Exam 3 Flashcards
Encoding
the process of storing information into long-term memory during the learning experience
What factors make for better encoding?
depth of processing
What factors do not make for better encoding?
repetition, intention to remember
Levels of processing
structural, phonemic, category; idea is that the deeper the stimulus is processed, the better it is encoded
Survival
surprise memory test showed that carrying out a “survival” task while reading the words resulted in better memory than other elaborative encoding procedures
- context: participants imagining that they are stranded are presented with a list of words; their task was to rate each word based on how relevant it would be for finding supplies of food and water and providing protection from predators
Self-reference
memory is better if you are asked to relate a word to yourself (i.e., self-reference - whether the word describes yourself - had higher recognition of the words than those in the common conditions who were asked to indicate whether the word was commonly used)
Understanding
Increased understanding leads to better encoding (laundry example with context via picture versus no context given before the paragraph)
Generation
generating material yourself, rather than passively receiving it, enhances learning and retention of information
Summary for encoding
- increased elaboration leads to better encoding
- richer network of semantic connections during encoding
- more ways to retrieve information during recall
Levels of processing in testing
testing provides a way of elaborating the material rather than just learning through studying only
Levels of processing summary
- increased elaboration leads to better encoding
- richer network of semantic connections during encoding
- more ways to retrieve information during recall
Storage/consolidation
the strengthening of information in long-term memory after the learning experience
Standard model of memory
initial experience –> consolidation –> fully encoded
Hippocampal replay during sleep
Interference with hippocampal replay
Sleep-driven consolidation in humans
Consolidation and dreaming
Retrieval
transferring information from LTM into working memory
Retrieval cues
a word or other stimulus that helps a person remember information stored in memory
Tip of the tongue effect
Cued recall
participant is presented with retrieval cues to aid in recall of the previously experienced stimuli
Uncued recall
a participant is asked to recall stimuli without any retrieval cues
Retrieval cues conclusions
retrieval cues are significantly more effective when they are created by the person whose memory is being tested
Encoding specificity
matching context between encoding and retrieval assists performance
Memories as associations
Godden & Baddeley diving study
results indicated that the best recall occurred when encoding and retrieval occurred in the same location (i.e., both on land or both underwater)
Grant et al. noise study
participants performed better on a short-answer test when the testing condition matched the study condition (i.e., study in quiet and test in quiet)
Eich & Metcalf mood study
performed better at remembering the words from two days earlier when their mood at retrieval matched their mood during the encoding (state-dependent learning)
Goodwin et al. alcohol study
Encoding specificity conclusions
Transfer appropriate processing
Morris et al. study
participants who focused on rhyming during encoding remembered more words in the rhyming test than participants who had focused on meaning; thus, the participants who had focused on the word’s sound during the first part of the experiment did better when the test involved focusing on sound (transfer appropriate processing)
- showed that deeper processing at encoding does not always result in better retrieval
Transfer appropriate processing vs. levels of processing
transfer appropriate processing: better performance when the type of processing matches in encoding and retrieval
levels of processing: deeper processing at encoding leads to better retrieval
Interference
Proactive interference
when previously learned information interferes with learning new information
Retroactive interference
when new information interferes with retrieving previously learned information
Evidence for proactive interference
- studied 10 pairs of adjectives –> came back, recalled the old test, and studied a new one –> repeated this process twice more
- with no previous list to remember, recall is higher, but with increasing number of things to remember, recall decreases
- possibly due to competition during retrieval
Evidence for retroactive interference
- participant studied a list of pairs in two sessions (experimental condition, the AB and AD list shared A part; control condition, no overlap) –> in test phase, they were asked what they remember from the first session
- experimental condition showed much worse performance –> retrieval competition (have to resolve some conflict between what you learned in session one versus session two)
Retrieval induced forgetting
- memories are constantly in swing
- elements can be suppressed and activated
- retrieval biases towards recent goals
Constructive memory
- memories are not a carbon copy of the past
- prone to revision and error
Retrieval conclusions
- the effectiveness of retrieval depends on what you do with information
- retrieval is error prone (interference)
- retrieval can change memories (retrieval induced forgetting)
Anderson paradigm
- retrieval induced forgetting
- weakened association between category and unrehearsed item
Inhibition vs. response blocking
- blocking idea is that practiced words occupy the ‘response channel’
Neuroimaging study
Autobiographical memory
memory for specific experiences from our life
- they are multidimensional, meaning: the memory includes several sensory modalities; the memory takes place in 3D space; there are thoughts and emotions associated with the memory
Everyday memory
Episodic components of autobiographical memories
Semantic components of autobiographical memories
Multidimensionality of autobiographical memories
- the memory includes several sensory modalities
- the memory takes place in 3D space
- there are thoughts and emotions associated with the memory
Emotions associated with event
Distinctiveness associated with event
Reminiscence bump
enhanced memory for adolescence and young adulthood found in people over 40
Self-image hypothesis
proposes that memory is enhanced for events that occur as a person’s self-image or life identity is being formed
Cognitive hypothesis
proposes that periods of rapid change that are followed by stability cause stronger encoding of memories
Cultural life script hypothesis
distinguishes between a person’s life story, which is all of the events that have occurred in a person’s life, and a cultural life script, which is the culturally expected events that occur at a particular time in the life span
Emotion and memory
- more correct recognitions were given for emotional images than neutral images
- activation for emotional recognitions was shown not just in the hippocampus, but also the amygdala
Effect of amygdala
- impaired amygdala group showed no memory benefit for the scary picture
- evidence that amygdala activation is important in consolidating emotional memories
Flashbulb memories
refers to a person’s memory for the circumstances surrounding shocking, highly charged events
- refers to memory for the circumstances surrounding how a person heard about an event, not memory for the event itself
- typically occur under highly emotional circumstances
- associated with overt narrative rehearsal
- person typically reports many vivid details long after the event occurred
Constructive nature of memory
what people report as memories are constructed based on what actually happened plus additional factors, such as the person’s knowledge, experiences, and expectations
- remembering something may distort or change the memory based on new information
Overt rehearsal
offers opportunity to include new information with the event, thus leading to decreased accuracy for flashbulb memories
- expectations and outside knowledge about the event may distort or change how the event is remembered
DRM paradigm
a false memory induction
- the constructive nature of memory can lead to false memory
- example from class: people remember “window” because it was semantically related to the other words
Source monitoring errors
the process of determining the origins of our memories, knowledge, or beliefs; so an error is misidentifying the source of a memory
Source monitoring errors
occur when you retrieve information but misremember where the information came from
Jacoby et al. (1989) study
participants tested after a delay were more likely to identify the old non famous names as being famous
- the name is familiar, but the source is no longer attached
Fake news
- source monitoring is harder when there is so much information and so many sources
- the information has become divorced from the source - no longer discredit the bad source of the info
Previous knowledge
previous knowledge affects memory via scripts and schemas
Scripts
our conception of the sequence of actions that usually occurs during a particular experience
Schemas
a person’s knowledge about some aspect of the environment
Eyewitness
eyewitness memory for autobiographical events is a major basis for evidence in the criminal justice system
Loftus and Palmer (1974) study
- participants watched a video of a car crash and asked to report how fast the cars were going
- the key manipulation is they were asked how fast the cars were going when they [insert verb here] each other
- participants in the “smashed” condition estimated higher speeds and more likely to report broken glass –> misleading post-event information: autobiographical memory was reshaped by the way the question was framed
Lindsay (1970) study
regarding flaws in eyewitness testimony:
- misleading post-event information is more likely to affect memory when it is closer to the actual memory
- source monitoring error
Reasons for poor eyewitness
- perception and attention
- familiarity
- suggestion
Perception and attention in eyewitness
- people can’t remember an event well if the event is not perceived
- weapons focus: when witnessing a crime that includes a weapon, participants are less likely to remember information about the perpetrator
- effect increases if the weapon is used
Familiarity in eyewitness
- participants misidentified an innocent bystander as the perpetrator because he was familiar
- source monitoring?
Suggestion in eyewitness
Improvements for eyewitness testimony
- inform the witness that the perpetrator may not be in the lineup
- use fillers that look similar to the actual suspect
- use a blind lineup administrator who does not know who is the suspect
- have witnesses rate their confidence immediately
Everyday memory conclusions
- distinctiveness and emotion can make autobiographical memories more memorable
- autobiographical memory goes awry in predictable, systematic ways –> we construct and reconstruct the memories we retrieve; the source and the information can become divorced; we fill in the gaps with what we expect from scripts and schemas
- memory faults are typically harmless, but important to know memory is limited in situations where precise accuracy matters
Artificial concepts
- can be defined in terms of a rule
- difference between necessary and sufficient conditions
Learning artificial concepts
learn artificial categories via two theories: incremental learning theory and hypothesis testing
Learning theory
- you incrementally get better at classification
- for every stimulus and category you increase association when correct, and decrease association when incorrect
Hypothesis testing
basic idea: you will always be no better than guessing, until you hit the right hypothesis
- pick a random hypothesis, and test it
- stick with it, until you are correct: if incorrect, go back to 1
specifics:
- only works for a narrow class of concepts
- more recent, complex, models can handle more complex data
- lesson: for artificial concepts, people use hypothesis testing
Artificial categories summary
- features well-defined
- no within-category variability
- categorization follows a rule
Posner & Keele experiment
Natural categories
- hard to enumerate all features
- some examples are better category members
- family resemblance (definitions do not include all members, allows for variation within category)
Typicality
variations within categories
Three different ways to determine typicality
Prototype view
membership in a category is determined by comparing the object to a prototype that represents the category
Evidence of prototype view
Issues with prototype view
- people are sometimes sensitive to the specifics of particular instances
- people are sensitive to the variability of instances
Exemplar view
- each exemplar is stored or forgotten
- when a new case comes in, compare it to the stored examples
Concepts in networks
- computational models of distributed processing
- neural and behavioral evidence
Connectionist networks
an approach to creating computer models for representing cognitive processes
Rogers & McClelland network model of semantic organization
Learning in the R&M model
Similarity measures and concept space
Embodied cognition
states that our knowledge of concepts is based on reactivation of sensory and motor processes that occur when we interact with the object
Hauk et al. neuroimaging study
Tucker and Ellis behavioral study
Podric et al. TMS study
Problem solving
Trial-and-error
Thorndike
Animal studies
Law of effect
Limitations of trial and error
Insight
any sudden comprehension, realization, or problem solution that involves a reorganization of a person’s mental representation of a stimulus, situation, or event to yield an interpretation that was not initially obvious
Sudden solution
Restructuring
Suppressing irrelevant information
Kounios neuroimaging study
Functional fixedness
focuses on familiar functions or uses of an object
Algorithms
Problem space theory
Tower of Hanoi
Full planning
Heuristics
Repeat state avoidance
Difference reduction
Means end analysis
Interim conclusions
Means end analysis in Tower of Hanoi
reduce the difference between the initial and goal states, which is achieved by creating subgoals
Subgoal pseudoreward MRI study
Analogies
Structure mapping
Atom discovery example
Alignment of differences
Analogy use in the lab
Structural vs. surface similarity
Water jug study
Expertise
Creativity
Smith et al. drawing study
Beaty et al. MRI study on suppressing primed concepts
Finke’s preinventive forms
The “generation effect” refers to…
the memory benefit of generating information rather than simply observing it
Elaborative rehearsal of a word will least likely be accomplished by…
repeating it over and over again
According to the levels of processing theory, memory durability depends on the depth at which information is…
encoded
The principle of _______ states that we encode information along with its context
encoding specificity
Examples from your book describing real experiences of how memories, even ones from a long time ago, can be stimulated by locations, songs, and smells, highlight the importance of _______ in LTM
retrieval cues
