Chapter 8: retrieval Flashcards
Roger Brown and David McNiel (1966) tip of tongue
tried to figure out whether the feeling of being “on the tip of your tongue” is based on genuine evidence or simply an illusion. In the study participants were described a word and then asked what the description described, were asked if they were on the tip of the tongue then asked them to provide the number of syllables or the first letter. Much better at providing this information than by chance. If they were given the initial letter, it prompted the correct word afterwards.
jennifer mangels recall on damaged prefrontal cortex
Damage to prefrontal cortex hinders recall even very well learned information (jennifer mangels) Presented faces of famous people and tested the recall of their names (free recall), when troubled were given the first letter, a description (cued recall), and then seen if they could pick the name out of others (recognition test). Problems in free and cued
target memory/trace
the memory being sought out, particular fact, idea, or experience
retrieval cues
the process of recovering a target memory based on one or more cues, subsequently bringing that target into awareness
associations/links
structural linkages between traces that vary in strength, traces in memory are linked up to one another by these connections
content addressable memory
any aspect of the content of the memory can serve as a reminder that could access the experience
activation level
the variable internal state of a memory trace that contributes to its accessibility at a given point
spreading activation theory
each memory has an internal state of its own, reflection how “excited” or active it is. The higher level of activation reflects greater accessibility
Memories automatically spread activation to other memories to which they are associated
pattern completion
he process by which spreading activation from a set of cues leads to the reinstatement of a memory’s features
cue specification
the careful specification of what we are trying to remember, which may also include a retrieval strategy
cue maintenance
concentrating on it
interference resolution processes
help to overcome interference from competing memories brought to mind instead of the target
post retrieval monitoring
decision processes that evaluate whether what we have retrieved is what we are seeking
reinstatement hypothesis
Retrieval involves cortical reinstatement of the pattern of neural activity that was present at the time that an experience we first encoded into memory
factors that determine retrieval success
attention to cues relevance of cues cue target strength number of cues target strength retrieval strategy retrieval mode
attention to cues
Dividing attention can diminish retrieval, but worse effects with encoding
relevance of cues
Ex: looking for where you parked YOUR car, since you drove your NEIGHBOR’s car, the cues are worthless for your car
encoding specificity principle
the more similar the cues available at retrieval are to the conditions present at encoding, the more effective the cues will be
cue target strength
retrieval can fail if cues are relevant but weak
number of cues
Retrieval improves when more relevant cues are added
Rubin and Wallace
if asked to rhyme a word with post may say host or most, if asked a mythical creature say zombie, unicorn, but if asked a mythical creature that rhymes with post you’d say ghost. With each clue alone it is a small chance of getting the desired answer but with both cues it is way higher
target strength
Strength of memory in part depends on how much people engage hippocampus when memory is encoded
retrieval strategy
Serial order or retrace my steps
Change depending on viewpoint of recall ex: homebuyer vs burglar
retrieval mode
the cognitive set, or frame of mind, that orients a person towards the act of retrieval, ensuring that stimuli are interpreted as retrieval
retrieval benefits from getting into the right mental configuration
context cues
retrieval cues that specify aspects of the conditions under which a desired target was encoded, including the location and time of event
direct/explicit memory tests
any of a variety of memory assessments that overtly prompt participants to retrieve past events
Recognition tests are the easiest type of direct test because they simply require a decision
indirect memory tests
taken as a measure of implicit memory, measure the influence of experience without asking the person to recall the past.
free recall
test type and example of retrieval instructions
direct/ explicit
“Recall studied items in any order”
cued recall
test type and example of retrieval instructions
direct/ explicit
“What word did you study together with leap”
forced choice recognition
test type and example of retrieval instructions
direct/explicit
“Which did you study, ballet or monk”
yes/no recognition
test type and example of retrieval instructions
direct/ explicit
“Did you study ballet”
lexical decision
test type and example of retrieval instructions
indirect/ implicit
“Is ballet a word? Is mnok a word”
word fragment completion test type and example of retrieval instructions
indirect/ implicit
“Fill in the missing letters to form a word b-l-e-”
word stem completion
test type and example of retrieval instructions
indirect/ implicit
“Fill in the missing letters with anything that fits bal—”
conceptual fluency
test type and example of retrieval instructions
indirect/ implicit
“Name all the dance types you can”
repetition priming
enhanced processing of a stimulus arising from recent encounters with that stimulus, a form of implicit memory
repetition suppression
stimulus repetitions are typically associated with reduced neural activity in the brain region that responds to the stimulus, reflects increased efficiency of neural processes arising from persisting perceptual traces in the sensory cortex
context dependent memory
the finding that memory benefits when the spatio-temporal, mood, physiological, or cognitive context at retrieval matches that present at encoding
godden and Baddeley
context dependant divers in the water, 40 words repeated on land or in the water, material learned underwater was best recalled underwater and material learned on land was best recalled on land
state dependent memory
also occurs when ones internal state is different, ex drunk or high, Goodwin, drunk people only remembered where they hide money when they were drunk
mood congruent memory
bias in the recall of memories such that negative mood makes negative memories more readily available than positive and vice versa. Unlike mood dependency, it does not affect the recall of neutral memories
mood dependent memory
a form of context dependent effect whereby what is learnt in a given mood, whether positive, negative or neutral is best recalled in that mood
reconstructive memory
an active and inferential process of retrieval whereby gaps in memory are filled-in based on prior experience, logic, and goals
Reconstructive is often driven by background knowledge that suggests plausible inferences, some inferences may even lead us to believe we are remembering something when we are not
recognition memory
a person’s ability to correctly decide whether he/she has encountered a stimulus previously in a particular context
forced choice recognition test
distractors are presented with the old item and the person must choose one of the items
yes/no recognition test
present one item at a time, and ask people to make a yes or no decision to each, with old and new items intermixed
signal detection theory
a model of recognition memory that posits that memory targets (signals) and lures (noise) ona recognition test possess an attribute known as strength or familiarity, which occurs in a graded fashion, with previously encountered items generally possessing more strength than novel items. The process of recognition involves ascertaining a given test item’s strength and then deciding whether it exceeds a criterion level of strength, above which items are considered to be previously encountered. Signal detection theory provides analytic tools that separate true memory from judgement biases in recognition
word frequency effect
low frequency words are better recognized than high frequency words
familiarity based recognition
a fast, automatic recognition process based on perception of a memory’s strength. Proponents of dual process models consider familiarity to be independent of the contextual information characteristic of recollection
recollection
the slower, more attention demanding component of recognition memory in dual process models, which involves retrieval of contextual information about the memory
dual process theories of recognition
a class of recognition models that assumes that recognition memory judgements can be based on two independent forms of retrieval process: recollection and familiarity
remember/ know procedure
a procedure used on recognition memory tests to separate the influences of familiarity and recollection on recognition performance. For each test item, participants report whether it is recognized because the person can recollect contextual details of seeing the item (classified as a remember response) or because the item seems familiar, in the absence of specific recollections (classified as know response)
process dissociation procedure (PDP)
a technique for parceling out the contributions of recollection and familiarity within a recognition task
source monitoring
the process of examining the contextual origins of a memory in order to determine whether it was encoded from a particular source
source misattribution error
when you misattribute the source of your recollections
