Lecture 7: Memory Flashcards
What does Gazzaniga describe memory as?
“everything in life is memory, save for the thin edge of the present…”
What does the modal model of memory represent?
The assumptions most researchers hold about the structure of memory and the relationships between sub-components.
What are the key parts of the modal model of memory?
1) Input
2) Sensory Memory (attention)
3) Short term memory (rehearsal+output)
4) Long term memory (Schemata)
Why can we not remember 100 digits of pi?
- There is a constant battle between the past and present at input.
- There are limits to how much information we can retain even with rehearsal.
Why can Clive not remember beyond 7 seconds ago?
Clive cannot generate new long-term memories.
What is visual sensory memory also known as and what is its retention period?
Iconic memory
About 1.5 seconds
What is auditory sensory memory also known as and what is its retention period?
Echoic memory
About 2.5 seconds
What is an advantage of both visual and auditory sensory memory?
They have massive reception capabilities.
What is a disadvantage of both visual and auditory sensory memory?
They have incredibly short retention periods due to constant updating.
What are the minor senses?
Taste
Touch
Smell
What do the minor senses also allow for?
The fleeting retention of unprocessed raw information.
What does the act of attention allow for in sensory memory?
It allows certain information to enter into STM.
What is found only at a sensory memory level?
Anything like raw unprocessed sensory material.
What differentiates sensory memory from STM and LTM?
From STM onwards, ‘we’ play a major role in memory.
What transformation takes place between sensory memory and STM?
Coding takes place in which pictures can transform into words, or words into sound etc, as the output.
What is the type of error in the coding of sensory memory to STM influenced by?
The type of rehearsal.
Visual rehearsal=visual errors
Verbal rehearsal=verbal errors (rhyme)
What does Miller (1956) have to do with STM?
- The size of the STM has a number attributed to it.
- Magic number: 7 (+/-2)
- Controversy surrounds this number and how the unit of STM should be best described.
What is chunking?
(or grouping).
Chunking information together=increase in the amount of information that can be placed within the STM unit.
What is necessary to remember when chunking information and how is this supported?
The chunks have to be meaningful.
- Chase and Simon (1973)
- Expert chess players could remember significantly more board configurations than novices, ONLY when the composition was lawful.
What happens of we neglect to rehearse something?
It will become inaccessible.
What is one principle related to memory loss in STM?
Without rehearsal, memory decays.
What did Ebbinghaus discover about memory loss?
He found that the savings on relearning an original list decreased with time.
- After about 50 hours, memory did not get any worse.
- Therefore memory decays but also leaves some detritus.
What is proactive interference?
Old information getting in the way of new information.
What is interference?
Information interferes with one another if learnt over the same short time period and if it is similar in nature.
What is retroactive interference?
New information getting in the way of old information.
How do decay and interference interact?
More decay allows for more interference in STM.
What is the Primacy Effect?
Improved recall for words at the beginning of a list.
-is thought to be due to words entering LTM.
What is the Recency Effect?
Improved recall for words at the end of a list.
-is thought to be due to words present in STM.
What is sensory memory?
Holds all information for a fraction of a second.
What is short term memory?
Holds about 5-7 items for about 15-30 seconds.
What is rehearsal?
Helps keep the information circulating in short term memory.
What is long term memory?
Holds incredibly large amounts of information for incredibly long period of time and possibly indefinitely.
What is output?
It is from STM alone or from longer-term information placed in STM.
What does interaction have to do with improving memory?
Bower and Winzenz (1970)
-showed that things are better remembered when interactive mental imagery is produced for them.
e.g. cone and pig (ok)
cone near pig (better)
pig wearing cone (best)
What does organisation have to do with improving memory?
Bower (1969)
-showed that items are better remembered when they are structured into meaningful groups or hierarchies.
What does deeper is better have to do with improving memory?
Craik and Lockhart (1972)
-suggest that the more resources employed at encoding, the more likely the material will be remembered at retrieval.
What are three levels of encoding?
Surface (physical)
Intermediate (phonological)
Deep (semantic)
What is maintenance rehearsal?
- Repeating one’s self.
- Unlikely that after output the information the information will be stored in LTM.
What is elaborative rehearsal?
- Meaning-based rehearsal
- e.g. what does it do? what else is it like? what else do I know about this?
- much more likely to get the information into LTM.
What is a second principle related to LTM loss?
The idea that we have not ‘lost’ the information, rather we have lost access to the information.
What are the two types of recall?
1) Free recall: write down as many words as you can.
2) Cued recall: write down as many animals as you can.
What is an example of recognition?
Tell me whether these words are old or new.
What does our environment have to do with memory?
Maintaining external environment at study leads to better recall at test.
What is the encoding specificity principle?
Tulving and Thompson (1973)
- Helps to explain context-dependent (external) and state-dependent (internal) remebering.
- Success at retrieval by reinstating the cuses used at encoding.
- Do what you did at study at test!
What is the transfer appropriate hypothesis?
Jacoby and Dallas (1981)
- A more specific definition of state-dependent remembering.
- Repeating the cognition processes undertaken at encoding at test will help you re-access this information.
What are critical lures?
Things that lure into shaping a memory a certain way.
What is Schemata?
Information is shaped and moulded based on expectations.
What have classic experiments revealed about reconstructing memory?
-revealed severe failures in recognition memory.
-Car example:
change of verb used influences speed judgement.
What can misinformation effects in recognition memory also influence?
- The false recall of other events.
- More likely as a result of schema induced by the misleading information.
What are flashbulb memories?
-thought to be a special class of memory for “shocking, highly charged important events” (Goldstein, 2008, p.243).
What is important to remember about flashbulb memories?
No matter how emotional or detailed the flashbulb memory seems, it is not resistant to decay and so are not better remembered than other events
What could the decaying of flashbulb memories force us to consider?
How reliable are eye-witness reports?
What are the four scenarios when a witness has to identify a perpetrator in a police line-up?
Positive ID+present: Hit (correct ID)
Negative ID+present: Miss (ID failure)
Positive ID+absent: False alarm (incorrect ID)
Negative ID+absent: Correct rejection
What are 8 ways to improve line-up identification?
1) Inform the witness that the perpetrator might not be in the line-up.
2) Fill the rest of the line-up with similar looking non-perpetrators.
3) Line-ups must be done in sequential rather than simultaneous order.
4) Integrate line-up results with cognitive interview.
5) Encourage but do not prompt information from the witness.
6) Caution the witness against guessing.
7) Avoid giving feedback to the witness after the line-up.
8) Establish a rapport with the witness.
How does informing the witness that the perpetrator might not be in the line-up improve line-up identification?
- Witnesses have a bias (increased false alarm) to pick the person closest the the perpetrator.
- Having them absent reduced false alarm identification by 42%.
How does filling the rest of the line-up with similar looking non-perpetrators improve line-up identification?
-Although this may seem counter-intuitive, when the perpetrator is absent this reduced the likelihood of false identification (Lindsey and Wells, 1980).
How does the line-ups being done in sequential rather than simultaneous order improve line-up identification?
- Simultaneous order encourages relative identification as opposed to absolute identification.
- This again leads to reduced false identification.
How does integrating line-up results with cognitive interview improve line-up recognition?
-The cognitive interview in which the witness is encouraged to reinstate context and state, leads to 25-60% more information.
How does encouraging but not prompting information from the witness improve line-up identification?
- Try to avoid leading questions and adjectives that influence the details of the memory (crash, smash, etc,)
- Avoid interruptions.
How does cautioning the witness against guessing improve line-up identification?
- The witness may feel more compelled to do so as a result of the power relation.
- Decreasing the likelihood of a positive ID and reduces false alarms.
How does avoiding giving feedback to the witness after the line-up improve line-up identification?
-Avoid supporting any belief that the witness has an accurate record of the events or the individuals involved.
How does establishing a rapport with the witness improve line-up identification?
Witnesses are more likely to invest time and energy (which could be a lot) if their personal needs are met.
What are the two types of amnesia?
1) Retrograde amnesia
2) Anterograde amnesia
What is retrograde amnesia?
- before the event
- graded
What is anterograde amnesia?
- after the event
- tends not to be graded
What happens to the immediate preceding events after trauma?
They are delicate and subject to disruption.
What happens to events further back in the past after trauma?
They are more likely to have been subjected to long-term potentiation and reactivation.
What is synaptic consolidation?
- New memories begin as fragile.
- As a result of long-term potentiation, neurones sensitive to the incoming stimulus will fire at an increased rate the more the stimulus is repeated.
What is systems consolidation and what plays a special role?
- Further increases the robustness of new memories.
- Initiates slower changes in neural networks.
- Eventually reorganises neural populations.
- The hippocampus.
What does the hippocampus do in systems consolidation?
-reactivates the networks associated with memories such that independent cortical networks are established.
When does reactivation occur in systems consolidation?
-during sleep, relaxation or conscious rehearsal (Peigneux et al., 2004).
What happens when a new memory appears?
There is high activity between the hippocampus and cortical areas.
What happens when an oldish memory appears?
There is moderate activity between the hippocampus and cortical areas.
What happens when an old memory appears?
There is low activity between the hippocampus and cortical areas.
What differentiates sensory memory from short-term memory?
Sensory memory: unfiltered data that lasts for seconds only.
STM: limited capacity store that requires rehearsal.
How can you improve memory performance?
1) Interactive imagery
2) Deep processing.
What decreases memory performance?
1) Decay
2) Interference
3) Context changes.
What does evidence suggest about reconstructing memories?
Memory becomes schematic.
-This is particularly important for eye-witness testimony
