Memory

Question 1

Three stages of memory

Answer 1

Encoding - transferring external stimulus to internal representation.

Storage - short term/long term, not all memories make it to long term.

Retrieval - reaccesssing stored memories.

Question 2

Implict memory

Answer 2

AKA Procedural
Unconscious
Things we automatically remember how to do
Examples: how to walk, how to ride a bike…

Question 3

Explicit memory

Answer 3

AKA Declarative
Conscious
Memory of specific events or facts we have learned
E.g. a walk you went on, your last lecture…

Question 4

Rovee-Collier (1980) - mobile reinforcement paradigm

Answer 4

Ribbon attached to babies foot
Quickly understood moving foot makes mobile move
Remove mobile and ribbon
Attach child’s foot again after a delay
Did kicking rate increase from baseline (remember)

6-7mo tested 1, 7, 14 or 21 days after training
If same mobile used remembered 14 days later
Did not transfer to different mobiles

Question 5

Memory capacity

Answer 5

Amount we can process in working memory.

Greater working memory capacity means more can be stored in STM and more encoded in LTM.

Question 6

How to measure memory capacity

Answer 6

Digit span: how many numbers can you recall in a sequence.

Serial recall: how many unrelated words that can be remembered in a sequence.

Question 7

Capacity increase with age

Answer 7

McCormack, Brown, Vouseden (2000)

• Letter recall improves with age.
• Debate whether due to increased capacity or processing speed.

Some studies suggest because children get quicker at naming things they can fit more into their phonological loop (Croker, 2012).

Question 8

Wilson, Scott & Power (1987) - Visuo Spatial Task

Answer 8

5, 7, 11yo + adults

Shown set of blocks and asked which block was missing.

Difference in length of pause between seeing pattern and identifying block.

Condition 1: 2 second pause, no distractions
Condition 2: 10 second pause, no distractions
Condition 3: 10 second pause, counting task distraction

RESULTS:
Argue children reached adult levels of visuo-spatial memory by 11 as they performed equally to adults at this age.

Question 9

Memory strategies - organisation - chunking

Answer 9

Chunking - digit span of 7 but if we chunk into larger numbers we remember more.

Question 10

Sodian (1986) - Organisation

Answer 10

4 and 6yo play with different toys

Told to either:
Play and remember toys
Sort into categories and remember toys

After 2 minutes the toys were hidden and either:
Free recall: asked to remember all the toys they could
Cued recall: Doll asked them to remember all blue toys

RESULTS:
4yo remembered more when asked to sort them.
6yo remembered just as well in playing or sorting.
Older children using organisation without prompts.
6yo could have been using another strategy altogether

Question 11

Schneider (1986) - organisation

Answer 11

7 and 10yo given black and white drawings to remember.

Drawings different in relation to a category (furniture):
Very related: chair, table, desk, sofa
Less related: fridge, stool, bookcase, stove

Results:
7yo
Used chunking when objects were very related
Very few sorted at all: 10%

10yo
Used chunking in both conditions equally
60% used chunking overall

Question 12

Rehearsal - memory strategies

Answer 12

Consciously repeating information over and over again to remember it.

Question 13

Flabell et al. (1966) - rehearsal

Answer 13

5, 7 and 10yo given paintings of objects to remember.

Experimenter pointed at paintings in order.

Child asked to point in same order immediately after or 15 secs later.

Experimenter taught to read lips to see sub-vocalisation

RESULTS:
Use of subvocal rehearsal:
10% - 5yo
60% - 7yo
85% - 10yo 

7yo who used rehearsal had better immediate and delayed recall than those who didn’t.

Question 14

Ornstein et al. (1975) - rehearsal

Answer 14

8, 11 and 13yo shown items.

Two conditions:
Rehearse out loud
Try and remember as many words as possible

Immediate recall (no delay).

Older children rehearsed more words at a time (4, 4.5) than younger (2.5) so recall was better.

Question 15

Naus (1977) - can children be taught rehearsal?

Answer 15

9 and 12yo

Two conditions:
Rehearse as normal
Rehearse most recent plus two others (teaching to rehearse multiple items at once)

RESULTS:
12yo:
No difference between groups
Spontaneously rehearse more than 3 items

9yo:
Better once told how to rehearse effectively

Question 16

Limitations to study of memory strategies

Answer 16

Use of rehearsal and organisation increases with age but:

Only looking at short term memory

Possible long term memory strategy:
Elaboration (linking thngs together to remember them).

Question 17

Why don’t young children use strategies

Answer 17

Mediation deficiency:
Don’t have the ability to use them
Strategies beyond their capabilities

Production deficiency:
Just don’t automatically use them
If taught, they are capable of using them effectively

Utilisation deficiency:
Younger children can use strategies but they don’t aid memory

Question 18

Infantile amnesia definition

Answer 18

Lack of enduring autobiographical memories from before 3yo

Question 19

Causes of infantile amnesia

Answer 19

Freud:
Repression of traumatic events.

Development of language:
Change in way memories are stored and retrieved.
Preverbal memories not accessible with new processes

Development of self:
Become able to organise autobiographical memories in reference to self.

Encoding failure:
Too poorly encoded to be maintained
Memory system to immature to support retention

Question 20

Bauer and Mandler (1989) - infant amnesia

Answer 20

21mo shown three event sequences:
Familiar
Novel causal - each step linked to next one
Novel arbitrary - no cause or order between steps

Children showed immediate recall and delayed (6 weeks) recall for objects and order of events in familiar and novel causal only.

Question 21

Replication (younger sample) of Bauer & Mandler (1989) - infant amnesia

Answer 21

16mo and 20mo (within infant amnesia timeframe).

Less delay - immediate and 2 weeks.

20mo could remember actions and order beter
Novel-causal remembered the best
Immediate and delayed recall for familiar
Delayed recall for novel only for 20mo

Only verbal recall was used,

Question 22

Simcock & Haynes (2002) - infant amnesia - non verbal recall

Answer 22

27, 33 and 39mo engaged in novel event at their house

Tested for memory after 6m and 1y on verbal recall, photographic recall and re-eneactment.

RESULTS:
Age increases = better recall at 6m and 1y
Verbal recall lower for all ages
Shows that children do have autobiographical memories when not using verbal recall.

Should be noted:
Amnesia said to be 2-3yo so these children could be past it.

Also cues (photos) may have caused better recall and not the nonverbal nature of the task.

Children only used vocab they had at the time which shows that encoding is stuck at the time of the event.

Question 23

Peterson & Rideout (1998) - infantile amnesia - injury

Answer 23

Compared preverbal (<25mo) and verbal (26-34mo) memories of serious injury.

Interviewed them 6 months after injury.

RESULTS:
Children who were preverbal at time provided less details even though they are verbal now.

Used statistics to control for age at time of interview and found that older children at time of injury still recalled more.

Question 24

Howe & Courage (1993) - infantile amnesia - development of self

Answer 24

Development of self:

Signifies ability to create autobiographical memories.

Previously memories coded as general learning experience and not associated with ‘me’.

Significant development of self between 18-24mo which is similar to the time when infantile amnesia ends

Question 25

Yes - Infantile Amnesia exists

Answer 25

Bjorklund (1992): often our earliest memries are things that happened to others or that others have repeated to us.

Simcock & Hayne (2002): memories prelanguage are stored in different ways to postlanguage and can only be retrieved nonverbally.

Peterson & Rideout (1998): controlling for age, verbal children remember more than preverbal at time of injury.

Fivush & Hammond (1990): young children’s memories don’t have distinct enough cues, babies haven’t learnt framework for recounting stories and events so they focus on routine and novel characteristics.

Question 26

No - Infantile Amnesia doesn’t exist

Answer 26

Rovee-Collier & Bauer:
Children are ableto remember things prior to 3yo
Implicit memories are more robust with age

Bauer:
Not a separate phenomenon
Babies are just bad at encoding and consolidation
They have autobiographical memories but can’t measure them.

Question 27

Methodological issues with infantile amnesia studies

Answer 27

Disagreement with what constitutes as an early memory.

Ask to recall significant events in early years but what is ‘significant’

Asking for a verbal account: age differences may just reflect language difficulties as it is unlikely to be a verbal event recalled.