EXP3604 Chapter 5

Foley and colleagues

-Demonstrated that research may underestimate the power of self-reference; STUDY INVESTIGATED THE SELF REFERENCE EFFECT -Participants were instructed to listen to a list of nouns and form a mental image in their head. -People in the "visualize the object" condition (1st analysis) inserted themselves into the mental image, so that they had actually used self-reference processes. In the 2nd analysis, the researchers sorted the words according to the processing methods that the students had used, rather than the instructions they had received. -Implications/Conclusions: we expect people to passively perceive and follow through with our instructions, when we know our cognitive processes are active rather than passive.

How do experts and novices differ?

-Experts possess well-organized, carefully learned knowledge structure, which assists them during both encoding and retrieval -More likely to reorganize the new material that they must recall, forming meaningful chunk in which related material is grouped together -Typically have more vivid visual images for the items they must recall -Experts work hard to emphasize the distinctiveness of each stimulus during encoding -Rehearse information in a strategic fashion -More skilled at predicting the difficulty of a task and monitoring their progress on a task.

What leads to better recall according to Craik, Lockhart and Tulving?

1. Distinctiveness 2. Elaboration

List the factors responsible for the self-reference effect

1. The self produces a rich set of cues 2. self reference instructions encourage people to consider how their personal traits are connected with one another 3. You rehearse material more frequently if it is associated with yourself. This facilitates recall.

meta-analysis

A statistical method for synthesizing numerous studies on a single topic. Computes a statistical index that tells us whether a particular variable has a statistically significant effect, when combining all the studies.

Warrington and Weiskrantz (1970)

Administered implicit memory tasks that were presented as word-guessing games, though they actually assessed people's implicit memory for the words shown earlier. fFound a dissociation on memory performance for amnesiacs and nonamnesiacs

levels of processing/depth of processing approach

Argues that deep, meaningful processing of information leads to more accurate recall than shallow, sensory kinds of processing. Illustrates themes 1,2 and 4. *enhances memory for faces

implicit memory task

Assesses your memory INDIRECTLY; you see the material and later you are instructed to complete a cognitive task that does not directly ask you for either recall or recognition.

Craik and Lockhart (1972)

Created the levels of processing theory; emphasized encoding or how items are placed into memory. Questioned how is it that we are able to remember so much information? They reasoned that when we engage in deep, meaningful kinds of information processing, it leads to more permanent retention than shallow sensory kinds of processing. When we think more deeply about information, we retain it more easily.

incidental learning

Learning without trying to learn, and often without awareness that learning is occurring.

Differentiate between mood congruence and mood dependence.

Mood congruence refers to the kind of information we retrieve-positive or negative- whereas mood dependence refers to the match between our state of learning and our state at remembering.

Godden and Baddeley (1975)

Researches using 18 divers, 36 unrelated words. 4 conditions to learn and recall: DD, DW, WW, WD. Easier to recall in same place. Conclusions: environmental cues do improve recall, which supports the encoding specificity principle.

Discuss the criticism regarding the levels of processing approach

The theory is CIRCULAR. This means that anything that produces good memory is thought to be deep processing; the independent variable and the dependent variable are the same thing. How to prevent this: Display that deep processing is separate from memory performance. The circular reasoning example will be broken.

Rogers and Colleagues (1977)

They asked participants to process words according to the specified instruction: visual, acoustic, semantic, and self reference. The study found that the self reference group remembered words even better than the semantic group. This study illustrates theme 3, our cognitive system handles positive information better than negative information.

How does the encoding specificity principle illustrate theme 4?

To determine how to store information, you will need to figure out the characteristics of the retrieval task.

emotion

a reaction to a specific stimulus (transient feeling)

explicit memory task

a researcher DIRECTLY asks you to remember some information; you realize that your memory is being tested, and the test requires you to intentionally retrieve some information that you previously learned (recall and recognition are examples of explicit memory tasks)

Hippocampus

a structure underneath the cortex that is important in many learning and memory tasks.

anterograde amnesia

an inability to form new memories for events have occurred AFTER brain damage.

Craik and Tulving (1975)

depth of processing model: three different levels of processing Structural: word in capital letters? Phonemic: word rhyme? Sentence: would word fit the sentence?

Name the type of memory: What you did for your 18th birthday

episodic

Name the type of memory: Who your first boyfriend was

episodic

Long-term memory

high capacity storage system (can never fill up) that contains your memories for experiences and information that you have accumulated throughout your lifetime

retrograde amnesia

loss of memory for events that occurred PRIOR to brain damage

distinctiveness

means that a stimulus is different from other memory traces; when you process something at a deep level it creates a more distinctive memory

dissociation

occurs when a variable has large effects on Testa A, but little or no effects on Test B.

mood dependent memory

occurs where the congruence of a current mood with the mood at the time of memory storage helps recall of that memory

recognition task

participants must judge whether they saw a particular item at an earlier time (easy task)

recall task

participants must reproduce the items they learned earlier (harder task, our brain needs the extra help)

positivity effect

people tend to rate past events more positively with the passage of time

intentional learning

placing new information into memory in anticipation of being tested on it later (we do NOT often engage in intentional learning)

Name the type of memory: How to drive a car

procedural

repetition priming task

recent exposure to a word increases the likelihood that you'll think of this particular word when you are subsequently presented with a cue that could evoke many different words.

mood

refers to a more general, long-lasting experience

elaboration

requires rich processing in terms of meaning and interconnected concepts; the more questions you ask, the better you will be able to UNDERSTAND the information and ENCODE it.

Name the type of memory: The 24th president of the U.S.

semantic

Name the type of memory: The capital of California

semantic

expertise

specialized knowledge (in a particular field); expert skill

Pollyanna Principle

states that pleasant items are usually processed more efficiently and more accurately than less pleasant items

encoding specificity principle

states that recall is better if the context during retrieval is similar to the context during encoding; the encoding specificity effect is most likely to occur in memory tasks that (a) assess your recall, (b) use real-life incidents (c) examine events that happened long ago.; can override levels of processing

state-dependent learning

the idea that if your state of mind was the same at encoding as it is at retrieval, you will do better (illustrates the encoding specificity principle)

retrieval

the process of getting information out of memory storage

encoding

the processing of information into the memory system (sensory --> working memory --> long-term memory)

retrieval

you locate information in storage, and you access that information (long-term memory --> working memory)

mood congruence

you recall material more accurately if it is congruent with your current mood

self-reference effect

you will remember more information if you try to relate that information to yourself (info will be processed deeper)

procedural memory

your knowledge about how to do something (implicit memory)

episodic memory

your memories for events that happened to you personally; it allows you to travel backward in subjective time to reminisce about earlier episodes in your life. (explicit memory)

semantic memory

your organized knowledge about the world, including your knowledge about words and other factual information. (explicit memory)