoring?
- Source monitoring: The process of making inferences about the origins of memories. A source monitoring error occurs when a memory derived from one source is misattributed to another source. Knowing where information came from. Can’t always remember where they saw it.
What is reality monitoring?
- Reality monitoring: did I actually do that? We do somethings day after day after day - did I lock the door? Going through motions but can’t remember if it happened again.
What is destination monitoring?
- Destination monitoring: where we use this information. Told a story and you already told them. Forgot they already told you. Because we are self-focused, not as focused on who we are sharing the information with.
What are serial postioning effects?
- Serial position effects - better recall for items at the beginning and end of a list. Those in the middle were less remembered. Primacy effect, more time spent on those words (LT memory). Recency effect (last ones still in working memory)
What do you know about the Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve?
◦ Information loss when we want to remember the information.
◦ XOF, BOL, AZB **small sublet, 14,000 trials.
◦ The longer he waits the longer he can’t remember
◦ Forgetting amounts
◦ Particularly true for unmeaningful things like the triplets of letters.
What is retention?
- Retention - the proportion (amount) of material retained or keep in memory.
What are some ways to measure and maintain retention?
‣ Relearning - measure of retention requires a participant to memorize information a second time to determine how much time or how many practice trials are saved by having learned it before. learn material, re-learn again. How much more quickly can they learn it again, with a lot in memory. With it already there it should be more quickly. Not in many studies.
‣ Recall - measure of retention requires participants to reproduce information on their own without any cues. (pull up information from memory)
‣ Recognition - measure of retention that requires participants to select previously learned information from an array of options. Which are new and which do you recognize? Presented with options.
How is measuring retention and the retention interval affected by method.
‣ Measuring retention: recognition vs recall - you can recognize more than pull from memory.
Recognition doesn’t decline as quickly as recal does!
What is ineffective encoding?
- ineffective encoding - haven’t applied attention to it.
◦ Pseudoforgetting - due to lack of attention - never really got into memory. (persons name, focused on other things and forgot their name)
What is decay theory?
- Decay theory - forgetting that occurs due to fading of memory traces. It’s in memory, was there but it faded and broke up over time
◦ Yes for sensory/STM - applies to sensory memory, likely to suffer from decay. Also working and short term memory
◦ No for LTM - this doesn’t happen for long term memory
What is inference theory?
- Interference theory - proposes that people forget information because of competition from other material.
What is the difference between retroactive inference and proactive interference?
- Retroactive inference occurs when new information impairs the retention of previously learned information.
- Proactive interference - when previously learned information interferes with the retention of new information.
What is the encoding specificity principle?
- Encoding specificity principle - effectiveness of retrieval cue depends on how well it corresponds to a memory code
What is an example of context dependent memory?
◦ Context-dependent memory
‣ Scuba divers learnt words on land on underwater
‣ If you learnt on land and test on land you do better than if tested underwater.
‣ Beneficial to test where you study
What is motivated forgetting?
- Motivated forgetting - forgetting things that you don’t want to remember
What is repression?
- Repression - burying distressing thoughts/feelings in the unconscious
◦ controversy about false memories, it’s easy to create a false memory.
◦ Controversy: repressed memories or false memories?
◦ Memory Illusions: Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. (recall a word even though it wasn’t presented)
What do you know about the physiology of memory?
- Changes in the brain underlie memory*
◦ Changes in synaptic transmission (specific memories depend on biochemical changes that occur at specific synapses)
◦ Localized neural circuits - Thompson - memories may create unique, reusable pathways in the brain along which signals flow.
‣ Long-term potentiation - supports the idea that memory traces consist of specific neural circuits. LT potentiation is a long-lasting increase in neural excitability at synapses along the specific neural pathway.
What are the brain areas involved in memory?
◦ Amygdala - emotional memories
◦ Hippocampus - consolidation (esp. dentate gyrus (new cells formed throughout our lives, which shows neurogenesis)
What are the multiple memory systems?
- Declarative memory system (factual information, explicit memories)
◦ Semantic - general fact, what did you do last new year - episode in episodic memory system. (general knowledge, stored undated ex. John A Macdonald)
◦ Episodic memory - dated recollections of personal experiences ex. first kiss - Nondeclarative/ procedural memory system (actions, perceptual motor skills, conditioned reflexes, implicit memories) ex. riding a bike.
What are the two types of amnesia?
Retrograde and anterograde
What is retrograde amnesia?
Retrograde amnesia (KC) - loss for events before amnesia onset. he couldn’t remember when we learnt chess or when it happen, remembered how to play but not when. Why was my hair curly at wedding? Happened prior to his accident!
What is anterograde amnesia?
- Loss for events after amnesia onset
- Importance of consolidation (consolidation is the hypothetical process involving the gradual conversions of new, unstable memories into stable, durable memory codes stored in long term memory)
HM had problems creating new memories
What is retrospective vs prospective memory?
Retrospective memory (remembering events from the past, previously learned information) vs prospective memory (remembering to perform actions in the future)
What is Hyperthymestic syndrome?
Hyperthymestic syndrome - when episodic memory “dominates” your life. AJ
