Cognitive Psychology: Exam 2

autobiographical memory pt 2

-Autobiographical memory interview -collects examples of information from 3 life periods: -childhood, early adulthood, and the past few years -In each time period, there are 2 required categories of facts: 1. semantic facts (names of friends, teachers, addresses) 2. personal episodes (e.g., describe an incident that occurred in the period before you went to school) -Application of Autobiographical memory interview -Case study: R.S. was amnesic after a hippocampal stroke -Lost episodic memory covering his entire lifetime -Could identify events that occurred but give no information about them other than "it happened" -Semantic memory, while most gone, was not a total loss -Able to acquire some factual knowledge that took place after his stroke (ex: recognizing new famous faces, knowing some current events, etc...) -The fact R.S. can recognize new people/events suggests the independence of episodic and semantic memories

neuro-episodic memory

-The neuroscientific findings concerning episodic memory are summarized in the hemispheric encoding-retrieval asymmetry (HERA) model. -The areas of the brain related to the HERA model's principles are shown in red (indicating activation) on the next slide.

serial exhaustive search

-We search every item in our STM in response to a question and do not stop searching even when we find the item in memory. -We search our STM in its entirety—exhaustively.

4 primary characteristics of long-term memory (LTM)

1. capacity 2. duration 3. forgetting 4. coding

TLC makes 3 key assumptions about the mechanisms governing people's decisions when they are asked sensible questions (Quillian's network theory)

1. equal link lengths in the hierarchy 2. an efficient filing system 3. spreading activation

interference

1. retroactive 2. proactive

story schema constituents

Every narrative has 4 primary categories or constituents: 1. Setting 2. Theme 3. Plot with main characters and a causal chain of events 4. A resolution to the story - Story Schema of "Circle Island." This story has been used in many studies looking at story schemas and story comprehension. The numbers in the passage correspond to the components in the diagram in the next slide. (Thorndyke, 1977) - Story Schema of "Circle Island." This diagram portrays a story schema of "Circle Island" (Figure 7.11 shown above). It divides the story into the four mainuniversal story categories that are important for how people understand and remember stories: setting, theme, plot, and resolution. (Thorndyke, 1977)

variables

Important characteristic of schemas that contributes to their adaptability is that a schema can be modified depending on conditions

phonological store

a reservoir in which an acoustic or phonological representation of the stimulus is stored

visual cache

temporarily stores visual information that comes from perceptual experience and contains information about the form and color of what we perceive

Memory

the mechanism that allows us to retain and retrieve information over time

Learning

the permanent change in behavior that results from experience

schemas can mislead study

- Brewer & Treyens (1981) study demonstrated how a schema can mislead us in both recognition and recall. - Findings show that schemas have a psychological reality: - They help us fill in the blanks. - But they also contribute to false recollections because we incorrectly assume the presence of script-consistent elements. - Student Office experiment: Brewer and Treyens Study (1981). - participants: undergrads -task: - Students waited in this room (35 seconds). - After leaving the room, asked to verbally recall items in the room, or recognize items from the room. -results: 1. Good memory was good for items that were consistent with their schema of a graduate student office (ex: desk chair) 2. Poor memory for inconsistent items (ex: skull) 3. False "recall" also occurred at a rate of 21% of items that would be expected in the room, but not shown at all (ex: books)

story maps

- A Story-Mapping Exercise. Teaching children to understand the structural elements of a story improves their story comprehension. One way to do this is with a story-mapping exercise, in which children are asked questions corresponding to levels in this chart.

encoding specificity

- A retrieval cue is an effective reminder when it helps re-create the specific way an experience was initially encoded. - The way you think about information when you store it has an effect on what sort of retrieval cue will be useful in helping you recall the information. - NB: people encode the same event differently, so not all retrieval cues will be effective for all.

episodic codes and flashbulb memories study

- Accuracy of Memory: Flashbulb and Ordinary Events - Part 1: On September 12, university students answered questions a) about the 9/11 attacks or b) an everyday event. - Part 2: same questions asked either at 1 week, 6 weeks or 32 weeks after the attack. -Results: There was no special memory for the flashbulb event: The effect of time had the same impact on the amount retained from flashbulb and everyday memories. -However, this graph shows that the students still believed that their recollection of the 9/11 (flashbulb) event was more accurate than for the everyday event.

episodic buffer

- Acts as integrative system that places events occurring in visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop into a coherent sequence along with memory for the goals that initiated those events - Keeps track of episodes - Strings the sounds and words together to form a connected, time-based sequence to hold the words together as a sentence (as when we are able to chunk a sequence of words). - Also accounts for how people remember lists of unrelated items (not in a sentence) - which was described earlier as the serial position effect.

the feature comparison model

- An alternative to network theories of knowledge is the feature comparison model (FCM). - Some instances/items are more central to the meaning of a category compared to others. - FCM portrays human knowledge as a giant semantic space: a plain containing hill clusters representing our knowledge. - Tighter the knowledge cluster = more similar the items are - so easier it is to decide whether a proposed relationship is true (e.g., robin is a bird).

network theories

- Assumes that every category stored in semantic memory is potentially connected to every other category, like a giant net. - Specifically assumes that the things you know, such as words, images, and facts, can be connected to other things that you also know, such as procedures, beliefs, and contexts. 1. nodes = specific locations in memory 2. links = connections between the nodes - Node-link system can be conceptualized as a fishnet with everything ultimately connected to everything else. - The Node-Link System as a Fishnet: The Knowledge Network Based on Quillian's Teachable Language Comprehender (TLC). Basic knowledge network is like a fishnet: every node is connected to every other one. - Example: how objects share color names, shown at the bottom. (NB: links are labeled to indicate class-inclusion relations like is a or property relations like has a)

schemas about people

- Boon and Davies 1987 - Stereotyping study using schemas: - Participants: Undergraduate Scottish students - phase 1: - Task: study a series frames showing a short story - 2 conditions: - Group 1: 2 white men, last frame the white man is holding a knife. Group 2: 1 white and 1 black man, the white man is holding the knife in the last picture. -phase 2: - Task: 45 minutes later, asked to recognize the last picture seen during initial testing. - 4 conditions: - 2 with same man holding the knife, like at initial view - 1 where the other white man is now with the knife. - 1 where the black man is now holding the knife. -overall results: - Other white man now with knife = 20% mistakenly identify as the initial image seen. - Black man holding the knife= 60% incorrectly identify as the initial image seen. - Therefore, stereotypes are schemas that affect our perception and our memory.

expertise, knowledge, and skilled memory

- We all exhibit heightened memory for some things compared to others. - The key to our ability to remember events and facts is our background knowledge—our level of expertise.

The Neuropsychology of Autobiographical Memory

- Case histories of people with brain damage and amnesia can help understand. -Some people have retrograde amnesia for autobiographical information, yet they are still able to retrieve semantic information. -There are people who have anterograde amnesia and thus are not able to store new episodes in their life, but they are able to store some factual and language- based information. -These findings suggest that semantic and episodic information are maintained in separate systems and that they involve different areas of the brain. -Damage to one system does not necessarily damage the other.

central executive

- Coordinates the activities of the -visuospatial sketchpad -phonological loop -episodic buffer - Also communicates with long-term memory via the episodic buffer.

encoding specificity and subjective organization

- Each of us has our own unique encoding of events. - Tulving and Osler (1968) study - Results: Students in Group I and Group IV best recalled the words. - Group 1 had similar help of cues at encoding and retrieval -Group 4 created their own cues at encoding and used during retrieval. -Group 2 were provided poor cues at encoding and were not useful at retrieval when left to their own devices. - Group 3 created their own cues at encoded and were confused by the introduction of new cues at testing.

spreading activation

- Energy spreads from the node/nodes activated by the question in all directions at the same time. - This means that you are looking at factors along links that are irrelevant to your question, which also stem from the node of interest. - This accounts for why irrelevant things come to mind when answering a question. - Crucial implication : the greater the distance between the subject and predicate terms in the network, the longer it should take to answer a question. - Ex: Canary (subject) and breathe (predicate)

working memory and emotion

- Everyone experiences stressful events, but some life stressors are so extreme that they intrude unexpectedly into everyday thoughts and compete for working memory resources . - Attentional capture hypothesis: -Emotional stimuli capture attention and indicate importance in ways that non-emotional stimuli don't. -Emotional stimuli could be anything from seeing a threatening face, reading a taboo word, or something that signals danger.

leading questions

- Eyewitness descriptions are as fallible as other efforts to recollect events - In fact, they may be even more fallible because someone trying to recollect an event can be misled by the type of questions he or she is asked

cognitive interview

- Fallibility of human memory is a major concern to the legal profession (since so dependent on witness accuracy/recollections) - Concerns have prompted the development of techniques to enhance accuracy: - One technique that is based on research findings is the cognitive interview. - An overall analysis of the many studies of the cognitive interview shows that it results in a 25% increase in correct recollections compared with other police methods.

prospective memory study

- Good retrospective fact memory ≠ good prospective memory -Wilkins and Baddeley (1978) study -Participants: undergraduates -Phase 1: learn a list of unrelated words and recall immediately after reading the list (list memory) -Phase 2: Top and bottom 25% performers in task simulating taking medications (prospective task) -Press a button box 4 times/day: 8:30am, 1pm, 5:30 pm and 10pm -results: -Best list memory accuracy = Poorest prospective task score -Called the "absent-minded professor effect" -With more working memory demands, less resources left over for prospective tasks

behavior sequences at birth pt 2

- Infants also have schema-based predispositions in response to faces. - Innate preference for gazing at face-like images, such as a pair of round blobs, over a horizontal line. - Prefer to look at an upright T shape (an abstract set of eyes and a nose) more often than an upside-down T shape. - Gaze longer at a picture of their mother's face than at a picture of any other female.

behavior sequences at birth

- Infants are born with reflexes or innate mechanisms for interacting with the world. - Reflexes=wired-in action schemas: package of coordinated sequences triggered by certain environmental conditions. - Blink reflex- involuntary closure of the eye when light is flashed or object rapidly comes to protect eyes. - Moro reflex- arms and legs extend and then come together (like grabbing to prevent from falling); occurs when hear a loud noise or feel a loss of support; - Walking reflex- exhibiting a stepping motion when held upright and their feet come in contact with a surface. -landau reflex- reflexive crawling (raised head/ arched back) -protective reflex- if cloth is placed over an infant's eyes and nose, infant will turn head from side to side -palmar reflex- grasping reflex when object is placed in palm - Reflexes are schema-based predispositions.

working memory and emotion study #2

- Influence of emotion on central executive can explain cognitive impairments that are often attributed to neurological deficits. - Positive does not show consistent effects compared to negative moods. - Although positive moods have different effects on WM, results indicate that negative moods diminish working memory. -Klein and Boals, 2001 - participants: undergraduates -tasks: 1. Write essay (20 min total, 3 sessions over 2 weeks), either: a. choice of + or - b. describing current day 2.Memory tests: 2 sessions, before (t1) and after (t2) essay writing -results: -Negative essays showed 11% increase in working memory at t2 -Positive and current day essays only showed 4% increase at t2

schemas and reading comprehension

- Learning challenges may be due existing knowledge structures not activating (lacking structural support to encode new information) - Instructional research suggests students should be given cues, in advance of reading a new text or story, for how they should organize what they are reading. - These cues are advance organizer - Information, - typically presented prior to the learning experience, - helps learners interpret new information by providing a bridge between new information and what the learner already knows. - Advance organizers do not always lead to an increase in overall recall of facts when they give irrelevant or distracting information, sometimes called seductive details. - However, their primary advantage is in helping the learner transfer or apply the learned information to new situations.

codes in long-term memory (LTM)

- Long-term memory is able to work many perceptual codes. -semantic, visual, sound, spatial, kinesthetic, etc.

recovered memories study and implications

- Many studies show issues in recall of "real-life" events - Participants: College students - phase 1: - 4 events (verified by family) presented to students who are asked to recall as much as possible. - Unknown to student, a 5th made-up "target" event is also given - Results: Target only reported-on 3% of the time - If "target" not familiar, told: think about it for a couple days -phase 2: - Recollection tested 2 days later - Results: False "target" event now reported on 27% of the time -take home message: - Should be cautious in interpreting the "truth" of people's recalls from early childhood when done retrospectively decades later - It is possible that these recollections are the result of interviews and suggestions made by others - BUT: shouldn't dismiss this recall either, since all not "truths" are in-fact planted... some may be real

three principles of skilled memory

- Memory experts have normal memory, and yet they are able to build on their areas of special knowledge to acquire staggering amounts of new information. - skilled memory theory: - The theory that explains how experts can exhibit such astonishing memory in particular areas - 3 basic principles to account for great feats by experts: 1. The meaningful encoding principle 2. The retrieval structure principle 3. The speed-up principle.

1. meaningful encoding principles

- Memory experts use their prior knowledge to encode new information in their area of expertise. - This knowledge is often in the form ofmemory chunks - Perceptual units that allow experts to see configurations of events that are invisible to the typical person. - Acquired through years of practice.

semantic codes and memory for sentences study #1

- Memory for language-based events relies on semantics. - Fillenbaum (1966) study - participants: students - Phase 1: Listen to 96 sentences until all clearly understood -Ex: the door was open - Phase 2: Then pick out which was the sentence you heard: -Ex: a. the door was open, b. the door was closed, c. the door was not open, d. the door was not closed -results: - option a = most chosen - option d = 2nd most selected - Interesting as most physically different, but it has same semantic content - Conclusion: Retrieval often depends on the "gist" of content.

neuro-prospective memory

- Older adults generally perform more poorly on prospective memory tasks than do younger adults -Two kinds of prospective situations: 1. Event-based situations: -Those where you are reminded by external factors to do the task: -turn off the oven when the buzzer sounds 2. Time-based situations -Those where actions are self-initiated: -take the pill at 5:00pm -The primary effect of age = time-based situations

schemas can mislead

- One of the negative consequences of having a schema for an event or a concept is that we are prone to misinterpret what we have experienced. - Because schemas are so rich with information, it can be difficult for people to distinguish between their own knowledge—as provided by the schema—and their actual memory for the experience. - Schemas not only are able to mislead us in what we have read, they can occasionally distort our recollection of things we have personally experienced. - YET, people are good at detecting when schema-inconsistent events occur in a story. - These oddities appear to stand out with special clarity in our memory. - We recall the schema-consistent information and then add these inconsistent events. - People are very good at discriminating between unexpected events that occurred in a story and unexpected events that did not occur.

source monitoring

- Our ability to tell the difference between something we actually observed or just heard about - Refers to the process of identifying where our knowledge comes from - Our ability to identify the sources of our memories is far from perfect - Difficulties in source monitoring can lead to false recollections not only in the case of leading questions, but also when someone is forced by an interviewer to give false information.

schemas fill in missing information

- Our ability to understand conversations or text is especially dependent on our ability to make inferences from what we hear or see. - Since no conversation or text could include every possible fact about a scenario, speakers and authors rely on the listener or reader to "fill in" unstated information. - If you possess a schema that is relevant to a situation, it will speed up your ability to comprehend discussions or narratives about that situation.

metamemory

- Our awareness of our memory system and what resides there. - feeling of knowing: - People often have a sense that they know something but are unable to recall it. - relies on our metamemory - Feeling of Knowing. When we are asked a factual question, a feeling of knowing motivates the search of our memories for an answer, even an incorrect one. The steps we take are described in this flowchart. - Cue familiarity. Metamemory allows to judge if we will know something based on if the topic seems familiar. - Even people with amnesia, who have difficulty storing and retrieving new facts, make use of their metamemory and their feeling of knowing. - Metamemory and feeling of knowing decline as we age.

eyewitness memories

- People have difficulty distinguishing between the source of the information that is presented and the ideas that spring to mind when the real information is presented - Cause for concern when we rely on eyewitness testimony - From the point of view of the witness, eyewitness memories are similar to flashbulb memory experiences because they are often associated with emotional events such as crimes - Like flashbulb memories, an observer's confidence in his or her report does not make it any more accurate - Two aspects of eyewitness reports affect accuracy: 1. How questions are asked to elicit the report 2. The observer's guessing strategy in generating facts

expertise and memory

- People's past knowledge helps them learn new things. - Clearly, the more you know about something, the easier it is to acquire new related information. - The more you know, the more you can know. - Areas of expertise studied by psychologists: - Baseball - Card games - Chess - Circuit diagrams by technicians - Memory for the digits of pi - BUT, does not carry over to any other distinct domain.

perceptual memory (implicit memory)

- Perceptually based patterns that are often difficult to describe, but nevertheless are recalled effortlessly - Sights, sounds, tastes, etc...

story schemas

- Popular genres also have a common story structure. (ex: romance / science fiction / etc.)

3. speed-up principle

- Practice speeds storage and retrieval. - 2 reasons why practice and expertise = speed-up 1. Repeated specific patterns and experiences (like when frequently practice retrieving the information) create links called retrieval structures between working memory and the relevant areas in long-term memory. 2. Expert acquires vast amount of information about a single topic and in so doing creates a hill of knowledge. - Hills of knowledge = schemas in which one fact can activate closely related facts, which in turn can activate still others so long as they are on the same hill.

efficient filing system

- Properties of an object are stored at the highest node in the hierarchy that is appropriate. - ex: Not efficient to separately note the same properties: - canaries have wings, feathers, and lay eggs - robins have wings, feathers, and lay eggs - Efficient to place repeated properties in the category bird. - Birds have wings, feathers and lay eggs - This efficiency minimizes the demands on long-term and working memories. - NB: you can have a negation of a common higher-up property that doesn't take place in a lower category. -ex: -Birds have wings, feathers, lay eggs and fly. -Ostriches have long legs, elongated neck, are large, and don't fly.

quillian's network theory pt 3

- Relationship Between Time to Answer Questions (Latency) and Distances in the Network . The farther apart two nodes are in the hierarchy, the longer it takes to discover they are related. The red line shows the time to answer questions for class- inclusion relations (is a canary an animal? ), the blue line shows the time to answer questions for property relations (does a canary have skin? ). Notice the fast latencies to false sentences. -semantic distance effect -The fact that time to answer the question increases with the distance between categories - the repeated path hypothesis - In which repeating a path speeds processing - This repeated path hypothesis is unique to network theories and is a source of support for TLC.

schema development

- We are born into the world with predispositions to react, and the world cooperates by providing the stimuli for those reactions. - Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1926) conducted research showing that much of children's knowledge is derived from their interactions with the world, but they are biologically prepared to interact with the world through specific action sequences or schemas.

feature comparison model study

- Rips et al. (1973) attempted to map the semantic plain for animal names. - Participants: university students - Task: Rate similarity of concept pairs -ex: duck - chicken or chicken - animal - Results: Judgements transformed in "map" revealing closeness of the item pairs (a semantic plain for animal names). - Set of 2 clusters that are organized along the same 2 dimensions: size & predacity. - Semantic Plain for Animal Names. Ratings of similarity of different birds and mammals - Result - set of 2 clusters that are organized along the same 2 dimensions: size & predacity.

schemas fill in missing information pt 2

- Schank & Abelson (1977): Script Applier Mechanism (SAM) to illustrate how schemas provide background knowledge: - a computer program that is able to - analyze printed stories such as those from a newspaper -create paraphrases of them -then answer simple questions about them. - SAM does this by interpreting sentences not literally, but in reference to a script for how people and their environments interact.

the development of narrative schemas

- Schemas change over a person's lifetime because they are a consequence of experience and understanding. - Narrative (or story) schema - a schema for telling a story that develops over time until it matches the full schema that characterizes adult stories with a plot structure - Plots are typically incorporated into story schemas by the time a child is 8 years old. -As narrative schemas develop over time they become more complex and more interesting to adults. - Recounts organize the stories of speakers around their personal experiences. (NB: prompted by questions) - Eventcasts are running commentaries of events at hand or ones that will occur in the future. - Accounts are speaker-initiated narratives (Guess what ...) similar to recounts. - Fictionalized stories are imaginative narratives that fit one of the schemas but are about fictional characters or events.

schemas as organizers

- Schemas function as knowledge structures that organize how we learn and behave. - They help us encode the stories that we read or hear and influence what we will remember about them. - In everyday lives, schemas also control what we expect of people and objects around us.

the neuropsychology of semantic memory

- Semantic memory relies on the frontal lobes -But to a lesser extent than their importance for episodic and autobiographical memory -Meanwhile, semantic relies heavily on the temporal lobes of the brain (note: so does episodic memory!) -Made apparent by case studies with damage here

the feature comparison model pt 2

- Some instances of a category are more central to the category than are others. - The basis for deciding how central an item is depends on the features the item possesses. - (NB: the word "features" here is what the TLC theory would call "properties") -makes the claim that: -some features = defining features (1) -other features = characterizing features (2) 1. Defining features are those that are necessary and jointly sufficient to specify the requirements for a category. -Ex: potential to lay eggs is a necessary feature of birds 2. Characterizing features describe the commonly occurring characteristics of many members of a category (but not necessarily all). -Usually features you are most familiar with -Building a nest is characteristic of birds, but it is not necessary to be considered a bird. (ex: penguin)

recovered memories

- Source-monitoring difficulties can also be found in real-life situations associated with strong emotions. - It is possible for people to be convinced that events occurred in their lives simply by asking them about those event, and then giving them the time to imagine them.

retrieving from STM

- Sternberg task (1966, 2004); Used to determine the processes used to retrieve facts from STM. - Participant given a set of up to 7 items, presented rapidly 1 at a time, over a few seconds. - Right after, a new probe (ex: a word like "milk"), is presented, and the participant is tasked to determine whether or not the probe is part of thememory set (list of words they just saw...).

procedural memory (implicit memory)

- Stored knowledge that allows us to behave skillfully in spite of the fact that we cannot remember learning the individual skills needed to perform a particular task - Nor are we able to give a complete account of how the task should be performed.

semantic codes and memory for sentences study #2

- Students use semantic cues even when sentences are embedded in a paragraph. -Sachs (1967) study: -participants: students -Task: listen to a reading of a short paragraph and judge if a test sentence had appeared in the passage. -3 task conditions: 1. tested immediately after sentence (0 delay) 2. tested 80 syllables later 3. tested 160 syllables later - Memory for Sentences in a Paragraph. Students were tested on their ability to detect changes in sentences they had read up to 2 minutes before in a factual paragraph. Their ability to detect slight wording changes was at chance level with a delay of 80 syllables (approximately 27 seconds). (Sachs, 1967)

cuing schemas study

- Sulin and Dooling 1974 - Correct Rejection Score For False Sentences. -participants: students -task: read identical passages, either title by 1. a fictitious character (Carol Harris) 2. a real person ( Helen Keller) -outcome measures: - Correct rejection of sentences that were not contained in the passage but true of the real Helen Keller. - recall tested twice: a. immediately b. 1 week later -results: - 1 week later, Group 2 participants who thought the paragraph was about Helen Keller had a low rejection score of "non-passage sentences". Therefore, they falsely recognized sentences consistent with their schema of Helen Keller.

Quillian's network theory

- Teachable language comprehender (TLC) - One of the best-known/most researched network theory. - Developed by M. Ross Quillian (late 1960s) - States that semantic network has 2 main parts: 1. node-link structure 2. question interface - The meaning of a concept is composed of all the links associated with it. -example: node for birds -Links to other nodes indicate that: is an animal, with feathers, that has wings, and in some cases can fly.

process-dissociated (implicit memory)

- When learning conditions affect one type of memory but not another, the memories are said to be process-dissociated. - This argues for the relative independence of the processes required of the types of memory.

the connectionist model of memory pt 2

- The Connectionist Theory. hypothesizes that instances and properties are all connected by common units that link the name of an object (e.g., canary) with a general property (e.g., can) and an output property (e.g., fly). -connectionist models are quite useful: 1. Can be modified based on a person's development of knowledge. - Accounting for the concept of learning. 2. Illustrate how people often confuse related information. 3. Offer a systematic explanation for loss of information resulting from brain damage, which occurs when people suffer from conditions like semantic dementia. - Ex: Identifying loss of categories or links (ex: loss of "CAN" components vs loss of "HAS) may indicate different affected brain regions as well as disease progression.

Quillian's network theory pt 2

- The Node-Link System As a Tree Structure: A Cross-section of a TLC Network (a Hierarchy). The node-link system redrawn to have multiple levels like a hierarchy. - To determine whether there is a connection between one node and another requires a search up and down the links in the hierarchy. - The second component of TLC, the question interface, refers to a sort of sensibility test that we use to determine whether we should pursue answering a question. - Question interface: prevents you from taxin your attention to search for information that would clearly not be found. - Serves a gatekeeping function for the knowledge network (Quillian, 1968) - associated with people giving rapid answers to questions that deserve an immediate no. -

semantic memory (explicit/declarative)

- The aspect of LTM that retains conceptual knowledge stored as an independent knowledge base. - It is the library where discrete facts like "dogs bark" and "robins are birds" are stored.

capacity of long-term memory (LTM)

- The capacity of LTM has no obvious limit: - Learning new facts does not expel or obliterate memories of old facts. - Ex: Recalling many items within a known category, with few prompts, is possible: - Prompts help narrow a search field (provides features) - Please note, you can recognize even more than you can freely recall.

duration and forgetting in long-term memory (LTM)

- The knowledge stored in long-term memory endures nearly for a lifetime. - Barick evaluated students' recollections of their academic knowledge from their high school and college Spanish courses. -Sample: 587 people who took Spanish -Time after completion of course: ranging from 1 year to 49 years later. -Outcome measures: -answer Spanish questions -recall Spanish information - Recall and Recognition of Spanish: Level of Training for Recall of Spanish-English and English-Spanish Test. Participants of different ages were able to recognize correct Spanish vocabulary decades after they had taken their first Spanish class. Their ability to recall the vocabulary from an English prompt declined more severely with time, but still showed relatively stable memory across a lifetime (Barick). - Please note: not all LTM recollections are always precisely correct. - Retrievals are reconstructions from the facts we possess.

cuing schemas

- The memory for a schema can be activated by the mention of key terms in a narrative. - The title of a narrative may also activate a schema.

equal links

- The model assumes that all the links in the hierarchy are consistently of equal length. - Ex: the link between the canary and bird nodes is the same length as the connection between the ostrich and bird nodes. - Links are important because it takes time for the cognitive system to travel from node to node across a link. - Therefore, all questions that require accessing the same number of links will take the same amount of effort and time to answer.

the gollin test

- The person being tested is shown each drawing in order of increasing complexity until he or she is able to guess the object. Then, an hour later, the sequence is repeated. - Adults typically are able to identify the objects with fewer presentations on the second trial than on the first. Even completely amnesic individuals, who cannot recall having ever been presented with the pictures when they are shown to them a secondtime, can improve on this task. This test supports the fact that perceptual memory improves with practice and suggests that learning can occur without any verbal rehearsal.

tip of the tongue (TOT) phenomenon (metamemory)

- The temporary inaccessibility of a word in memory. - universal - TOT occurs more often in older adults than in younger ones. - The TOT phenomenon shows that sound-based codes play a role in word retrieval, just as semantic coding plays a role.

the connectionist model of memory

- There is a broad type of model of knowledge that borrows the best aspects of the specific theories we just covered = connectionist model - People's ability to respond to a question oridentify a picture of a flower depends on the entire pattern of connections in the brain. - sometimes called neural network models -Connectionist model asserts that - every node of knowledge is connected directly or indirectly to every other node - perceptual experiences are a key component of the network. -Some of these connections are strong and others are weak. -The strength of a connection is determined by - past experiences - whether link has been used successfully to answer a question -Humans are parallel processors of information. -Thus connectionist models emphasize how we acquire information through experience. (similar to perceptual theory of knowledge)

implicit memory

- To learn without being aware that we are doing so - Mental functions that can be performed automatically in the background - We can retrieve or use that information without being aware that we have stored it in memory. - Can be divided in 2 subsystems: Procedural memory and Perceptual memory

perceptual theory of knowledge

- Views seemingly abstract knowledge as perceptually based - We experience a retrieval process as a visual image. - 1st time you see an OBJECT, your perceptual system stores this information neurologically. - Later thought or mention of the OBJECT will lead to your brain reactivating a previous image, as if you are simulating the initial viewing of the OJBECT. -A perceptual symbol system - It assumes that our understanding of things is based on the perceptual mode (visual, auditory, etc.) in which we experience them. -This assumes that: - properties are represented with their perceptual characteristics in LTM - our semantic knowledge includes both concrete elements as well as abstract concepts

neuropsychology of the visuospatial sketchpad

- Visuospatial sketchpad represented in the brain in a manner similar to the phonological loop... except that it is primarily on right side of brain. -Cognitive neuroscience provides evidence in support of the theoretical distinction between the visual cache and the inner scribe.

reminiscence bump

- When older adults look back on their lives and recollect autobiographically relevant events, their recollections are organized by periods in their lives. - The distribution of memories over decades has an inverted U-shaped function. - People recall the largest number of memories for events that occurred between the ages of 10 and 25. -reminiscence bump across cultures: -Participants were given 1 hour to recall as many episodes in their lives as they could and when they occurred. A reminiscence bump at around the age of 15 to 20 is shown in the memories of people from many cultures. (Conway et al., 2005) -The characteristic reminiscence bump occurs during the second decade of one's life -why? period typically filled with firsts, such as getting a driver's license, leaving home, and starting a full-time job - Sets the stage for the rest of adulthood - Found universally

2. retrieval structure principle

- When storing the information into a well- learned schema, skilled memorizers are sensitive to what is important. - They attach specific retrieval cues to the material so that it can be readily accessed at a later time from LTM by means of those cues.

context dependent retrieval

- When we learn something for the first time, we associate the entire environment with our learning experience. -Therefore: context can be an effective cue for retrieving information. -The elements that are present when we encode items can be effectively used when we want to retrieve those items. -(Smith, 1979): -task: -Students encode a word list in a "distinctive" environment. -Surprise word retrieval challenge the next day -results: -Group 1, in same room, perform at 22% accuracy. -Group 2 in different room, perform at 15% accuracy. -Group 3 in different, but reminded of encoding room, perform at 21.5% accuracy.

memory and guessing

- While leading questions can influence eyewitness recollections, they can also affect how people will guess when they aren't really sure of the answer - Loftus, Miller, and Burns (1978) experiment - Participants: 1000 undergraduates -task: - Phase 1: watch slide series showing an car-person accident: - Car stops at an intersection, turns right and hits a person - 2 sign conditions at the intersection: Stop sign or Yield sign - Phase 2: Asked either consistent or misleading question: - Did another car pass the car when stopped at the ________ sign? - Consistent: ___ filled in by originally seen sign type - Inconsistent: ___ filled in by different sign type - Phase 3: Which picture did you originally see in Phase 1? -results: - Consistent question: 75 % accurate in identifying picture - Inconsistent: only 40% accurate to pick out original picture.

semantic codes and memory for sentences

- Word meanings are stored as packages or collections of meaning elements. - These meaning elements are called semantic features. - Ex: mental representation of "man" includesfeatures : human, male, adult.

source monitoring study

- Zaragoza et al., 2001 - Participants: University students - Task: Watch an 8 min action/drama clip about summer camp - Phase 1: Immediately asked to answer questions - Group 1 (free): told to only answer what they knew - Group 2 (forced): told to answer every question, even biased ones. So they are obliged to make up answers - "When Delaney fell on the floor, where was he bleeding?"(Note: that character was never injured in the clip) - Answers either reinforced by the researcher with: - 1. "Yes" (false positive feedback) or 2. "OK" (neutral feedback) - Phase 2: Asked to free recall the events of the video with as much accuracy and detail as possible. - results: - Free group: No erroneous events reported - Forced group: - Neutral feedback: recalled 27% of false events - False positive feedback: recalled 55% of false events - And when asked about the recollections of the interview, they don't remember being forced to lie. - We create false memories when made to respond to leading questions or forced to lie, and then fail to remember their source.

schema

- a conceptual framework a person uses to make sense of the world - Piece of knowledge that can apply to many situations for many purposes

Explicit / Declarative memory

- includes all memories that we consciously seek to store and retrieve. - can be described or "declared" to others - Further subdivided in 2 categories: 1. semantic memory 2. episodic memory

script

- particular type of schema - Tells us what behavior we should expect of ourselves and of others in certain kinds of situations.

schemas about people

- person schema - These schemas connect common personality traits (outgoing, shy, aggressive, etc.) with the behavior such traits commonly produce. - Like all schemas, person schemas affect your interpretation of the events that you witness, your memory for those events, and what to expect in the future. - Person schemas are often extended to encompass the members of particular groups. - A person schema applied to an entire group is a stereotype: - an oversimplified understanding of the qualities of groups of people

episodic memory (explicit/declarative)

- stores and connects specific factors (times, places, and events); considered autobiographical in nature. - Use gives rise to the conscious experience of recollection. - Allows to mentally travel back to life earlier moments to: -retrieve a fact -relive the experience -Can be divided in 2 groups: 1. Retrospective: memory for the past 2. Prospective: to remember to do things in the future -although distinct, these interact!

neuropsychology of the visuospatial sketchpad study

- the scribe and the cache are separate systems -Task(s): Volunteers performed 2 tasks. 1. Spatial memory for the pattern of dots (using the inner scribe) 2. Memory for faces (using the visual cache). -procedure: When performing these tasks, volunteers had targeted areas of their brain briefly knocked out by a pulse of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). -results: -When rTMS pulse sent to area where inner scribe functions (dorsolateral median prefrontal cortex), dot pattern task is interrupted but not face recognition task. -When rTMS pulse sent to visual cache area (ventrolateral prefronal cortex), face memory task is interrupted but not dot pattern memory task.

Divisions of Long-Term Memory (LTM)

-2 main systems: 1. explicit / declarative memory (semantic, episodic (retrospective & prospective)) 2. implicit memory (procedural & perceptual)

Capacity of STM

-A typical adult's memory span is approximately 7 (± 5 and 9) unrelated items -The number 7 holds fast for: -lists of nonsense syllables -unrelated pictures -words -.... Just as long as the individual items are unrelated

neuro-prospective memory pt 2

-Both time-based and event-based prospective memories = associated with frontal lobe activity. -Time-based prospective memory has greater attentional demands, so greater reliance on effective frontal lobe functioning. -Development of the frontal lobes after birth is associated with improvement in prospective memory. -Deterioration of the frontal lobes is associated with a decline in time-based prospective memory, which is typical as adults age.

central executive pt 2

-Central executive is not a memory store: - Control system that guides attention and allocates resources to maximize performance. - Main system for controlling attention. -Coordinates, manipulates, and updates the content of the WM subsystems. -Prefrontal cortex: source of central executive -PASAT: example of a task that measures central executive functioning.

working memory Baddeley and Hitch Model

-Process-oriented model created by Baddeley and Hitch. -composed of 4 subsystems (listed above)

primacy effect (serial position effect)

-Early part of the list is remembered better than the middle part of the list. -Primacy portion of the curve (first items to be committed to memory) generally reflects more rehearsal and attention because there is nothing before them that competes for attention. -The ability to rehearse the first few items is critical to the serial position curve.

capacity of STM pt 2

-Ebbinghaus (1885/1913), sought to identify basic memory processes that are independent of people's past knowledge. - Task: Used nonsense syllables (formed by inserting a vowel between 2 consonants) as the items to be remembered, and are able to determine how many runs through a list of nonsense syllables it would take to recite a list perfectly. - Initially, Ebbinghaus's first used himself as a participant (... wanted to establish "reliability"!). - Results: 7 items reflects maximum he could store in STM - The Ebbinghaus Learning Curve. Graph shows how many times Ebbinghaus needed to look at lists of different lengths before he could recall them perfectly. - Results: Sharp elbow in curve at 7 items reflects the maximum he could store in STM. - Discussion: This discontinuity holds for any list as long as individual items are unrelated.

working memory and emotion study #1

-Emotional events can be relentless in dominating thoughts and consuming WM resources. -Higher # of stressful events in one's life, -greater the demands on WM -poorer the performance on WM tasks -Sarason, Johnson and Siegel, 1979. -Emotional events, life stress, working memory capacity. -Used: Life experiences scale; arithmetic/word WM task -Results: More reported issues, worse the memory.

Serial Exhaustive Search Theory: Parkinson's patients

-Graph shows slope of lines to reflect time taken to compare items in memory. -Individuals with Parkinson's disease require more time/item to compare 2 things in memory than healthy high school and college students. -All 3 groups equivalent in overall time to read and respond, as reflected by where the lines intercept the vertical axis.

working memory

-Great progress in effort to replace static models of STM with a more process-oriented model of working memory was made by Baddeley and Hitch (1974, 1976, 1977). -limited capacity system that allows to store and manipulate information temporarily so we can perform everyday tasks

how prior knowledge affects memory

-Human memory is reconstructive and not a verbatim recollection of our experience. (Bartlett, 1932) -Participants: people in Great Britain -Phase 1: read an unfamiliar story called "War of the Ghosts," a folktale of the Kwak'wala- speaking people of Vancouver Island -Phase 2: recall story information at different times after this initial reading (from less than an hour to years later)

Chunking and STM

-Idea that information in STM can be grouped, which increases memory capacity. -Factor proposed by Miller (1956) in "The Magical NumberSeven Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity forProcessing Information." - To "be" a chunk, something needs to fit together readily as a pattern distinct from the things around it. - Ex: words or pictures to be chunked requires familiarity and need to be available in long- term memory stores (Miller, 1956). - Illustrates that STM overlaps with—and relies upon—LTM to function efficiently. - Therefore, memory span is influenced by preexisting knowledge.

prospective memory

-Just as our autobiographical memory allows us to reminisce and mentally travel into the past, it is also relied on to aid us in doing things in the future. -Prospective memory = form of autobiographical memory projected into the future. -Prospective memory is not an isolated system; it interacts with retrospective elements of autobiographical memory. -People are constantly retrieving from the past in order to carry out activities in the future. -Having a good retrospective memory for facts does not mean that you will have a good prospective memory. -Develops quite early in life... -Studies have shown that -Even very young children are sensitive to event-related tasks that need to be performed in the future -Prospective memory improves with age

3 essential elements for fully functioning autobiographical memory

-Klein, 2014 1. A capacity for self-reflection (the ability to reflect on your own mental states) 2. A sense of personal ownership (the feeling that your thoughts and acts belong to you) 3. The ability to think about time as an unfolding of personal happenings centered about yourself.

Korsakoff's syndrome and the mammalian bodies

-Korsakoff's syndrome: -The consequence of malnutrition caused by excessive alcohol consumption -Associated with damage to the temporal lobes, specifically to a cluster of cells called the mammillary bodies -as well as, in most cases, to the mamillothalamic tract -Individuals with this malady show symptoms like those of HM -However, there are important differences between Korsakoff's syndrome and the type of amnesia exhibited by HM -Korsakoff's syndrome tends to get progressively more severe over time -Its sufferers tend to fill in missing information by prevaricating: -They tend to make up answers to questions rather than indicate that they do not remember

recency effect (serial position effect)

-Last items on the list (those items most recently encountered) are also remembered better than the middle items. -Information at the end of the list, the recency portion, consists of words or other items that are newly placed in STM, which makes them immediately available, but only temporarily. -Students typically recall these items immediately.

emotional memory

-Many episodes in our lives are memorable because they are linked with either positive or negative emotions -The area of the temporal lobes associated with emotionality is the amygdala -It is an almond-sized structure anterior to the hippocampus -Connects to the mammillary bodies -Receives inputs from many brain regions like the prefrontal cortex; sends output to the hypothalamus -When the amygdala is damaged, explicit memory functioning is still preserved, but the emotional component of the memory is lost -Emotion is not just a feature that is added to an episode, but it can affect what is actually stored and how it is retrieved -Emotion also affects what is retrieved... -For the typical person, recalling life experiences shows a distinct pattern that goes by the name Pollyanna principle

serial exhaustive search theory

-Memory Scanning. Graph supports serial exhaustive search theory. -Positive (red) line reflects the time it takes a participant to correctly say, "Yes, the probe is in my STM." Negative (blue) line reflects the time to correctly say, "No, the probe is not in my STM" when it has not been found. -Results: Time to scan STM increases with the # of items in memory (40 ms/item). Will take as long to scan for a positive probe as for a negative probe because the entire list must be searched in both cases. -Serial exhaustive search theory shows that sometimes the correct hypothesis runs counter to our intuitions. -Who would have thought that even after you find a probe item in STM, you would continue the search? -The serial exhaustive explanation has been critically tested in many studies.

autobiographical memory

-Memory for your personal past experiences: your retrospective memory of events that have occurred to you in your life -The key to autobiographical memory is that you are the central actor, the coordinating element that ties the episodes together -Autobiographical recollections also reflect a combination of episodic and semantic elements -Joint activation occurs when recalling facts and simultaneously recalling the experience of learning those facts -This illustrates that we encode multiple aspects of events in our lives when we store them in LTM

state-dependent learning

-Memory performance is better when freely recalling information under the same body-state conditions as the original learning (AA and SS). (above study)

Retroactive interference

-Occurs when "what you know now" makes it difficult to recall something that occurred previously. -Ex: knowing your current phone number may make it difficult to recall your previous phone number from years ago.

Proactive interference

-Occurs when something that you have already learned interferes with your ability to recall more recent events. -Ex: If you take a class in Spanish and then take one in French, Spanish words will typically intrude upon your consciousness as you try to speak French. - NB: More interference with similar stimuli

Getting Around the Serial Position Effect

-One way to circumvent the power of the serial position effect -Make the information distinctive, and therefore more memorable. -Find a way to connect the information you are trying to remember. -The U-shaped curve associated with the serial position effect is typical for items that are unrelated to each other, but not for lists of things that are related.

typical way of measuring STM capacity (memory span)

-Present a sequence of numbers, letters, or words aloud at the rate of 1 second per item. -Participant instructed to repeat the sequence verbally, either in the order each item was presented or in a backward order. -Length of sequence continually increased until person is correct 50% of the time.

state-dependent retrieval: your mental state as context

-Researchers have found that after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, many people were so traumatized that they unwillingly relived earlier traumatic events in their lives. -In these cases, the emotional response to an event served as the retrieval cue for earlier events. -Using a variety of techniques to elicit particular emotional states in volunteers, cognitive researchers have found that recall of a list of words is best when the mood at the time of retrieval is the same as the mood at encoding. -Events rated happy in their diary were more likely to be recalled when the participant was in an induced happy state than in an induced sad state. -The opposite was found for the sad events.

visuospatial sketchpad

-Responsible for storing visually presented information such as drawings or remembering kinesthetic (motor) movements such as dance steps. -contains 2 structures: 1. visual cache 2. inner scribe -both involve a part of executive system called the visual buffer -Note: Similar divisions here but separate from the phonological loop. See Baddeley et al., 2002 study: Demonstrates interference when undertaking 2 simultaneous visual tasks but less interference with a visual/auditory combination task.

working memory (the structure beneath shirt-term memory)

-STM theories developed to: -Explain mechanisms and properties of STM -Explain how STM helps us interact with the world and accomplish our goals. -This emphasis on the active and structural aspects of STM began with the work of Miller, Galanter, and Pribram (1960). -Called STM working memory to emphasize that it serves as our support system for doing cognitive work, such as reasoning, listening, or making decisions.

schemas: structure of knowledge in everyday life

-Schemas considered correct in overall form but perhaps wrong about (or missing) major details. - Schemas represent knowledge in the kind of flexible way that reflects the human tolerance for: 1. vagueness 2. imprecision 3. quasi-inconsistencies - Schema knowledge = generally based on experience (differs from knowledge gained from looking up definitions in a dictionary). - Schemas contain our knowledge of the world and provide an understanding of how real things are related. - Thus, schemas change over time and evolve as our experiences increase and change. - One particular type of schema = Script - Tells us what behavior we should expect of ourselves and of others in certain kinds of situations. - Schema knowledge in general, and scripts in particular, are organized hierarchically. - Although schemas can be stand-alone knowledge structures, they generally interact with other schemas. - Important characteristic of schemas that contributes to their adaptability is that a schema can be modified depending on conditions, which are sometimes calledvariables.

the serial position effect pt 2

-Serial position effect found in many studies testing memory for lists. -Ability to recall items from a list reflects where in the list the items come from and whether they are presented in a visual mode or an auditory mode. -Best recall for items at beginning and end list. -Serial Position Curves for Lists of Different Length. -Graph shows serial position effect for all list lengths and presentation rates. -First number attached to each curve indicates the length of the list (e.g., 10, 20, 30, or 40 items). -Second number tells how many seconds each word was presented (1 or 2 seconds).

implications for memory

-Serial position effect not only reflects rehearsal conditions -It also reflects modality of items presented (visually or auditorily). -Students had more difficulty recalling last items when visually presented (read silently) than when they were auditorily presented. -Difference caused by modality called: modality effect -Different recall pattern emerges depending on the stimulus modality (visual or auditory) being used. -This effect shows how important auditory rehearsal is to STM.

neuropsychology of the phonological loop

-Specific brain areas are associated with functions of the phonological loop and other subsystems of working memory. -NB: these brain areas related to WM are also important to speech -Supports the hypothesis that the articulatory control process is speech- based. -Basic storage function associated with activity in left parietal area. -May also connect just below to area central for language processing. -Refreshing of items associated with prefrontal cortex activity (brain region that helps people understand human speech and is connected to area of cortex giving commands to muscles that allow to speak).

Duration, Forgetting, and STM

-Standard method of calculating duration of information in STM is called the Brown-Peterson task (named after researchers who separately developed the procedure). -2 important findings related to duration of STM stem of use of the Brown-Peterson task. -The number of items kept in STM rapidly decays with passage of time (without rehearsal). -Duration of unrehearsed information in STM is approximately 18 seconds. -The Brown-Peterson Task. Graph shows that items in STM are perfectly recalled when there is only a 0-second delay. -Yet, recall declines to 10-20% accuracy when there is a delay of 18 seconds. -Duration of items in STM is related to number of items or chunks present. -NB: Number of chunks influences our ability to keep information in STM. -More items (or chunks) in STM, the more opportunities there will be for them to become confused with one another. -This confusion = Interference. -Important contributor to inability to recall items STM.

Long-term memory (LTM)

-The aspect of our memory system that consists of all the experiences and knowledge we gather throughout our lifetime -LTM creates a scaffold that supports who we are and everything we do.

infantile (or childhood) amnesia

-The difficulty in retrieving autobiographical memory of early childhood experience -A steep drop in recall accuracy typically exists for events occurring prior to 3 years of age -affects most people -Percent Recall Scores as a Function of Age. College students showed infantile amnesia; they had difficulty recalling events that occurred when they were 2 years old or younger. In contrast, they had accurate recall of events that occurred when they were 4 or 5 years old. For some events, like going to the hospital or someone dying, they had no knowledge at all. (Usher & Neisser, 1993) - Infancy represents a period of fast learning even though we have difficulty recalling the episodes of that learning

HERA model (neuro-episodic memory)

-The frontal lobes play an important part in storage and retrieval of episodic events -Encoding information into episodic memory activates the left hemisphere more than the right -Retrieval of episodic memories activates the right hemisphere more than the left -Other areas of the brain are involved, but this asymmetry shows that encoding and retrieval are separable processes -Autobiographical memory seems to be a biologically-base system of LTM.

amnesia and the hippocampal region

-The temporal lobe of each hemisphere of the brain contains a structure called the hippocampus -When both hippocampi are not working properly, people experience amnesia

rethinking quillian's network theory

-There are some phenomena that this does not explain. 1. typicality effect: Some subnodes are more closely link to the higher node than other subnodes - Ex: in the category bird, not all instances are equivalent in how much time it takes someone to answer a question. - sparrow faster than flamingo 2. semantic relatedness effect: This reflects the existence of inequalities across categories - People take longer to decide whether a canary is an animal than to decide whether a chicken is an animal. - What this shows is that the relatedness of items is important for the judgments. -Group strongly related concepts close together and weakly related farther apart. - The stronger the association between concepts, the more rapidly a person can answer questions about their relationship. - Ex: car - vehicles is more connected in general than ambulances - vehicles

pollyanna principle

-There is a tendency to retrieve a greater number of pleasant memories than unpleasant memories -Information associated with positive emotion is remembered more easily than information associated with negative emotion. Positive memories retain their emotional strength more than negative memories. (Kihlstrom et al, 2000) -Positivity of recall increases as a person ages -Maybe also due to current positive view of life colouring past retrievals?! -Note: the Pollyanna principle does not hold for depressed people -Current negative perception like leads to a disproportionate retrieval of negative episodes -Studies consistently reflect this -Healthy: (-) events fade in intensity more sharply than (+) - Depressed: (-) events did not fade in intensity any more than did the (+)

Case of HM (Henry Molaison)

-When he was 27, HM (Henry Molaison) underwent surgery to remove a portion of the temporal lobe that contained the areas where his epileptic seizures began. The right- and left-hemisphere hippocampal structures as well as other structures were removed. The surgery was successful in significantly reducing HM's epileptic seizures, but he became profoundly amnesic: Until the end of his life, HM could not remember events that occurred after his surgery or people that he had met. -Mirror Tracing Task. People with amnesia (like HM) are able to demonstrate implicit learning in the mirror tracing task (Milner, 1962, 1965), where they must trace the outline of a star by looking at their hand reflected in a mirror. -The learning curves of HM and control participants without amnesia are shown. Notice that both participants rapidly reduced the number of errors on this task and eventually made few errors. -Case histories such as HM's provide evidence that the hippocampus plays an important role in the storage of new information and may be the command center that links elements of memory together. -People with amnesia, however, are able to recognize patterns, such as those on the Gollin Test, because their implicit/pattern learning systems are intact, even though their hippocampus-based episodic systems are not.

the serial position effect

-When remembering listed items in any order, accuracy of our retrieval shows an interesting relationship to order of the original list: -Items at the beginning and end of the original list are much more likely to be remembered than items in the middle of the list. -Phenomenon called the serial position effect -Probability of recalling an item tends to be related to its position among other items on a list. -the U-shaped curve -Serial position effect found in studies testing memory for lists of: -numbers, facts, states, colors, pictures, ideas within paragraphs, final scores of soccer games over an entire season

Educational implications of encoding specificity research

-When you learn a set of materials, create or provide an organizational structure into which the material fits. If the material does not lend itself naturally to a particular structure, create one of your own and stick with it. -When you prepare to take an exam, study the materials in a way that reminds you of the material's organizational scheme.

negative effect (serial position effect)

-With a delay, the last items on a list will be more difficult to recall. -due to simply being stored in STM -With delay, the first items still show a higher possibility to be recalled -due to rehearsal component

phonological loop

-Working memory subsystem dedicated to temporary storage of phonological information. -contains 2 components: 1. phonological store 2. articulatory control proce

state-dependent retrieval: your physical state as context

-Your mood is another aspect of your body's physical state. -The process of encoding specificity also applies to how your body is functioning, such as when you are drunk or sober. -Four groups of medical students (n=48) learned and were tested on their memory for sentences. They were either sober or intoxicated. The sober learners (SA and SS in the figure) made fewer errors than the intoxicated ones (AA and AS). Students made fewer errors when they tried to freely recall information under the same body-state conditions as the original learning (AA and SS).

rehearsal

-act of paying attention -Maintenance rehearsal: accomplished by saying something repeatedly in order to keep it in mind. This sort of rote rehearsal maintains the items in STM. - Elaborative rehearsal: accomplished by thinking about the meaningful relationship among items to be learned, and focusing on how they connect to other things you know. Often results in enhanced long-term recall and recognition of things to be remembered.

articulatory controls process

-automatically refreshes and maintains the elements in the phonological store -refreshes the items in the phonological loop as if they were being rehearsed -The process is subvocal, no sound is actually made

Bartlett; "war of the ghosts"

-discovered two things: 1. even very soon after they read the story, people did not agree on its details -Recollections are not verbatim recollections of the story, but reflected the participants' cultural biases and interpretations 2. the participants' memories for the story changed over time - The retellings of the story became shorter, leaving out the folktale's supernatural components and ambiguities - The order in which the participants recalled the events was in keeping with British experiences of cause and effect

episodic codes and flashbulb memories

-flashbulb memories -Detailed, perfect memories of a distinctive, surprising, or significant event -Experienced as if a photo was taken of an event and stored it away in LTM -Described as highly detailed and etched in their memory, seemingly forever -Recent research, however, suggests that these reports are not always as accurate as they seem - Flashbulb memories are not like mental photographs of an episode in your life, but are similar to other intense emotional experiences—some accurately recalled and some not. -You get the "sense" of accuracy due to the link toemotional experiences and conscious determination of "importance".

accident recall experiment-leading questions

-phase 1: effect of leading questions -participants: students -task: 1. Viewed a film about an "auto accident" (but no real crash and no property damage) 2. Then asked, "How fast were the cars going when they (insert verb) into each other?" - Possible verbs for included: smashed, collided, bumped, hit, or contacted. - Outcome measure: The estimated speed varied with the type of verb, illustrating that someone trying to recollect an event can be misled by the type of question he or she is asked. - Results: Estimated speeds provided depending on the verb intensity (ex: Smashed had higher estimated speed) -phase 2: speed and broken glass -participants: same students -task: asked a new question: "Was there broken glass in the film" - Figure: probability that a student would say Yes, depending on how fast they thought the cars were going and the verb used - Results: Leading question affected students' estimates of speed and also theirwillingness to say there was broken glass. (Loftus and Palmer, 1974)

inner scribe

-refreshes all of the stored information contained in the visuospatial sketchpad -briefly stores spatial relationships associated with bodily movement.

Short-term memory (STM)

-the memory that contains our moment-to-moment conscious thoughts and perceptions -this memory is fleeting -reflects our conscious awareness -Properties of STM in terms of some basic questions: -What is the capacity of STM? -How long does information last in STM? -Why do we forget facts held in STM?

Working memory (WM)

-the set of mechanisms that underlies STM and also communicates with long-term memory (LTM) -the semi-permanent memory store that endures for a lifetime and aids us in learning new information

infantile amnesia may be due to 3 cognitively related factors

1. Brain mechanisms needed to maintain information over many years may not be sufficiently mature in the first 2 years of life. 2. Children do not immediately pay attention to the context of their life events: the when and where of an event. 3. The gap between a person's current worldviewand his or her encoding of the original event in infancy.

3 major components of cognitive interview

1. Interview the observers at the crime scene or have them imagine that they are back at the crime scene witnessing the event. 2. Have witnesses report everything that they can recall, even aspects that are incomplete or don't make sense. 3. Have the observer recount the events in different sequences: "what happened next?", but also, "what happened just before that?"

the Sternberg task

1. List of 5 words presented in succession very quickly, 2. One word presented (called the probe), participant says "yes" or "no" to the presence of that probe in the earlier list. -Results: Takes just as long to answer for a negative probe ("Nope I didn't see that word in the list") as it does for a positive probe ("Yep, I saw that word in the list"). -Discussion: suggests that "we always search the entire list". -NB: As size of the list goes up, so does time taken to answer presence of probe.

3 key aspects of feature comparison model (FCM) to describing how people answer questions from their knowledge (compared to TLC)

1. When people think about categories (ex: birds, furniture, vehicles), they have an overall sense of the defining and characterizing features comprising these categories. 2. In deciding whether one category is part of another (ex: dog = mammal), you compare the total set of features associated with each category (dog and mammal) to see whether they overlap. 3. In deciding whether 2 categories overlap sufficiently to consider one category a part of the other category, people use their own personal standards. - When people answer questions about semantic knowledge, they access the defining and characterizing features of the categories from their LTM.Flowchart describes where these features play a role in the question-answer sequence, and predicts which questions will be answered quickly or need more time. - You can see from the table that FCM goes further and makes verified predictions about the pattern shown by students when asked questions that are clearly No (i.e., false). This ability of the feature comparison model to tell us something that research has not already shown makes it an important theory in cognitive psychology.

4 major theories have dominated cognitive psychology's research on human knowledge (theories of knowledge)

1. network 2. feature-based 3. perceptual 4. connectionist - All of these theories have all shed light on how knowledge is structured for maximum usefulness and efficiency.

Model of working memory is composed of 4 subsystems

1. phonological loop 2. visuospatial sketchpad 3. episodic buffer 4. central executive

There are 2 broad categories of amnesia (autobiographical memory)

1. retrograde amnesia: Failure to recall events/facts that occurred prior to a critical event that affected their brain (e.g., accident/stroke) 2. anterograde amnesia: A failure to add to memory after a critical event