Memory Flashcards
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Famous experiment using nonsense syllables (ex. QAS or CEG) to study memory; used himself as subject
Method of savings
Ebbinghaus compared the number of times he had to read the list of nonsense syllables in order to REmemorize it (after distracting himself with memorizing other lists).
Able to rememorize faster than originally memorizing, concluded he’d remembered something
Amount of savings
quantified savings by subtracting the number of trials it took to rememorize the list from the number of times it took to originally memorize the list, divided this number by the original number of trials and multiplied by 100 to find percent remembered (“amount of savings”)
Forgetting curve
Ebbinghaus used method of savings over various time intervals; X-axis portrayed days between original learning and relearning and Y-axis portrayed percent savings
Decreases very quickly over first 5 days, then forgetting occurs at a much lesser rate
Mental Processes of Memory
Encoding: putting information into memory
Storage: retaining information in memory
Retrieval: recovering the information in memory
Methods of Retrieval
Recall: reproducing information you have previously been exposed to (ex. short-answer/fill-in-the-blank)
Recognition: realizing that a certain stimulus event is one you’ve seen/heard before (ex. multiple-choice)
Generation-recognition Model
An attempt to explain why you can usually recognize more than you can recall; model suggests that recall involves the same mental process involved in recognition, plus an additional process (generating information, in addition to then recognizing correct information)
Order effects
Affect effectiveness of memory
Recency effect: words presented at the end of a list are remembered best
Primacy effect: words presented at the beginning of a list are remembered second-best
Clustering: tend to recall words belonging to same category (when asked to recall a list of words)
Stage Theory of Memory (WILL LIKELY APPEAR ON EXAM)
Very influential theory in cog psych; holds that there are three different memory systems and that each system has a different function: sensory memory, STM (working memory), LTM
Sensory memory
fleeting impressions of sensory stimuli; lasts a few seconds at most
Visual memory
Also called “iconic memory”
Auditory memory
“echoic memory”
Whole-report procedure
Early method used to study sensory memory retention; subjects looked for a fraction of a second at a visual display of nine items, then asked to recall as many of the items as possible; on average, subjects could recall 4 out of the 9 items; concluded that 4 items was the limit of sensory memory (has been disputed by George Sperling)
George Sperling
Suspected whole-report procedure might not be accurate indication of sensory memory capacity; devised partial-report procedure
Partial-report procedure
Used same 3x3 matrix of letters and flashed the array for a fraction of a second like earlier researchers; however, asked subjects to report only one row of the array
Regardless of which row was asked to recall, subjects’ recall was nearly perfect (without knowing beforehand which row they’d have to recall); concluded sensory memory capacity was about 9 items
Suggests that the issue with the whole-report procedure was memory decay over time
Working Memory (STM)
items that you retain from sensory memory; if not retained by transferring to LTM or maintaining in STM through maintenance rehearsal, lasts about 20 seconds
George Miller
Found that STM capacity is about 7 +/-2 chunks of information
(chunks: “meaningful units” of information)
LTM
can be considered “permanent” storage of experiences, knowledge, and skills
Elaborative rehearsal
One way to get information into LTM
Involves organizing material and associating with with information you already have in LTM
Types of Rehearsal
Maintenance: repeating information (STM)
Elaborative: organizing the info and associating it with info already in LTM (LTM)
Two types of LTM
Procedural: remembering how to do things
Declarative: remembering explicit information
Two Types of Declarative Memory
Semantic: general knowledge (word meanings, concepts)
Episodic: particular events you personally experienced
Encoding for verbal material
STM: phonological (acoustic; remember based on how they sound)
LTM: items tend to be encoded on basis of meaning (supported by semantic priming)
Semantic Priming
subject has to decide whether a stimulus is a word or nonword, words are presented in pairs either semantically related (nurse, doctor) or not semantically related (nurse, butter).
Subject asked to press “yes” or “no” button if both words were real or not real
Response was quicker if two were semantically related
Semantic memory
LTM: General knowledge (word meanings, concepts)
Semantic Verification Task
Used to investigate how semantic memory is organized
Subjects asked to indicate whether or not a simple statement is true or false; measure response latency (time it takes for S to respond)
Collins and Loftus, 1975, Spreading Activation Model
The shorter the distance between to words (in the model), the closer the words are related in the semantic memory; subjects will respond to questions about related words more quickly than questions about words that are more separated (by meaning and distance in model)
Semantic feature-comparison model (Smith, Shoben, & Rips), early 1970s
Suggests that concepts are represented by sets of features, some of which are required for that concept, and some of which are typical of that concept; the amount of overlap affects time it takes to reach a decision (when using semantic verification task)
Levels-of-processing theory (Craik & Lockart)
most influential competing theory (challenging stage theory of memory); suggests that what determinds how long you remember material is not what system it gets into but the way in which you process the material
Memory is analyzed in stages but not organized into memory “systems”; only one system
Three levels in which information can be processed (according to levels-of-processing theory)
Physical (visual; focus on appearance, size, shape of information)
Acoustical (sound combinations of words)
Semantic (meaning of the word)
Each way demands increasing level of effort (little for physical, most for semantic); the deeper the processing & greater the effort –> better your memory is of the material
Deeper processing includes connecting the information with other information in memory
Paivio’s Dual-Code Hypothesis
Information can be stored (encoded) in two ways:
visually & verbally
Abstract information: verbally (“virtue”)
Concrete information: visually and verbally (“elephant”)
Schema (plural: schemata)
conceptual frameworks used to organize knowledge
Encoding new information/experiences into existing schemata can distort memory
Difficulty matching new info/experience into a schema –> difficulty remembering it
Decay theory
holds that if information in LTM is not used or rehearsed, it will eventually be forgotten
Problem: assumes that what you’ve learned in the time that elapses between memory and attempted retrieval makes no difference, however, it’s been shown that it doesmatter
Inhibition theory
suggests that forgetting is directly due to the activities that have taken place between learning and later attempted retrieval
Two types of inhibition (according to inhibition theory)
Retroactive: occurs when you forget what you learned earlier as you learn something new (ex. learning lines to new play; forget lines from previous play)
Proactive: what you learned earlier interferes with what you learn later (ex. learning a third language)
Encoding specificity
the assumption that recall will be best if the context at recall approximates the context during which original encoding took place
State-dependent learning
recall is better if your physiological and psychological state at the time of recall is the same as when learning/encoding the material
Mnemonic devices
any technique that we use to improve the likelihood of remembering something
Chunking
mnemonic device
Method of Loci
System of associating information with some sequence of places with which you are familiar
Sir Frederick Bartlett, Reconstructive Memory
Conducted classic study using “War of the Ghosts” (a Native American folk tale); subjects reconstructed the story in line with their own expectations and schema for a ghost story
Concluded that prior knowledge and expectations influence recall
Elizabeth Loftus
Studied eyewitness memories & tendency for them to be influenced or confused by misleading information
Found eyewitness memory (and testimony) can be erroneous for a myriad of reasons
Zeigarnik Effect
Tendency to remember incomplete tasks better than completed tasks (easier to remember the chores that you have not completed than the chores you HAVE completed)
