Episodic vs Semantic Memory Flashcards
what is episodic memory?
Memory for specific events located at a specific point in time
○ “mental time travel”
○ Backward to relive earlier
episodes
○ Forward to anticipate & plan future events
What is Semantic Memory?
Memory for facts
○ No mental time travel
○ E.g.: World knowledge; vocabulary; rules etc.
○ Short delay: information is recalled in episodes
○ Long delay: the same information is integrated into semantic memory
Describe Bartlett’s Approach to studying memory?
- Recall of complex materials (e.g., drawings and folk tales)
- Examined recall errors
- Unlike Ebbinghaus, he stressed participants’ effort after meaning
WAR ON GHOSTS
What is a Schema?
- Structured representation of knowledge about the world, events, people or actions
- Can be used to make sense of new material, to store and later recall them
- Are influenced/determined by social and cultural factors
What are the two types of Schemas?
- Scripts: knowledge about events and sequences of events/actions e.g., actions in a coffee shop
- Frames: fixed structural information e.g., how a coffee-shop look like (organization of the physical environment)
What is the effect of schemas on memory?
- Schematic knowledge may affect memory especially at longer intervals.
- Systematic errors understood due to intrusions of schematic knowledge
What is the effect of Meaning on Memory?
- Ascribing meaning to stimuli affects encoding and storage
Carmichael et al. (1932) - Drawings were heavily influenced by the initial label given to the initial ambiguous figure
Describe Paivio’s Dual-coding hypothesis.
○ Highly imageable words are easy to learn because they can be encoded both visually and verbally
○ More imageable words (e.g., concrete nouns) are more memorable
○ Multiple encoding routes improve the chance of successful recall!
Describe the Levels of Processing Theory.
- the way in which material is processed calculate determines its durability in the LTM.
- Information is processed in varying depths.
- deeper processing = better recognition.
Limitations of the Levels of Processing (LOP) Theory.
- Difficult to define and measure
○ Processing speed? - Levels of processing (features) are not processed in serial order but simultaneously
- Deeper is not always more memorable!
What are the Levels of the Processing Theory?
Visual
Phonological
Semantic
What is the Transfer Appropriate Processing (TAP) Principle?
Memory retrieval is best when the cues available at testing are similar to those available at encoding.
- LOP effect can be explained in terms of TAP: deep encoding is more similar to the way memory is tested.
Why is deeper encoding better?
- Richer and more elaborate encoding leads to be\er memory
- Elaborative rehearsal enhances delayed long-term learning more than maintenance rehearsal
- Maintenance rehearsal: As something was learned
vs - Elaborative rehearsal: Linking it to other material
What is cognitive economy?
properties/features associated with concepts are stored higher up to minimize redundancy
What is the Typicality Effect?
the findings that the time taken to the side a category member belongs to a category is less for typical than atypical members.
– problem with hierarchical model.
