Memory

Allan Paivio

- DUAL CODE HYPOTHESIS - items will be better remembered if they are encoded both visually (with icons or imagery) and semantically (with understanding)

Interference of STM

- how other information or distractions cause one to forget items in STM - Disrupting information that was learned before the new items were presented, such as a list of similar words, is PROACTIVE INTERFERENCE. This is problematic for recall and thus causes PROACTIVE INHIBITION. Disrupting information that was learned after the new items were presented is called RETROACTIVE INTERFERENCE. This is also problematic for recall can thus causes RETROACTIVE INHIBITION.

E.R. Kandel

similar to Donal Hebb studied sea slug Aplysia memory involves changes of synapses and neural pathways, making a "memory tree"

Serial-anticipation learning

similar to serial learning, but instead of having to recall the entire list, the subject is asked to recall one item at a time

Zeigarnick effect

the tendency to recall uncompleted tasks better than completed ones

Paired-associate learning

type of learning used to learn new languages ex. we remember that coche means car- we pair English word with a Spanish word

Iconic memory

(Sensory Memory) ICONIC MEMORY: the sensory memory for vision studied by George Sperling (people could see more than they can remember)

George Sperling

(Sensory Memory) ICONIC MEMORY: the sensory memory for vision studied by George Sperling (people could see more than they can remember) - experiment, subject were shown grouping of random letters then they were instructed to write down the letters of a particular line. although subjects were able to do this, they forgot the other letters in the time that it took to write the first ones down- this PARTIAL REPORT shows that sensory memory exists, but only for a few seconds

Icon

(Sensory memory) Ulric Neisser coined the term ICON for brief visual memory and found that an icon lasts for about 1 second When subjects are exposed to a bright flash of light or a new pattern before the iconic image fades, the first image will be erased= BACKWARD MASKING (also works for auditory systems). a mask is more successful if it is similar to the original stimulus

Ulric Neisser

(Sensory memory) coined the term ICON for brief visual memory and found that an icon lasts for about 1 second

Backwards Masking

(sensory memory) Ulric Neisser found that when subjects are exposed to a bright flash of light or a new pattern before the iconic image fades, the first image will be erased (also works for auditory system). a mask will be mores successful if it is similar to the original stimulus

Echoic memory

(sensory memory) sensory memory for AUDITORY sensations

Factors that facilitate learning lists

- Acoustic dissimilarity - Semantic dissimilarity - Brevity (length of the term and the length of the items to be remembered) - Familiarity - Concreteness - Meaning - Importance to the subject

Sensory Memory

- lasts for SECONDS - Forms the connection between perception and memory ICONIC MEMORY: the sensory memory for vision studied by George Sperling (people could see more than they can remember) ICON- Ulric Nisser ex. explains why if you wiggle a pen back and forth you see a ghost trail from the pen, the sensory information remains briefly in your awareness, and because the pen moves quickly, the information all runs together

Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart

- learning and recall depend on the DEPTH OF PROCESSING - different levels of processing exist from the most superficial phonological (pronunciation) level to the deep semantic (meaning) level - the deeper an item is processed, the easier it is to learn and recallq

3 measures of LTM

1. Recognition: subjects recognize things learned in the past (ex. multiple choice test) 2. Recall: subjects generate information on their own, CUED RECALL begins the task (ex. fill-in-the=blank tests) vs. FEE RECALL is remembering without any cue 3. Savings:measures how much information about a subject remains in the LTM by assessing how long it takes to learn something the second time as opposed to the first time

Dual Code Hypothesis

Allan Paivio items will be better remembered if they are encoded both visually (with icons or imagery) and semantically (with understanding)

Paired-associate learning

Behaviorist explanation of memory one items is learned with, and then cues the recall of, another

Hermann Ebbinghaus

First to study memory systematically (see also learning section- created learning curve) Proposed: forgetting curve Experiment: presented subjects with lists of nonsense syllables to study the STM - Forgetting curve: depicts a sharp drop in savings immediately after learning and then levels off, with a slight downward trend - some psychologists doubt that results obtained from having subjects memorize lists of nonsense syllables (which were convenient) generalize to other type of memory

Forgetting curve

Hermann Ebbinghaus - depicts a sharp drop in savings immediately after learning and then levels off, with a slight downward trend - some psychologists doubt that results obtained from having subjects memorize lists of nonsense syllables (which were convenient) generalize to other type of memory

Encoding specificity principle

LTM is subject to this principle material is more likely to be remembered if it is retrieved in the same context in which it was stored

George Miller

STM found that STM has the capacity of a bout 7 items (+/- 2 items)

Chunking

STM grouping items- which can increase the capacity of STM

Secondary (elaborative) rehearsal

STM involves organizing and understanding material in order to transfer to LTM

Primary (maintenance) rehearsal

STM involves repeating material in order to hold it in the STM

Rehearsal

STM repeating/practicing key to keeping items in the STM and to transferring items to the long-term memory LTM

Working memory

STM the temporary memory that is needed to perform the task that someone is working on at the moment

3 Stages of Memory

Sensory Short Term Long Term

Short Term Memory (STM)

TEMPORARY- last for seconds or minutes - thought to be largely AUDITORY, and items are coded phonologically - susceptible to interference (how other information or distractions cause one to forget items in STM)

Serial-position curve

U SHAPE CURVE that shows the savings effect of serial learning (primacy and recency effect- you remember more words at the beginning and the end)

Generation-recognition model

anything one might recall should easily be recognized this is why multiple choice (recognition) tests are easier than an essay (recall) test

Serial learning

a list ex. presidents of the US- it is learned and recalled in order (serial recall) - serial learning is subject to PRIMACY AND RECENCY EFFECTS- the first and the last few items learned are the easiest to remember, whereas the ones in the middle are often forgotten

Free-recall learning

a list of items is learned, and then must be recalled in any order with no cue

Tachtiscope

an instrument often used in cognitive or memory experiments it presents visual material (words or images) to subjects for a fraction of a second

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

being on the verge of retrieval but not successful doing so

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

capable of permanent retentiont most items are learned semantically, for meaning LTM is measured by: 1. Recognition: subjects recognize things learned in the past (ex. multiple choice test) 2. Recall: subjects generate information on their own, CUED RECALL begins the task (ex. fill-in-the=blank tests) vs. FEE RECALL is remembering without any cue 3. Savings:measures how much information about a subject remains in the LTM by assessing how long it takes to learn something the second time as opposed to the first time - LTM subject to the ENCODING SPECIFICITY PRINCIPLE - LTM NOT subject to primacy and recency effects, but is subject to the same interference effects as STM

Episodic memory

details, events, discrete knowledge

Behaviorists

explained memory through paired-associate learning one items is learned with, and then cues the recall of, another

Semantic memory

general knowledge of the world

Interference theory

origin of forgetting - competing information blocks retrieval ex. if two groups learned a list of words, and then one groups sleeps while the other group solves riddles, the group that slept is more likely to remember more from the word list- even though the passage of time was the same for both groups

Order of items- recall tasks

its easier for subjects to recall the order of two items that are far apart on the list than two items that are close together ex. i can more quickly say whether Washington was before Clinton than I can say Nixon was before Bush

Declarative memory

know a fact

Procedural memory

knowing "how to" do something

Explicit memory

knowing something and being consciously aware of knowing it, such as knowing a fact

Implicit memory

knowing something without being aware fo it ex. an amnesia patient practices a task every day, doesn't remember completing the task, but gets better at the task over time

Incidental learning

measured through presenting subjects with items they are not supposed to try to memorize and then testing for learning

Karl Lashley

memories are stored diffusely in the brain

Mnemonics

memory cues that help learning and recall

Donald Hebb

memory involves changes of synapses and neural pathways, making a "memory tree" (see E.R. Kandel)

Frederick Bartlett

memory is RECONSTRUCTIVE rather than rote using the story "War of the Ghosts" he discovered that people are more likely to remember the ideas or semantics of a story rather than the details or grammar of a story

Elizabeth Loftus

memory of a traumatic events is altered by the event itself and by the way that questions about the vent are phrased ex. "How fast were the cars going when they crashed?" will elicit higher estimates than "What was the rate of the cars upon impact?" - IMPORTANT CONCEPT FOR LAW-PSYCH ISSUES, how to properly question witnesses

RECENCY EFFECT

occurs in serial learning - serial learning is subject to PRIMACY AND RECENCY EFFECTS- the first and the last few items learned are the easiest to remember, whereas the ones in the middle are often forgotten - last items are easy to remember because there has been less time for decay

Primacy effect

occurs in serial learning - serial learning is subject to PRIMACY AND RECENCY EFFECTS- the first and the last few items learned are the easiest to remember, whereas the ones in the middle are often forgotten - the first items are remembered because they benefit from the most rehearsal/exposure

Decay (Trace) theory

origin of forgetting memories fade with time - this theory is too simplistic because other activities are known to interfere with retrieval

Eidetic imagery

photographic memory more common in children and rural cultures

Flashbulb memories

recollections that seem burned into the brain, such as "where were you when the World Trade Center collapsed?"

State-dependent memory

similar to state-dependent learning retrieval is more successful if it occurs in the same emotional state or physical state in which encoding occurred ex. this explains why depressed individuals cannot easily recall happy memories and why alcoholics often remember details of their last drinking session only when under the influence of alcohol

Clustering

the brain's tendency to group together similar items in memory whether they are learned together or not most often they are grouped into conceptual or semantic hierarchies

Brenda Miner

wrote about patient "HM" who has given a lesion of the HIPPOCAMPUS to treat severe epilepsy while he remembered things from before the surgery, and his short-term-memory was still intact, he could not store any new long-term memories