LONG-TERM MEMORY 2 Flashcards
RECONSTRUCTIVE MEMORY
= allows incorrect/bias information to be incorporated
= Schema Theory [Bartlett, 1932; Schank, 1975]
GENERATION-RECOGNITION MODELS [Anderson and Bower, 1972; Kintch, 1970]
Two stages:
- Generation = finds candidates for memory being accessed
- Recognition = results in the candidates memory being retrieved
= Predicts FREE RECALL produces poorer retrieval than cued recall and is inferior to recognition
= Predicts WORD FREQUENCY EFFECT (e.g. high frequency table/dog easier to recall than low frequency words, e.g. barge/pine)
ENCODING SPECIFICITY PRINCIPLE [Tulving and Thompson, 1973] - PAL test
PHASE 1 = Paired associate learning task
= Ppts presented with a target word along with a cue word
= Target and cue word not closely related
= Asked to attend to words but not to remember
PHASE 2 = Given list of words (e.g. steam) and asked to generate
associated words
= Phase 2 words were likely to generate previously shown
target words
PHASE 3 = Ppts re-shown the words they generated in phase 2 and
asked if these were the target words from phase 1
(recognition)
PHASE 4 = Ppts given the original low-value cue words and asked to
recall target items paired in phase 1 (cued-recall)
ENCODING SPECIFICITY PRINCIPLE [Tulving and Thompson, 1973] - PAL test 2
= Found recognition failure (phase 3) for words that were successfully recalled (phase 4)
= Phase 1 resulted in the encoding of the target word which emphasised its featural overlap with the weak associative cue
= When Recognition was tested in phase 3, the target was present in a retrieval environment specifying a different pattern of featural overlap to that encoded during learning (I.e. one emphasising the targets reactions to a strong association)
= The result was that insufficient overlap existed for successful recognition to occur
= Recall and recognition were thus independent of one another because they had differing featural overlap with the target as it was encoded
= Recall and recognition are different manifestations of a single retrieval system
= Successful retrieval depends on degree of overlap between features encoded in the memory trace and features present in the retrieval environment
= ESP accounts for superiority of strong associates (e.g. table and chair) as a retrieval cue over weak associates (e.g. table and vase)
= ESP can also account for the recall, cued recall and recognition
CONSOLIDATION
= A DISTINCT PROCESS THAT SERVES TO MAINTAIN, STRENGTHEN AND MODIFY MEMORIES THAT ARE ALREADY STORED IN THE LONG-TERM MEMORY
= Once memories undergo the process of consolidation and become part of the LTM, they are thought of as stable
= Hippocampus is thought to play a vital role in the consolidation of memories [McKenzie and Eichenbaum, 2001]
SUPPORT FOR CONSOLIDATION
= Learning curve
= Retrograde amnesia - according to the consolidation theory, patients with damage to the hippocampus should show greatest forgetting memories shortly before the amnesia onset and least for more distant memories
= ‘Blackouts’ due to alcohol
= New memories susceptible to retroactive interference
= Evidence that consolidation processes during sleep can enhance LTM
RECONSOLIDATION
= HARDT ET AL [2010] - argue reactivation of a memory trace (previously consolidated) places that memory back into a ‘fragile’ state
= Reconsolidation may allow an old memory to be updated and altered when previous learning becomes irrelevant
= However, it may also cause us to misremember [LOFTUS, 1975] or introduce new content including bias, as the newly formed memory because it becomes vulnerable to newly co-activated information/misinformation
FORGETTING
ENCODING FAILURE:
- Reflects forgetting due to a failure in the consolidation
process; information simply fails to enter the LTM in the first place
STORAGE FAILURE:
- Information (once consolidated) may be vulnerable to the effects of
information already in memory or new information entering memory
- E.g. proactive and retroactive interference
RETRIEVAL FAILURE
SUMMARY
= remembering is a reconstructive process
= access and internal storage governed by association (Hebb, 1949)
