memory Flashcards
what factors influence remembering?
study phase, test phase.
levels of processing theory (craik and lockhart)?
assumes that the attentional and perceptual processes operating at the time of learning determine what information is stored in LTM. deeper levels of analysis produce more elaborate, longer lasting and stronger memory traces than do shallow levels of analysis.
3 study tasks (craik and lockhard)?
(1) structural e.g. is the word in block capitals? (2) acoustic e.g. does the word rhyme with ‘cat’? (3) semantic e.g. does the word fit the sentence ‘the cat sat on the line.
findings of 3 study tasks?
these findings suggest that the quality (rather than quantity) of processing is most important for memory.
hyde and jenkins?
compared intentional and incidental learning.
1) rate the word on a ‘pleasantness’ scale. 2) rate how frequent the word is in english. 3) search the word for the letter’s ‘e’ and ‘g’. 4) say which part of speech the word is from. 5) say whether the word fits a given sentence.
any data can be consistent with a ‘depth of processing’ account of memory processing. the theory is descriptive rather than predictive. depth-of-processing is not the only factor that influences encoding. elaboration and distinctiveness are also thought to be important.
craik and tulving?
manipulated elaboration at encoding. at test, recall was twice as good for the words presented with complex sentences. FLASHBULB MEMORIES. vivid and detailed memory of a distinctive event. but people typically remember the ‘reception event’ rather than event itself. debate exists as to whether flashbulb memories are really different from memories for other events. brown & kulik (1982) suggest that there is a special neural mechanism triggered by events that are emotional, surprising, and highly important or ‘consequential’. mccloskey et al., (1988) investigated forgetting rates. however, no attempt was made to assess the emotional impact of the event. neisser (1982) argues that the durability of ‘flashbulb’ memories results from little more than frequent rehearsal.
what other factors influence remembering?
remember, information needs to be available (i.e., encoded) and accessible (i.e., retrievable). what about effects at retrieval? different retrieval tasks produce different levels of memory performance. but the pattern of performance is complex. recognition failure for recallable words.
both encoding and retrieval are important. memory is dependent on an interplay between the processing that occurs at encoding and retrieval.
encoding specificity theory (tulving & thompson)?
assumes that the most effective ‘retrieval pathways’ are those that ‘re-instate’ processing that occurred when the to-be-remembered information was originally encoded. the degree of ‘overlap’ in the conditions at encoding and retrieval is critical for memory.
context effects (fisher and craik)?
subjects studied a series of word-pairs, with two ‘associative encoding’ tasks, emphasising either meaning (‘CAT-DOG’) or sound (‘CAT-HAT’). two ‘associative retrieval’ tasks: 1) Recall a studied word associated with ‘CAT’? 2) Recall a studied word sounding like ‘CAT’? nothing is encoded or retrieved in isolation, information is always encoded within a ‘context’.
multiple interacting factors contribute to memory performance. expand?
levels-of-processing, elaboration and distinctiveness demonstrate the importance of the organisation of material and processing occurring at time of learning. task differences, internal and external context effects demonstrate the importance of retrieval cues and the retrieval environment. the factors that influence remembering are not specific to any particular type of memory. the theory of ‘encoding specificity’ applies equally well to episodic, semantic, and procedural memory. implications for studies of everyday memory and eyewitness memory.
recognition recall?
despite some attempts to test ‘real-world’ memory, the majority of psychological investigations use simple ‘experimental’ tasks to assess memory, such as recognition and recall: recognition study phase and recognition test phase.
memory is not unitary. expand?
it is possible to distinguish between different processes that support memory. to be remembered, information needs to be available (must have been successfully encoded) and accessible (must be retrievable). as well as distinguishing between memory processes, it is important to distinguish between different memory systems.
behavioural evidence?
this pattern of memory performance suggests a dissociation between short-term and long-term memory. strongest evidence for a distinction between different types of memory comes from patients with selective brain damage. korsakoff’s patients - extremely poor LTM but virtually normal STM (baddeley & warrington, 1970). opposite pattern much rarer. KF (shallice & warrington, 1970) no problem with LT learning and recall but digit span grossly impaired.
tulving’s distinguishing between 3 types of memory?
episodic: memory for specific events e.g., cognition exam. semantic: knowledge and facts e.g., paris is the capital of france. procedural: Memory for skills and actions e.g., typing or riding a bike.
even tulving (1984) says that episodic memory may be embedded within semantic memory.
amnesia?
retrograde amnesia: cannot remember events prior to brain damage. brain damage occurs. anterograde amnesia: cannot later remember events that occur after brain damage.
vargha-khadem et al., science (1997) studied three amnesic children who exhibit disabling memory problems in their every-day lives. beth: birth: perinatal anoxic episode, seizures jon: age 4: seizures kate: age 9: drug overdose, inducing seizures.
