Chapter 7: Long-Term Memory Encoding, Retrieval, and Consolidation

Levels of processing theory

(Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart) The idea that memory depends on how information is encoded, with better memory being achieved when processing is deep than when processing is shallow. Deep processing involves attention to meaning and is associated with elaborative rehearsal. Shallow processing involves repetition with little attention to meaning and is associated with maintenance rehearsal.

Effective studying includes

1) Elaborate 2) Generate and test 3) Organize 4) Take breaks 5) Avoid "illusion of learning"

Why does going to sleep shortly after learning enhance memory?

1) Going to sleep eliminates environmental stimuli that might interfere with consolidation. 2) Consolidation appears to be enhanced during sleep.

What are the three different ways in which retrieval is increased by matching conditions at retrieval to conditions at encoding?

1. Encoding specificity 2. State-dependent learning 3. Transfer-appropriate processing

What are the two types of consolidation?

1. Synaptic consolidation 2. Systems consolidation

Paired-associate learning

A learning task in which participants are first presented with pairs of words, then one word of each pair is presented and the task is to recall the other word. Results: The subjects who had create images remembered more than twice as many words as the subjects who had just repeated the word pairs.

Reconsolidation

A process proposed by Nader and others that occurs when a memory is retrieved and so becomes activated. Once this occurs, the memory must be consolidated again, as it was during the initial learning. This repeat consolidation is reconsolidation.

Free recall

A subject is simply asked to recall a stimuli.

Retrieval cue

A word or other stimulus that helps a person remember information stored in memory. i.e. the word apple might serve as retrieval cue for grape or hearing a particular song can bring back memories for events you might not have thought about for years...

Long-term potentiation

Enhanced firing of neurons after repeated stimulation.

Testing effect

Enhanced performance due to retrieval practice

What areas of the brain is involved in consolidation?

Hippocampus and the cortex

How did Morris's experiment contradict the levels of processing theory?

His experiment showed that deeper processing at encoding does *not* always result in better retrieval.

Deep processing

Involves close attention, focusing on an item's meaning and relating it to something else.

Shallow processing

Involves little attention to meaning, as when a phone number is repeated over and over or attention is focused on a word's physical features such as whether it is printed in lowercase or capital letters.

Retrograde amnesia

Loss of memory for events that occurred before the injury; can extend back minutes, hours, or even years, depending on the nature of the injury

Encoding specificity

Matching the *context* in which encoding and retrieval occur (i.e. same location)

State-dependent learning

Matching the *internal mood* present during encoding and retrieval

Transfer-appropriate processing

Matching the *task* involved in encoding and retrieval

Remote memories

Memories for events that occurred long ago.

Generation effect

Memory for material is better when a person generates the material himself or herself, rather than passively receiving it.

Self-reference effect

Memory is better if you are asked to relate a word to yourself. Why? The words become linked to something the subjects know well---themselves.

How is it that synaptic and systems consolidation occur simultaneously?

One works rapidly, at the level of the synapse, and another that works more slowly, at the level of neural circuits.

Standard model of consolidation

Proposes that incoming information activates a number of areas in the cortex. Activation is distributed across the cortex because memories typically involve many sensory and cognitive areas.

What is the major mechanism of consolidation?

Reactivation

Coding

Refers to the form in which information is represented.

Maintenance Rehearsal

Rehearsal that involves repetition without any consideration of meaning or making connections to other information.

Elaborative Rehearsal

Rehearsal that involves thinking about the meaning of an item to be remembered or making connections between that item and prior knowledge.

Tulving and Pearlstone's experiment demonstrate that retrieval cues aid memory. When is it the most effective?

Retrieval cues are significantly more effective when they are created by the person whose memory is being tested. (Mantyla)

Synaptic consolidation

Takes place over minutes or hours, involves structural changes at synapses.

Systems consolidation

Takes place over months or even years, involves the gradual reorganization of neural circuits within the brain.

Spacing effect

The advantage in performance caused by short study sessions separated by breaks from studying.

Graded amnesia

The amnesia tends to be most severe for events that happened just before and to become less severe for earlier events.

The relationship between the hippocampus and the cortex pictures are like glue because

The hippocampus binds together the representation of memory from different cortical areas.

Multiple trace model of consolidation

The idea that the hippocampus is involved in the retrieval of remote memories, especially in episodic memories. This contrasts with the standard model of memory which proposed that the hippocampus is involved only in the retrieval of recent memories.

Depth of processing

The idea that the processing that occurs as an item is being encoded into memory can be deep or shallow. Deep processing involves attention to meaning and is associated with elaborative rehearsal. Shallow processing involves repetition with little attention to meaning and is associated with maintenance rehearsal.

Reactivation

The process in which the hippocampus replays the neural activity associated with a memory. During reactivation, activity occurs in the network connecting the hippocampus and the cortex, and this activity helps form direct connections between the various cortical areas.

Encoding

The process of acquiring information and transferring it into LTM.

Retrieval

The process of transferring information from LTM to working memory.

Consolidation

The process that transforms new memories from a fragile state, in which they can be disrupted, to a more permanent state in which they are resistant to disruption.

Cued recall

The subject is presented with retrieval cues to aid in recall of the previously experienced stimuli. These cues are typically words or phrases.

Elaboration

Thinking about what you are reading and giving it meaning by relating it to other things that you know.