memory - using it not losing it Flashcards
1
Q
memory cue
A
- Free recall of a list of 40 words was better when the environment (context) matched, whether underwater or on land
2
Q
What is transfer-appropriate processing and how did Morris et al (1977) demonstrate it?:
A
- Words were encoded using ‘deep’ vs ‘shallow’ study tasks
- When asked if items were old or new, people remembered semantically encoded ones best (generated to fit sentences)
- When cued with rhyming items, people remembered rhyme encoded ones best (generated to make rhymes)
3
Q
What is an episodic memory made of?:
A
- Contextual information - time + location, what we were thinking
- Relations (associations) of details - people + time + location
- A one-shot memory
- Details about an event e.g., who was there
- When these details come to mind we often have a sense of “reliving the past” = recollection (Tulving, 1983)
- Reinstating part of a memory can help bring back the rest = contextual cuing/contextual reinstatement
4
Q
recall bs recognition tests
A
- free recall (minimum cue)
- cued recall (cue is more informative)
- recognition
5
Q
memory cues
A
- Location can be a powerful contextual memory cue
6
Q
Smith and Manzano (2010):
A
- Written free recall of words improved by reinstating images from scene videos at test
- Scene cues more effective when each video context was studied with fewer words
- Cues better when more diagnostic
7
Q
how do cues work?
A
- Content addressable memory – find by knowing content. Contrast with address addressable, e.g. where people live
- Global matching models: retrieval reflects the match between a cue and all stored memory traces (Clark & Gronlund, 1996)
- Complementary learning systems model: episodic memory representations stored in cortex, partial cue triggers pattern completion by the hippocampus McLelland et al., 1995)
8
Q
encoding and retrieval
A
- Context is incorporated in the memory trace
- Cueing with context helps retrieve that memory
- A cue should match – its processing overlap with – what was encoded
- E.g. if you know your memory cue will be a photo of a location, you might encode that context better
- Encoding and retrieval are interdependent!
- Morris et al.’s (1977) Transfer-Appropriate Processing principle and Tulving & Thomson (1973) Encoding Specificity Principle [treat them as the same for this course]
9
Q
Was your memory worse during lockdown?:
A
- Celia Harris argues that when events in our lives become similar to each other as during lockdown, it’s more difficult to find distinctive (diagnostic) cues to retrieve individual events
10
Q
Episodic reinstatement:
A
- How does the brain allow us to ‘relive the past’?
- Memory traces are stored using some of the same neural representations that allow us to experience the events
- If a partial cue overlaps with a memory trace it triggers recollection, and this reinstates the rest of the memory trace
- This reinstatement can be shown with fMRI by looking for reactivation of neural patterns of experimental ‘events’
- Polyn et al. (2005) measured fMRI brain activity patterns when people studied and recalled faces, locations and objects
- Machine-learning algorithms were trained to discriminate neural patterns during study
- Then during recall the same algorithms could ‘read out’ (decode) what (which category) people were recalling
- Neural reinstatement of memory contents thought to be how we ‘relive the past’ during recollection
11
Q
Episodic encoding:
A
- Events engage multiple areas of the cortex
- Prefrontal cortex is involved strategically to organise information
- Memories are encoded as a ‘byproduct’ of event processing
- Hippocampus binds multi-element memory traces
12
Q
Episodic retrieval:
A
- Episodic retrieval is triggered by a cue
- The hippocampus initiates recollection in response to the cue
- Then, the original cortical activity is reinstated
- Prefrontal cortex is involved strategically to organise and monitor
13
Q
self-cuing
A
- Polyn et al (2005) brain activity patterns during recall
- reinstatement started about 5 sec before recall
- preliminary evidence that mental reinstatement actually triggers recall
14
Q
Episodic reinstatement:
A
- Different types of events have unique patterns of brain activity which get sorted in memory traces
- When a cue triggers completion, reinstatement of these patterns is though to support recall
- A memory cue can be external e.g., a smell, a photo
- Or cue can be internal - deliberate mental reinstatement may also trigger pattern completion
- Application - the cognitive interview for eyewitnesses.
15
Q
The testing effect:
A
- Roediger and Karpicke (2006, experiment 2)
- memory for ‘idea units’ in prose passages