Week 3 Lecture 3 - retrieval Flashcards
What are most memory failures due to?
failure of retrieval
What are tip of the tongue states?
knowing a response but being unable to produce it
What is retrieval?
A progression from one or more retrieval cues to a target memory trace through associative connections
What is the aim of retrieval?
to make the target available
What is a target memory trace?
the particular memory we are searching for
what are retrieval cues?
bits of information about the target that guide the search
What are associations?
bonds that slink together items in memory
vary in strength
What is spreading activation?
the automatic transmission of energy from one memory to related items via associations
Is spreading activation proprtional?
yes it is proportional to the strength of connections
What is the activation level?
the internal state of a memory, reflecting its level of excitement
determines the accessibility of the item
When is activation level increased?
- when something related to the memory is encountered
- persists for some time
What is pattern completion?
process by which spreading activation from a set of cues leads to reinstatement of a memory
What is pattern completion regarded as?
a hippocampal mechanism
What 7 factors determine retrieval success?
- attention to cues
- relevance of cues
- cue target strength
- number of cues
- target strength
- retrieval strategy
- retrieval mode
What is attention to cues?
reduced attention to a cue impairs ability to guide retrieval
What is relevance of cues?
Retrieval cues are most effective when they are strongly related to the target (e.g., were present at encoding)
What is cue-target associative strength?
Retrieval success depends on the strength of cue-target association
What is number of cues?
Access to additional, relevant cues facilitates retrieval (such as elaborative encoding
What is strength of target memory?
Weakly encoded targets are more difficult to retrieve
What is retrieval strategy?
Retrieval success is increased by:
-The organization of materials at encoding
-Adopting efficient strategies of memory search
What is retrieval mode?
Frame of mind allows interpreting environmental stimuli as episodic memory cues to guide subsequent retrieval
What are direct/explicit memory tasks?
- ask people to recall particular experience
- require a contextual cue
- reveal impaired performance in amnesiacs
- rely on hippocampus
What are indirect/implicit memory tests?
- measure unconscious influence of experience without asking ppts to recall past
- priming
- reveal normal performance in amnesiacs
What is priming?
recent experience with the stimulus improves performance
What are contextual cues?
specify conditions under which a stimulus was encoded
What are contextual cues?
specify conditions under which a stimulus was encoded
What are 4 types of contextual cues?
- spatio-temporal/ env. (location)
- mood
-physiological (physical state) - cognitive (collection of concepts one has thought about the event)
What are 4 types of explicit retrieval tasks?
- free recall
- cued recall
- yes/ no recognition
- forced-choice recognition
What are 3 types of implicit retrieval tasks?
- stem completion
- fragment completion
- conceptual fluency
What is context dependent memory?
context reinstates original encoding environment and facilitates retrieval
What is the principle of encoding specificity?
we encode information along with its context
What is an example of a study on context dependent memory? What did they find?
Godden and Baddley - scuba diving study
Material is recalled best in the environment it was learned
What did a study on noise context and memory find?
Participants did better when the testing condition matched the study condition
What is state dependent memory?
like context dependent memory but relating to state/ environment (internal)
Recall depends on the match between the participants’ internal environment (i.e. physiological state) at encoding and retrieval
Recall is best if encoding and retrieval both occur when:
Drunk (Goodwin et al)
Under the influence of marijuana or caffeine (Eich)
Under the influence of exercising or at rest (Miles & Hardman)
When does state dependency disappear?
under recognition tests
What is mood dependent memory?
- about the person/person match
- recall is dependent on the match in mood states between encoding and retrieval
What is mood congruent memory?
- about the person/item match
- it is easier to recall events that have an emotional tone that matches the current mood of the person
What is a study on mood-dependent memory?
Task:
- Encoding: pleasant or unpleasant mood
- Test: two days later, same or opposite mood prior to recall
Results:
- Free recall was vastly improved when mood states matched.
True or false
a study found that memories are easier to access when retrieval takes place in the same language mode as they were encoded?
true
are retrieved memories entirely intact?
no
do we “figure out” some aspects of recalled experience?
yes
What is recognition memeory?
- decide whether something has been encountered before
- present stimulus, unlike in recall
- discriminate between old and new stimuli
What is signal detection theory?
- used to understand and explore recognition memory decisions
What auditory task is used in signal detection theory?
Detect a tone (signal) presented against background noise
Hard or easy to detect.
memory traces have strength values. What do these dictate?
how ”familiar” a stimulus feels
Memory traces vary in familiarity. What is this based on?
attention at encoding and repetitions
Memory traces vary in familiarity. What is this based on?
attention at encoding and repetitions
In SDT:
New items are less familiar than old items. But distractors can be quite familiar e.g., they appear often or are similar to old items
Therefore, what can happen?
the two distributions can overlap
In SDT what is response criterion?
Items that surpass this are judged old. Can be more liberal or strict
What can SDT not correctly account for?
Word frequency effect
SDT incorrectly predicts low-frequency words should be less familiar
What is the word frequency effect?
Low frequency words are better recognised
What is Dual-process theory?
recognition memory is based on 2 types of memory/processes
- familiarity
- recollection
What is familiarity in dual-process theory?
- A sense of memory without being able to remember contextual information
- Described by signal detection
- Faster and more automatic
What is recollection in dual-process theory?
- Retrieving contextual details about a stimulus -like cued recall
- Slower and more attention demanding
Under dual-process theory, what is recollection selectively disrupted by?
- Divided attention during encoding
- Divided attention during recognition
- Advanced age and damage to the prefrontal cortex
Is recollection an attention-demanding process?
yes
is familiarity usually faster than recollection?
yes
How can recognition memory be measured?
by the remember / know procedure (Tulving)
What is the remember / know procedure?
Participants decide whether they either:
Remember the item being presented previously:
- Recollect contextual details
- Measure of recollection
Know it was presented previously:
- Seems familiar
- Measure of familiarity
What brain structures are thought to support recognition memeory?
Medial Temporal Lobe
Is the hippocampus important in recognition memory?
yes but the surrounding cortex can support recognition, even when the hippocampus is compromised
