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
16
Q
Testing - a robust, replicable effect:
A
- Large effect with lots of replications
- E.g., Rowland (2014) meta-analysis
- Shown in applied educational settings
- Transfer of learning to other material
- Not just students - generalises to different populations, e.g., older adults (Meyer and Logan, 2013)
17
Q
semantic elaboration
A
- Testing may enrich semantic representations of a memory
- Because when we learn something, additional associations are formed around it, giving alternative retrieval routes
- Study mother-child
- Initial test with cue mother: answer is child
- Later, can use associates of the cue, mother, to retrieve the target
- E.g., father: answer is child - this answer is given more often after the practice test compared to a restudy condition
18
Q
in the brain
A
- Wing et al. (2013) memory encoding during study vs. initial test
- Hippocampus and temporal ‘semantic’ regions - only during testing
- BUT don’t know if semantic processing actually happening
- AND overall activity in these areas greater during restudy…
19
Q
episodic context
A
- When item is studied and later tested, the context is different – not only place but also time, internal state
- Testing updates context representations so memory trace now includes both old and new context
- Larger range of potential cues can now trigger recall, as they may overlap with either old or new context
- Supported by findings that a difficult initial test is better e.g., recall MOTHER–C—- versus MOTHER—CHI–
- …this is because people have to do more mental reinstatement (thinking back to place, time, internal state)
20
Q
memory for video clips tested over 7 days
A
- higher forgetting of peripheral details than central information
- but cues re-triggerd recollection of the peripheral information
- repeated testing also reduced forgetting of peripheral details
21
Q
Testing, memory durability and updating:
A
- The testing effect shows that a memory is updated in some way when it is retrieved
- Therefore, the variables that assist initial encoding (lecture 1) may NOT be the same ones that benefit longer-term learning (more in lecture 4).
- Why not keep memories fixed?
22
Q
Theories of memory durability:
A
- Long debate about why older memories resistant to hippocampus damage in amnesia (e.g., patient H.M.)
- Systems consolidation - memories become independent of the hippocampus with time
- Vs
- Multiple memory traces - updating over time. Hippocampus always involved
- In either case generalised, context-independent (semantic) memories develop over time
- Some episodic memories may become semanticised
23
Q
testing
A
- Strong effect on longer-term retention (Rowland, 2014)
- But no agreement yet on its cognitive and neural mechanisms
- In some sense both theories view effects of testing as memory generalisation
- Related to encoding specificity/transfer-appropriate processing because memory updating impacts the kinds of cues that are effective
- These are very important practical implications of the testing effect for ‘real-world’ learning.
24
Q
how not to forget
A
- Use the right cue
- Rehearse by testing yourself these give us control
- Interference between similar memories - important, and probably reduced by testing
- Some decay with time - not really passive