Exam 2 Flashcards
Understand the memory systems and the differences between short-term and working memory understand the process of spreading activation in the context of memory Understand how studying memory deficits help us learn about the nature of memory
What is the oldest form of memory
Procedural memory
William James can be credited for developing which theory of memory
Short term memory vs Long-term memory
What is primary memory according to James
A memory system proposed by William James (1890); thought to be the area where information is initially stored so that it is available for consciousness, attention, and general use.
What is secondary memory according to James
A memory system proposed by William James (1890); thought to be the long-term storage area for memories.
Which memory systems were included in the Modal Model of Memory
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) Model Includes
1) sensory memory,
2) short-term memory,
3) long-term memory
Explain the hierarchy of memory systems
Memory system
1. Sensory memory
a. Echoic memory
b. Iconic memory
c. Etc.
- Working memory/Short-term memory
- Long-term memory
a. Declarative memory (explicit)
i. Episodic memory
ii. Semantic memory
b. Non-Declarative memory
i. Procedural memory
ii. Priming
Brief definition of short term memory by Atkinson & Shiffrin’s model
Short-term memory, which receives information from both sensory memory and longterm memory. Sensory memory is capable of registering a large quantity of information. However, most of that information fades from memory (decays) unless it is given attention. Lasts about 18 seconds, unless it’s rehearsed.
What is consolidation
The process through which memory traces are stabilized to form
long-term memories.
What is chunking
A strategy used to increase the capacity of STM by arranging elements in groups (chunks) that can be more easily remembered. However, given its limited capacity, it seems unlikely that the short-term memory system can handle much more than four chunks of information at a time.
Brief definition of long term memory by Atkinson & Shiffrin’s model
Long term memory: information that is stored and brought back to short-term memory for immediate usage.
Which form of memory is not in the modal model of memory
working memory
What is working memory
Working memory “involves the temporary storage and manipulation of information that is assumed to be necessary for a wide range of complex cognitive activities. Working memory is the system that pulls all the other memory systems together, enabling us to work with different types of information in a dynamic fashion.
What is the phonological loop
The phonological loop temporary store of linguistic information. It represents the entirety of short-term memory as conceptualized by the modal model of memory.
What is the episodic buffer
What manipulates and moves information to and from long-term memory
The visuo-spatial sketchpad: a separate component of working memory that we use for non-verbal information. Both the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad interact with long term memory also
What is a fluid system
Cognitive processes that manipulate information. (unchanged by learning)
- Cognitive executive
- Visio spacial sketch pad
- Phonological loop
- Episodic …
What is a crystalized system
Cognitive systems that accumulate long-term knowledge.
What does the central executive do
selects and integrates information across three subsystems.
- Visuo-spatial sketchpad,
- episodic buffer,
- phonological loop
What part of the brain is singled out as particularly important for working memory
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)
What is declarative memory
One of two major divisions of memory, also known as explicit memory; the memory system that contains knowledge that can be stated
What is episodic memory
The subdivision of declarative memory concerned with personal experience
What is semantic memory
The subdivision of declarative memory concerned with general
knowledge (e.g., facts, words, and concepts).
Describe the relationship between episodic and semantic memory
It’s important to note that episodic and semantic memories are not mutually exclusive. For example, you might remember the day in grade two when Mrs Butterworth taught you that Ottawa is the capital of Canada. It was only after rehearsing your episodic memory of the lesson that you were able to store the fact in your semantic memory. In other words, episodic memory can serve as a gateway for the formation of semantic memory.
Which structure is associated with semantic memory
Hippocampus
How can someone learn new things with a damaged hippocampus
Repitition
Why are smells so tied to memories
connection between neurones (epithelium and hippocampus)
Remains in place
even as new olfactory neurons are generated to replace those that have died.
What is the perceptual representation system
A memory system containing very specific representations of events that is hypothesized to be responsible for priming effects.
Compare episodic memory and perceptual representation system
Episodic memory system = deeper understanding of information,
Perpetual = information on a more superficial level
Define priming
Priming is the unconscious process through which our response to a given stimulus is facilitated by previous exposure to a related (or identical) stimulus, making our response both quicker and more accurate than it would otherwise be
What is procedural memory
Knowing how to do things.
Physical skills and cognitive skills
eg ability to ride a bike or read
What is tacit knowledge
Knowing how to do something without being able to say exactly what it is that you know.
Which memory do we acquire later in life
Episodic memory, around 4-6 years old
What is the butcher-on-the-bus phenomenon
Feeling of knowing a person without being able to remember the circumstances of any previous meeting or anything else about them.
Failure of episodic memory.
What is the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon (TOT)
Knowing that you know something without quite being able to recall it.
Failure of semantic memory.
What is spreading activation
Quillian (1969) & Collins and Loftus (1975).
When you search a semantic network, you activate the paths where the search takes place.
The activation spreads from the node at which the search begins.
What is mind popping
involuntary semantic memory (e.g., a tune) pops into your mind
without any episodic context.
you don’t recall any autobiographical information that triggered the semantic memory;
it just pops up / appears irrelevant to what you are currently thinking about.
Kvavilashvili and Mandler (2004) call this mind popping.
Which type of memory declines with age
Episodic memory
What is the associative deficit hypothesis
older adults have a deficiency in creating and retrieving links
between single units of information.
The problem is not
that older people don’t recognize names or faces, they don’t bind them together as easily.
Older adults have trouble in situations requiring the “merging of different aspects of an episode into a cohesive unit”
Which type of memory is not affected by age
Mitchell and Bruss (2003)
Implicit / semantic memory
able to form implicit memories just as easily as younger people.
They respond to priming = younger people.
Implicit memory appears to be stable across age.
What is Korsakoff’s syndrome
A form of amnesia affecting the ability to form new memories, attributed to thiamine deficiency and often (though not exclusively) seen in chronic alcoholics.
What is the disconnection syndrome
Person able to acquire new information while not aware that learning has taken place.
It’s as if there are at least two memory systems (Tulving, 1985) that normally interact but have become disconnected.
Implicit & Explicit memory in amnesic patients
Suck at explicit memory tasks
& better on those requiring implicit memory.
People with amnesia may be able to form associations, and learn new material.
This learning is available only in implicit form.
Which memory is affected by Alzheimer’s
progressive, begins with deterioration of episodic memory.
decline in ability to retain recently acquired information (early stages)
Eventually will loose semantic memory
Storage problem
Not so much retrieval problem.
What is prospective memory
The intention to remember to do something at some future time.
What type of learning is good for those with memory disorders
Sheer repetition makes a difference,
important that the teacher help the patient avoid errors.
Errorless learning to maximize patients’ ability to use whatever memory resources they still have
What is the mystic writing pad model showing
The trace model
Showing with a toy writing tablet that retains fragments of old messages even after they have been “erased.” In time, these fragments accumulate and begin to overlap, so that they become increasingly hard to read.
Describe Neisser’s reapparance hypothesis
Neisser’s term for the now rejected idea that the same memory can reappear, unchanged, again and again.
What is a flashbulb memory
Vivid, detailed memories of significant events.
Does not support trace memory & not quite how we thought it was (fades & modifiable)
Describe the Now Print! Part of the flashbulb memory theory
The point when a
1) relevant 2) surprising experience is “flashed,” and preserved in long-term memory,
It is thought to be resistant to change.
What are the five stages of the Brown and Kulik’s model of flashbulb memory
- Surprisingness (can fail due to inattention)
- Consequentiality (if not pertinent to self likely to forget it)
- Create the flashbulb memory
- Rehearsing the memory
- Retelling the memory (where it changes a lot)
How do flashbulb memory get impacted over time
1) Generalize
2) Fade
3) Retelling changes it
They feel more intense but are not more accurate.
What is the consolidation theory
Memory traces are not fully formed immediately after an event
They take some time to consolidate.
What is retroactive interference
«Movement forward»
New leaning modifies old leaning
Describe reconsolidation
Hypothetical process where a memory trace is revised and reconsolidated.
the context in which you recall a flashbulb event may be quite different from the context in which you originally experienced it. This provides an opportunity for revision of the memory trace, although the extent of such revision is controversial.
A memory trace can be reactivated and reconsolidated indefinitely. Thus we have no reason to believe that a memory trace is necessarily a faithful rendition of the original experience.
Describe the process of rationalization
The attempt to make memory as coherent and sensible as possible.
It is imaginative reconstruction, or construction, built out of the relation of our attitude towards a whole active mass of organized past reactions or experience, and to a little outstanding detail which commonly appears in image or in language form
Explain faulty source monitoring or source monitoring framework
The theory that some errors of memory are caused by mistaken identification of the memory’s source.
What is the principle of encoding specificity
the principle of encoding specificity: that a cue is more likely to lead to the recall of a particular item if the cue was initially encoded along with that item
Tulving argued that the ability to remember a given item depends on how that item was encoded at input. In other words, the nature of the encoding will influence the memory trace.
What is state-dependent learning
state-dependent learning: the idea that recall is best when the mental or physiological state of the learner is consistent across encoding and retrieval.
While recall was indeed better for many participants in the congruent condition, confidence levels were also much higher, even among those who were wrong.
What is the difference between a script and a schema
one feature that distinguishes a script from a schema is that a script refers to a particular sequence of events or actions
How does sleep impact memory
It proposes that newly encoded memories are repeatedly activated during sleep, and that through this repeated activation, more stable memory traces are formed that can be further integrated with existing long-term memories
susceptibility to false-memory formation increased for participants who were already sleep-deprived when they encoded the original information and then were exposed to false information
What is an important component that may explain childhood amnesia (before 3)
children experience events will change as they develop the ability to describe them using language and this change may cause them to lose contact with early memories
What is the memory bump
An increase in the number of memories between 10 and 30 years of age over what would be expected if memories decayed smoothly over time. They tend to focus on the periods when they were making formative decisions. Between the ages of 10 and 30 are particularly memorable because of their importance in the formation of a person’s identity. Emphasize the importance of what they call life scripts
What type of cues tend to lead to more memories between age 6 and 10
The odour cue produced more memories from between ages 6 and 10 than did the verbal cue.Thus odours may bypass verbally encoded memories and make contact with memories formed so early in life that they were not encoded in words.
How is distinctiveness associated with memory bump
Distinctiveness (discussed below) is the notion that relatively novel events will tend to be remembered better than events that are similar to one another. The second and third decades of life are a period when people are likely to experience a number of distinctive events
Describe the levels of processing
The more deeply we process an event, the more thoroughly we will comprehend it. The more important an event is to us, the more effort we will put into comprehending it, and thus the more likely we are to recall it accurately. Thus depth of processing is a continuum that ranges from registering an event purely in terms of its physical characteristics to analyzing it in terms of its meaning and relationship to other things that you know
From shallow to intermediate to deep processing
How is elaboration useful for memory
There is evidence that the more distinctively an item is elaborated, the better it will be remembered
Elaboration has been defined as “extra processing . . . that results in additional, related or redundant” material, while distinctiveness, in a broad sense, refers to the precision with which an item is encoded
Describe how aging impacts the levels of processing
specific and general levels of representation: As people age they tend to forget specific details but to remember deeper, more general meanings.
What is Jost’s law of forgetting
Of two memory traces of equal strength, the younger trace will decay faster than the older one.
What is Ribot’s law of retrograde amenesia
Older memories are less likely to be lost as a result of brain damage than are newer memories.
Describe the law of progressions and pathologies
A “last in, first out” principle referring to the possibility that the last system to emerge is the first to show the effects of degeneration.
What is the dual-coding theory
The theory that there are two ways of representing events, verbal and non-verbal.
What are logogens
The units containing the information underlying our use of a word; the components of the verbal system. Logogens operate sequentially. When you listen to a sentence, for example, the words are not present all at once, but come one after the other
What is an imagen
The units containing information that generate mental images; the components of the nonverbal system. Imagens operate synchronously: the parts they contain are available for inspection simultaneously.
What are features of Paivio’s thoery
According to Paivio’s (1971) theory, words that easily elicit a mental image—that is,
words with a high degree of imagery—tend to be concrete (e.g., table), whereas words that don’t easily elicit a mental image tend to be abstract (e.g., purpose). Concreteness is define as the degree to which a word refers to “concrete objects, persons, places, or things that can be heard, felt, smelled or tasted” (Toglia & Battig, 1978). In other words, concreteness is the degree to which a word refers to something that can be experienced by the senses.
What is concreteness of Paivio’s theory
According to Paivio’s (1971) theory, words that easily elicit a mental image—that is,
words with a high degree of imagery—tend to be concrete (e.g., table), whereas words that don’t easily elicit a mental image tend to be abstract (e.g., purpose). Concreteness is define as the degree to which a word refers to “concrete objects, persons, places, or things that can be heard, felt, smelled or tasted” (Toglia & Battig, 1978). In other words, concreteness is the degree to which a word refers to something that can be experienced by the senses.
Thus there are some words, such as pain and love, that are not concrete but still elicit vivid mental imagery. These words often refer to emotions. Thus in addition to external sources of imagery there are internal, emotional sources.
What is the relationship between concreteness and learning
Notice that learning was best when both words were concrete and worst when both were abstract. A concrete word can be coded by both the verbal and non-verbal systems, whereas an abstract word will tend to be coded only by the verbal system because it is not likely to elicit much of an image. The fact that a concrete word is coded in two systems means that it is more easily available to memory than an abstract word that is coded in only the verbal system
What is the left and right hemisphere theory
The theory that the left hemisphere of the brain controls speech and is better at processing verbal material than is the right hemisphere, which is better at non-verbal tasks.
After a review of the relevant neuroimaging research, Fiebach and Friederici (2003, p. 66) concluded that the evidence “does not fully support the assumption of a specific right-hemispheric involvement during the processing of concrete relative to abstract words.”
What is the method of loci
The idea was to establish a cognitive map of a large building and place in each of its various loci an image representing one of the things to be remembered; then recalling those things would simply be a matter of mentally strolling through the building and collecting the images.
What is the won Restorff effect
If one item in a set is different from the others, it is more likely to be recalled.
What is the special places strategy
Choosing a storage location that other people will not think of; the problem is that when the time comes to retrieve the item, you may not think of it either.
What is meta memory
Beliefs about how memory works.
What is the apoptosis theory of synesthesia
Perhaps adult synesthesia occurs when this pruning process fails to run its course, and what were supposed to be transient connections end up being permanent. It has been suggested that, in the case of synesthetes, the ‘pruning’ gene is defective,” resulting “in cross-activation between areas of the brain”
What is an icon
The initial, brief representation of the information contained in a visual stimulus.
What is eidetic imagery
Images projected onto the external world that persist for a minute or more even after a stimulus (e.g., a picture) is removed.
What is cognitive dedifferentiation
Fusion of perceptual processes that typically function independently. (e.g. synesthesia & eidetic imagery)
How is vividness related to visual imagery
The answer is that vividness of visual imagery does not appear to be a good predictor of superior performance on memory tasks.
However, vividness is not an index of the accuracy of memory, only of its richness.
What are objective and categorical distances in imagery
objective distances
The true distances between objects in the real world, which are preserved in our mental images.
categorical distance
The number of units traversed during mental scanning: for instance, landmarks on an island map, rooms in a building, or counties in a state.
How did Neisser think of imagery
It was not so much that participants were more sensitive to stimuli falling within the imaged region as it was that they were better prepared to pick up stimuli falling within the area of a projected image. Farah characterized this process in terms used by Ryle (1949) and Neisser (1976). Neisser defined an image as a readiness to perceive something
suggests that imagery is an active process that prepares you for perceiving information, and not just a passive representation of information.
What are egocentric perspective transformations
You imagine yourself moving, while the objects in the environment remain still.
What is an earworm
A conscious experience of sound—typically a short phrase of catchy music— that seems to get stuck on replay in your head.
What are phonemes and morphemes
The smallest unit in language. Phonemes are combined to form morphemes.
morpheme
The smallest unit in language that carries meaning.
How does Chomsky look at language
This observation, and others like it, led Chomsky to make a sharp distinction between grammar and semantics, the study of meaning. He argued that the processes that make a sentence grammatical are different from the processes that make a sentence meaningful.
What are grammatical transformations
Rules operating on entire strings of symbols to convert them to new strings.
Explain Competence vs Performance in language
We may have an internalized system of rules that constitutes a basic linguistic competence, but this competence may not always be reflected in our actual use of the language (performance).
What are deep and surface structure
The meaning is at one level, called the deep structure, whereas the words are at another level, called the surface structure. The distinction between deep and surface structure allows us to understand a number of interesting linguistic phenomena, including ambiguous sentences.
Why is ambiguity in language useful
the existence of ambiguity in language illustrates why we need to make a distinction between deep and surface structure. The same surface structure can be derived from different deep structures. The different meanings of the above sentences, for example, are carried by two different deep structures. Meaning is not given on the surface of a sentence: it is given by the deep structure interpretation of the sentence. When we understand a sentence, we transform a surface structure into a deep structure.
What is the innateness hypothesis
The hypothesis that children innately possess a language acquisition device that comes equipped with principles of universal grammar
What is the poverty of stimulus argument
The argument that the linguistic environment to which a child is exposed is not good enough to enable language acquisition on its own.
What is the given-new contract
A tacit agreement whereby the speaker agrees to connect new information to what the listener already knows.’
What is the code model of communication
A model of communication based on the information processing theory. According to Sperber and Wilson, the code model assumes that speaker and listener have a great deal of knowledge in common: otherwise the listener would not be able to decode the signal properly and arrive at the correct interpretation.
What is the inferential model of communication
The inferential model derives from the work of Grice (1957/1971, 1975), who analyzed communication in terms of intentions and inferences. A speaker intends to inform a listener, and the listener infers what the speaker intends
What are the four rules of conversational maxims
- Say no more than is necessary (maxim of quantity);
- Be truthful (maxim of quality);
- Be relevant (maxim of relation); and
- Avoid ambiguity and be clear (maxim of manner).
What is the ultimate goal of communication
Relevance
What is the egocentric speech
Speech that does not take the listener’s perspective into account. Egocentric speech declines as the child becomes socialized, and social speech develops in its place. Vygotsky argued that egocentric speech does not disappear but becomes inner speech.
Which memory system is engaged in inner speech
suggested that one way inner speech may be articulated is by means of the phonological loop part of working memory
What is the difference between surface dyslexia and phonological dyslexia
surface dyslexia
A form of dyslexia affecting only the ability to recognize words as entire units; the ability to read words letter-by-letter remains intact.
phonological dyslexia
A form of dyslexia affecting only the ability to read letter-by-letter; the ability to recognize words as entire units remains intact.
dual route theory
The theory there are two separate pathways for reading, one for comparing words to a mental dictionary and another for converting letters to sounds and stringing the sounds together to make words.
What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
The hypothesis that two languages may be so different from one another as to make their native speakers’ experience of the world qualitatively different
What are objective and categorical distances in imagery
objective distances
The true distances between objects in the real world, which are preserved in our mental images.
categorical distance
The number of units traversed during mental scanning: for instance, landmarks on an island map, rooms in a building, or counties in a state.
What is meta memory
Beliefs about how memory works.
Implicit & Explicit memory in amnesic patients
amnesic patients do poorly on tasks requiring explicit memory, but much better on those requiring implicit memory. People with amnesia may be able to form associations, and thus learn new material. However, this learning would be available to them only in implicit, not explicit, form.
Are short-term and working memory the same?
Nope
They are similar but different
What is spreading activation?
I don’t know yet … fill me in
How is spreading activation involved in memory
I don’t know yet… something about neural communication
Like William James said “we all know what attention is” for memory we think we know because we talk about
Long-term memory
Short-term memory
Working-memory
BUT …
These are just categories memory (does not fully describe what memory is)
There are other important memory systems
What are other important memory systems?
Declarative
Episodic
Semantic
Echoic
Iconic
Implicit
We add these to the classics
Long-term
Short-term
Working memory
What is semantic memory?
Knowledge of “rules” of something (no autobiographical time)
Words, concepts, things in general that we know eg. “what is semantic memory”
Ex salt is sodium chloride
What is Echoic memory
Short term memory in auditory perceptual systems (Brodbants model)
What is Iconic memory
Short term memory in visual system (perceptual from Brondbant’s model)
Which lasts longer the echo or iconic type of memory?
Echo
Episodic & Implicit memory fall under:
Declarative memory
Overall set “Hierarchy of memory systems” by Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)
What did Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968) talk about but not include in their model
Echo & Icon (sensory memory)
The updated table of memory systems by Jonathan has 3 overarching categories:
- Sensory
- Short-Term/Working
- Long term
The updated table for memory systems by Jonathan
We could add sensory like touch etc.
Episodic memory
Have a “what” and “when” time component
Semantic memory
Has “what”
Unlike episodic has no ‘when’
Can semantic memory be separated from episodic memory
Yes
Eg Patient KC/NN had brain damage (knowledge of words somatic memory is intact)
He has issues with episodic memory
but 10min later - missed 2/4 and added 1 … when asked about words he was asked about was not good at it, a lot he did not remember.
But 3 min later (probe with non-declarative parts of memory) did not remember sanctuary then needed much phonological cues to even guess 1 of the 2.
Why do we think declarative and semantic must be separate systems
Brain injury studies
Eg NN/KC semantic words intact but not able to form declarative memories of what happened to him
Eg WJ has knowledge of stuff (semantic) but not where it came from (episodic)
When will someone with out brain damage remember the most past events?
Within 12 months = 70% of events (or maybe this is just WJ *Clarify)
What is retrograde amnesia
Inability to remember something from our own past
How did the anterograde amnesia manifest for the patient with brain damage WJ
nothing new could be encoded into episodic memory
When looking at the last 12 months there was a big difference
70% for others 5% for her
Can we damage just storage or just retrieval of episodic memory?
Yes
for all of the memory systems we can see that these can be broken down into two functions
Declarative (what and when)
Something we can easily talk about
Implicit & non declarative
Something that is hard to describe we can demonstrate but hard to talk about
Eg Bruno
What is the main form of non-declarative memory
Procedural memory
What is procedural memory
A memory of what we can do - Skill
Hard to explain, if we try, we have to go through a process of trying to understand and explain but still hard.
Eg Robots hard cuz we don’t understand but machine learning models help robots
Clive Wearing
Procedural memory intact (could retain new habits ex new music since his semantic memory reading music intact)
Skilled musician
30 sec of memory - not retaining new information (both retrograde and anterograde amnesia)
Diary - repeated experience of waking up … again and again …
What is anterograde amnesia
Antero - going forward
Inability to encode new memories (going forward in time)
What is anterograde amnesia
Antero - (nothing new)
Inability to remember things going forward in time
Could Clive Wearing learn new things?
Yes through procedural memory (play music) he can learn new habits (non-declarative)
Despite retrograde (things in the past get lost) and Anterograde amnesia (nothing new)
Priming worked on him
Priming
Non Declarative
Implicit process of activation storing or retrieving a memory
What is a prime
A stimulus that activates a probe/target (or response)
Consciously priming
A form of memory we don’t really know how to explain so unconscious
Eg. Weather related words primed the idea of … Hot Snow but Cold not on list
The Primacy effect
We remember the first things we are shown more than the middle
Had the most time to practice
The recency effect
We remember more the last things we have seen recently eg last word
In a list of words which will we be least likely to remember
The words in the middle
can priming pretend to mind read
Yes
Priming process they have implanted or activated a word from understanding spreading activation of network of words
can priming pretend to mind read
Yes
Priming process they have implanted or activated a word from understanding spreading activation of network of words
Schema theory 4 processes
- Selection (like attention filter)
- Abstraction (like gestalt)
- Interpretation
- Integration
What is schema theory responsible for
integrating meaning, flexible, imperfect, adapts knowledge
What is most important (what determines what gets stored in memory) according to schema theory?
- What is important to us
- Rehearsal
- Level of processing (deep vs shallow) Distinctiveness & Elaboration
Depth of processing
On a continuum
- Shallow
- Intermediate
- Deep (self relevant, context)
Ebbinghouse’s experiment “Forgetting curve”
List of nonsense syllables vs recall
20min / 1h / 8h / 24h / 2d / 6d / 31d
30% after a month (most of it was lost) forgetting curve
What is Jost Law of forgetting
“traces” networks of EQUAL strength, the NEW ones will decay FASTER than older ones
Consolidation happens primarily during
Sleep
Solidifying our memory making it more permanent
What is retroactive interference
Info now (going back) =
interfering with past knowledge
What is proactive interference
Past info (going forward) =
interfering with present learning
What is Ribo’s law
Ribo’s law of retrograde amnesia = if you have brain damage
More likely to loose the recent “newer” information than the old information
What is the problem with eye witness testimonies
Gaps are filled in automatically during retrieval by our schemas
We don’t know this is happening
Its a problem for recall
Eg Ebbinghouse lost 50% after 1h and 70% after 1month
What did Loftus and Palmer show?
Perception of speed of car was impacted by suggestion of the leading question
“smashed” = faster (recollection broken glass 1 week later more chance)
“hit” = slower (no recollection of broken glass)
Different schemas activated (in eye witness testimonies)
Recall process (schema) what happens during gets fused into the schema and it gets updated
This impacts new memories and future recall
What is the method of loci?
A mnemonic playing on imagens
What is an imagen?
Non verbal mental imagery
Proposed by Alan Paivio
Wha is a Logagen?
A verbal mental imagery
Proposed by Alan Paivio
What two systems did Alan Paivio propose?
Verbal (logagen) and Non-verbal (imagens)
What is a memory castle
Creating a mnemonic with imagens
Building imaginary space in your mind that you can tie imagery to new info
What is a mnemonic
Attaching mental imagery (imagens) to concepts to make them easier to remember
Engaging multiple memory systems
Dual coding
Increases depth of processing
synaesthesia
On a continuum (week metaphor - strong total overlay colours behind letter would hide letter)
Sensory coupling of 2 or more sensory info
concurrent sensory experiences (overlay)
What is the most common form of synaesthesia
Time space
Who created the Dual coding theory and what are the two main concepts
Allan Paivio
- Logogens (words)
- Imagens (images)
What is synesthesia
An overlay of two or more sensory systems called concurrent sensory experiences
On a continuum (from association to overlap)
What is a concurrent sensory experience
An overlay of multiple sensory experiences
Does synaesthesia add depth of processing
Yes,
so memory performance is increased
What percentage of the population has synesthesia
4%
Is the choice of colours associations random in synaesthesia?
No
Frequency affects luminance picked for everyone
E - T - O more frequent
Synaesthesia amplifies the association but we all seem to make the associations.
Two forms of mental imagery
- Icons (short term) snapshots in visual cortex
- Eidetic (Long term) eg photographic memory
What makes language so complicated
Not everything can be included in rules
Translation is not direct
Flies (in different contexts motion vs bug)
What is Grammar
The “how” rules of how we put a sentence together (does not have to be meaningful)
What is semantics
The “what element” of language
Just if something is meaningful or not
What are the two basic building blocks of language
Grammar (How)
Semantics (What)
Can a sentence be grammatically correct but lack in semantic meaning
Yes
What is transformational grammar
Trying to find an appropriate way to take an idea that we have and communicate it to someone else
and vice versa
To understand language we need to understand grammar
To understand language we need to understand grammar
True
The structure has no direct relation to semantics
What is deep structure of language
comprehending, the meaning
Hard to program
What is surface structure of language
pairing of words and sounds
Can be programmed (following rules)
When we understand a sentence we
transform surface structure into a deep structure
When we produce a sentence we
transform a deep structure into a surface structure
Chomsky’s view of learning language
We have an innate language acquisition device (in the brain)
Child will be attuned and pick up on rules of the language spoken around them
Did Skinner agree with Chomsky about the language acquisition device?
Nope
Skinner thought language acquisition was threw operant conditioning repeated exposition and reinforcements.
Brown & Hanlon (1970) support Chomsky’s hypothesis of innate language acquisition device
Observe language interactions parent child (2-4yrs)
No evidence for operant conditioning when learning to talk
Evidence for and against language acquisition device (Chomsky) vs operant conditioning (skinner)
Parents don’t reinforce grammatically incorrect statements (but they could do it implicitly)
Parents may give other forms of corrective feedback
Could not develop language through native language acquisition device with out reinforcement (-reinforcement could be the absence of corrective feedback)
Zone of proximal development
An ideal space where we can learn new things
If the gap is too big, we can not learn new things
Language development is gradual, building off into more complexity
Parents reinforce the acquisition of the basics first
What is Freud’s (1925/1961) mystic writing pad model
A model of memory based on a toy writing tablet that retains fragments of old messages even after they have been “erased.” In time, these fragments accumulate and begin
to overlap, so that they become increasingly hard to read.
What is the reappearance hypothesis
Neisser’s term for the now rejected (trace theory hypothesis) idea that the same memory can reappear, unchanged, again and again
What die Neisser argue when rejecting trace theory?
there are no “stored copies of finished mental events,” and that memory is schematic, relying on “fragments . . . to
support a new construction (Similar to Bartlett (1932)
Who did Brown and Kulik build off of for their model of flashbulb memories
Livingston’s (1967) Now Print! Theory
Who came up with the theory for flashbulb memories
Brown and Kulik (1977)
What are the five stages of flashbulb memories for Brown and Kulik
- Suprisingness.
- consequentiality.
- Formation of Flashbulb memory
- Rehearsal (develop verbal accounts)
- Retelling the accounts
Now print theory
The theory that especially significant experiences
are immediately “photocopied,” preserved in long-term memory, and
resistant to change.
What does consolidation theory state
That memory traces take some time to consolidate
They can suffer from interference
What is proactive interference
(consolidation theory - encoding) Decline of recall of an event as a result of a later event.
Retroactive interference is
something happens after (what you need to remember) and disrupts the consolidation
ie. decline of recall of an event because of a later event.
Jenkins & Dallenbach, 1924
Retroactive interference (lowered consolidation of the thing) impacted by new thing coming in
Sleep deprivation harms this
What brain structure is crucial for consolidation of long term memory
Hypocampus
once the consolidation process is complete, is the memory trace in question was fixed and permanent
Nope
When trace memory is reactivated it is resolvable (in working memory)
Reconsolidating
What is reconsolidating?
The hypothetical process whereby a memory trace is revised and reconsolidated
What is reconsolidating?
The hypothetical process whereby a memory trace is revised and reconsolidated
What did Nader say about memory?
There can be no doubt at this point that memories are fundamentally dynamic processes, as first explicitly demonstrated by Bartlett (1932). They are not snapshots of events that are passively read out but, rather, are constructive in nature and always changing
Bartlett made what concept central to the psychology of memory
Schemas
What two methods did Bartlett use to make schema concept central to the psychology of memory
- method of repeated reproduction (n=1story)
- Method of serial reproduction (n=1 story + téléphone arable)
What is rationalization
The attempt to make memory as coherent and sensible as possible
Organized standard that organizes and adjusts our behaviour
Schema (according to Bartlett)
What is the misinformation effect
The hypothesis that misleading post-event
information can become integrated with the original memory of the event. (Loftus & Hoffman)
We can fail to discriminate between memories of memories of real events and memories of imagined events
Identify the true source of their memory
Picture 4 ppl in office w objects then red a text not exactly the same objects
Source monitoring test (what was in pic / txt)
Recognition test (was this item in the picture)
R= less errors in the source monitoring test
Lindsay and Johnson
Source monitoring framework
theory that some errors of memory are caused by mistaken identification of the memory’s source
principle of encoding specificity
The way an item is retrieved from memory
depends on the way it was stored in memory
Tulving and Thomson’s (1973) classic experiments
Participants learned a list of 24 pairs of words
Weak association and different print
The first word of each pair is called the weak cue word, and the second word of each pair is called the target word
Asked to free associate for strong cue words
They came up with target words without knowing they are target words
Available in memory but literal recognition not possible “recognition failure”
The nature of the encoding will influence the memory
Memory trace
Encoding specificity - context dependent learning
State dependent learning
learning is best when the mental or physiological state of the learner is consitent across encoding and retrieval
Drug use can reduce learning
By half
Context dependent learning:
Scuba divers learnt words under water and on shore
Memory recall was better in congruent condition where the information was first learnt (underwater or on shore)
mood-dependent recall
The hypothesis that mood congruence between
learning and recall sessions should facilitate recall.
mood congruence
The idea that mood might cause selective learning of affective material.
Hertel and Harding vs homophones (depression and memory)
Found that initial exposure to homophones led them to adopt less common spelling on the test regardless of mood.
Mood induction had an effect of the number of words recognized (depressed less words)
Scripts are
A set of expectations concerning the actions and events that are appropriate in a particular situation
Similar to schema, they are more specific to procedures.
Could looking at childhood photos lead to constructing false memories?
Yes
Source monitoring theory (encourages imagining and could lead to confusion vs what happened and what did not)
Sleep vs memory retention (consolidation)
REM sleep - newly acquired memories activated
False memories = sleep deprivation
Autobiographical memories are
episodic memories of events recalled in terms of the time in our lives when each one occurred
Cue objects make a list and tag to h’s days weeks months years when they occurred
Technique by Crovitz and Schiffman
20 years 224 available later (Galton’s number)
Childhood amnesia
The general inability to retrieve episodic memories from before the age of about 3.
Memory is language specific
Yes think children English at 12 vs Russian before
Cues Russian = Russian memories etc
Memory bump
increase in the number of memories between 10 and 30 years old
Memory bumps between 10-30 are important in the formation of the identity according to
Erick Erikson
Life script *Rubin & Berntsen (2003)
Cultural narrative that prescribes the age norms and sequence for important events in an individual’s life
Play role in memory bump (eg relevant positive events not negative)
The life script schemas
life scripts may play a role in the memory bump is that it
becomes evident when older people are asked to recall their most positive and important
memories—not when they are asked for their saddest or most negative ones
the life script schema favours the recall of events that took place during the bump period
Disctinctiveness hypothesis for the memory bump
The first time an event occurs we pay more attention to it and remember it more …
Lockhart sayd that memory is
A process (toward menaing)
Continuum (different levels) from shallow to deep processing
(Levels of processing) Elaboration
Extra processing
Eg actor finding reasons why or understanding the motivation of the character (memorize with out rote repetition)
(Levels of processing) Distinctiveness the
precision elaborations with which things are encoded
Specific and general levels of representation as ppl age
Loss of
Names of ppl we know (superficial) and the audience to who you told a story
But their deeper meaning (who the people are and what the story is)
Levels of processing approach
Continuum from shallow to deep
No (official agreed upon) determinant of depth
Jost’s law of forgetting
tow equal memory traces of equal strength the newer one will decay faster than the older one
The forgetting curve is
Ebbinghaus’s finding that the rate at which information is forgotten is greatest immediately after the information has been
acquired, and declines
more gradually over time.
what are two ways to do memory research
- Lab based (Ebbinghouse)
- Ecological (Bahrik)
What is a permastore
Bahrick’s term for the state of relative permanence in which he found that some kinds of memory can be retained over very long periods of time.
What could increase
Longer span of class
cumulative re examinations
Capstone review at the end
What words are easiest to remember according to Paivio’s dual coding theory
Concrete words that elicit both verbal and non verbal items
